Acoustica
Acoustica

Sound Collage Project Teacher's Guide

  Download a PDF copy of this user guide
Introduction1. Constructing a Music Lab with Mixcraft2. A Survey of Mixcraft3. Using Audio with Mixcraft4. Using MIDI with Mixcraft5. Mixcraft Video6. Using Mixcraft's Effect Plugins, Loops, and Instruments7. Music Composition with Mixcraft8. Using Mixcraft for School ProjectsAppendix

TEACHER’S GUIDE

SOUND COLLAGE PROJECT

NSME:

2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9

GRADE SCHOOL

GRADE SCHOOL – HIGH SCHOOL

CLASS TIME

1-2 ONE-HOUR PERIODS

REQUIRED MATERIALS:

  • Computer with Mixcraft

  • Headphones or Monitors

  • Sound Collage Student Guide (“Additional Materials Download”)

SUGGESTED MATERIALS:

  • Microphone/ Microphone cable

  • Audio/Computer Interface

  • Headphones/ Monitors

  • Further Reading Materials

  • Example Sound Collage (“Additional Materials Download”)

OVERVIEW: The concept of a sound collage emerged in the early to mid 20th century from a French movement called musique concrete. Composers of musique concrete recorded incidental sounds onto analog tape and spliced the tape to rearrange and create layers upon layers of noise. These collages contained no formalized structure, no melodic material, and were certainly not “musical.” The composers involved with musique concrete, chiefly Pierre Schaeffer, believed that the final composition should inhibit audiences from identifying or relating to the sounds – these sounds should be unrecognizable and detached from any psychological association. This tedious process of cutting-rearranging-patching tape to reach this unidentifiable quality certainly consumed countless hours of the composers time. Luckily for us today, a similar effect can be completed within minutes with Mixcraft.

LESSON: During this lesson, students will take an abstract and unorthodox approach to composing music. First, sounds from the classroom or home environment will be recorded into Mixcraft. These sounds can quickly and easily be separated into loops and arranged on the Timeline (no cutting of analog tape needed!). Students should experiment with various arrangements of the sounds and strive to make a collage that is one to three minutes long. For grade school and middle school classes, educators may need to help students with their recording of sounds. If creating original recordings is not appropriate (or possible) for the classroom, there are various free sound libraries online (such as the Free Sound Project) from which users can download recordings. Before starting their projects, high school level students could be given a lecture on the trends in 20th century music that trace the history of sound collage (e.g. early avant-garde and electronic music). This might provide a unique lens through which to view the possibilities of the project and, consequently, might produce some interesting results.

SKILLS GAINED

  • Audio Recording

  • Audio Editing

  • Music Composition

  • Sound Design

  • Abstract Thinking

ACTIVITY

  1. Launch Mixcraft and open File>Set Project Default Settings. Set the New Project window Audio Tracks to 8 and click OK. Now click File>New Project.Once the New Project window has loaded, remove any instrument tracks, and set the Audio Tracks field to 8.

  2. Downloading or recording sounds? For this project, students have the option of recording their own sounds for the collage or using an online database of free samples.

    1. If downloading: The freesound project is an online database of freely downloadable audio recordings. There, users can search for samples using key words (e.g. “rain,” “pots and pans,” “sea shells,” “distorted guitar”). If using downloaded sounds, students can skip the steps that pertain to recording (steps 4 – 7).

      Freesound.org's immense sample library is directly accessible from Mixcraft by clicking the Library tab at the bottom right of Mixcraft interface and selecting the "world" icon sub tab.Click the Library tab followed by the blue "world" sub tab to access the freesound.org online audio library.

    2. If recording: Recording original samples for a sound collage is an effective method of teaching audio recording and microphone placement techniques. Tell students that the objects used for the recordings should be brought from home or gathered from the rich school environment. Encourage students to get creative when selecting things – some objects might produce a more percussive sound (a hammer and trash can lid), while others might produce a sustained sound (wet air from a pinched balloon).

  3. Importing Samples. To import samples downloaded from the freesound website, simply drag and drop the files onto an audio track in Mixcraft. Alternatively, users can import audio files directly through the menu: Sound > Add Sound file > Select the sound file. Import any samples you will be using to create the sound collage.

  4. Recording Audio. If educators and students decide to record sounds in the classroom, it is necessary to prepare for the recording of these sounds by ensuring that the microphone and audio/computer interface are set up properly. Equipment setup review:

    1. First, to prevent feedback, turn off any speakers or monitors. Instead, if possible, students should use headphones to follow the live recording without creating a feedback loop. Connect headphones to the headphone jack on your audio/computer interface, or on your computer.

    2. Next, connect the microphone to the audio/computer interface with a microphone cord. To make sure Mixcraft is monitoring the audio/computer interface, check the File > Preferences > Sound Device tab and check to confirm that the interface is selected.

  5. Now that the equipment is set up, it is time to record some sounds!

    1. Arm the first audio track in the workspace by clicking “arm.” The downward arrow next to the arm button will enable users to select the source of the “incoming audio signal” (often a microphone). Make sure the correct interface is selected.

      To check the configuration, try speaking into the microphone – the volume meter should jump. Also check that the headphones are working.

    2. For clean recordings users will want to monitor the incoming audio on the audio track’s volume meter. Record in the “yellow” zone. In this zone, recordings will be audible but not so loud that added artifacts (unwanted, accidental sounds) will “dirty” the recording.An example of the yellow or “safe” zone to record in.

      If the meter is reaching the “red” area, try dialing back the gain on the audio/computer interface or move the object farther away from the microphone. Careful! Recording in the “red” zone could be harmful to your equipment or ears and could distort the recorded audio!An example of the “red” or “unsafe” zone. This area could damage your ears and recordings.

  6. On the first audio track, record a few seconds of noise created from a mundane object. Try dropping, rubbing, or tapping various objects together to produce sounds. A few ideas are listed below:

    • Record a straw being drawn through a plastic cup lid.

    • Record the shaking of a plastic bag filled with seas shells, rice, or bottle caps.

    • Record the sound of scissors cutting paper.

    • Recording the sound of someone biting an apple.

  7. Proceed to record sounds on each of the available blank audio tracks. Remember, recording a variety of different sounds will add novelty to the sound collage.

  8. Creating loops. A loop can be created from several seconds of any sound recording. If necessary, trim the ends of the recorded segment as shown in the screenshot below, where the left and right ends of a recording were each trimmed back (perhaps to get rid of silence or an unwanted cough). To do this, first place the cursor at one end of the region. This activates the double arrow icon. Now drag the line back to the desired area of the sound profile. Repeat with the other side. To cut from the middle, use the split function of Mixcraft.

    Drag back to eliminate the unwanted parts, set the two segments side-by-side and then “select” both and “merge” them back into one. When the segment is satisfactory and complete, right-click the audio region and select “Set Loop To Crop.” The new “loop” segment can now be looped, copy and pasted or drag/lengthened for arrangement on the Timeline. Make loops of all the recordings created for the lesson.Trimming an audio region to create a loop.

  9. Arranging a sound collage. The sound collage is a collective arrangement of seemingly unrelated noises. Creating a dynamic and cinematic arrangement is crucial for captivating the listener. First, from the top of the screen, turn off Mixcraft’s snap function. Setting the snap function to “off” unlocks audio regions from the Timeline grid and allows users to move audio regions freely on the Timeline to create a free-metered composition.Mixcraft’s snap function is now disabled.

  10. Begin arranging the recordings or samples on Mixcraft’s Timeline by dragging and moving audio regions. It is typical to assign individual samples or recordings to their own audio track. In the example arrangement below, each audio track has been relabeled to describe its contents. This is done by “double clicking” the track name (the default name for an audio track is “audio track) and then typing in the new label.An example arrangement of a sound collage. Multiple audio tracks are in use, each designated to a specific sample or field recording.

  11. Mix. Once the sound collage is arranged, brainstorm ways to modify and experiment with the mix. Try lowering or raising the volume of certain tracks with the mixer. Dial in pan settings. Utilize plugin effects.

    • Educator Recommendations:

    • Try reversing audio regions.

    • Try automating volume or pan-levels.

    • Add timbre-altering effects, such as distortion, to specific tracks.

    • Use a send (aux buss) track to create a global effect (i.e. reverb or delay) and route multiple audio tracks to it: Menu > Track > Send Track. Give the send track a plugin effect such as reverb. Name the send track “reverb” by double clicking the track name. Go to the Mixer Tab and find that the vertical panels all now have a “send” dial. Each track can be dialed in with the Send Track (which itself does not have the send dial) effect.

    • Explore Mixcraft’s Loop library for other sound effects that might compliment a sound collage.

  12. Mixing down. When the sound collage is finished, mix down the arrangement to a .WAV or .MP3 file. Go to the Menu > Mix Down To > and select the correct file format.

ADDITIONAL LESSON PLANS

Electroacoustic Composition/Songwriting: With the advent of analog and digital music technology in the 20th century, combining electronic and acoustic elements during music composition was no longer a distant, futuristic, day-dream for composers. The marriage of the electronic and the acoustic, two seemingly separate musical worlds with distinct methodological approaches and aesthetic ambitions, holds a far greater artistic potential than either approach alone. Design a lesson plan that incorporates both electronic and acoustic elements: perhaps an acoustic folk song project that requires environment sounds to be interpolated between verses, or a spoken-word project that utilizes field sounds to “illustrate” the lyrics.

Visual/Sound Collage Installations: By drawing comparisons to the visual arts, particularly visual collages, educators can illustrate artistic trends across disciplines to students. Design an installation project that combines both visual and auditory collages: first, create a visual collage using excerpts from magazines, photographs, or images from online. Then create a sonorous interpretation of the visual collage in the form of a sound collage. Frame and present the visual collages and loop their relative sound collages on an Ipod with small speakers to completethe installation.

FURTHER READING

Demers, J. Listening through the Noise: The Aesthetics of Experimental Electronic Music.