Composing sound loops (Was: FLASH: Bacground Music and Sounds)

[Scott Wilkinson]

Being a Juilliard graduate (for whatever that's worth) and a composer, I can

offer a few subjective tips for everyone on writing background loops...


1. All loops, no matter how well composed, get on peoples' nerves after a

variable length of time. So always include a sound on/off button (and make

it obvious). Alternatively, only include brief sound accents or splashes in

your productions that don't repeat.


2. The more up-tempo and energetic your music, the sooner it irritates the

listener (e.g. house- and/or rave-style loops with a throbbing electronic

drumbeat get old *very* fast)


3. The more mellow and relaxing your music, the longer people will

appreciate it. You can learn a lot by listening to the ambient music of

Brian Eno (e.g. Music for Airports) and the minimalist music of Steve Reich

and/or Phillip Glass.


4. Open, "perfect" intervals (for those musically knowledgable) like 4ths,

5ths, and octaves are more pleasing to the ear (when repeated) than stepwise

scales, dissonant intervals, and melodies that just noodle around (so to

speak). Pentatonic scales (the black keys on a piano) are more pleasing than

major/minor scales (which is why so many windchimes are tuned to pentatonic

scales).


5. Natural, acoustic sounds are generally more enjoyable and unique than

electronic, synthesized sounds. In other words, if you have a

pretty-sounding set of windchimes, record them and use those, rather than

the "Analog Stack" patch on your Roland synthesizer. (Marc Hoffman has some

great acoustic sounds at his Dart Frog Media site.)


6. Though empty space (silence) in music and sound is nice (and often

overlooked), it "shows" noise more in an 8-bit sample than continuous sound.

So if your sounds have some empty space here and there, try going with a

16-bit sample if possible, or apply a little noise gating to your samples (a

process that mutes the noise in silent stretches).


Again, these tips are subjective, and I'm sure some of you may disagree. But

they're ideas based on two decades of performing, listening to, and

composing music of all kinds.


Scott


--

Scott Wilkinson

Alias Design, Inc.



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