The Lab is a new musical project that sets out to mess about with sounds and try out different ideas about music. Check out the results of a couple of experiments below.

The Theory Of Everything was my first experiment in "drawing" in Spectral View on Adobe Audition. I created white noise, then removed sections using the marquee tool to spell out the words.

I find it interesting that when you listen to a section with a restricted frequency (such as the cross part of a T), followed by a part with a full frequency range (such as the down part of the T), your hearing still seems to focus on picking out the frequencies from the previous secion. However, it's certainly not easy listening. The audio section above is just the word theory.

A Tribute To John Cage is a piece I devised for my Roland XP-50 synth although I'm sure it could be adapted to a number of synths that have presets. It consists of the combination of 2 ideas. The first is an effect you get when you change the basic waveform of a sound on the XP-50. When used on a sound with a long release value you can hear the change of waveform as you spin the jog wheel. This sound reminds me a little of Cage's Williams Mix. The second idea is transferring text into music. I assigned a letter to each key on the keyboard then played the following text as I manipulated the sound as described above. The text is from The New Penguin Dictionary Of Music by Arthur Jacobs.

"Cage, John (b. 1912), American composer (also pianist and writer), pupil of Schoenberg. Has written for normal instruments and for his invention, the PREPARED PIANO; is especially noted for ‘music’ which seems to involve the abdication of the composer, e.g. his ‘Imaginary Landscape’ for 12 radio sets, first performed in 1951, requiring 24 performers (2 to each set) and conductor – dynamics, and the ratio of sound to silence, being stipulated but the result obviously depending on chance. See ALEATORY. Other works include ‘Renga with Apartment House 1776’ for large orchestra (for U.S. bicentenary, 1976)."

I started with a piano waveform due to Cage's association with altered versions of that instrument. The above audio is just a small section from the beginning as the complete piece is over 40 mins long.