Cosecha – The Random Sound
With neither fanfare nor drum roll, the patience of more than a dozen contributors will finally be rewarded.
Background
The idea was sparked from eavesdropping a late night Twitter chat between @fjfonseca and @boomtopper about data bending – something with which I was completely unfamiliar, but which immediately caught my imagination.
I began to think about other ways which might exist for creating a sound from an unconventional source and how the sound might then be manipulated into something rhythmic, melodic, musical.
As I switched off the laptop and tried to sleep, my mind raced. How could I gather random data to create a sound? Then it occurred to me that the source had been staring me in the face the whole time. Twitter.
What a fabulous and relevant way to experiment in social sound design! I already shared a network with many people who would (hopefully) be interested in contributing.
Tweet A Sound
Tweet A Sound from Andrew Spitz seemed the obvious choice for generating the sound since it allowed me to break down the parameters into discrete elements and make several requests for random contributions. What’s more, Tweet a Sound had been created to promote social sound design.
I sent out 11 requests – one for each parameter listed below – to each contributor, randomizing the order in which they were sent and added responses to a spreadsheet as they replied. I then created the #tas file below using the parameters strictly in the order that they had been received.
- carrier frequency
- carrier wave
- wave shape
- modulation index envelope
- harmonicity
- time
- waveshape frequency
- volume
- waveshaper envelope
- amplitude envelope
- effects
The #tas string
#tas 295 988 1702 8 1337 7779 37 456 3009 532 3357 1459 1964 808 504 1986 7552 9848 88 5325 5150 7654 909 42 440 2103 22 6750 583 43 1 4091 37652 52 74 42 39 13 31 21 9974
If you’re a Mac user, download Tweet A Sound and enter the string above (including #tas) to hear the sound. Otherwise, just click the flash player below.
The Contributors
The significance of numbers submitted was often in evidence. Birthdays, anniversaries, Douglas Adams, 808s, 303s, album titles – they all featured (though I don’t think I had a 40 and with all the buzz about Akai’s imminent APC release, that was a surprise!) To me, the fact that numbers had meaning to contributors really enhances the project.
If you’re a contributor, you’ll spot some of your numbers above and you’ll notice that some you sent over aren’t included. Why? Well, I knew I had more contributors than required, and for certain parameters, only one value was needed. So data were incorporated on a first-in basis.
The contributors who kindly lent their time were:
@ambienteer
@DavidMcSherry
@boardyuk
@mrbitterness
@UBLF
@auditorycanvas
@fjfonseca
@madebyrobot
@DigitalDoyle
@leeconnolly
@groovecriminals
@rozz3r
@jaymoy
@soundplusdesign
@bigmanbeats
@hugoverweij
@sync24
Cosecha – The Random Sound
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What Next?
Cosecha (meaning “harvest” in Spanish) is the name I’m giving to the random sound and the title of the piece I plan to create from it. But this should NOT be the only composition.
Collaborate and Experiment
I’d like to invite anybody and everybody to use this sound to create a piece of their own.
The single “rule” I’d like to stipulate is that cosecha.wav or cosecha.aif is the only source sound used in your creation. How many times you incorporate it, manipulate it (slice, reverse, whatever) and the filters and effects applied are entirely your choice.
If you decide to use the cosecha sound, please let me know so that I can link to your work and/or post your audio file here.
Download The Source File
Cosecha – The Compositions
PS011 VA – Cosecha by PublicSpacesLab
Great Kieron!
Sweet! What a great idea this was (is)! Interesting sound. Can’t wait to hear what everyone does with it.
Thanks Kieron!
Fantastic and yes what a brill idea. Looking fwd to grabbing this and working it.
I love the randomness of this idea and can’t wait to get to work on it. Thanks for the creative spark to all three of you and mostly to you for your effort in producing it (with the aid of the contributing parameter people, of course).
I’m amazed you got any sound at all, FM synthesis being the slippery snake that it is, but you managed to get something that’s actually usable. I shall download and sneak it into my next piece
Kieron, this is an amazing work!
If we can get enough people to submit their tracks we will make a release on PublicSpacesLab.
Either submit the tracks directly to Kieron or to demos [at] pubspaces [dot] com with the subject line:
“Twitter Random Sound Project”
Once again, congratulations!
Wow! That’s a fantastic offer from Fernando of PublicSpacesLab.
You heard the man. Fire up those DAWs and get creative!
I have used your ‘harvest’ I added only some drum sounds:
http://www.archive.org/details/harvest_538
Thanks Jaime
Delighted that you were able to build a piece around Cosecha. Great stuff!
Kieron
Thanks to @mr_union for his sixteen bar techno burst.
Hear here >> thisisnotlondon
One thing I *must* share is Collin Thomas’ method for creating To A Swordsman:
“Here is my piece. To give you a little insight into what I did: I took the original cosecha file and cut it up into equal segments. I then “reconstructed” the segments with my Alphabet Method (for more info you can check out my website, http://www.collinthomas.net) using a Japanese poem and then processed the living hell out of it with lots of different plugs and effects.”
Now that’s the spirit of this project!
Mastered by @pure_tone and uploaded Naranjo de Bulnes (mastered version) yesterday.