The US Open Sound Piece, 2022

The Holmes Archive of Electronic Music

Episode 79

The US Open Sound Piece, 2022

This is my annual exploration of sounds from the US Open Tennis tournament, held in New York at the end of each Summer.

Playlist

The sound piece is organized into six sections, each around a different approach to processing sound.

Names of players captured in this piece include: Carlos Alcaraz, Rafael Nadal, Coco Vandeweghe, Jannick Sinner, Hubert Hurkacz, Federico Delbonis, Jesper De Jong, Frances Tiafoe, Daniil Medvedev, Casper Ruud, Cameron Norrie.

Note that the individual timings of the sections sometimes overlap.

• Section 1. Techno beats plus tennis hits. This opens with a chair umpire announcing “out” followed by various beats, sneaker squeaks, crowd applause, various chair umpires, players hitting, thunder and rain going down a drain, more clapping, more hitting, etc. Spectral gate, delay, and reverb from Logic Pro were used to process some of the sounds, and synth ambience was created within Alchemy. 5:44
• Section 2. Serato DJ. I used Serato DJ and its integrated looping and effects to generate this section. It was enhanced by percussion sounds added using the Logic Pro Orchestral Kit. 15.40
• Section 3. MetaSynth CTX 1.2 processed sounds, using the Inertia effect applied to various tracks of players hitting, all layered to create an atmosphere similar to the mesmerizing effect one experiences while watching hours of tennis. 8:55
• Section 4. Loops of hitting, audience sounds, various other noises and audio input recorded at the Open. Again, this section is multilayered to provide an appropriate ambience to the sound. Assembled in Logic Pro. 13.14
• Section 5. Arthur Ashe. I came across this clip of tennis great Arthur Ashe giving some tennis instruction and thought it would make a great addition to the piece. I applied delay and reverb to mix up the sequence a bit. 1:50
• Section 6. Return of the Techno part capped with a sequence of sneaker squeaking and applause loops. The loops were processing using an audio filter, spectral gate, delay, and reverb. Plus the Buchla Easel V (Arturia). 2:05

Opening background music: rhythms generated using Spark (Arturia).

Opening and closing sequences voiced by Anne Benkovitz.

Additional opening, closing, and other incidental music by Thom Holmes.

For additional notes, please see my blog, Noise and Notations.