I've been working on the final composition the last couple of days, in the middle of the night. It took me a while to get into it but I'm rather enjoying playing with Ableton Live. Though I have a limited library of sounds, I chose to use that to my advantage rather than go and record more sounds. I find the recording process a little bit tedious when I don't know exactly what I want to record, and even if I do. I live in a smallish room with lots of crap and it's a pain to set up anything, and when I do record stuff I think about how it sounds like everything else. I mean really, I recorded a microwave, and it sounds much like a dryer, a car, a road.. and any other man-made piece of machinery. It's just hum and with the  right filters and EQ and whatever, every hum can sound like every other hum. I have instruments I could record. A guitar. Why would I record a guitar though really? I have an Omnichord that I have forever contemplated recording and throwing in some music. But I'm not making music, I'm making a sound composition. It's 4:25 and trucks keep going past on the motorway nearby. This is a sound-polluted place. I don't want to make a composition about car noise or drunk idiots and derelicts having fights outside my gate (I live in an "interesting" place). But I've been throwing what I have together and I'm enjoying it. I'm not sure how good it sounds, but I like it... well I like what I think it will become. It's not finished. Far from it. I'm caught between wanting to get it just done because I have a LOT of work to do for my studio project and wanting to spend some time on something creative and fun. Though it's for a grade and that is all a bit subjective and in some regards so pragmatically speaking, will several more hours than I intended to spend equate to better marks? What if it equates to worse marks. How cheated would I feel. I'm already upset with the Animation -> Smart Systems debacle, that has really screwed up my record. But at least it's out of the way, it should never have been in my way in the first place, putting the papers I actually chose to do this semester at risk of lower marks. I've worked harder on everything this semester, but the 4th paper was just a pain in the arse.

What I'm enjoying about this mix up is a couple of things. It's real sounds but I'm mashing them so much that it's almost like electronica. A great way to mix two worlds of sound that I like. The other is I've decided to let go and use midi effects like arpeggiator to get the sort of sounds and rhythms I was looking for. I can sit back and let technology do that work for me. And for once I'm not feeling like it's cheating or like it's less creative. I don't have to create complex steps by hand, and the fact that I'm not entirely sure what the arpeggiator will sound like before I apply it doesn't mean I'm not being creative either. I'm allowed to try, mess with then use. Yes, sounds obvious I guess but I've always had a thing about originality. I'm making a cacophony at the moment, and I'm still adding bits. Then I guess I'll start taking away or changing things. Then I'll mess with certain automation. Then I'll equalise and master it though my good stereo, up loud. I still hope all of that is done by the end of the week though. I really have to get on to studio. I want it to be the first time I present without reading notes. Oh and a complete product (and awesome conceptual framework and questions).