Read Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “The Raven.” You can find it in any collection of Poe’s poems, which you can find in any library or online at www.houseofusher.net/raven.html. Find out about Poe’s life and about the era in which he lived.

Listen to the recording of “The Raven” from the Alan Parsons Project’s Tales of Mystery and Imagination album. You can download it from iTunes, or you can find it at YouTube.com by searching for “Alan Parsons Raven.” Consider the differences between Poe’s poem and the Alan Parsons Project’s song. Both tell the same story and have the same intensity, yet the musical version tells the story in far fewer words. What do you think the point or the message of the story is? You might like to discuss the poem and the song with your music teacher or your English teacher.

Import the video file Video for The Raven.avi into Mixcraft or GarageBand. Watch the video and consider how dark and mysterious the setting of the video is. Can you see the connection between this video and “The Raven?” What similarities and commonalities can you find? In Poe’s poem, the student responds to a sound from outside. It turns out to be a raven, whose presence affects him very deeply. In the movie, the young lady is dreaming heavily and responds to a sound, presumably from outside. At the end of the movie, something frightens her. It is up to you to imagine what that is and how the two different media (the poem and the video) relate to each other.

Using notepaper and a pen or pencil, write out a script to retell the story of “The Raven” to go along with the video. You could write it as a solo recitation or involve some friends to make it into a play. Rehearse your script to make sure that it is shorter than the video. It is perfectly acceptable to have large passages of silence between the lines in your script—this helps to add tension. The presence of music in the final movie will ensure that silence in your script does not seem out of place.

Disable the video playback screen in the Sequencer program. Create an Audio track. Record and edit your script for “The Raven.” Make sure you remember to use good recording techniques and check levels before beginning to read your script. Be prepared to do several takes and to record your script in small sections so you can edit later. Remember to strip the silence from the beginning and end of every recorded section and cross-fade any clips that overlap. Add compression, reverb, EQ, and other effects to your vocal recordings to make your voice sound spooky but still audible.

Re-enable the video screen and listen to your recorded script as you watch the video. Make changes to your recording if you need to. Make sure that your voice is clear and audible all the way through the video.

Add some Instrument tracks to the project. Record some spooky music using your MIDI keyboard (or Musical Typing). Use some of the virtual instruments or software instruments in the computer program and select the weirdest sounds you can find. Make your music frightening and unsettling. Use clusters of notes, unusual intervals, and strange chords. If you have a mod wheel and a pitch-bend wheel, use them! You will really have to let your imagination go crazy to make your composing/improvising effective in the movie. You want to get away from melody and predictability as much as possible.

If you play an acoustic instrument or an electric guitar, add an Audio track to the project and record some weird sounds from your instrument. Play your instrument in strange and different ways. (Just be sure not to break the instrument.) Try to make the instrument sound as different as possible from how one would expect it to sound. Add some effects to the track.

Mix your project. Add some panning to the sounds and automate them so they move between the left and right sides in the mix. This technique can make your listener very uncomfortable and even nauseated. It is a technique that you will hear often if you listen carefully to the soundtracks of professionally made horror movies. Add compression, EQ, reverb, and other effects to your individual tracks; add effects to the master mix fader if you want to apply them to the whole mix. Make sure none of your volume faders goes into the red zone.

Export your final project as a movie. Show it to your teachers and your friends. Look ahead to Chapter 17 for ideas on how to publish your movie online.

Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music

Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music

Improvising melodies, variations, and accompaniments

Composing and arranging music within specified guidelines

Reading and notating music

Listening to, analyzing, and describing music

Evaluating music and music performances

Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts

Understanding music in relation to history and culture

Open The Hand That Feeds remix file.

Adjust the tempo and/or key of the song. The original song was recorded at 128 bpm in A minor.

Remove some audio regions. I suggest removing at least four tracks from the original. I typically remove the drums, percussion, and at least one very identifiable element of the song (for example, the guitar riffs). This will force you to replace those elements with something altogether different, drastically changing the sound of your remix.

Import a variety of loops. Drums and percussion loops are excellent choices, but you can also add pitched loops (such as electric piano, guitar, synths, bass, and so on) to the file.

Create new Software/Virtual Instrument tracks and use a MIDI keyboard to compose and record new musical ideas. I suggest using synth instruments to get an electronic sound or pads to add a layer of texture.

Tip

The A minor pentatonic scale (A-C-D-E-G) works great for this song (see Figure 16.8).

Figure 16.8. The A minor pentatonic scale.

Create new Audio tracks and record new musical ideas using acoustic instruments or your voice. Try recording electric or acoustic guitar, backing vocals, or even a wind instrument (saxophone, trumpet, and so on).

Add effects to the original Audio tracks and any additional tracks that you recorded. Don’t be afraid of using fairly drastic effect plug-ins on the tracks or even adding effect plug-ins to the vocal tracks.

Modify the form of the song.

Mix the file.

Explore the Master Track.

Add photos or a video.

Export your finished remix.

At the NIN remix site, click on Mix at the top of the site.

Click Upload Remix and follow the onscreen instructions (see Figure 16.9).

Figure 16.9. Click Upload Remix.

Download and remix additional files from the NIN remix website or Real World Remixed (www.realworldremixed.com).