This composition is inspired by The Monkees 1987 album Pool It!: very eighties, very cheesy. Loop It! focuses on looping sounds, playing them backwards, and sounding really bad.
Files
- loopit.mp3: listen to the composition
- loopit.csd: the CSound file with instrument definitions and score
Instruments
- instrument 102: uses the granule opcode to perform granular synthesis
- instrument 103: uses the flooper2 opcode to loop ftable sounds
- instrument 104: uses the flooper2 and linseg opcodes to loop ftable sounds, but with a changing pitch
- instrument 105: uses the pluck opcode to create a snare drum sound
- instrument 300: uses the pluck and distort1 opcodes and is described below
Instrument 300: Nosmith
The nosmith is instrument 300. It creates a slightly distored guitar sound by taking the output from the pluck opcode as the input to the distort1 opcode. Its parameters are amplitude and frequency. The nosmith is used in the beginning of the song to play the “Heart and Soul” riff.
Song Structure
- the nosmith instrument plays the “Heart and Soul” riff, accompanied by the snare drum instrument
- riff.wav is played using instrument 104 with the pitch starting normal and ending high
- the ending of riff.wav is played using instrument 103 and looped
- the ending of riff.wav is played backwards using instrument 103 and looped
- twinkle.wav is played using granular synthesis with instrument 102
- wrong.wav is played using instrument 104 with the pitch going from low to high
- the ending of wrong.wav is played using instrument 103 and looped
- the ending of wrong.wav is played backwards using instrument 103 and looped
- na.wav is played with a high pitch using instrument 103
- na.wav is played using granular synthesis with instrument 102
- na.wav is played twice using instrument 104 with the pitch going from low to high to low
- twinkle.wav is played backwards using instrument 104 with the pitch going from low to high to low to high to low
Sound Sources
- na.wav: from the song “She’s Movin’ In With Rico” by The Monkees
- riff.wav: from the song “Heart and Soul” by The Monkees
- twinkle.wav: from the song “Long Way Home” by The Monkees
- wrong.wav: from the song “Midnight” by The Monkees
Other Sources
- Audacity (for converting files and deleting a small silent section around 7 seconds)
- simple snare drum from René Nyffenegger’s collection of things on the web
- water texture from Czech IT experts