In Audio Arts we finally stepped into the realm of studio one. Its capability to produce audio in 5.1 channels is something I’m quite excited to endeavour into, despite Christian mentioning that it’s a little used facility. Once I progress from such a novice level of recording, this will certainly be something I want to investigate. Other advantages of the studio include the C24 mixer, which seems quite extensive and superior to the 01V, particularly for recording multiple instruments. And I realise everyone goes on about it, but the fact that a monkey works inside it, synchronising track levels with Pro Tools all day is just awesome. Coming Monday I’ll find much more out about the studio during the three hour session I’ve booked in there.

During Creative Computing we continued to cover visual representations of sound. Moving on from pulse code modulation and Peak LE, we went onto look at Spectral sound representation and Spear. It seems an invaluable tool for timbre manipulation and I can’t believe it’s only a 1.5 Mb download. It must run under a lot of ‘algorithmic’ type code, and would seem to be perfect for making ambient music. As Christian described it, it’s something of a ‘paint pallet’ for creativity with sound. Each week Creative Computing is making me want an Apple of my own, with not only some sound applications not being available on Windows, but file quality and universality not always being the best when working with both OS’s. For this reason, I’ve starting looking into perhaps getting an old, high-end G4 laptop. There can be no understating how much better this would be than an external hard-disk drive but, unfortunately, it will take me bit longer to save up for.

Lately I’ve been reading much about ‘modernist’ composers, such as the likes of John Cage, so in Forum class it was pleasing to finally put the name to a noise. The more I equally learn and listen to these unique composers, the more I’m getting into it. For example, I noted that the first piece ‘Music for Carillon’ (1954) was comprised solely of ‘cluster chords’ played on some kind of chimey organ. (Click on the image at the bottom of this post to hear a 'cluster chord'). In his novel New Directions in Music, David Cope outlines the origins of this technique, “[Around 1911] the cluster chord came into existence. These both represent some of the first uses of traditional noise as an acceptable musical element and, as such, involve a greater philosophical meaning to contemporary music than many have suggested.” Prehaps the thing i most enjoy about these modernists composers is not their music (because I didn’t especially enjoy ‘Music for Carillon’), but just how innovative their thinking and methods where. Although I won’t be rushing out to hear more of Cage, ‘sound-mass’ as an idea is somewhat stirring. For the same reason, it’s now my feeling that the more sound you can have an appreciation for, the more compositional tools you free to your disposal.

Sound-Mass:

Bibliography

Cope, David. New Directions in Music. Dubuque: Iowa, 1971

Harris, David . "Music Technology Workshop - John Cage." Workshop presented in the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, 30 March (2006).

Haines, Christian . "Audio Arts - Studio 1." Practical Class presented in the EMU (5th floor of the Schulz Building), University of Adelaide, 28th March 2006.

Haines, Christian . "Creative Computing - Peak LE." Practical Class presented in the Audio Lab (Schulz 4.07), University of Adelaide, 28th March 2006.

David’s latest workshop instalment included pieces by Jack Vees, Ingram Marshall, Michael Gordon and most intriguingly, himself. To commence he played ‘Surf Music II’ by Vees, which vividly reminded me of last week’s piece. As such, the instrumentation of the works are somewhat analogous, both containing the bowed electric guitars, in Vees’s case, a single electric bass. The piece primarily explored a juxtaposition of very low and high frequencies. The deep bowed notes of the bass created a sort bedding to listen to, allowing overtones to infrequently bounce in and out. In some ways this reminded me of a point made by Mark in Foundation of Music History, how the ‘tenor’ voice in early times derived its name from the Latin word tenor which meant “to hold” (referring to the way the lower voice persistently held notes for longer lengths). Despite the fact that Vees, or any other modernistic composer, would deny any parallel between their music and anything pre-1950 (let alone 10^th century), I think it’s suffice to say that the human ear prefers held lower frequencies as the held bedding with higher frequencies sprinkled more lightly over the top, or at least it has been embedded into us thanks to this stylistic choice of 9^th century+ musicians. One thing I’ve particularly enjoyed in these ambient works David has presented us with, is the great lengths the pieces go for, establishing dispositions that sound alike throughout the work (repeating similar samples over and over), yet nothing about the works are rhythmatically repetitive. So in one light, the pieces sound similar throughout, however nothing in particular really ever repeats. This is, I think, what allows minimalist composers to establish such unique, colourful sound environments, which personally are exciting toys for the imagination. I like.

Not unlike with Surf Music II, which he quoted as inspiration, ‘piano piece’, the first composition David shared with the class was another investigation of harmonics created by low notes. From where I sat, a metre from the lid of the grand piano, the rapid low notes of David’s song created a wealth of different overtone situations. During this performance I was able to really intensely tune into hearing the web of harmonics created by rapid low notes, and was very excited by this. I have both David’s compositional purpose and the quality sound generated by that particular grand piano to thank for that. I didn’t get into his other pieces as much, especially the work for two violins. Personally, I find the sound produced by violins a little aggravating. This combined with a composition which explores notes and intervals outstanding from the conventional 12-semitone scale ultimately created a sound which was just too irritating for me to get into. Nevertheless, my respect for both his taste in music and unique style of composition seem to escalate every Thursday.

Bibliography

Harris, David. "Music Technology Workshop." Workshop presented in the EMU (Schulz Level 5), University of Adelaide, 16 March (2006).

Carrol, Mark. "Foundations of Music History - Lecture." Lecture presented in Hughes Lecture Theatre, University of Adelaide, 17 March (2006).

This week in Audio Arts we focused on routing signal through patch-bays. The picture above shows the three main types of connection; Semi-normalised, Normalised and Thru. This class gave me an appreciation of the pertinency of routing, in terms of the organisation and efficiency of a studio. For somebody working in a studio, having a clear image of the way signal travels around patch bays, mixers and other devices is a vital element of being able to utilise the technology to the fullest potential. The organisation and efficiency of a sound technician seems to rely somewhat on the user being familiar with the equipment and the way it has been implemented. Again highlighting the importance of concise organisation, in Creative Computing we discussed Metadata.

In forum class I was somewhat enthralled by Glen Branca’s ‘Symphony Num. 3’ -Gloria. After David mentioned that Branca composed the piece for six electric guitars (among other instruments) which were to be bow with loose horse hair I was intrigued. Despite reminding me of the soundtrack to a 1980’s science fiction film, I found the mantra extremely intense and it vividly played with my imagination. With such a constant, thick array of sounds I found that while I listened to Gloria it was impossible to take in everything at once, and at times some ‘ringey’ tones became less or more annoying as you focused on different noises. This ultimately gave me the idea that all music and noise in general is a unique experience for each listener. The spectrum of hums created by the array of guitars combined to sound like the engine of a flying saucer. The frequent chime of bells added another eerie quality to the piece, which I though aided it in sounding unearthly. The other obvious catalyst of this was the exploration of overtones, which progressively gave my mind’s eye an image that the large flying saucer that was gearing up for space flight. Ultimately, the plethora of harmonics built up, propelling the piece towards climax. The abundance of dissonance in the piece, which could be felt on chords held for extremely long periods, established that this was not ‘pleasant music’ but rather an idea of a ‘sound scape’. Works that aim not simply to please the ear, instead existing under a different objective, always seem to leave more of an impression on me, mainly because I think it’s more reflective of life rather than pleasure.

Bibliography

Haines, Christian. "Audio Arts - Patchbay Routing." Practical class in the EMU (5th floor), Schulz Building, University of Adelaide, 07 March (2006).

Haines, Christian. "Creative Computing - Audio File Formats." Practical class presented in the Audio Lab (Schulz 4.07), University of Adelaide, 09 March (2006).

Harris, David. "Music Technology Workshop." Workshop presented in the EMU (Schulz Level 5), University of Adelaide, 09 March (2006).

During this week's audio arts class, Christian familiarised the class with creating a simple input/output (I/O) system, using studio two. I learnt two pertinent lessons in the class, which were the powering up and down of the studio and how to care for equipment. This included microphones and stands, power supply, amplifier, mixing desk, as well as leads and lead bays. Having had no previous experience in EMU, nor any other studio, my aim is to get familiarised with the equipment by using it regularly. Christian outlined an array of ‘good procedures’, which ensures the equipment stay in condition, including aligning microphone stands so that the centre of gravity of the microphone is parallel to one of the stand’s legs. I subsequently booked a session in the studio to consolidate what was learnt in the class, and during that session I was fortunate in that Luke (with previous year’s experience in the EMU) was at the EMU. He assisted setting up the I/O system, and also explained a few shortcuts and buttons in Digidesign's ‘Pro Tools’, as well as how to patch cable to use the multi-effects processor. I focused on powering the equipment up and down correctly, including turning down volume knobs on the mixing desk and amp before switching them off.

In Creative Computing, we continued to cover some of the preliminary aspects of the paraphernalia of the Audio Lab. With previous experience in Mac OS X, I soon understood the method by which the various devices interact with each other and the operating system.

In the first half of Warren Burt’s forum, he presented a chronological account of his 38 years with music technology. He described starting university as a weary 18 year old - finding himself among a vast array of peculiar (but nevertheless frontline) music equipment. At this point I was captivated, as I couldn’t help but feel synergy with my current situation. Not only did I start to think about how his work in this field paralleled my own, if I’d been born in 1949, but how music technology students in 40 years time would look back at pictures of me and my own equipment and think ‘what a piece of junk’. Ultimately this revealed to me the way the technology has condemned people’s work, especially in fields of technology, to appearing somewhat futile or at least dated in retrospect. However Burt went on show why pioneers of these fields, such as himself, are in fact the vital factor in continuing this perpetual cycle of technological evolution.

Burt revealed how the growing availability of communication technology (like the Internet) has allows musicians to freely exchange computer music programs, recorded sounds, etc. Such a point was illustrated as he encouraged the music technology class to visit the SCLA website and download a free application for creating scales and chords with custom intonations. He went on to show how he has corroborated this freeware with another free internet download, a church-organ sample set, to compose his concert for Fringe. This highlighted the way that technology, particularly the Internet, has pooled discoveries and resources facilitating the creation of sophisticated music. All on different layers, scores of people would have worked on both hardware, but more importantly software to create Burt’s concert. Countless tools are now at our disposal.

Bibliography

Burt, Warren. (Artist Talk) – Lecture presented in the Schulz Building (Level 10), University of Adelaide, 09 March (2006).

Haines, Christian. "Audio Arts - I/O Signal" Practical class in the EMU (5th floor), Schulz Building, University of Adelaide, 07 March(2006).

Haines, Christian. "Creative Computing - Mac OSX" Practical class presented in the Audio Lab (Schulz 4.07), University of Adelaide, 09 March (2006).

Like most of my first classes, Audio Arts commenced with an overview of students with the course outline. This booklet details each project Music Technology degree students do over the year’s course, two of which utilise the EMU’s Recording Studios (Audio Art’s projects). This in mind, Christian toured the class through the EMU. It was exciting to see a plethora of quality recording equipment and know that I’m going to be using it all extensively over the next few years. I’m fortunate to be able to be accommodated in the EMU as new dwelling, as I’m sure all of the new Music Technology students feel.

During my first Creative Computing class Christian highlighted the importance of acquiring a reliable and expansive storage device. After he outlined various storage mediums, it became pretty clear that an external Hard Disk drive would be best suited for this task. I did some research on these products and decided that USB 2.0 drive (such as this) would be sufficient, and ultimately only cost around $160-200.

Robin Minard’s insightful presentation of his life and work was wholly inspiring, particularly because he spoke to us in such a way that made me feel like we’re all sound intellectuals. His personal approach making music was clearly individual, and as he chronologically outlined how he has gotten to where he is, I was utterly impressed. From his description of the Montreal subway music, which he heard as a boy, to the work he’s done with ‘sound space’ and finally to his installation in the Fringe, I observed a great deal of periodic advancement in his work. For example, the first track he played to the forum class, which was made in the mid 1980’s, featured a great deal of single frequency and somewhat monophonic droning sounds. Then later when I visited his exhibit ‘SilentMusic’, I noticed that this installation featured similar single frequency tones but was incorporated into the other rainforest sounds of the piece. The utter dedication with which Minard has progressively worked, in such a unique field, is remarkable and I am totally inspired by him. When Minard spoke about the research he has done with making sound present architectural space, it made me feel like sound is a phenomenon that we still do not understand accurately. Such a point was drawn to my attention when he talked about his efforts in ‘recreating space’. He explained how when someone steps into a cathedral, they get their first perception of space via the sound. As such, sound offers its own space and I found this relationship between sound acoustics and space perception to be somewhat representative of the outer worldly nature of music.

Bibliography:

IT Warehouse (2006) ‘Iomega 80GB External Hard Drive USB2 Win/Mac’, at http://www.itwarehouse.com.au/warehouse/detail.htm?ProductID=ST%2DEH%2DIOM2686 (accessed: 12 March 2006)

Minard, Robin (Artist Talk). Lecture on Sound Installation presented in the EMU, University of Adelaide, 02 March (2006).

Haines, Christian. "Audio Arts - Course Outline." Practical class in the EMU (5th floor), Schulz Building, University of Adelaide, 28 Febuary (2006).

Haines, Christian. "Creative Computing - Course Outline." Practical class presented in the Audio Lab (Schulz 4.07), University of Adelaide, 02 March (2006).