Sonic identity & transformation

[Kevin Austin <kevin.austin@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Ursula, and list

I would propose that the question is not well-defined as to 'what you 
want to do', and (possibly) why.

There is an entire art-form that has been involved in this area for 
half a century, "electronic music", "musique concrete", or more 
recently called 'electroacoustics' in the generalized sense, and 
'acousmatics' is the more specific sense.

This is, for me, a question about sonic 'identity', and the meaning 
(semantic) of the word "same" (as recognizable would appear to have 
to imply aspects of similarity). Through training and inclination, I 
am able to extract reversed, time-stretched transposed filtered voice 
inside complex textures (even when they are not there), but maybe you 
are not looking for 'expert' ears. Interestingly, after a little 
training in the techniques of sonic transformation, most of our 
students quickly develop this fundamental ability.

And so the question regarding the nature of the encoding of the sonic 
identity, and 'how far' (and in what ways) a sound can be transformed 
and still be considered a member of the (root) family. [Google 
"families of sounds" ].

For further information on the plug-ins available for transformation, 
you may also want to Google  "VST plugins"  and  "AUDIO units"  and 
read through the descriptions of a number of the software packages 
listed. You will most likely see that they fall into a number of 
basic categories, amplitude, time, spectrum (added, reduced, 
substituted) etc.

To hear how electronic sound artists have used these ideas and 
materials, spend a little time listening to some of the 1700 
electroacoustic works on Sonus.ca http://www.sonus.ca/index.html, 
more than 90% of which use some form of sonic transformation that you 
may be looking for.


Should you wish to pursue the 'artistic / creative' aspect of this 
further, there are a number of lists devoted to the practice. (Google 
"electroacoustic music" or "electroacoustic studies").

Best wishes


Kevin




> Date:    Tue, 12 Sep 2006 18:26:22 +0200
> From:   Ursula Kirmse <ukirmse@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: making a sound unrecognizable
>
> Dear list members,
>
> I'm looking for a possibility to change/edit a environmental or at least
> natural sound in a way  that it is not any longer recognizable as what
> it is, but, however, for doing this with changing as less acoustic
> parameters as possible. ;-)  The intention is to use these sounds in a
> MMN paradigm and it is important that  both "versions" of the sound are
> acoustically as similar as possible.
> The main point is that the sound (that can also be a more complex thing
> as the sound of a barking dog or a something like that) should be not
> possible to be recognized as what it is.
>
> I would be very happy about ideas or would like know if maybe somebody
> has already tried something like this?  I would also be very happy about
> recommations for software or matlab scripts that could be helpful in
> respect to this. For example I'm looking for a way to transfer the
> amplitude envelope from one sound to another (I already wrote a matlab
> routine for this, but its not yet functioning perfectly fine and the
> result is not completely convincing).
>
> So if anybody has a an idea I would be grateful.
>
> best regards and thanks a lot,
> Ursula Kirmse
>
> --
> --------------------------------------
> Ursula Kirmse
> University of Leipzig
> Cognitive & Biological Psychology
> Institute of Psychology I
> Seeburgstrasse 14-20
> 04103 Leipzig, Germany
> Phone +493419735978/Fax +493419735969
> --------------------------------------