SEAMUS

Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States

  • Conferences
    • 2023 Conference, April 7 – 8, NYC
      • SEAMUS 2023 Conference Schedule
        • Student Awards Recipients 2023
      • Discounted HOTELS with SEAMUS2023 Conf rates
        • Conference 2023 Maps
    • 2023 Conference Rhizome Host Events
      • 2023 Call
    • Past Conferences
    • Future Hosts Interest Form
      • How to Host a Conference
  • Opportunities
    • CREATE grants
    • ASCAP/SEAMUS Student Award
      • FAQ
      • Previous Student Award Recipients
    • Allen Strange Memorial Award
    • SEAMUS Award
  • Works
  • News
  • Newsletter
    • Most recent Newsletter
    • Newsletter Archive
  • Members
    • Election 2023
    • Music from SEAMUS
    • Electroacoustic Miniatures Series Downloads
    • Member Directory
      • Edit Profile
    • Membership FAQs
  • About
    • History
    • Officers and Staff
      • Past Presidents
    • Why Join?
    • Inclusion and Diversity
    • Bylaws

TrainScape

2019-09-23

fixed media work focused on field recording and DSP

Composer: Brett Masteller

Year of Composition: 2008
Instrumentation: fixed media
Type of Electronics: Fixed

Number of Channels: 8
Duration: 15 minutes
Video Component: None

Recording

TrainScape (2007) in an 8-channel acousmatic work. When I first moved to Chicago in 2005 I was rather annoyed by all the noises in the city, mostly the sounds of the trains because I lived so close to the L-tracks. Around the same time I was reading R. Murray Schaefer’s book The Soundscape: Our Sonic Environment and the Tuning of the World. Through my studies of the sonic environment I learned to embrace the sounds around me by saturating my listening space.

When I began working on TrainScape I spent a couple of weeks riding Chicago trains and recording the sounds to create a large sample library. To generate the piece, the sample library was randomly accessed to play a specific clip and create a specific spatial path. The recordings were also analyzed in real-time to find peak amplitudes in the spectrum. The pitches of the peak amplitudes were then used to control frequency information for a bank of oscillators. The bank of oscillators was then cross-synthesized with the original train sounds in order to accentuate the most prominent pitches of the trains. The resulting sounds are not drastic alterations of the original sounds. Instead, the resulting sounds are a kind of meditation that I entered into during the process of creating this piece.

Login to SEAMUS

Join Us!

Membership in SEAMUS is open to all interested parties and brings lots of exciting benefits. Click the button below to join. Click here to renew your membership.
Join Now!

Connect with SEAMUS

  • Email
  • Facebook

© 2023 SEAMUS, All Rights Reserved · Site Design by Punkt Digital · Policy Statements

  • Contact Us
  • Board Officers & Staff
  • Policy Statements