Ideas, Proposal, and First Draft
The Proposal
My project proposal was inspired by each of the previous projects, leaning on the work I did in my mini-essays to create a project that would combine all of my ideas together. I knew I wanted to do some form of sound project, and my interest in mixing the alive and the digital started to blossom into a song or soundscape that would bring those two existences together. In the proposal itself, I use the words "song" and "soundscape" interchangeably, as I was not sure which it would be, or even what I wanted it to be.The First Draft
In making my first draft, which can be heard in the player at the top of this page, I was mixing sounds and music together willy-nilly. I wasn't sure what the shape of the song should be, so I had no real plan for it. After meeting with Antje Budde to discuss my project proposal, I found myself feeling as though this would not be the final project. I had somewhat dictatorial ideas for the song itself, and this particular song would have been an aggressive and forceful view of a cyborg.Rather than forceful, I wanted my song to be an opportunity. An opportunity to, perhaps, see inside my head. This led me down the path of myself as a cyborg, as a half-living, half-computer being whose song would be a chance to explore the way I see my digital experience. Armed with those ideas, I was ready to start work on what would be my final draft.
Making a "Prototype"
I started off thinking that this song would be the final version. I intended to edit, expand, and delete things, of course, but I presumed that I would need only one Garageband workspace in total. After meeting with Dr. Budde, however, I chose to scrap the song entirely and start over. I preserved the workspace for my own archives, and an image of it can be found below.The song was made in Garageband, but the sound effects (that I didn't make with software instruments) came from elsewhere. Because this song was so short, there were very few sound effects utilized. The ones in this piece are from both YouTube and Adobe's sound effect library; the dog barking and AOL sounds are from YouTube, and the other assorted sounds come from various categories found in the Adobe sound effect library. For use in both this prototype and in the final version, I downloaded the Adobe zip files "technology," "multimedia," "transportation," "animals," and "human elements." In the image below, the green sound files were pieces made out of Garageband's own instruments, and the blue files are the audio files pulled from elsewhere.
References
"Adobe Audition Sound Effects." Adobe, Adobe Inc., https://www.adobe.com/products/audition/offers/adobeauditiondlcsfx.html. Accessed 12 November 2024."AOL- The Sweetest Sounds." YouTube, uploaded by Chris DeRoin, 9 July 2013, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFuUCpBbbHw.
"DOGS BARKING | Sound Effects [High Quality]." YouTube, uploaded by Sound Effects Pro, 30 May 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuy-oOJCOoM.
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- The Solo Project Laine Matkin