Collaborative Plan

This blogpost is a plan we worked on together in class.

We discussed, and decided on the name “Tactile frequencies”.

Our plan is to create a piece of audio intended for radio, with the intention of conveying the sensations experienced at raves. I shared Iglooghost’s Lei Disk broadcast with my group members for inspiration.

We plan to:

• Attend a rave
• Interview people
• Edit the sound

Sonic Timeline

Possible ideas for sound:

• Machine booting up, welcoming listener
• Anthony could work on ‘radio tagline’?
• Sound effects/snippets over processed voice introducing the piece
• Interview 1
• ‘Call in’ style interviews, separately recorded questions after audio has been captured
• After each interview section there will be a short musical piece attempting to convey the elements discussed in the interview, potentially recycling audio from the interview itself and manipulating it through spectral processing.
• Final movement could be remixing any previous audio.

Language

• Unintelligible 
• Recordings from rave

Timeline

14-Minute Sensory Rave Narrative

Vocal Suggestions:

• Tone: hushed, introspective, breathy
  
• Phrases:
  
  
  “The bass bleeds through concrete.”
  “I feel it in my chest before I hear it.”
  “Breath fogs the glass of the warehouse window…”
  

Sound Effects:

• Low rumbles ( distant speakers through walls)
  
• Footsteps on gravel/asphalt (approach)
  
• Muffled music leaking through doors
  
• City ambience: car distant honks, wind through metal fences
  
• Heavy metal door creaking open
  

Music:

• Ambient textures (e.g., granular textures)
  
• Occasional distant kick drum
  
• Slow filters opening—like a curtain pulling back
  

02:00–04:30 — Crossing the Threshold

Spoken Word Suggestions:

• Tone: immersive, escalating tension
  
• Phrases:
  
  
  “Heat hits me like a wave—humid, human.”
  “The lights strobe through the crowd like lightning.”
  “Skin on skin. Fabric on fabric. The air is thick.”
  
  

Sound Effects:

• Jacket zippers, latex, nylon brush sounds
  
• Muffled talking, distorted by earplugs / overstimulation
  
• Reverberant door slam
  
• Glitching reverb tail from footsteps
  
• Sudden crowd swell
  

Music:

• Bring in broken kick rhythm at ~115–120 BPM
  
• Introduce raw percussive elements—wood blocks, metallic clangs
  
• Hint of melody (e.g., arpeggiated fragment)
  

04:30–06:30 — Immersion

Spoken Word Suggestions:

• Tone: overwhelmed, euphoric, scattered
  
• Phrases:
  
  
  “Sweat drips down my spine.”
  “The floor vibrates like muscle memory.”
  “I am nothing but heartbeat and flash.”
  
  

Sound Effects:

• Floorboard creaks layered with bass
  
• Crowd cheering/fading into reverb
  
• Sweat dripping / body contact SFX
  
• Layered kicks, low-pass filtered, then opening
  
• Speaker crackle or low-level feedback
  

Music:

• Bass-heavy polyrhythmic groove (~125–130 BPM)
  
• Distorted congas or tuned percussion
  
• Hypnotic textures: pads modulated by LFOs synced to beat
  

06:30–08:30 — Introspective Break

Spoken Word Suggestions:

• Tone: hushed, internal monologue
  
• Phrases:
  
  
  “I close my eyes. I’m floating.”
  “Each breath tastes of iron and incense.”
  “They dance around me. I watch the blur.”
  
  

Sound Effects:

• Heartbeat (synthesized, distorted)
  
• Glass shattering, reversed
  
• Breathing loops, slowed down
  
• Tinnitus-like high whine
  
• Reverberant water drops or drips
  

Music:

• Rhythms drop out, leaving ambient/drone section
  
• FM pads, lo-fi textures
  
• Glitch layers—tiny percussive fragments
  

08:30–11:00 — Climax / Collective Release

Spoken Word Suggestions:

• Tone: energized, mantra-like, ecstatic
  
• Phrases:
  
  
  “We move as one. Limbs sync with strobe.”
  “No past, no name, just light.”
  “I am dissolving in the pulse.”
  
  

Sound Effects:

• Crowd cheering, layered and reversed
  
• Glass breaking, layered with clap sounds
  
• Riser made from pitched breath samples
  
• Hi-frequency hiss and vinyl crackle
  
• Delay-smeared vocal snippets (“Go / More / Higher”)
  

Music:

• Peak intensity
  
• 4-on-the-floor or syncopated rave beat (~130–135 BPM)
  
• Layer multiple rhythms: tribal percussion + hard techno synths
  
• Distorted stabs and pad swells
  

11:00–13:00 — Dissolution / Euphoria

Spoken Word Suggestions:

• Tone: blissful, dazed, emotionally open
  
• Phrases:
  
  
  “Eyes meet across the smoke.”
  “We are sweat-slick, breathless, alive.”
  “It doesn’t end. It echoes.”
  
  

Sound Effects:

• Wet reverb tails from earlier FX
  
• Lighter flicks, exhales, slow inhalation
  
• Cloth shifts, footsteps on concrete again
  
• Water dripping, as if from overhead condensation
  

Music:

• Beat fades away, delay trails continue
  
• Dreamy pads with granular decay
  
• Harmonic elements reintroduced—celesta, bell-like tones
  

13:00–14:00 — Exit / Memory / Reflection

Spoken Word Suggestions:

• Tone: calm, reflective, post-high
  
• Phrases:
  
  
  “The air is cold again.”
  “Some part of me stayed in there.”
  “I walk away, but the sound stays in my chest.”
  
  

Sound Effects:

• Door opening again, reverse of entrance
  
• City ambient returning, distant police siren
  
• Crackling tape ending, subtle glitches
• field recording of street/early morning ambience
  

Music:

• Ambient pads slowly fading to silence
  
• Distant bass still faintly audible