How I Work

I'm having a dream. I've dreamt it once before. I'm editing sound files. I can not see graphical representations of the waveforms. All that I can see is the darkness on the insides of my eyelids. I'm focusing on the part of my brain that is between and just behind my eyes. Because I know precisely where in my brain I've placed each sound file, I can manipulate them without actually seeing them.
The primary sound file is eight measures of six beats long and it is grouped into four two measure phrases. There are four secondary sound files, each two measures long and corresponding to one of the four two measure phrases. The primary file is a dense stereo mix which I must have prepared earlier. It features acoustic guitar arpeggios and sped up double-tracked singing. The file is churning with some combination of stereo time/pitch effects, like a thick flangey chorus whose depth and speed are partially controlled by the sound's own envelope. There are also shimmering delay/plate effects on an extreme high-pass of the vocals mostly showing itself on the letters s and t.
The secondary files are comprised of the same basic elements as the primary but in counterpoint. The voices are a harmony part with some words left out and some rhythms changed. The guitars are softer and brittle, maybe unamplified electric guitars, and they are picking out upper extensions, adding red, orange, and yellow to the chords. The secondaries' effects clouds are more summer cicada and vaguely scary on their own.
I have placed each secondary in its proper starting place along the primary. I am highlighting and deleting various amounts of the beginnings of the secondaries. This shifts them back in time a little, changing their relationship with the primary. The real excitement in all this, the reason I'm trying out these simple edits over and over for hours, lies in the fact that the relationship between prime and second files is mysteriously complex and always changing. The tiniest phase adjustment can create completely new modulation effects which are not limited to or bound by any area or idea of sound. It is as if the files are the bits of coloured glass in a kaleidoscope, with the slightest turn of the sound-optic barrel a completely new array of morphing crystals grows. Eureka!
I know that I can play this euphoric game for as long as I'd like to. It won't go away. Really, it’s just practice. Tomorrow I will quickly and easily recreate this situation with real sound files that I can see on my computer.