Music from a random image
So I decided to try out a strange, strange experiment. The core concept was to take a random photography of my world and create music out of whatever was in the shot. So ended up with this beautiful image of our lovely Ikea dinner table. You will notice a variety of objects on the table and most importantly four objects: “CB Candle Light Holder”, “Box with Matches”, “Mexican Coke” and a regular “Waterbottle”. I essentially brought these objects into a larger hall room and sampled them extensively. I poured water into the candle light holder and recorded it at different water levels (pitch) and at different velocities. The box with matches was used as a shaker. The mexican coke was also recorded at different water levels, so I had all the semi tones I could generate and finally the watter bottle, which turned out to be amazing. The water bottle sounded crazy good when it got tuned down, so I ended up tuning it down 32-semi tones, which generated this wonderful taiko like sound. Please note that all the “instruments” were recorded with natural reverb, which is key for me in terms of making the samples breath and come alive. The background ambiences were made by using timefreezer VST (www.timefreezer.net) on individual samples of the candle light holder.
Example of Candle light holder, Matches, Mexican Coke and Water bottle.
Example of Water bottle tuned down 32 semi-tones to work as dark, deep bass drum.
This in incredible. I doubt anyone could have guessed the source of these. Have you ever thought about releasing a commercial sample library? Personally, I’m sick of hearing stormdrum on everything and think they could use the competition!
By the way, my African percussion teacher forwarded me this catalog of authentic (?) African rhythms in graphic notation, and I thought you might find it interesting: http://www.drums.org/djembefaq/rhycat.htm
Creative and genius as always! You continue to surprise me with original ideas and great music … Can’t wait for the Tomb Raider Underworld music
Cheers!
Hi,
i came across one of your compositions, specifically the “Blue Abstraction”, which i found amazing. It was a low quality sample somewhere on the net, but I would like to enjoy it in full. Is it possible to download it from somwhere?
What equipment do you use for music creation? Thank you
This is amazing! I love your music!
I was immediately intrigued by your talent when I played Tomb Raider: Legend, I also played Tomb Raider: Anniversary. I love the ambience in Anniversary, but I much rather like the modern world beats used in Legend. Which obviously, since it was a remake, it had to be more orchestra-based, which was okay. But, I absolutely love the Legend music, I listen to it all the time! (Especially the Japan tracks!) I hope Underworld follows in Legend’s footsteps in terms of music genre and style, and I can’t wait for the main theme and what not to be released as we get closer to the game release!
[...] bottle into something that sounds like massive, tribal percussion. To keep himself disciplined, he limited himself to objects in a random photo. Here’s what it sounds [...]
[...] bottle into something that sounds like massive, tribal percussion. To keep himself disciplined, he limited himself to objects in a random photo. Here’s what it sounds [...]
Outstanding! The water bottle sounds huge. I’d love to hear more of this.
Impressive stuff! Thanks very much for the ideas.
Thanks everybody. It is really inspiring to read the feedback and I have decided to continue the journey in terms of taking random snapshots of reality and make music out of it. The next experiment will be up within a week and I am gonna try to take a picture of the most unmusical and boring thing I can find. Stay tuned.
Great stuff you got here! Cannot wait for the next one. Never actually thought that I
would be someones fan, but now I am.
Love it.
Fantastic idea.
Everything you touch seems to turn to GOLD!!! I found your website after hearing one of your demo made using East West’s Goliath. You are purely amazing! I’ve been here checking out your blog for a while now, and am so very impressed and inspired. Thank you so much for sharing your work. Percussion is one very big element of my work that I’m lacking in… I look forward to learning from the best! : )
Thanks guys. I never expected any reactions to this, since its just me experimenting and having fun. My next experiment will be up soon, so stay tuned…
Wow. What a cool idea and amazing result. Thanks for the inspiration!
Nice! I would like to know what effect are you using for tuning down the samples? thanks. I look forward to hear your new experiments.
you freak…
Hey cool, someone else discovered the water bottle trick!
I really love this water bottle sound, I experimented with it some years ago.
Move the bottle around to get different tuning!
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Very late reply, because I found your website just a few hours ago. Anyway, everybody is hyping Ominsphere these days and you just prove that you don’t have to buy a new and quite expensive toy to make interesting music out of uncommon samples.
All your work is very inspiring. I wish you would post more of that stuff.
Greetings from Germany,
Andy
I Think you could use this kind of Music in Tomb Raider …
Would be really great to hear
Hi, Troels! This is one of the web sites I continue to visit for inspiration. A big thank to you for all this useful information. You have really inspired me to think in new and unortodox ways! The music from a random picture is very good.
I have listened to your music on this web site and in Tomb Raider Legend and I’m already a big fan.
It would have been very interesting to hear about how you think when you create a new piece. Do you kind of hear the piece in your head before you actually create it in the computer or do you have different kinds of compositional “templates”.
After listening to much of your music, I think it’s so transparent but at the same time complex. How do you do it
Is the simple answer (as always): hard work?!!
Cheers