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(This document was originally in Microsoft Word format, but we've converted it to HTML for your convenience)
Black Hole
Equipment used
Computers
486DX-2 66Mhz, 486DX-4 100Mhz and Pentium 75Mhz
All were fitted with a Creative Labs Sound Blaster Pro 2 sound card capable of 22.5Khz stereo output or 44.1Khz mono output.
Sound Equipment
Premier Professional Drum Kit used for sampling
Aria Pro II 'The Cat' Solid body electric guitar
Les Paul Custom solid body electric guitar
Yamaha PSR-300 Keyboard used for sampling
BOSS BE-5M Programmable Multiple Effects Unit
ZOOM 3030 Digital Programmable Multiple Effects Unit
Tascam PortaPro 4 track mixer for sampling
Park G25R guitar amplifier
Carlsberg 65 guitar amplifier
Rotel stereo integrated amplifier
Sansui stereo integrated amplifier
Wharfedale Denton speakers
Wharfedale Melton speakers
79 strand speaker cable terminated with banana plugs.
MPDM electronics (lead / banana) plug converter
MPDM electronics phono lead splitter (4 x outputs)
OFC audio leads
Auxiliary Equipment
Jem Smoke Machine
'Super Nova' lighting effects
UV lighting
Software
Scream Tracker 3.2
Creative Labs VEDIT2
GoldWave
Sound Forge 3.0
How We Composed Black Hole
Scream Tracker
Scream Tracker is a program that lets you compose music on an IBM compatible computer. It allows you to use real instruments that have been previously recorded to be used in the music. Scream Tracker is unique because it allows you to have up to 32 instruments playing at once which means you can compose some quite complex pieces.
To further enhance the music Scream Tracker lets you easily add special effects to music (for example, little Johnny Doostdar in Germany can make his oboe sound two octaves lower!)
An external musical keyboard is not required because the computer keyboard is used to emulate a real one. The sound is outputted using a sound card in the computer to connected speakers.
How we sampled the instruments
The drums were sampled by using a microphone which was connected to a computer via the Tascam mixing desk. We hit the drums and the sound was digitally recorded onto the computer. The sound wave was then processed using a program called Sound Forge to make the sound clearer.
The guitar was plugged into the computer via a floor mounted guitar signal processor and recorded using the method described above.
All other instruments used in the music were pre-recorded.
How we composed the music
We wrote the following rough story in bullet point form to help us define different parts of the music:
Part 1
- A space ship is on a mission to rescue the inhabitants of a planet due to be destroyed by a black hole.
- A small group of evil patrolling space thugs spot the rescue ship and start to accelerate towards it. A chase begins.
- The thugs open fire on the ship but miss. This causes the rescue ship to retaliate. A small battle results. (This is represented by the first electric guitar solo.)
- The thug's ship flies away to get assistance and leaves the rescue ship in peace.
- Unfortunately during the battle the ship had drifted off course and gets trapped in the depths of the black hole.
Part 2
- The rescue ship drifts randomly inside the black hole.
- The pace quickens when the space thugs and backup follow them into the black hole.
- A spectacular battle begins between the opposing forces. (represented by the second guitar solo)
- The space thugs use their cloaking devices making the crew of the rescue ship think that they have gone.
- Tension starts to mount when the space thugs do not re-appear.
- The thugs re-appear, encircling the rescue ship.
- In one final burst of laser energy from the thugs the rescue ship is destroyed.
- The black hole closes up taking the rescue ships debris with it as the thugs drift off into space. The planet is saved because of the misfortune of the rescue ship.