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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).