Composing with Time-Shifted Environmental Sound
Barry Truax · Leonardo Music Journal · 1992
The author describes the compositional process involved in using sampled environmental sounds as the sole source material for his works Pacific (1990) and Dominion (1991). All sounds are heard at their original pitch but are processed using a time-stretching technique implemented in his software for real-time granular synthesis. In terms of timbral composition, the technique increases the perceived volume or magnitude of the sound. Such magnification allows the inner ‘voices’ of such sounds to be explored and their imagery and symbolism to be brought into the compositional process.