Iyad's Fantastical Adventure into Musicland

Experimental Music

2011-07-11T21:24:00.000-07:00

I have been looking into experimental recording, sampling and audio manipulation. Below are a collection of pieces that i have been working on.

Moving Parts. by Eplusmusic

Glitch Shizzle

2010-12-29T09:29:00.002-08:00

While procrastinating, i have managed to actually do something with my time.

Enjoy.

Glitch Fun by Eplusmusic

Glitch Shizzle

2010-12-29T09:29:00.001-08:00

While procrastinating, i have managed to actually do something with my time.

Enjoy.

Glitch Fun by Eplusmusic

Great samples

2010-10-07T15:04:00.000-07:00

I finally got round to getting Eastwest Quantmn Loop's Composer's Collection, and it's great!

Heres just a short example that i composed using the Symphony Orchestra and Choir. The footage is from the BBC's Planet Earth series.

Iyad.

Remix and other things

2010-09-26T16:29:00.000-07:00

Apart from doing pointless physical labor in a theme park, i fortunately had a bit of time during the summer to record the ridiculously talented singer/songwriter Rachel Boucher-http://www.myspace.com/rachelboucher

My friend and I (Nick Hill) recorded three of her original songs, 'Flower', 'You said' and 'The only place' and have each spent a bit of time producing and arranging versions to get experience and practice.

Nick produced 'The only place'

The Only Place by Nickos

and I produced a bit of a dubstep(y) remix of 'Flower' which employed the use of alternating time signatures.

Flower (Remix) by Rachel Boucher by Eplusmusic

I am currently in the process of producing Rachel's 'You said' in a more conventional arrangement.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVHeVPPgZlw

You can find out more about Rachel Boucher at

http://www.myspace.com/rachelboucher

http://www.youtube.com/user/Never0se

Stravinsky and Doctor Who

2010-06-26T15:20:00.000-07:00

As i listen through the Doctor Who soundtracks for the last seasons, one piece in particular drew my attention -a piece that would be at home in a horror movie called Smith's Choice (From Season 3 is you're wondering). I thought it sounded alot like the sounds of 20th and 21st Century classical composers, namely Igor Stravinsky and a certain passage he wrote in the ballet, The Rite of Spring.

Compared to this:

I also think that the works of Stravinsky and other 20th Century classical composers have played quite a dominant role in most of orchestral film music, for instance John Williams's score for the Star Wars films and Jerry Goldsmith's score for the original Planet of the Apes. The 20th Century had alot of creepy errie music, so why not utilise that style for film?

So as you might have guessed, i had a go at writing my own tense jaggered music, below is the first draft. Turn your speakers up for this, it's a tad quiet, my sound card isn't great.

I won't leave it there though, there are many parts to the modern Doctor Who sound another being simple subtle music like this, please turn your speakers down a bit now!

Anyway, Jaggered music combined with soft, gentle music turns out like this. I hope you enjoy it.

Igor Stravinsky and Murray Gold Music by Eplusmusic

Oh, and if you happen to want to know the chords for the last section, they are below.

More to come!

Iyad

Torchwood Style

2010-06-25T06:39:00.000-07:00

The soundtrack to BBC's Torchwood series in essence is a string orchestra with occasional electronic sounds, yet Ben Foster and Murray Gold manage it to sound amazing each time. As I try to recreate the style, i realise that although they have the option of using a real ensemble, the compositional values remain consistant. The writing style is genrally a melody closely followed by the accompaniment and makes use with alot of part writing and voice leading techniques creating a very expressive sound which is very difficult to create when working with synthesized instruments.

When playing sampled strings, the sound is limited to long pads as opposed to leading lines making it sound 'unreal'.I propose that the most effective method of making the sound sound authentic is to painstakingly sequence each voice and altering dynamics, frequencies (slightyly, enough to make it sound like 2 voices as opposed to just 1) all the while editing the tempo to allow it to sound free and more expressive. This issue is basically brought up due to the lack of a conductor and actual performers who individually produce sounds with different timbres and vibrato.

Below is my first attempt at composing and sequencing in a similar style. In this track, I simply added a strings sound to my piano and recording the actual audio of the piano. I also automated volume swells to give the effect of an actual string ensemble.

For the next attempt, I have thought about voice leading. New music is written out in notation below.

And here's the sampled version using Vienna instruments. Here I have sorted out each of the piano parts into separate tracks and edited each line carefully so there are no gaps where i have used the pedal in my playing. I think the effect is very effective compared to the previous track.

Next, here's the same track as above, but with the autofilter's wet/dry signal automated to increase expressivity. A small change, but it can make all the difference.

And finally, here's the same track but with a small level of pitch shift (a few cents on low volume) on each of the tracks as well as alot of reverb. This is to make the ensemble sound larger - Un-fretted string instruments are often slightly out of tune with one another, I am exploiting this to create a larger sound.

Thanks for reading my post, more stuff to come.

Iyad

Even more recently composed music

2010-06-23T12:23:00.000-07:00

Heres some music I composed for an animatic for a friend of mine, Sophie Lowden at Bristol University. I had help with the mixing and mastering from Nick Hill and Phil Sampson. It's cheesey, but I think it's effective.

You can find more of Sophie's work at http://sophielowden.blogspot.com/

Chancer - Animatic Trailer from Sophie Lowden on Vimeo.

Recently Composed Music

2010-06-23T11:51:00.000-07:00

Here are the short pieces that I composed over the last 6 months while I was trying to sort out a direction to go in. I have now realised that i'm gonna go in EVERY direction! HOORAY!

Dubstep Attempt

This was the first time I figured out how to make a cool Dusbtep style bass sound so I had a little adventure.

Dubstep ftw by Eplusmusic

Wii Remote Fun

Pairing the Nintendo Wii remote with Logic pro, assigning the up and down info generated by the accelerometer to the relative volume on a Exs24 strings patch. This was alot of fun because it was almost like conducting.

Swelling Strings by Eplusmusic

Action Music

Inspired by Drum and Bass and Harry Gregson Williams' scores for Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3, Itried to use alot of glitchy stuff as well as cool generated sounds to make it sound exciting. Also, you can't go wrong with a racing car noise can you?

Action game music by Eplusmusic

Doctor Who Parody

This is a response to the latest rendition of the Doctor Who theme tune which, upon first hearing it, sounded a bit like Reggae. I made the full jump to Jamacia so Murray Gold didn't have to

Doctor Who Reggae by Eplusmusic

Piano Improvisation with Strings

This is a short improvisation on the piano with strings that could be used for film music purposes.

Short improvisation by Eplusmusic

Music Music Music

2010-06-23T10:46:00.000-07:00

I like alot of music, but i am mostly interested understanding and creating music below:

Classical - Romantic as well as early 20th Century music with interest into what is happening with music being made today.

Pop - Although it might get a bit 'same-ey', alot of Pop music is pretty awesome. There can be alot of thought and energy put in to create the 'perfect song'.

Dance - Dubstep, Drum n Bass and occasionally House. Dubstep because it's still fairly unheard of and i think that the bass can be taken and inserted into any other styles to create something new. Drum and Bass is awesomes, House can be good if its not pulled out for 20 minuets.

Remixes and Mashups - It's awesome to hear a well known piece of music altered completely to create something new.

Glitchy Stuff and Crazy Noises - Kinda linked to the above two sections, they can be good if used properly.

Rock vs Dance - A crossover that works really well and needs to be explored more.

Progressive - I've always been a fan of Progressive Metal, mostly Dream Theater being the reason, because it highlights the possibilities of going past the 'standard' rock song and creating more of a show out of it.

Jazz - Loosely. I generally like the sound of jazz, but i really don't like the ideas alot of Jazz musicians have - Its like they are constantly playing the same songs or 'standards'. However, i do like the fact that they explore more options than in other genres.

Orchestral Media Music - More linked to Classical music and can be really expressive when composed and orchestrated properly. Furthermore, I find the narrative style of orchestral composing used in shows like Tom and Jerry interesting as there is usually minimal sign of meter, tempo or tonality.

Electronic Media Music - Usually just Dance music, but could also be used in the narrative way described above or in an orchestral setting with sculpted instruments.

Orchestral and Electronic Media Crossover Music (OEMCM) - Now thats an awesome acronym. Merging both Orchestral and Electronic music styles is usually used in high tension action movies; it gives the media a more more 'extreme' and 'over the top' feel.

Music made from Music - Just as in Remixes and Mashups, taking a few clips (or just one) and manipulating it to sound like whatever you like is a very interesting concept.

Interactive Music - Triggering and manipulating music through physical data. The input could be anything, there is alot of work out there which responds to colour and movement filmed through a camera.

Improvised and Free Music - It can be good if you know what your doing.