weimerhead

In this week’s audio arts class we were given the opportunity to record a classical vocal singer- Jodie Mills. My group used studio one and EMU space, as well as a Neumann U87. Over the mic we placed a ‘popper-stopper’ which reduces the amount of sacrilegious ‘pops’, ‘pahs’ and otherwise plosive breath sounds. Walter Cronkite (left) agrees.
I had a chat to Peter about popper-stoppers - he mentioned that you can make one out of old (and new) stockings. Seems like a great way to save a few hundred dollars when you’re setting up your own studio.

The recording itself turned out reasonably well- below is an example of both an uncompressed recording, and one with slight compression of 4:1 (default of ProTool’s BombFactory Plug-In). I was also keen to try recording with the Neumann U87 configured to an omni-directional polar pattern, as well as cardioid as in the recordings below. Unfortunately, my group members did not share that enthusiasm and/or time did not really permit. Jodie Mills (Opera Singer):
uncompressed.mp3
compressed.mp3

She was a little bit more ‘warmed up’ for the compressed take, however the technological/recording aspect is better in the uncompressed take. Morale: Opera Singer’s do not need any effects. Except in this slightly NIN, slightly Mills, very Oscilation based song I call the city of Zion?

The visibly ill Christian made it to Creative Computing to continue our look at ProTools. He examined the seemingly endless options for bussing and general signal flow possibilities. It seems that with all the audio software I have been delving into of late, the signal flow and routing functions are absolutely fundamental to have a handle on. This includes applications like Plogue, Reason, Cubase and ProTools. I suppose this aspect of the software is derived from the reality of routing for real life, old school, synthesizers and now in the studio in general. I anticipate that the future will make this routing feature of audio software more of an automated function. Why? People want to make music not plot signal paths. I’m finding it a little tricky to work out Reason’s interface.

In the latest instalment of Forum, it was great to find out a little more about the man behind the legend- Stephen Whittington. I particularly enjoyed the part of forum in which he outlined the attitudes behind the song “X Is Dead”. Put simply, I think he was taking a swipe at Pierre Boulez and his essay “Schoenberg Is Dead.” I guess there’s an anarchist in all of us.

The Tyndall Assembly concert held last Thursday was a really enjoyable local show. It began with clapping music, a 1972 work by Steve Reich, which was a pretty funky way to kick of the evening; however, I much prefer this piece when it’s performed by more like twenty people. Next mcgherkin played his piece ‘Saladdin’, on a couple of pseudo-bongos, which were miked to speakers via some delay effects. Personally, I think it would have sounded much better with the delay pumped higher. I think this would have bridged the live bongo sounds with the electronic sounds (from his PowerBook) a lot more seamlessly. Then again, I have always been a hound dog for delay. It was an epic performance, with Patrick clearly in a meditate-like state; from time to time he would turn to gain some inspiration from the visual slide show and video (film/edited by Nick Rusk). The slide-show contained a fair bit of propaganda, something I have always been interested in; take a look at this WWII anti-Nazi piece (below).

For those of you who have been playing along at home with the rainforest recording project, this is the latest effort, with the percussion part recorded and with better overall mixing.
Configurations:
Neumann U87’s in Mid Side for Piano/Piano Effects.
Rode NT4 (x/y configuration) for Cymbals.
Yamaha MX-“nugget”-204 for hard percussions (woodblocks, cabassa, shaker, tamborine, vibraslap)

Bibliography

Bitoun, Chris. “Rainforest” composed in 2006. Recorded by Jake Morris, courtesy of EMU.

Haines, Christian. "Audio Arts – Opera Singing Recording". Practical Class presented in the Electronic Music Unit, EMU space, 5th floor (Schulz Building), University of Adelaide (30/05/2006).

Haines, Christian. "Creative Computing - ProTools". Practical Class presented in the Electronic Music Unit, EMU space, 5th floor (Schulz Building), University of Adelaide (01/06/2006).