The finished product (ie. composition) turned out to be a 1 minute and 52 seconds in length. The name I have given the composition is "Am-Eric-a War". It sort of has an anti-President Bush theme to it, relating to the current war going on in thirdworld countries. Any of the views portrayed are not entirely my views, so please do not get offended by them. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions and expressions, especially in the form of art we call "music".

The composition is made up of 3 .aiff files - Intro, Middle, and Outro (downloadable below). The Intro is the heart of the composition and has had extensive sampling and effects done to it. It is a compilation of well over a dozen samples (often used more then once throughout) from a variety of artists. The Intro was put together in the software program - Audacity. I found Audacity allowed me to put my composition together with ease, as it did not hold me back whatsoever with cutting , trimming, effects, etc. of .wav/.mp3 files.

Some of the samples used came directly off of CDs in which I own the original. In order to grab these clips, I had to rip the CD first using CDex. The album in which I got alot of samples from was the Killarmy - Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars. Killarmy is a group that is affiliated with the influential rap group of the 90's and still today - Wu-Tang Clan. Killarmy brings a militant feel to their work.

The samples used were from:

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Alot of the composition is done using samples from a handful of artists - Jedi Mind Tricks (Vinnie Paz & Stoupe), Killarmy, Cilvaringz, President George "Dub-U" Bush, Paul Kelly, and more. I have been into underground hiphop for the last 10 years, and have been influenced heavily by great producers - Rza (from Wu-Tang Clan, Kill Bill, Blade 2), Stoupe the Enemy of Mankind (Jedi Mind Tricks, Canibus), and Cilvaringz (European Wu-Affiliated). So, it is no wonder I went a little "crazy" with the samples from songs and mixing.

The following techniques and effects were applied in Audacity: Amplify, Change Speed & Tempo, Echo, Fade In & Out (heavily used throughout), Phaser, Reverse, Cross Fade In & Out, Volume Adjustments, and probably more I have neglected to remember. Although the Intro mix is only a minute in length, it actually took alot of hours (probably a good half-a-day, especially since I had to find the samples and cut them) to piece together and perfect. Audacity also exploded on the file (ie. crapped out) at one time and point, and would barely allow me to do anymore editing to the file. Note: I had alot of waves (patterns) loaded in the sequencer, probably causing alot of rendering to take place due to overlaps and effects.

The type of sound that I was going for was "raw" & "uncut". Almost like a pieced or slapped together work. I thought this would add to the dark/military/war theme I was striving for!

Now on to the instruments and sound/effects they procuded...

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• Csound
• Description of Use:
• This program pieced together the entire composition. It also added instruments to the composition, such as, grain, random pitch, etc.
• Audacity v1.2.3 Free Audio Editor and Recorder
• http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
• Description of Use:
• I used Audacity to edit sound clips from .wav and .mp3 format audio. It was also used to mix some sound clips together and export as .wav format so Csound could import it. Audacity also allowed me to perform different effects on the individual and mixing of waves, like: Amplify, Volume Adjustments, Change in Speed & Tempo, Fade In, Fade Out, Phaser, Echo, etc.
• CDex 1.51 Audio Ripping Tool
• http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/
• Description of Use:
• I used CDex to rip some of the sound waves I used from CDs I had in .wav format.
• Switch Sound File Conversion Software
• http://www.nch.com.au/switch/
• Description of Use:
• I used Switch to convert my .wav file that I created in Audacity to a file format that Csound would accept - .aiff format. I attempted for a while to get .wav format files to read, but to no avail, could not get them to read in without an error.

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• Bronze Nathareth - Poisonous Saliva

• Jedi Mind Tricks - "Beef with War" from Secret Song Ghengis Khan

• Killarmy - Intro Storm, "Push at O'800", Doomsday Helicopter, "Stay Together Team"

• I Shit You Not

• Mic

• Scratch 1, Scratch 2

• More ...

• Cilvaringz - "Wow, you scared me!"

• Jedi Mind Tricks - Secret Song 1

• Killarmy - Intro, Doomsday Bomb, 5 Stage Tank, "For security reasons ...", "We are at war ..."

• Philip Glass - Music Box

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