Cameron Mackay

Final Year Dissertation Project

For my final year dissertation project, I designed and programmed a digital instrument in C++ language, for applications in music and sound design. My instrument uses granular synthesis to generate sounds constructed from small fragments (grains) of a source audio sample. For each note played on a MIDI keyboard, a continuous stream of grains begins playing, with each grain capturing a single moment of time on the sampled audio. Precise control over the properties of the grains, and the rate at which they are played allows the user to sculpt the resulting output to create musical sounds, like swelling synth pads or rhythmic pulses. I have also intended for my instrument to be used for practical sound design. For example, creating extended natural textures by randomly playing and overlapping short portions of a recording, providing potential for applications in film sound design, or video games. 

An example of my instrument in use. I created this ambient piece by inputting a sample of a fingerpicked acoustic guitar, and using the keyboard to play blended streams of grains from select locations on the sample's length.

Another example of my instrument, this time using a sample of a crunching paper bag to create deep crumbling sounds by shifting the pitch of the grains.

Interactive Sound Environments Project

The aim of this project was to create an interactive world, using game engine software, that provides an interesting and engaging player experience. I designed  a short game-like sound experience, from the perspective of a character who has woken up in the afterlife and is tasked with finding and collecting their memories. The player must use auditory clues to collect the good memories and avoid collecting bad memories which will corrupt the world. I wanted the game world to sound natural and peaceful, and so I made several field recordings of bird calls and wind blowing in trees to form the natural ambiances that adapt as the player explores the world. 

Creative Coding for Sound

I designed an interactive instrument that uses a gaming controller to sculpt the sound of a synthesiser as it plays. In a similar form to the keyboard instrument I designed for my dissertation, this also performs granular synthesis to generate sound from fragments of an input sample of audio. Each button, stick or trigger on the controller can be used to set parameters, filters, and effects. The ergonomic design and dynamic capability of a gaming controller provides the user with a detailed focus on the sound textures, and allows for simultaneous live alteration of multiple parameters, in ways that cannot be done with keyboard synthesisers.

Creative Music Technology

I made the track “I Bet You” for a Creative Music Technology assignment. I was tasked with creating a piece of music formed entirely of sampled audio from a single artist, with accompanying electronic instruments designed in VCV rack. The track is constructed from samples of multiple songs from Fontaines D.C.’s album, Skinty Fia, and I used various audio manipulation techniques, such as pitch shifting, reversing, and looping to build up and layer portions of different songs to form new elements of harmony, rhythm and melody.

Soundtracks for Screen

For this project, I was tasked with designing a graphic score, where its visual elements would represent the sounds featured in a three minute sequence of a film. I then had to create my own soundtrack based entirely on the design of my graphic score. My chosen film was No Country for Old Men, and my selected three minute sequence depicts the introduction of the psychopathic killer antagonist, Anton Chigurh. When designing the graphic score and rescore, I aimed to represent the ominous and dark themes, and the isolating sparseness of the Texas desert setting.