Joshua Sadler

Composition For Promotional Videos

dhcjoshua — Tue, 20 Apr 2010 16:28:54 +0000

Here are two promotional videos produced by Screen Media Lab (SML) for Birmingham City University (BCU). SML is a purpose built centre for enterprise and innovation in screen media and visual design, part of BCU’s Department of Media and Communication. These particular videos are part of a promotional package currently being put together for BCU to showcase different schools of learning within the university. After meeting in Birmingham with SML I was commissioned to write music for two of the promotional videos. The keywords from the brief seemed to be “inspirational” and “youthful edge” with the idea of blending orchestral instruments, especially strings, with electronic percussion elements.

Here are the videos along with the compositions below each.

Birmingham School Of Media Promotional Video

Audio Only Composition

http://joshuasadler.net/music/bsm_promotional_video.mp3

Birmingham School Of Acting Promotional Video

Audio Only Composition

http://joshuasadler.net/music/bsa_promotional_video.mp3

Experiments in Pure Data, generative audio and pitch control looper

dhcjoshua — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 16:19:54 +0000

Recently I have been working with Lawrie Cape a rather talented Flash designer who is also involved in Actionscript, Design, Games and Programming. Following a number of conversations about generative audio, sound design and building our own interfaces to control audio, we have decided upon a couple of projects to undertake. The first is to create some kind of generative audio system that whilst being random, still contains repetition in a musically pleasing fashion. Please take a look at Lawrie’s Blog for more on this.

The second was to design some kind of interface which would enable you to record an audio sample and have control of its playback speed. This idea was taken from the coffee grinder instrument in the following video.

FINE COLLECTION OF CURIOUS SOUND OBJECTS from Georg Reil on Vimeo.

Quite an interesting piece right?

So on this idea we have decided that our interface would work in the same way as the coffee grinder, however we are going to try and use an exercise bike as the turning mechanism instead.

With all this in mind then I have begun delving into Pure Data, an open source piece of software which uses graphical modular coding, very similar to Max/Msp. I have built a software interface which allows you to control audio in a similar way to the video project above but with MIDI control. Once we get a chance to look at building the physical interface I shall revisit the software interface to suit.

Pitch Control Looper

For now though it seems to work quite nicely as a stand alone patch. You can either load audio into the looper via the file browser or you can record straight into the looper.

You can download the patch here and you’ll also need to get Pure Data, which is free at http://puredata.info/. You’ll need to make sure that you’re audio interface and MIDI control settings are setup right within pure data before the patch will work but after that the interface is notated to show you how to use it.

Hope you enjoy it!

Are you listening, Leeds?

dhcjoshua — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 03:23:13 +0000

I have recently been recording and archiving field recordings around Leeds for a new project that I have been working on.
The project is a sound installation which lasts for 24 minutes, each minute representing an hour of the day/night. The Installation will be presented in surround sound and accompanied by time lapse photography of various parts of Leeds. The working title is “Are you listening, Leeds?”
We (myself, Jed Skinner and Kristina Diprose) have applied to art in unusual places with our application and are awaiting a reply on whether we can get a space to hold the installation. All feed back so far has been positive.

Here is the project vision, written By Kristina Diprose:

Vision
The project aims to map the ‘acoustic ecology’ and sense of place evoked by the different sound worlds of the city.
We are currently producing a surround-sound installation consisting of 24 sixty second recordings capturing the spatial-temporal rhythms of Leeds’ cityscape during a 24 hour period. By revisiting localities during the day and night and through the use of transition sounds, we explore the contrast and diversity inherent in the everyday life of the city. We are employing a variety of recording methods to create a sense of scale from the intimate to the ambient, and to emphasise the diffusion of sound through a city in motion.
We hope to challenge the dominance of visual culture by considering the relationship between sound and space, for example in the production of anxiety, leisure time, rush hour and ‘switching off’. In doing so we reflect on the unusual and shifting pitch of the post-industrial city, imagining an urban environment more sensitively attuned to human interaction.
In addition to the surround-sound composition, we are exploring time-lapse photography to produce a corresponding visual cityscape. This will be projected simultaneously over the 24 minute performance and will contextualise our recordings in time and space.
The empty retail units in the city centre provide a unique opportunity to showcase this project. The ubiquitous soundscape of consumer space is the ideal juxtaposition to our vignettes of the subtler sounds of city life drawn from all corners of Leeds. This type of space could also enable us to make use of window-mounted speakers as trail space, territorialising and extending our installation in a similar way to the functioning of sound in commercial space.

I’ve put together a short stereo excerpt of some of our work so far. This particular segment runs from 3PM until 8PM, see if you can work out where they are!

Audio demonstraion pieces

dhcjoshua — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 03:26:24 +0000

5 New Demo’s have been added HERE to showcase my sample library work.

portfolio updates

dhcjoshua — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 16:54:00 +0000

A short solo piece performed on the Psaltery portfolio instrument has been added to the page, to listen take a look on the side bar to the right.
Amendments to the portfolio have been made and more demo pieces are on the way.

Composition show reel added

dhcjoshua — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 21:45:35 +0000

You can now listen to my compositions show reel and also download the songs here.

I also plan to add some demo instruments available for download and use free of charge shortly.

Joshuasadler.net

dhcjoshua — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 23:50:16 +0000

Hi and welcome to my site, whilst I am a sample library producer I am not a web designer so progress on this site may be slow.

I aim to make this site a place to promote my self as a sample library producer and sound designer. I’ll soon be uploading a portfolio of a few instruments to showcase my work and also providing details of my experience and skills.

Thank you and please get in touch with any questions