Sound Composition

To programmatically create a sound composition, my project partner Ben Moll and I first started off by discussing our interest in generating or building audio through an interactive process. We focused on the idea of progression and slowly moving through an auditory experience, chaotic at times and cohesive at others, as the user turns a knob or slides a slider. However, given the constraint of the assignment to revolve around sound and not visuals, we decided to give the user control over the experience only through keypress.

After sharing some of our favorite music and interesting sound snippets we found online, we decided to create a composition using the free sound effects of retro games that Ben had found. Because the sound files were relatively short and clear in their tunes, it was easy to manipulate them and generate sounds that targeted specific emotional reactions. Consisting of three broad acts and smaller sections that can be triggered through keypress, our sound piece takes the listener on a journey of audio transformations.

Words for the sound composition experience:

• Progression

• Acts

• Anxiety

• Synchronization

• Disintegration