Build-Your-Own DJ Console
Using an experimental sensor-driven mixing board, children will
create thier own DJ console and record songs composed of sound
samples and live input. Working in collaboration with DJ Spooky,
that Subliminal Kid (aka Paul Miller) and DJ Singe (aka Beth Coleman),
children will use a variety of sensors (light sensitivity, contact,
and proximity) to trigger sound events from a library of choices
and sounds recorded live.
Powerful Ideas:
1) Music is a pathway to mathematical ideas
Breakbeat is based on rearranging pieces of a measure of music,
speeding certain segments up and slowing others down, reversing
sections and stretching others while keeping the BPM (Beats per
minute) constant. It is, therefore, a powerful way to engage with
a number of mathematical concepts.
2) Urban sampled music is an intellectually and mathematically
complex and sophisticated form
Often, we rationalize using popular forms to teach "higher" concepts.
However, the characterization of certain forms of learning as
"high" and others as "low" needs to be called into question. Hiphop
and breakbeat, in particular, have been maligned as not taking
much musical talent or skill, when in fact, they are very complex
and sophisticated forms of music with rich histories, structurally
equivalent to classical or jazz.
Audience
The primary audience for this workshop is urban teens, aged 12-15,
in a community technology center context.
Team:
Adrienne DeWolfe
Virginia Eubanks
Maddy Kadish
Egon Pasztor
Elisabeth Sylvan
Catherine Vaucelle
Collaborators:
Tristan Jehan
DJ Spooky that Subliminal Kid (Paul Miller)
DJ Singe (Beth Coleman)
links: [short description] [long description] [sample archive]
Workshop Description
Our workshop will allow students to make music by assembling and
editing instrumental, sound effect, beat and spoken word samples
and live input together to form one composition, which they can
take home on a CD.
They will do this using a team-created mixing board attached to
sensors, which prompt the computer to adjust and mix the music.
The kids will plug in the sensors to create their own DJ console
and produce songs composed of sound samples and other input, which
is stored on the computer. The children will use a variety of
sensors (light sensitivity, contact, and proximity) to trigger
and control sounds from a library of choices and mix them with
live sounds, music tracks, and spoken word. Workshop participant
will be able to work in collaboration with DJ Spooky, that Subliminal
Kid (aka Paul Miller), and DJ Singe (aka Beth Coleman). Each child
will be able to take home a CD with a copy of his or her musical
creation.
All the action is physical, not on the computer. The students
will learn that it is the content and creative ideas that drive
self-expression. Technology is a tool to for people to use to
accomplish this.
Workshop Plan
Total Time: 3 hours
Part I: Introductions
1. Explain the purpose of the workshop. Have Spooky or Singe do
a little number to get everyone revved up (15 minutes)
2. Brief overview of the tools, process (15 minutes)
Part I is for Instructional Input and Modeling -
Information will be presented as clearly and concisely as possible.
Learning will be scaffold with samples, examples, demonstration,
and modeling. Have input in more than one modality if possible
to accommodate different learning styles - auditory, visually,
kinesthetic, etc. Good modeling is key.
Part II: Composition (Split into groups here - 3 teams of three students each with
one content person and one tech person from the team)
3. Choosing samples/Thinking content (30 minutes)
4. Sketching your composition. Listen to samples, ask what students
are trying to say, help them map out (on paper) how their composition
is going to work. (15 minutes)
5. Choose effects and assign to samples. (15 minutes)
6. Build the composition. Practice performing it collaboratively.
(30 minutes)
Part II is to Check for Understanding and Guided Practice -
Our team will be observing and working with the small groups in
order to allow learners to demonstrate their understanding. This
is a better check then waiting until the end when learners could
be confused. If learners are having trouble, the whole group could
begin by making one composition together as we guide them. This
will help them to see some of the snags and get ideas for their
final product. It may serve as a kind of warm-up to get people's
creative juices flowing and learn from mistakes early on. When
they’re ready, learners should be prepared enough to successfully
complete a composition of their own.
Part III: Performance
7. Perform three compositions (30 minutes)
8. Evaluation:
What did they think? Did the tools enable or constrain them?
Did the content speak to them?
What would they change if we were going to do the workshop again?
(During this time we should also burn CDs for them to take home
of their compositions) (20 minutes)
9. Wrap-Up: Thanks all around, places to go for more information
or to
continue this kind of work - maybe have handouts. (10 minutes)
Part III provides Closure -
We need to also think about allowing for unfinished projects and
outcomes and how to scaffold continued learning after the workshop
- perhaps through a website, handout, email etc.
Console Instructions for the Workshop
1. First, choose a beat track as the basis for your musical composition.
Then select 6-7 samples of either music or poetry to mix with
the track. If you choose, you can read something you have written
into a microphone to use as a sample. The samples can be layered
together, meaning that they can be played at the same time.
2. Then you can adjust each audio selection with various effects,
which are controlled by sensors attached to the mixing board.
3. The final product will be a song, a poem set to music, or an
audio composition that has personal significance for you. It will
be downloaded to a CD that you can listen to.
Objective - Learning Outcomes
There are three aspects that students will learn from the project:
musical concepts, technical components, and ideas about technology.
* Students will learn that music is an art form. By developing
musical compositions, students will gain a musical sense of timing,
structure, rhythm, appreciation, and learn how artists connect
music with ideas and emotions. Students will learn how to put
sounds together in a meaningful way that sounds harmonious to
them.
* Students will learn how to mix music. They will learn about
effects, beat mixing, tempo, beats per minute, and musical composition.
* Students will learn how use music and sound as a means of self-expression
and how technology can facilitate this. The idea of being able
to use content from their daily lives and rework it in order to
express themselves by creating work that they own will be a large
part of the workshop.
Technical Aspects of the Workshop
A. Final Architecture for Hardware:
B. Sensors and Effects:
The following sensors will control the following musical effects:
1. Sensors -
– Light
– Contact (on/off for the length of the sample)
– Proximity
2. Effects -
– Tempo
– Running the sample backwards or forwards
– Volume, including cross-fades
– The ability to turn on and off various tracks
– Reverb
– Scrubbing
– Delay
– Pitch ???
C. Hardware and Materials Needed for the Workshop:
* Sensors
* Mac computers (three)
* Sound library, including beat tracks and shorter sound samples
of music and poetry
* BIG Honking speakers
* MIDI Devices (what are they? Who will figure this out?)
* Miscellaneous cables
* A CD burner and blank CDs
SOFTWARE
Back end done in MAX MSP and PropellerHead's ReBirth.
Sound Library/ Musical Content
Sound files show be around 5-20ish seconds, depending on the sample.
They should be saved in .aiff format.
Three main categories of Samples -
- Beats: breakbeat drum loops, broken down by BPM
- Instrumentals – broken down by genre and by artist
- Wisdom - Spoken word and speeches, broken down by both speaker
and subject
OTHER
As we build our system, we should probably keep some of the following
in mind:
1) How do we facilitate collaboration between students?
2) How do we meet our educational/pedagogical goals?
3) How do we suit the particularity of our audience?
4) How do we maintain a large degree of design flexibility and
openness?
5) How do we ensure system stability?
6) How do we keep interactivity levels consistently high?
Moved to /Samples.
links: [short description] [long description] [sample archive]