5.2 Presentation of my own compositions, from sketch to finished
pieces
The following chapter will go into detail about the compositional processes and the form for
both the macro and meso layer in my own compositions.
5.2.1 Klopfgeist
Klopfgeist is an electroacoustic piece with a duration of 06:52 minutes and is named after a
plug-in in Logic Pro called Klopfgeist. This plug-in is used as a sound source for one of the
main sonic elements in the composition. The other main sound sources are low guttural throat
singing by me and a synth patch I created in Logic using Logic’s synth Alchemy that I named
James Webb synth.
Figure 5.6: Overall form of Klopfgeist before abandoning the use of Freeform.
The macroform for this piece is in three sections. I did use Freeform from the beginning when
composing this piece, with the intention of having it as help and kind of a bird’s eye view of
the composition as I did during the work with Dreams of Zapping Televisions. In this situation
I felt that it was more of a frustration and did not help me at all, and that’s why I abandoned
Freeform and did just continue in Logic. The final form doesn’t differ much, the time
stretched throat singing comes back in the second section of Klopfgeist and after the
Klopfgeist tail, I cut out a bit of the James Webb synth and processed it in a different way.
When the throat singing 1 comes in, the James Webb synth is back to normal.
One of the problems with Freeform I experienced was that it wasn’t easy enough to go down
on the detailed level that I wanted during the composition work. For this piece, that is not that
complex and uses bigger chunks of sounds it wasn’t a problem really to work only in Logic.
With the sound source Klopfgeist, that is one of Logic’s utility plug-ins for midi and also is
the sound of the click track in Logic. With Klopfgeist I’m applying a technique called forward
masking to create an interesting timbre. Roads (2015) writes that the human auditory system
continues to react to a short sound about half a second after the sounds ends. This blurs our
perception of the transient16 of the next sound. So, when the time interval is less than about
50ms between the sound impulses, our ears are starting to conceive the sounds as a
continuous tone and not separate sounds.
To make it easier for me I created the Klopfgeist parts in a separate Logic project, bounced
the parts from it and imported them to my main project. I made three separate midi tracks
with Klopfgeist, that all have different rhythms, to create a wider timbral space.
16 In acoustics and audio, a transient refers to a brief, high-intensity sound that occurs at the onset of a waveform.
This phenomenon can be observed in musical tones, speech, or various types of noise. Transients are not strictly
tied to the frequency of the tone they initiate. They are characterized by a significant presence of non-repeating
elements and an elevated level of high-frequency components compared to the harmonic content of the sound.
(Transient (acoustics), 2024, 5 December).
Figure 5.7: A display of the rhythms of the three Klopfgeist tracks during the time event of a
quarter note.
These rhythms are then repeated, but by changing tempo I’m creating the effect of the pitch as
a rising or falling glissando, and when the tempo gets slow enough, we start to hear it as
rhythms again. These individual tracks are then processed with the plug-ins ValhallaFreqEcho
and ValhallaSupermassive to create the timbre I wanted.
Figure 5.8: The tempo mapping in the section Klopfgeist 1.
The middle section of this composition is created using the James Webb synth patch
(discussed above). This part is an improvisation I performed on my midi-keyboard, after
which I recorded another improvisation, this time in the performance part of Alchemy to
modify the timbre of the sound while playing.
Figure 5.9: Performance part of Alchemy.
The patch consists of two pictures from the James Webb telescope to create spectral
information for Alchemy to interpret and two oscillators, one saw oscillator, and an oscillator
named Dark 2 in Alchemy.
Figure 5.11: Picture 2 used in Alchemy (Nasa, 2022b)
My low guttural throat singing, I have processed in different ways throughout the
composition. In the first part of Throat singing, I process it with EQ17, compressor and a plate
reverb, and I’m also sending it to three different buses. The first bus is with the plug-in
Unfiltered Audio Dent 2 and creates the crackling and buzzing noises. The second bus is
another reverb with the Quantec Room Simulator and a compressor side chained to the main
track. The third bus is a delay where I use the Fabfilter Timeless 3 delay. This is also side
chain compressed to the main track and further sent into the second bus.
The second time the Throat singing section comes in have I processed it in the same way on
the main channel but send it to different buses. I’m still using the first bus but not the other
two. Instead, I send it to a new bus with ValhallaSpaceModulator on it.
The Time stretched throat singing is run through five tape delays, after the time stretch is
carried out, to create an uncertain and ethereal atmosphere. On its first instance it is also pitch
shifted up one octave.
17 A filter is a device or network designed to separate signals based on their frequency. Filters can be defined by
their pass band, where only the frequencies of interest are allowed through, or by their stop band, where certain
frequencies are removed. The default design for most filters is a low-pass filter, which allows all frequencies
below a specified cutoff frequency, extending down to DC, to pass through. By rearranging the components, a
high-pass filter can be created, allowing all frequencies above the cutoff frequency to pass. More complex filter
types, such as bandpass filters, are made by combining these basic elements.
Passive filters contain no amplification components and cannot add energy to the signal, meaning they can only
attenuate it. Active filters, on the other hand, use transistors or operational amplifiers to provide gain, allowing
the option to boost specific frequencies or the entire spectrum. An equalizer (EQ) is a device that utilizes filters
to correct undesirable magnitude or phase characteristics in a system's response. (Ballou, 2008).