Action: Creating A Soundbank And Variables

Activity 2: Creating Your Soundbank (15 minutes)

Now that you have the outline of your script, let’s add some music. EarSketch has audio stems (sound clips) from genres such as R&B, Hip Hop, EDM, House, Pop, and Funk (and many more), and from over 300 different instrument samples. We are proud to present sound clips from our participating Indigenous Canadian musicians—Samian, Jayli Wolf, and Dakota Bear.  In addition to these, we have sound clips from recording artists and sound engineers such as Pharrell, Ciara, Common, Richard Devine, and Young Guru. (Select the artist's name to learn more about their music.)

You will create a #SOUNDBANK with all our favourite sounds that we will use during our song. For more details on #SOUNDBANK , see the EarSketch curriculum (25.6)

Related Video tutorials:

• Adding your first sound with fitMedia()

Create a new script with a #SOUNDBANK. Your sound bank will be like a drawer that holds your selected sound clips. You will go into that drawer and place those sounds in your song when and where you want them.

1. Create a new script called Your Voice is Power [Your Initials].
2. Don't include the brackets [ ] in the script name!
3. Type #SOUNDBANK in the CODE EDITOR on an empty line after the setTempo(120) line.
4. Do you remember what the # does? We saw that in Module 2. The # makes it a  comment so it won’t be executed as a line of code.

TIP: You might add separate sections to your #SOUNDBANK for each category of sound clip. For example:

#drums

#vocals

#strings

etc.

Activity 3: Assigning Variables to Your Sound Clips (15 minutes) 

Related Video tutorials:

• Adding your first sound with fitMedia()
• Using variables for sounds and adding song structure

Some of the sounds have pretty long names. E.g.,  JWOLF_COTG_BEAT_FULL 

We can use variables to give our sounds nicknames. 

E.g. drum=JWOLF_COTG_BEAT_FULL

Now when you want JWOLF_COTG_BEAT_FULL, you can use its nickname or variable - drum.

A variable is like a container that stores data or information. You give this container a name to remind you what information you put inside it. You can put whatever kind of data you like inside! The information can be numbers, words, and sentences called strings, or unchangeable data called constants, like our sound clip names.

Assign the clips from your #SOUNDBANK to variables

1. Create a variable with a name that will help you remember the sound it will store and use the assignment operator ‘=’ to assign your variable a value. 
2. E.g. drum=JWOLF_COTG_BEAT_FULL
3. Assign each sound clip in your #SOUNDBANK to a variable to give it a nickname you can use in your code.
4. Add 3 more sound clips to your #SOUNDBANK!
5. Think about the different instruments you heard in Samian's song. What different instruments could you add to your song?
6. Assign each of your new sound clips to a variable.

TIP: Most songs include at least one sound from the following categories:

• SteadyBeat - drum beats and percussion loops
• Bass - Deep and low sounding instruments
• Harmony - “steady” toned instruments without much action, like strings
• Melody - the main tune of the song, often able to be sung.
• Sound Effects(SFX) - fun accents or “bells and whistles” that occasionally happen in a song for emphasis.

The fitMedia() function takes in four input parameters:

• sound: The sound clip to place in the Digital Audio Workstation
• track Track on which music is placed
• start: The measure at which the sound clip will start
• end: The measure at which the sound clip will end

E.g. fitMedia(drums,1,1,5)

A function is a piece of code that performs a task—often consisting of many smaller actions.

Related Video tutorials:

• Adding your first sound with fitMedia()
• Using variables for sounds and adding song structure

Use the function fitMedia() to add the new sounds as an introduction to your song.

1. Type #intro to your script in the code editor after all the sounds you added to your #SOUNDBANK.
2. #intro is a comment to help organize the structure of your song. Of course, this is all practice so you can learn the skills. You can change the sounds later. It may not end up being the intro of your final song!
3. Select  enter to type on the line below #intro 
4. On the next line, after #intro, type fitMedia()
   Notice that the code editor tries to help you by automatically filling in some of the parentheses.  You can accept these autosuggestions or type the command yourself.
5. Specify the values listed below as parameters for fitMedia(). Don't forget to include a comma "," between the parameters. The final result should look similar to the following but with your variable name instead of ‘drums’

fitMedia(drums,1,15)

• sound: Choose a sound from your #SOUNDBANK and type the variable name (The sound clip to place in the Digital Audio Workstation)
• track: 1 (Track on which music is placed)
• start: 1 (The measure at which the sound clip will start)
• end: 5 (The measure at which the sound clip will end)

• Select  Run and Play.

You have coded your first piece of music. How does it sound?

Repeat this process for the remaining four sound clips. But specify a different track (2, 3, 4, etc.) for each sound. Make sure the end is a number bigger than start.

• For now start all your sounds on measure 1 and end them on measure 5.
• If you want to add sound clips directly from the sound browser, you can select the blue clipboard icon to paste the sound name directly into the fitMedia() function. 
• When you play the song , all the sounds play at the same time which may sound great or may sound terrible.  You can experiment with different sounds or which sounds you choose to play to see what sounds good together. We will learn how to start and stop sounds at different parts of the song in Module 6.

Remember to check that you have commas between each argument and close your parentheses. Run and play your song often to hear your beats. If you need additional support, check out the EarSketch chapter on Composing in EarSketch. 

Congratulations, you are officially a code DJ!

OPTIONAL BONUS CHALLENGE: Kick it up a notch!

This is a tricky one, so if you are new to coding, you may want to come back to it later when you have mastered fitMedia().

setEffect() is a function that allows you to add effects to sounds on different tracks to add echos, delays, change pitch, and change volume. 

For example, as you work on your song, you might notice that the keyboards are too loud and you can’t hear the vocals.  You can use setEffect() to increase or decrease the volume of all the sounds on a particular track.

setEffect(track, type, parameter, value)

• track - The number of the track on which to apply the effect
• type - Which effect you want to do e.g. VOLUME (to change volume) PITCHSHIFT (to change pitch)
• parameter - What part of the effect are you changing, e.g. GAIN to change volume level, PITCHSHIFT_SHIFT to specify how much to adjust pitch
• value - The value for the parameter. For exmaple GAIN can range from -60.0 to 12.0, PITCHSHIFT_SHIFT can range from -12.0 to 12.0

Activity 5: Recording and Adding a Sound to EarSketch (10 minutes + homework)

You may want to add your own sounds to the sound browser so you can include them in your song. You can say or sing your own lyrics, upload something you’ve recorded, or upload clips from another copyright-free source.