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https://soundcloud.com/mark_hayes/look-what-i-found-in-the-chicken

I started out with a bunch of recordings of chickens in a chickenhouse. I may have achieved some degree of musical drama.

This is another in a series of experiments turning natural sound into music, by any means available; it will take 01:18 minutes out of your future. Don’t say I didn’t warn you (but it really isn't that bad.)

In Logic, I lied to MIDI Guitar and said the chickens were guitars, and it transcribed the whole racket to MIDI, which then forked off in two directions:

(1) BIAB chord-analyzed for a guitar RealTrack, and
(2) stripped down, quantized and played on a violin

MIDI Guitar analyzed the audio from this guitar RealTrack to create a new MIDI track, which forked into parts for piano and bass. Seasoned with Logic Drummer.

RealTrack: ~522:Guitar, Acoustic, Fingerpicking Ev 120

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Interesting musical chickens!

Also perhaps a touch odd.... grin

Peter

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Originally Posted By: PeterF
Interesting musical chickens!


Band in a Barn.

Thanks for listening!

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Hi Mark,

Surprisingly musical, considering the source.

I've certainly heard worse!

Full marks (pun?) for originality.

ROG.

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Originally Posted By: ROG
Hi Mark,
Surprisingly musical, considering the source.
I've certainly heard worse!
Full marks (pun?) for originality.
ROG.


ROG, thanks!

This sounds very cinematic to me. Transitional music; midway through, it becomes downright menacing. I cannot really account for all the drama in terms of the original chicken audio, nor did I consciously pick violent chord changes like these, so apparently BIAB hears organic noise and represents it as conflict between good and evil.

I imagine a teenage girl being bullied at her high school then going home, and this music is playing while she’s riding on the bus and flipping through her notebook of doodles and revenge fantasies.

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Mark, chicken picking at its best!

A very interesting piece of music!


Love is grand.
Divorce is twenty grand!

64 bit Win 10 Pro, the latest BiaB/RB, Roland Octa-Capture audio interface, a ton of software/hardware
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Originally Posted By: MarioD
Mark, chicken picking at its best! A very interesting piece of music!


Ha, I had to Google "chicken picking". =8^)

Thanks, Mario.

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I think I'd have liked it more if the accompaniment was more in keeping with the lead and less a Rhodes lead jazz combo.


Cheers
rayc
"What's so funny about peace, love & understanding?" - N.Lowe
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I like the concept.
I must admit being a bit disappointed there where no "natural sounds: in it.

moto

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Originally Posted By: CaptainMoto
I like the concept.
I must admit being a bit disappointed there where no "natural sounds: in it.
moto


Oh, I can fix that! I have an earlier, non-BIAB work with the same cast, unmasked:

https://soundcloud.com/mark_hayes/roosterama

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Originally Posted By: rayc
I think I'd have liked it more if the accompaniment was more in keeping with the lead and less a Rhodes lead jazz combo.


I did try it with all acoustic instruments, but I just love the way that electric piano thumps along. Criticism noted, though.

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Had to listen to this even just for the funny title smile Creative idea and surprisingly well working end result. I hadn't even thought about using BIAB like this. Keep on experimenting! And that Roosterama is hilarious!! Classic stuff, really modern art music.

Janne


Hear My Music:

Soundcloud
YouTube

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Originally Posted By: jannesan
Had to listen to this even just for the funny title smile Creative idea and surprisingly well working end result. I hadn't even thought about using BIAB like this. Keep on experimenting! And that Roosterama is hilarious!! Classic stuff, really modern art music.


Halloo Janne, I appreciate the comments, and especially the feedback re: how to make up catchy names! =8^)

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I watched a really interested video clip from the Explained series that goes over Music that actually, in the opening, explains that at a certain point that repetition -- even in nature -- starts to sound like music to us after a while. I think that grabbing audio samples or getting inspired by what we heard in the world around us is a very worthwhile experiment. Thanks for sharing!


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Hello Mark,

When listening to your -very short- song I imagined the chickens were all desperately looking for their eggs they had laid that morning.
It's an interesting approach for a song. I read Embers'post about the repetition of a theme and it's true. At first you are not used to it and then it sets (or not). That can become a good song then. In your song some things stands in the way to become such a song. At first it is very short, as I said before. But i also think it needs more build up at the beginning to get the picture. And then you can play with that repetition. Well, heving said that, I don't dare doing this (yet), because it's not that easy.
Do you know Erik Sati? He liked making simple songs, only with a piano. But to me a master on that repetition thing. I loved 'Gnossiennes' (but who doesn't?). Take a listen to sculp your projects. I hope it works...

Hans


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https://soundcloud.com/user-296497130
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Haha. Forked off in 2 different directions. hehe. Man, I like your style and creativity, Mark, but you were wrong about the 1:15 of my life. I went on to Roosterramma then came back to this one again a couple times. Time well spent. I remember seeing Frank Zappa on TV in the 50s playing the bicycle with drum sticks.


Enjoy whatever happens!
marty

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Originally Posted By: BabuMusic
I remember seeing Frank Zappa on TV in the 50s playing the bicycle with drum sticks.


I am more honored than I can express right now by your kind remarks about my music. I have some philosophical thoughts about this whole "chicken" project of mine that I will try to articulate in a bit. (Ember and Birchwood, too.)

But right now I need to share this amazing video of the TV broadcast of which you speak. It features an extended Zappa composition performed by Frank and Steve Allen on bicycles, along with studio orchestra and prerecorded tape.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QF0PYQ8IOL4
Frank Zappa teaches Steve Allen to play The Bicycle (1963)

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Originally Posted By: Birchwood
When listening to your -very short- song I imagined the chickens were all desperately looking for their eggs they had laid that morning.


Interesting! Hans, I forwarded your comment to the keeper of these particular birds, who replied, "This bunch of chickens is very aggressive about defending the nest, unlike any bunch before. Nearly all of the chickens try to destroy my hand, and I have taken to wearing heavy polypropylene gloves when harvesting the eggs. This bunch knows where the eggs are going."

More on the rest of your comments to follow.

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Originally Posted By: Mark Hayes
Originally Posted By: Birchwood
When listening to your -very short- song I imagined the chickens were all desperately looking for their eggs they had laid that morning.


Interesting! Hans, I forwarded your comment to the keeper of these particular birds, who replied, "This bunch of chickens is very aggressive about defending the nest, unlike any bunch before. Nearly all of the chickens try to destroy my hand, and I have taken to wearing heavy polypropylene gloves when harvesting the eggs. This bunch knows where the eggs are going."

More on the rest of your comments to follow.


At least I was right the hens were in a kind of stress about those eggs...


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Meanwhile the foxes hanging around your chicken coop are saying to each other, "nah bro...nothing but guitars in there!"

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