sound-design-workshop

Introduction

Proposed, designed, and conducted a sound design workshop with 24 5th and 6th graders at R F Kennedy Elementary. This is the SuperCollider code I wrote to teach the concept of Granular Sampling.

Every player (p1, p2, etc.) has a separate code file which loads a sample and defines 5 parameters to modify the sample with. The splitting of samples was done to show how a Laptop Orchestra is conducted.

Initially, every group of students would be one "player" and play a sample. We would then move in sequence through all groups around the room and hear what each "player" sounds like. We would then follow a musical score to control when a player starts and stops thus, recreating a song.

The idea was to recreate "Jellyfish Jam" from Spongebob and encourage students to design cool unique sounds from familiar sounds. For instance, depending on the sample, a lower playback rate (0.1) creates a bass sound while a higher playback rate (6) creates a shutterfly sound.

Files

Samples

• This contains all the audio files related to the recreation of Spongebob's "Jellyfish Jam". The piano synths were edited out of the original and cover of the original.
• The samples are named according to what they sound like.

Code

• "load_samples_synth.scd": loads samples, synth definition, and Pbindefs.

  • The paths need to be changed to where the samples reside on your local machine.
  • This file needs to be run once. Make sure to boot the server first (CTRL + B).
  • This file loads the audio files through a synth definition which plays the file through a buffer.
  • The Pbindefs make the files modifiable. Each Pbindef has 5 parameters to play around with: dur, rel, rate, startPos, amp.

• "p1", "p2", etc: are Pbindefs for each sample.

  • Seperate files were created to assign to duos and trios of students.
  • Either all groups modify and play together or they work seperately and then share what they produced.

• "score.scd": contains a simple score designed around the song "Jellyfish Jam". To listen to what this sounds, play "run.wav".

Worksheets

• "student_sheet": was the sheet provided to students. The 5 questions were to guide them to understand what each parameter did. A cheat sheet was added too so, they would know what was expected of them and not have to memorize commands.
• "instructor_sheet": was the sheet provided to my peers to help them aid the students.

Inspiration

All the work we do at Santa Clara Laptop Orchestra (SCLOrk) and Dr. Bruno Ruviaro inspired the creation of this workshop.

A year ago I knew nothing about music, let alone sound design. Now, I can conduct a workshop to introduce young minds to the magic I had and continue to have the privelege to experience for over a year.