I’ve been thinking recently about what I will submit for the upcoming creative assignment in June. I’ve deliberated on different ideas for my sound piece, but overall I’ve been feeling that I want to put together something new and unfamiliar to me. Recently, my friend showed me a project they were working on. As a …
Author archives: Nathan Benitez
The Beatles at Shea Stadium (Full Concert)
For the upcoming assignment (May), I decided to write my essay on a contextual look into and a sensory ethnography on The Beatles’ Shea Stadium Concert. I found the entire show on Vimeo and watched it carefully before making some notes on what I will write about. While watching, I found myself mesmerised by the …
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Imogen Heap’s Mi.Mu Gloves – Thoughts
Innovative artist Imogen Heap was mentioned in the visitor practitioner class today. I had been somewhat aware of her prominence in musical technological advancements, but my knowledge on her work was very limited, so I decided to do some further research. I learned about her development of the Mi.Mu gloves, which turns the arms and …
My Composition – Reflection
This project was a pleasurable experience to me and it’s something I feel will subtly inspire my future work in sound. Something that was quite outstanding to me was the use and implementation of the pitch shifter. Pitch shifting is something I’ve always overlooked; the act of manipulating the pitch on natural vocals never interested …
Documentation of Experiments
In this project, I stepped outside of my comfort and swooped into a type of sound manipulation I never thought I would: pitch shifting. Personally, I’ve never found pitch shifting to enhance a vocal recording on a sound piece in any way. Other than for dramatic effect in a movie, I’ve never understood the desire …
The Production
Going into this, my intent was to start to build a project purely from a stream of consciousness and play around with sounds and effects to contribute to the piece. I used Logic Pro X. I started on a completely blank canvas. I had no rough idea of where I will go or how I’ll …
Broader Contextualisation 2
For years, I’ve been fascinated with the eclecticism of the discography of The Beatles. For a band that is as as globally popular as they are, it’s quite shocking to me that so many are unaware of their more experimental tracks. I remember the first time I heard ‘Revolution 9’ with a bewildered expression as …
Broader Contextualisation
A friend sat me down recently and played me a sound piece they had made. They made me aware that they had created it with the intention of it being purely ambiguous. They had followed no form, no structure, used no melody, harmony, or played any rhythm; they just played around with sounds and manipulated …
My Composition – Where I Started
Doing a course in sound art has opened a world of experimental music to me; experimental music that, prior to the course, I had a very limited awareness of. Consistently hearing new artists of sub-genre sounds has been intriguing to me and I look forward each week to hearing more. Music that derives from purely …
Thoughts on Spotify Radio
In recent years, the only medium of radio that I’ve intentionally consumed is the algorithmic radio that’s featured on the music streaming platform of Spotify. Spotify Radio creates a collection of songs based on any artist, album, playlist, or song of your choice. Additionally, it updates over time to keep fresh. Personally, I feel that …