Chaka's Blog: Let's See What Happens

Where Electronic and Classical Collide

2011-12-15T13:35:00.000-08:00

This was my final for a class that I took at Yale called Music 312. It was a music composition seminar. I really liked it because it was basically you sitting down and making your own music using different programs. I got to use Logic, Reason and Sibelius all for one project. It was super educational, and so much fun. Also, I was really into the aqua harp YouTube video at this point, so I sorta gave it a camea appearance towards the end of the song.

I wish I could play piano

2011-12-14T14:11:00.000-08:00

So, while I was in college, I was taking music theory classes. After the entry level class, I was always one of two people that didn't actually play piano. My ear was okay, but many of the songs that we discussed as examples I had never heard before, and everyone else in the class had played them. It was just disadvantageous.

Anyway, the point of all that is that I wanted to be able to play the pieces that they had us make in class, but I couldn't, but here's what one of those pieces could have sounded like...

Techno Time

2011-12-13T20:22:00.000-08:00

This was the first real song I did in my music 295 class sophomore year of college. It was fun to make, and it went over pretty well with the rest of the class. I think the program I used to make it was Reason. It's a super awesome music creator, but it relies pretty significantly on loops, as you can probs tell by listening to the song. Most of what you hear you'll hear again in a different context...

The start of something old

2011-12-13T00:07:00.000-08:00

Hello Internet,

I'm restarting my blog, and I'll be using it the same way I was using it when I started this blog... MUSIC!!!! Of course, I'm not in the same class I was in when I started it, and my music is a good bit different. So I guess I'll start at the beginning and work my to the present. I've been doing some pretty fun stuff, and I hope you like it. What I hope more though is that you listen to it. You don't have to like, but you better respect it!

Peace and Prosperity for now,

Chaka Jaliwa

Stuff I've composed 2

2010-03-04T13:45:00.001-08:00

changes II 1.mp3

Stuff I've composed 1

2010-03-04T13:44:00.007-08:00

Chaka's final.mp3

Stuff I've arranged 2

2010-03-04T13:44:00.005-08:00

I'll cover you reprise.mp3

Stuff I've arranged 1

2010-03-04T13:44:00.003-08:00

Roll To Me 2 2.mp3

More Music 4

2010-03-04T13:44:00.001-08:00

Musical-I've Got a Feelin'.mp3

More Music 3

2010-03-04T13:43:00.001-08:00

Musical-Bad Romance.mp3

This one was really fun

2010-03-04T13:42:00.003-08:00

It was for Kirsten because she was going to Africa for like 40 days or something absurd like that.

Africa 3.mp3

More music 2

2010-03-04T13:42:00.001-08:00

Backstreet Boys.mp3

More Music!!!!!

2010-03-04T13:37:00.001-08:00

LoveGame.mp3

I feel Pretty!!!!

2010-03-04T13:36:00.003-08:00

Musical- I Feel Pretty.mp3

Blame it on the Alcohol without the vocals

2010-03-04T13:36:00.001-08:00

I made this in Garage Band

Blame it.mp3

My First Mashup

2010-03-04T13:35:00.001-08:00

I figure if I have stuff to post, I might as well use this site again.

Mashing.mp3

iN a TrAnCe

2008-12-11T17:52:00.001-08:00

I blog on this more later, but I'm exhausted now.

Teardrop Lollipop is Gone.mp3

I don't know what this is!!!!!!

2008-11-11T14:31:00.001-08:00

I think I was trying too hard to get the right number of samples in. I had two from my a cappella group, one from the musical I'm in, one from the Dukesmen, and one from Evanescence. The Evanescence one was pretty much to make time at the end. The Dukesmen one, while fairly out of place, was completely intentional. Some of the things I tried to do in Reason was the vocoder, which I added to one of the Mixed Co tracks, and the Dukesmen track. Not to say that I didn't try, but I felt like the assignment wasn't as conducive to a nice looking finished product, so I don't really know what my end result was because I stopped bothering with trying to fit the guidelines. Sorry.

Hit Me Hard.mp3

Techno time b******

2008-10-26T13:29:00.001-07:00

I had a lot of fun on this assignment, and I wish I had more time in which to play around with it, but 'tis the season of Full Monty rehearsals and midterms.

I would call my methodology for making this song "layering" because all I did was make different tracks, give them a specific sound, and pull them in or out of the main track. Dealing with the effects and having them show up on the recording was difficult to negotiate, so I avoided it almost entirely. By the title, I assume that you figured out this was made in the style of Techno. Tell me how well you think I did.

Techno.mp3

Loop 3

2008-10-11T12:32:00.001-07:00

These are the three shortened versions of my full files. They are the ones made to more or less fit the specs of the assignment. While they do not have everything that I would want in them because of the small length of time each loop can be, I tried to capture the essence of each full loop in these shorter versions.

loop3.mp3

Loop 2

2008-10-11T12:30:00.005-07:00

loop2.mp3

Loop 1

2008-10-11T12:30:00.003-07:00

loop1.mp3

My other one

2008-10-11T12:30:00.001-07:00

These two I made in class while we were talking about the different ways to make the loops and change them. I didn't think it was enough to just listen to the lecture. I wanted to experiment with my own creations.

Chaka's other.mp3

Mine

2008-10-11T12:28:00.001-07:00

Chaka's.mp3

Loop 3 Full

2008-10-11T12:27:00.001-07:00

The Three Full loops that are posted are basically what I spent the early part of my Saturday Afternoon doing. They are my loops more or less how I want them to be heard.

loop3full.mp3

Loop 2 Full

2008-10-11T12:26:00.003-07:00

loop2full.mp3

Loop 1 Full

2008-10-11T12:26:00.001-07:00

loop1full.mp3

Ringtones

2008-09-29T11:45:00.000-07:00

The first one (Ringtone 1) is taken from the IM bus. At the beginning you can distinctly hear my voice, but that starts to fade into the mass of voices that are added. I think I end up with three different recordings, all taken on the bus, adding up to lots of noise that no one can distinguish. I also added my gong thing that I made that was fun. It adds to the climax. Finally, I have someone in my class saying, "Why ring? Why not stay silent?" It made me happy.

The second one (by process of elimination) is lots of me doing different drum like things, a psuedo phone ring, my saying "Bring Bring" like an octave up from normal speech, and finally, "You have a phone call." My phone won't let me add them using Bluetooth. I know, sad.

Blog... the first of many?

2008-09-22T07:25:00.001-07:00

So, I'm supposed to write a blog, and I'm not really that sure what is supposed to be on it. This paragraph should be a clear indication of my confusion. I guess what I'll write about is the first lab class that I had which was on Thursday, and which was awesome!!! It is more or less what I was expecting the class to be, and it feels good to finally be doing it. Sure it is nice to have the historical background, but the amount of time we spent on it without actually doing anything but history was a little much.

Having said that, I will now somehow attempt to post a file that I created during lab in my blog. Do I know how to do this? No. Will I figure it out in the next couple of minutes? I certainly hope so. Will the listeners enjoy it? Beats the hell out of me.

I like to refer to this sound as a gong crossed with an alien abduction. If you don't get it now, you will.