This segment addresses the aforementioned techniques in respect to there evolution and implementation.
The track “Forchetta” includes a few of these techniques. It was published by the Wabi Sabi Tapes record label in January 2022 and can be found on the album ALICE - Through the Looking Glass. The album was released digitally and on compact cassette.
The track has a duration of 5 minutes and 36 seconds.
The ensuing examination will focus on two sound objects within “Forchetta”, created and processed using lofi techniques. The description will be restricted to the elements pertinent to the analysis, with superfluous passages being omitted.
The initial item is a recording of an old upright acoustic piano. The recording was made using a walkman. The approach was to minimise complexity while simultaneously conducting rigorous timbre research. The walkman was positioned in various locations in close proximity to the piano, with the objective of capturing single notes and brief musical phrases that were played in conjunction with chords. The instrument was also opened up (the front panel was removed) and a large number of recordings were made in close proximity to the piano hammers. The final recording was selected based on its proximity to the piano, with the intention of minimising room reverberation.
After choosing the recording, I physically created a tape loop from the audio cassette on which the sound object was recorded. I opened the audio cassette and removed the coils where I had previously identified the right point to be transformed into a loop.
fig.5 A tape loop is a cassette tape that’s been modified to play in an infinite loop. Tape loop cassettes don’t have a reel that ends when you get to the end of the tape, instead, the end of the tape reconnects back to the beginning of the tape to create a closed loop. The creation of a tape loop in a manual manner encompasses many skills, including the ability to memorise material actions that will later build up a store of knowledge that will also serve in the digital world.
The loop contains a cutting error that I later decided to leave: the error adds some peculiarities to the sound, including a click. Before reassembling the compact cassette I “mistreated” the tape loop: I crumpled it up and scratched it with a screwdriver in various areas. Afterwards I reassembled the audio cassette and played this loop back into a Tascam multitrack recorder, adding the Boss RV6 to the output.
The dry sound leaves no room for imagination except in a few places; the piano and the space in which it is placed are easily identifiable. The processed sound acquires a timbrally and spatially much less defined flavour that seems to acquire new properties with each repetition. The level of reverb used conceals almost all the imperfections located in the medium-high and high end of the audio frequencies, but gives a spatial indeterminacy that is bound together with the typical wow & flutter of the tape. The sound object is here used as a loop, so that on first listening its peculiarities are perceived, but afterwards it turns into a sound background where all the other sounds that arrive later can be embedded.
The second sound object is also used as a loop but with variations.
To construct it, I started by sampling my voice. I recorded a few vowels near or a little further away from the small microphone of the Casio SK-8. The keyboard took care of sampling the sound along its entire extension. Next I modified the audio envelope of the recording internally on the SK-8 to create a pad with attack, sustain and slow release. Then I connected the Casio to a channel of a Tascam 4-track recorder.
In a separate channel of the Tascam, a noise was induced through the insertion of an audio jack into one channel of the recorder, with the other end of the cable being tapped.
I mixed the two sounds (my voice + the noise) internally on the Tascam, adjusting gain, volume and pan, and then made a test recording on an audio cassette. The low volume noise containing frequencies in the mid and low-mid range gave my very airy voice a “belly” After finishing the layering I recorded the sum on a used tape. During the recording, still done on the Tascam multitrack, I varied the input volume and the pan potentiometer a little. This “homemade” and live automation gave the illusion of movement in space.
fig.6 The Porta02 mkII allows musicians to record up to 4 tracks on compact cassette, using the same principles as larger studios - taking input into a mixer's channels, feeding them into a recorder which can record tracks independently of each other, and building up the timbre/sound object/track by recording new sounds while listening to what recorded before (“monitoring”).
In this instance, the auditory experience underwent a radical transformation. The purpose was to create an atmosphere reminiscent of the audio dust that is often heard when playing tapes on antiquated tape recorders. However, it was also necessary to ensure that the sound was in tune, taking the form of a high-pitched drone. It is important to note that audio treatments have the capacity to obfuscate the recognisability of the sound. The sound materialised from a brief auditory phenomenon, gradually evolving into a continuous auditory experience.
Since the previous sound objects were developed as loops, I will analyse a sound object that I used in “one shot“ form.
The track in which this object is found is called “MOVIMENTO”. It is contained in the release with the same name, consisting of a Part I and a Part II.
“MOVIMENTO” was released by Grisaille Tapes in October 2021. The album was released digitally and on compact cassette.
Part II is an extensive recording processing job. Sounds created from scratch, field recordings of various kinds, recording errors, few musical instruments, two, almost unrecognisable (an electric guitar sound and the piano voice of a small consumer musical keyboard). The track is divided into four parts plus a variation before the finale. The music track contains repetitions of some sound objects, but no loops are present in any way.
fig.7 The cover of the tape of “MOVIMENTO”. This is the link to the release:
I describe a small sound object that appears in various forms in the piece of music, about 4 times. I will mention its appearance between 2’53’’ and 2’56’’ as an example. Here it appears as a sound collage of two different objects, which however have a common narrative and development. In practice, it is as if the two objects form a whole: a sound collage. In the first recording, made on an Akai S950 sampler, the sample sounded too “clean”, too clear, for my use. In addition, the two sound objects had two different reverberations and this phenomenon was too noticeable. I looked for an used audio cassette on which to record the final object. Then, while recording it, I created a small variation in the amplitude envelope. The end result was a common sound environment that acted as a link between the first and second object, a common sound environment created by the transduction noise used in place of the reverb.
When placing the object in a first draft of the track, I realised that I would need to create various shapes of it. I wanted to change its pitch. My first thought was pitch shifting. In the lofi working methodology, reference is often made to the DIY ethos, in which the creation of instruments is undertaken from the fundamental stage of design, or by modifying instruments. I had already modified a small walkman by adding a speed/pitch control of the tape via potentiometer. So I played the sound object in this walkman several times, varying the position of the potentiometer each time and recording each playback into a 4-track recorder, placing a mixer between the two.
This sound object has been designed with a precise flow in mind. The flow embodies an action, the same one that could generate that sound in real life. Those actions that could make the person performing them feel a similar soundscape. The object does not have a simple sight-reading, as if it presented a recitative-like performance, adapted to the timing of the action that generates it.
The territory of electroacoustic music is favoured for this form of creation. It does not have to respect a precise bpm, it follows the instructions of an invisible conductor dictating a respiration, a cycle, a flow.