Delightful duo Sarah and Sean Smith give DS an exclusive rendition of their new single 'Shine On Forever (Photo Frame)'
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Former X Factorers Sarah and Sean Smith give DS an exclusive acoustic performance, mashing up two of their favourite songs. For more X Factor news, click here www.digitalspy.co.uk
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There must be something in the wind that really inspires me. Few days ago, I opened the window of my bedroom and I had the impression of being listening to the sound of sea waves. I felt so inspired that I went outside to record an abstract piece, I grabbed few instruments I had laying around and some pieces of wood I found at the beach few weeks ago. If I closed my eyes I could imagine my garden being the sea, my instruments being a little sailing ship and the trees the destination where I was going to. I hope you'll like it.
Diego Stocco Sound Designer Composer Experimental Abstract Composition Custom Built Instruments Trees Tree Zither Glockenspiel dssession Videos
I always liked bonsai trees, and I was curious to try the approach I used for "Music from a Tree" on a smaller scale, so I bought a bonsai and recorded this little experimental piece. To determine the key I used the lowest note I could play and recorded the rest around it. Besides playing the leaves, I used bows of different sizes, a piano hammer and a paint brush. As far as microphones I used my Røde NT6, a customized stethoscope and tiny MEAS piezo transducers. I played all the sounds and rhythms only with the bonsai, I didn't use any synthesizer or samplers to create or modify the sounds. I hope you'll like it.
Diego Stocco Sound Designer Composer Music from Bonsai Tree Design Composition Experimental Techniques Customized Stethoscope dssession Videos
I composed the score for "The Conduit", a revolutionary first-person shooter game for Nintendo Wii developed by High Voltage Software and distributed by SEGA. In this video you can see some of the instruments I assembled and played during the production of the soundtrack. Detailed info about these instruments and pictures can be found here: www.behance.net
Diego Stocco Conduit Score Soundtrack Composer Experimental Sound Design Custom Built Instruments Synth DIY Optical Theremin dssession Videos
A short abstract piece created during one of the sessions I did for an upcoming project. I used an old dismantled piano, antique zithers collected in the past few months and metallic wind chimes. Played with piano hammers and a dulcimer bow. twitter.com/DiegoStocco
Diego Stocco Diego Stocco Composer Music Sound Designer Composition Abstract Experimental Dismantled Piano Antique Zithers Wind Chimes Piano Hammers dssession Videos
In this making of video you'll see some of the recording sessions I did when I created the DTS Sound Signature. I sound designed sounds out of milk, lentils and water balloons. For the musical parts I wanted to include tracks recorded with old pianos. I like their way of being uniquely out of tune, when combined together the result is a fuller and more interesting sound. More info and pictures are available at the Behance gallery: behance.net/gallery/DTS-Sound-Signature/1327705 You can read the press release here: bit.ly
Diego Stocco DTS Sound Signature Sound Design Composition Music Experimental Organic Water Balloons Milk Lentils Barley Old Pianos Glockenspiel Audio Branding Surround Sound 11.1 neox API Røde dssession Videos
April 29th, it was already a windy day, but around 5.30pm, when the sun started to come down, the wind became more intense. I heard the noise from inside the house, I jumped outside with my videocamera and portable recorder. It was beautiful, all those noises, dust and leaves moving around, and the sunlight hitting the trees. I recorded what was happening around, few notes from my dismantled piano and then immediately created this abstract piece. I hope you'll like it.
Diego Stocco Sound Designer Composer Composition Abstract Dismantled Piano dssession Videos
Sometimes I dream that I'm flying, not like a bird, more like I'm floating in air. Few days ago it was very windy outside and for a moment the image of those dreams came to my mind. I always wanted to capture that feeling I experienced in those dreams, and so without too much thinking I grabbed a guitar, a double bass bow and went outside recording. All the sounds are generated from the trees, the wind, wind chimes and bowed acoustic guitar harmonics, processed with granular synthesis. I'd suggest listening to this piece with a good set of speakers, possibly with a subwoofer. I hope you'll like it.
Diego Stocco Composer Sound Designer Sound Design Organic Sounding Bowed Acoustic Guitar Trees Wind Experimental Soundscape Cinematic Composition Movie dssession Videos
I created the new DTS Sound Signature and I'm presenting it at the NAB show in Las Vegas. I recorded water balloons, milk, lentils and processed everything with experimental sound design techniques. This is an extract from today's presentation, enjoy it! This is the official press release from DTS: www.dts.com
Diego Stocco DTS Sound Signature Water Balloons Milk Lentils Experimental Design Organic Sounding Music Composition NAB 2011 Intel Booth dssession Videos
Almost everyday, on my way to a local bakery, I walk in front of a dry cleaners. When they have the front door open, I hear a lot of interesting sounds coming from their work equipment. Eventually, the different mechanical and steam sounds sparked something in my mind, so one day I asked the owners if I could record a piece of music by using their machines as musical instruments. I used a puff iron, press and dry cleaning machines, a washer, clothes hangers, and a bucket full of soap. The bass and lead sounds were created from the buzzing tones coming from the conduits and engines. There are no additional sounds from any traditional or electronic instruments. Enjoy! More info and pictures are available at the Behance gallery: www.behance.net
Diego Stocco Sound Design Sound Designer Composer Experimental Composition Music From A Tree Bonsai Experibass Bassoforte Inspiration Custom Techniques Recording Dry Cleaners Modified Customized Stethoscope Mechanical Steam Noises Sounds dssession Videos
Few days ago I started thinking about how I could re-purpose the keyboard of the dismantled piano I keep in the garden, so I thought to build a new instrument by combining it with some other parts I had laying around. I ended up with this mechanical hybrid thing I thought to call "Bassoforte" (bass + pianoforte). The neck is from a broken electric bass, as a bridge I used a cabinet handle, the pickups are from a guitar, and the part at the top where the strings are attached is a chimney cap, which works as resonator as well as percussive sound. The track I created is a tribute to my Dad who is a big fan of Western comic books and "spaghetti western" films, and because of him I am too. I hope you'll like it! The track is available also at my Bandcamp page: diegostocco.bandcamp.com Here you can see a gallery with pictures and more detailed descriptions: www.behance.net
Diego Stocco Composer Sound Designer Custom Built Instruments Bassoforte Experimental Music dssession Videos
Patrick Leonard and Diego Stocco create eclectic musical experiences, combining a unique mix of acoustic sources and sonic processing. Their collaboration is an ongoing journey that started by creating improvised pieces with Patrick on the piano and Diego on his custom built instruments, musical trees and real-time sound design. DTS, Inc. wanted them to be the first musical project being mixed with their new Neo:X 11.1 surround sound system.
Patrick Leonard Diego Stocco Producer Composer Experimental Sound Designer Music Acoustic Custom Built Instruments Musical Trees Real-Time Sound Design Madonna Roger Waters Elton John Like a Prayer Frozen Isla Bonita Spectrasonics Omnisphere Music from a Tree Music from a Bonsai Experibass Bassoforte Sherlock Holmes Assassins's Creed Brotherhood Soloist Piano Pianist Performance Improvisational Eclectic DTS Neo:X 11.1 Surround Sound System dssession Videos
Brenda Edwards performs an acapella version of the Dusty Springfield classic "Son Of A Preacher Man". The the lastest news from The X Factor, go to www.digitalspy.co.uk
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"Dustland" is a cinematic sounding improv that I recorded with the Fence Bass. This instrument has a rough and edgy sound since it's all made of metal, so I imagined a piece that could work in a modern Western film, I'm a fan of the genre. Everything is created in real time, no pre-existing loops, additional tracks or post-efx involved. I built a chain of processors in Live that I control with a pedal board, all rhythmic parts and ambiences are derived from whatever sound/noise comes from the Fence Bass. I hope you'll like it! The track is available at my Bandcamp page (if you wish to download it for free or name your price): diegostocco.bandcamp.com/track/dustland It's up also at my Soundcloud page: soundcloud.com/diegostocco/diego-stocco-dustland And, title screenshots can be downloaded from my Flickr page: bit.ly/eiSd47
Diego Stocco Sound Designer Composer Experimental Video Performance Fence Bass Western Piece Composition Custom Built Instrument dssession Videos
I had the fantastic opportunity to play my Experibass on Hans Zimmer's score for "Sherlock Holmes", the new Guy Ritchie's film. I'm one of the featured soloists. Hans really loved the pounding tonal grooves and aggressive depth of the basses I was playing on the Experibass and asked me to go full scale with all those techniques I was showing in the original video. I didn't stop there though, I also experimented with new techniques that were coming up to my mind while playing on his tracks. A big thanks goes to my friends Daniel Holter and Russell Emanuel for passing my video and make the connection happens. Working with Hans Zimmer and his team has been great and I'd like to thank them for this amazing experience. I've been a fan of his music for a long time and I felt honored when he called me to play on the score of Sherlock Holmes.
Sherlock Holmes Hans Zimmer Diego Stocco Experibass Score Soundtrack Featured Soloist Triple-neck double-bass Quadruple-neck Upright Bass dssession Videos
An high-quality and longer version of this work is available here: diegostocco.bandcamp.com Description: I had some sandbags in the backyard that I used in November during a rainy day. I was moving them to a different spot when I heard the noise of the sand. I thought that maybe I could try a new sound design technique so I bought some piezo film transducers and started to experiment with them. The entire track is created only out of tuned sand tones. No additional sounds or waveforms. I emphasized the inner notes of the sand grains and mapped them on a sampler as a series of instruments. The grooves are all played live with various techniques, including taping two piezo films to my fingers. I'd like to dedicate this work to Mike Oldfield. When I was a child I listened to his music and it opened my mind. That experience triggered my life passion to create the means to access sounds we've never heard before. Pictures can be found here: behance.net/Gallery/Music-from-Sand/171792
Diego Stocco Music Sand Sound Design Designer Composer Experimental Piezo Film MEAS Custom Technique dssession Videos
Brenda Edwards sings her new single "You Know How To Love Me". For the latest news from The X Factor, go to www.digitalspy.co.uk
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In the garden of my house there's a tree with lots of randomly grown twigs. It looks odd and nice at the same time. One day I asked myself if I could create a piece of music with it. To tune the tree I picked a fundamental note and tuned the twigs by trimming them with a pencil sharpener. I used two Røde NT6 and a NTG-2 as microphones, combined with a customized stethoscope. I recorded the tracks live on a Pro Tools LE system. I didn't use any synthesizer or sampler to create or modify the sounds. All the sounds come from playing the tree, by bowing the twigs, shaking the leaves, playing rhythms on the cortex and so on. At this link you can see some pictures with more detailed descriptions: behance.net/Gallery/Music-from-a-Tree/263872 I hope you'll like it. The track is also available as an high-quality download on my Bandcamp page: diegostocco.bandcamp.com/track/music-from-a-tree
Diego Stocco Diego Stocco Sound Designer Sound Designer Composer Music from a Tree Music Tree Composition Experimental Microphone Techniques Røde NT6 Røde NTG-2 Customized Stethoscope dssession Videos
UPDATE 05/26/10: I composed and played more music with the Experibass: www.soundcloud.com UPDATE: I played the Experibass on Hans Zimmer's score for Sherlock Holmes: bit.ly More info and pictures here: bit.ly Few weeks ago I visited a luthier looking for instruments parts, I had an idea in mind for an instrument I wanted to build. My curiosity was to hear the sound of violin, viola and cello strings amplified through the body of a double bass. I came up with a quadruple-neck experimental "something" that I thought to call Experibass. To play it I used cello and double bass bows, a little device I built with fishing line and hose clamps, a paintbrush, a fork, spoons, a kick drum pedal and a drum stick. I hope you'll like it! Thanks to luthier John Wu for providing me the parts, even though I warned him that I was probably going to create a "monster" : ) At this link you can see some pictures with more detailed descriptions: behance.net/Gallery/Experibass/312989
Diego Stocco Diego Stocco Sound Design Designer Composer Experimental Experiment Experibass Custom Built Instrument Violin Viola Cello Double Bass Triple-neck double-bass Quadruple-neck Upright dssession Videos
The Blue Man Group is running a creative competition for students in grades 5-9 called "Invent an Instrument". They asked me if I could share some words of encouragement with the participants. I'm very happy to do that! : ) Follow this link to check out the details of the contest: bit.ly
Diego Stocco Blue Man Group Custom Built Instrument Creative Experimental Contest Sound Design Music Video Experibass Bassoforte Invent dssession Videos
This weeks DS Session had som many great performances we couldn't fit them all in given the time constraints of Youtube. Here are a few selected bits , Andy as usual but more importantly Sheryl Mehmet, Tina Stevens, Simon Green, Vanessa Haynes and the incomparable Angie Brown who was this sessions very special guest, singing among other things, that tune again ... The majority of the tracks performed were from the era of garage and funky house. 90's through to the Noughties. Next week the wonderful Wayeta B will be helping to relieve the Nineties Acid Jazz and all that period.
I will present the 11.1 mix of Music from a Dry Cleaner at the DTS booth at CES 2012 in Vegas. We shot some footage during the mixing session. Surround mixing engineer Fred Maher and I opened up my original stereo mix into a larger surround mix. Thanks to the many discrete channels available, we designed an audio space where all the elements can be heard in details. The listening experience that comes out of it is very unique. In the next days I'll post more details about my presentation on my Facebook page on.fb.me/fbF6Fn and Twitter @DiegoStocco You can watch the full video with the original stereo mix here: www.youtube.com Pictures and more details about the sounds and techniques here: behance.net/gallery/Music-from-a-Dry-Cleaner/2161629
Diego Stocco Sound Designer Sound Design Composer Composition Experimental Custom Techniques Sthethoscope DTS 11.1 Surround Mix Surround Sound dssession Videos
This is a clip of a 20-minute Tetris DS session that I recorded this way back in 2006. The full recording was uploaded later to Nico Nico Douga by someone else (thankfully - otherwise I would have lost it in a hard drive crash). I decided to record this particular match on Nico Nico Douga with HyperCam and upload it here because the PSP is finally getting a proper version of Tetris with the introduction of PSP Minis on October 1st. I can only hope it performs at LEAST as well as Tetris DS. TKI is one of the best Tetris DS players anywhere and I was thrilled to actually face him (gotta be a "him" amirite?). I knew I'd get whipped so I fired up the capture card and turned on camcorder. I didn't realize just how badly I got beaten until I played back the video! Just remember, I was recording the TOP screen of the DS (in this case, the challenger's screen). The audio was a line-in recording of my own gameplay. Try not to get confused by the sound. The full video can be found here (registration required): www.nicovideo.jp This also spawned my T-spin collection video, showing the setups I knew (at the time): www.nicovideo.jp
Another DS session. This time with a party. We did chests, bosses and then sealed boss :)
