A lot of the composition process feels like it has been done beforehand, whether through directional instructions from the transcribed movement or noticeable shifts in physical and emotional states, both felt and expressed in the video, creating predefined “movements” within the piece in attempting to convey the elements of failure, exhaustion, and disorder of the movement in the sound design process I have discovered several new tricks and surprises playing with Ableton’s surround panner and audio effects.
LFO and Panning
Ableton’s surround panner device is exact because it can control the width and diffusion of the sound being panned. While this has obvious intended uses, I found that adding LFOs to both the diffusion and width control in combination with the already fast and dynamic panning of the piece creates weird tails and interruptions in the panned samples. While I discovered this entirely by accident, it brings a chaotic tinge to the panning that aligns with some of the more disordered movements I was making during the middle section of the dance. It is also sonically very dynamic and disorienting. It is difficult to understand the full effect without an octophonic setup, but you can still grasp the effect of this technique in the audio below:
Saturation and Grain Delay
While creating this track, my left monitor began to blow out and fail; the sound would fizzle and switch rapidly between stereo sound and just the right channel being played. While distressing, this also inspired me the general aesthetics of error in the sound design. Recreating this sensation in the track felt conceptually satisfying as it embodied the sound of an actual technical failure of the gear I used while writing. I created this sensation by using Ableton 12’s ability to control the saturation of both low and high frequencies in its saturation audio effect. When using an LFO set to the “stray” waveform at rapid speeds, it disrupts and clips the signal in a way that sounds similar to a blown-out speaker. Combined with a tight spray pattern and high feedback in grain delay, the rapid shifts between blown-out saturation and hard metallic qualities gave the entire sound of this section a very visceral feeling and I felt it accurately expressed the violent movement performed when dancing to such synthetic and intensely distorted sounds.