Craig Smith

MAN:

Start with a simple two note melody.

Two notes close together. One note steps down lightly to the next.

SOFTWARE:

D 3 to C 3.

MAN:

The first note should be slightly shorter than the second.

SOFTWARE:

D 3 is a quaver and C 3 is a crotchet.

MAN:

Pause there. Think someone is at the door.

[silence]

Resume. Thought I heard knocking.

SOFTWARE:

Drum rhythm added.

MAN:

What. No I said knocking at the door.

SOFTWARE:

Wooden sound source.

MAN:

Oh for goodness. Well play it back then.

Wait. First a sound source for the melody.

Select piano.

SOFTWARE:

Piano for D 3 to C 3.

MAN:

Wood will not work for the rhythm.

Select low cello bass notes. C 1. Crotchets.

SOFTWARE:

Cello C 1 crotchets.

MAN:

Think those marching lines of Haydn.

Boom boom boom boom.

Make you think of some mythological giant.

Footsteps pacing a dry field.

SOFTWARE:

Tempo 100 beats per minute.

MAN:

Faster than that. Slightly though.

Think symphony number one hundred and four.

Andante.

SOFTWARE:

Tempo 105 beats per minute.

MAN:

Symphony one hundred and four.

One hundred and five beats per minute.

Haydn wrote one hundred and six symphonies in total.

There are, however, two bonus symphonies.

Symphony A and Symphony B.

Sympathy for the day. Sympathy for thee.

I digress. Ignore just spoken. Add strings to the melody.

SOFTWARE:

Two violins and one viola with piano melody.

MAN:

Now spread the tones.

Piano tonic, violins at three and four, viola seven.

Cello bass remains the same.

Play back.

SOFTWARE:

[music]

MAN:

Good. Now syncopate the cello bass.

Not syncopate, undo.

It should pizzicato in unison with the melody.

Quaver crotchet, quaver crotchet.

SOFTWARE:

Cello C 1 is a quaver and C 1 is a crotchet.

MAN:

Play back.

SOFTWARE:

[music]

MAN:

Better. Too plain, though.

I want to say, too musical.

How about add a sound.

Field recording library. Add what.

Vinyl static, the pops of a dusty record.

SOFTWARE:

Added vinyl ambience.

MAN:

But that isn’t quite right, is it?

Say a crumble of something.

The powder of rocks being pressed lightly underfoot.

Ground by plastic footwear. I want to say gumboots.

I want to say the inverse of a crumble of something.

The obvious answer is raindrops but that’s wrong.

I can hear a heat. Let’s skip this for now. Undo.

SOFTWARE:

Vinyl ambience removed.

Piccolo sequence added D6 semibreve.

MAN:

Wait, what? Oh the kettle.

You silly thing. That’s just the kettle whistling in the kitchen.

You’re so sensitive since the upgrade.

Come on then, play back, let’s hear it.

SOFTWARE:

[music]

MAN:

That’s very good. Still too musical, but it’s getting there.

I have a sound in my head, what can you do with this.

[mouth sounds, tongue tapping roof of mouth]

There is a descriptor I can’t quite - fizzle!

Add a bed of fizzle of the track.

SOFTWARE:

Field recording hot stove cooking added.

MAN:

Christ yes that’s exactly it. How do you do that?

A hot stove and a kettle whistling. Bloody hell.

I want to say play back but not yet. The melody.

Can we, I want to say compress the piano and strings.

Push them together, create a composite sound.

Is that possible in this version?

SOFTWARE:

Morph effect applied to piano, violins and viola.

Rendering.

MAN:

Okay, now while they’re rendering, let’s work on the cello.

Isolate that layer and play back.

SOFTWARE:

[music]

MAN:

It needs to be lower. I want to say barometric.

I want to say sonar. The pizzicato of a cello that just rings out.

Add subterranean reverb, lower an octave.

Play back.

SOFTWARE:

[music]

MAN:

Slow down, we’re not imitating Hayden anymore.

Largo. Or nearly largo. Use your intuition.

What would you do? I’ll follow your lead.

SOFTWARE:

Cello removed.

Field recording heartbeat added.

MAN:

Thank you for not making me say it.

SOFTWARE:

Rendering finished.

MAN:

Play back.

SOFTWARE:

[music]

MAN:

[pause]

Play back again.

SOFTWARE:

[music]

MAN:

[pause]

Formant the melody. You know what I mean.

Vowel the end of each note.

Open cut off, close resonance.

Play back. No - wait.

First pianissimo. Same pace as heartbeat.

What am I trying to say. A plosive.

This should commence the sequence.

Beneath whistle of kettle, above bed of kitchen fizzle.

Both within and without the heartbeat, somehow.

Sustain tail of second note. Part the teeth, the lips.

I’m looking up but without eyes. I am all ears.

Play back.

SOFTWARE:

Peter.

MAN:

Mother.