Final Project

I've completed my final project. I had a lot of fun with this. I made an effort to use sculpture in Logic after we spent so much time working with it these past few weeks. I also relied pretty heavily on the ultrabeat function, maybe too much, but I love the wide range of sounds you can produce with it. Another goal of mine was to work on the transitional phases within a piece. I'd like to think I did a much better job at this than in the previous assignment.

Blog 5: Review of Wildcat by Ratatat

I know I'm not really branching out here with another blog pertaining to Ratatat but I thought it would be appropriate since I'm going to see Ratatat in concert next week.


This song, along with many others by the group show that a piece does not have to be very busy for it to be appealing to the ear. It starts off with a snare drum and whistle going off in unsion in the background with a bass guitar playing in the foreground. After a few measures a wildcat noise sounds and a deeper sounding bass guitar is introduced.

If I had to be critical of this song, I'd say my least favorite part is the bridge that begins at 1:57. I think I just find the guitar to be relatively 'squeaky'. But after that segment is over I find myself really getting into the song even moreso than before. I like the subtle percussive elements, particuallry their usage of the high-hat.

Can't wait for the concert.

Assignment 4

My goal for this project was to create a 2 minute trance song using Logic Pro. I began my piece with two synthesizers that produced "laser-like" and "spacey" effects. I fade them out and then lay down a quick beat using the Logic Ultrabeat feature. The remainder of the piece was created mostly using patterns I created with Ultrabeat. I continue to find the most difficult part of composing dance songs to be creating smooth transitional phases. I had a tremendous amount of fun with this project and continue to find Logic Pro to be the most user-friendly software we've used thusfar.

Have a listen. Hope you enjoy it.

Final Project Proposal

I had a lot of fun composing a techno song for assignment three. I am even more excited to use the drum machine in Logic Pro for assignment four. For my final project I want to make another techno piece relying mostly on Logic Pro. I think I'm going to rent a microphone as well and see if I can't produce some short audio samples that I can integrate into my song.

Also, you'll notice that all prior assignment are now embedded into the blog which should make things easier for you guys.

Blog 4

For this blog I'll review Conor Dooney's piece for assignment # 3:

The piece starts off with a few spacey tones followed closely by a short vocal sample. Then a quick series of claps, characteristic of the techno genre, are introduced. I was impressed that Conor's vocal sample seemed to flow with the melody. This was a task that I found to be very difficult in making my own piece.

I thought the overall tempo of the piece was appropriate for the first minute of a techno song. I felt like he was building up to a higher tempo but just ran out of time (therein lies the difficulty of being limited to a 1 minute clip).

After listening to the track several times I was able to disect it into the components from each syntesizer. I think the fact that I struggled at first to identify the effects and subtle noises is a testament to Conor and how he was able to effectively integrate the output from several instruments in Reasons.

Well done Conor. Look forward to listening to your final project.

Assignment 3

The assignment at hand was to create a 1 minute techno song in reason and use samples produced with the program recycle.

I had a lot of fun with the redrum tool. I used techno kit 3 for my piece. I decided to lay down a consistent beat that added another element every couple of bars to produce a layering effect.

I think the hardest part of the project was introducing samples with the Dr. Rex player. I thought I would try to sample a piece with some vocals. In the end I chose a song by Nina Simone. (Having never heard it before I'm not sure how it ended up in my iTunes library) I threw in the vocal samples at various points in the song where there was another element added to the beat.

I threw in some neat sounding effects using the Thor synthesizer and also changed the tempo of the overall piece so it would fall into the accepted range for techno music.

Take a listen:

Blog 3 - "What is Logic Youth?"

"What is Logic Youth?" is the name of Jared Bell's composition for the final assignment for Music 295a this past fall. Jared is a good friend of mine and the reason I'm taking this class. As I was busily slapping together papers towards the end of this past November he would talk non-stop about the progress of his final project for an electronic music class. He rambled about all the hours he spent searching for beats to sample and playing around on the MIDI keyboards in Phelps Hall. He even went as far as to say that MUSIC 295 had become hands-down his favourite class at Yale.

I decided to join him one evening in the music lab. This was partly out of curiousity and partly because I thought that devoting a bit of my time to listen to his work would stop him from raving on about how much fun he was having with his final assignment as I wrote a final paper on a painfully dull topic. Whatever my motives were, I'm glad I popped in to get a taste of what this class was all about. Although I couldn't offer any technical suggestions I'd offer my two cents on different tracks he had in the works. Before long I even found myself sitting down at another computer playing around with the Logic Pro software.

The decision to take this class was an easy one and I can only hope I have as much fun and get as much out of the final project as Jared Bell did...

Click here if you'd like to be directed to Jared's blog from last semester

Assignment 2

I really enjoyed working with RadiaL but I was unable to properly set up the MIDI keyboard. Instead I had to revert to assigning functions to the mac keyboard. Having the switches on the MIDI keyboard would have made fading channels in and out significantly easier. Without it I had to quickly move my mouse around and frequently had to re-record songs.

Personally, I found the biggest challenge was finding a starting point to the songs. Once I established a beginning rythym or beat it was relatively easy to add in effects and noises that meshed well. You have a listen of the finished products in mp3 format by clicking the links below:

Loop 1:

Loop 2:

Loop 3:

Blog 2 - Ratatat

As I mentioned in Blog 1, I have a couple friends to thank for continually exposing me to electronic music I would not have listened to on my own. Recently, they've got me hooked on the group Ratatat. The group only has two members with Mike Stroud on guitar and Evan Mast on the synthesizer. They have a very original sound that I would categorize as house music. They've released three albums but admittedly I haven't listened to much of their most recent album that hit the shelves this past summer. At the moment I find the song "Lex" to be their best single.

I'd love to see these guys perform in person. Unfortunately it looks as though their world tour has finished all of their stops in the U.S. Maybe someone on the student council can coerce them into coming back to the States for Spring Fling...

I can say with certainty that after listening to these guys I'll be looking to find some more house music that appeals to me. If any of you readers have any suggestions be sure to send them my way.

Assignment 1

I just completed our first assignment of creating two ringtones. I recorded sounds of me walking through the snow, walking up stairs, using my ID card and punching numbers into my cell phone. I was very impressed with the sound quality that I got using the mic I rented from the music lab.

Ringtone 1 was just a 15 second sample that was not edited. Ringtone 2 was created using the following editing techniques: fade in, fade out, gain control, invert, reverse and tempo adjustment. To be honest, the assignment took a lot longer to complete than I expected. However, I do feel much more comfortable with the Logic Pro software.

Ringtone 1:

Ringtone 2:

Favourite Techno Music

Only recently have I begun to enjoy a broad range of techno music. Previously, I really only listened to the odd cover song. If it didn't make the billboards, chances are I never heard of it. I've got a couple friends that are big techno gurus (including Chris Scavone who is taking this class) that have exposed me to a lot of music I would not have come across on my own. Scavone always has techno music pumping in the locker room before practice

I guess I consider myself to be an 'impatient' music listener. I have a hard time listening to songs that take a long time to develop their tempo. I also like some predictability to my songs. If a song does not have a discernable beat or is too 'busy' I probably won't enjoy it. Don't ask me why, but I tend to shy away from music that doesn't have lyrics. Maybe these tastes will change, as I grow more appreciation for the composition of electronic music...

Currently, my favourite techno artist is MGMT, specifically their songs Electric Feel and Kids. I have also rediscovered the song Heartbeats by The Knife. I came across a cover of the song in iTunes store and forgot just how good the original song is. I've added these three songs in the video tab of my blog.

Thanks for reading my first blog entry!

- Lanky Canuck

Welcome to my Blog

Welcome to my blog for Music 295. This is my first music class at Yale and I look forward to the challenge. More posts to come soon...