The Sound Inside the Sound

Like microscopes, audio editing software can reveal amazing new worlds within everyday sounds. Check out “Winnoise,” for example. It’s a three-minute song made by manipulating Windows error sounds. I particularly like the way the artist looped portions of the Microsoft Sound to create a sustaining pad, and that he needed only basic commands from the lowly Windows Sound Recorder to work his remixing magic.

This Flash movie shows how you can make a complete song by stealthily manipulating wimpy alert sounds—but read the FAQ for the secret.

For the 2002 Desktop Music Production Guide, I asked composer Dan Phillips to come up with some tips for blasting yourself out of a creative rut. He turned in “Twelve Easy Pieces,” whose tip called “Be your own personal sample CD” I use to this day. Dan recommended remixing yourself by extracting and manipulating sections from your old recordings. With audio browsers like the one in Ableton Live, trawling your hard drive for inspiration is easy, and the resulting music is far more personal.

For more on the inner art of sound, see Music Thing’s fascinating series called “Tiny Music Makers,” where Tom Whitwell uncovers the stories behind the Windows and Mac startup sounds, the THX sound, and more. The comments are also a rich source of links.