Here I am updating again, which begs the question-
Just where the hell did the past seven days go?

Well, spent a bit of time making the blog look pretty for the jyotisha project. Today I spent a few hours getting a flash movie (.swf) to play within the header. If you think HTML is an idiolect then try using CSS. Anyone reading this who is interested in getting involved or has any ideas for jyotisha then send me an email and ill make you a part of the community blog so you can add your flavor!

In audio art’s Christian drew pictures detailing how to pan on a width and height plane. Quite interesting stuff indeed, cannot say I have ever thought about sound in that way before. Christian’s certainly trying to cram one thing in our heads: forget about your other futile senses, open your f_cking ears. More and more nowadays, I find myself listening; standing at the bus stop listening to the sound cars make as they cut the air on the way toward me. The higher pitch the car makes because the sound vibrations are squashed closer together and how they then sink to a lower sound when the car has past since the sound vibrations can be further apart. Sound is an interesting being.

The “3D mixing” article by Paul White has had quite an effect on the status quo of the ‘rainforest’ recording. I used his idea of using a lo-pass filter to move a sound to the background, and panned some of these narrowly of centre. I think his point on using contrast in a mix is quite a valid one, “the brain doesn’t deal in absolutes, but instead prefers to compare one thing directly with another… for something to sound upfront in a mix, something else needs to sound further away” (Paul White, Page 3).

Creative Computing’s latest chapter included discussion of the ‘gate’ effect plug-in ProTools. This allows you to trigger sounds on one track from another track’s amplitude waveform. I previously had heard this style of plug-in in music I had listened to before, and wondered what was happening. Namely, this was on Radiohead’s Lucky from “OK Computer.” Guess now I know, I might try using beach waves as the amplitude for something else.

David presented a few more of Floyd’s ‘tripped out’ stuff in the latest forum. My pick of the week indeed was Steve Reich’s Electric Counterpoint, mmv. 1- Fast (1987). I noticed there was a bit of call & response happening in the panning of the work, this has certainly given me a couple of ideas to try out. The use of tension and release was another entertaining facet of the work. In the piece, the feeling of tension and release were really quite tangible and enjoyable.

Lastly, the day of salvation came on Saturday when I got a MacBook Pro. Anyway, time to unwind for awhile, so I will try not to update for the next few weeks during the mid-semester break. Until next time, peace out home boys and girls.

References

Haines, Christian. "Audio Arts – Mixdown Basics." Practical Class presented in the Audio Lab, 4th floor, Schulz Building, University of Adelaide, 6^th June, 2006.

Haines, Christian. "Creative Computing – Tape Techniques pt 2." Lecture presented in the Audio Lab, 4th floor, Schulz Building, University of Adelaide, 8^th June, 2006.

Harris, David. "Music Technology Listening Workshop – Steve Reich, Tristram Carey and Pink Floyd." Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, EMU space, University of Adelaide, 8^th June, 2006.

White, Paul. (November, 1994) “3D Mixing.” Sound on Sound. SOS publications.

In creative computing this week we examined the application of musique concrete type techniques in digital audio editors. One of the techniques that I found particularly fascinating was the ‘palindrome.’ Although this is something I’ve defiantly used before, sometimes you need to hear someone (Christian) talk about something, and give it a name, before you consciously start applying it. As such, the introduction of my creative computing project contains plenty of palindromes now and gives me the exact sonic effect of mechanical workings that I was after. I also found the discussion of ‘white noise’ quite intriguing, giving the sound designer the opportunity to sculpt something out of an extremely thick blot of PCM data. The possibility for a snare drum, through the use of a fade out, is one of the more obvious of such possibilities.

I’ve long anticipated the audio arts class in which we record the drum kit. After accessing the recordings of the drums after the class, I found it a little difficult to differentiate between which postions of the ambience-dedicated Neumann U87 were what. Of the different positions which Christian sampled, there is a variation in the amount of bass and mid/treble which the microphone manages to pick up, but apart from that observation I am still pretty clueless about the aparent "spots" in the EMU space. Can you tell me where the EMU-spot is?

Personally, I did not have the best week at workshop, first of we had “Wrath of Angry Gools” by Gutbucket. With many abstract timings, it reminded me of a lame version of Tool or The Mars Volta, whose timings seem to fit their melodies rather than just being weird timings for the sake of being weird timings. Proceeding this piece we heard Bach’s “Ricercar” from Musical Offering, which was clearly a masterpiece. I often wonder how much more profoundly this music would fall on my ears if I were hearing it in the 18th century and was not so used to such textural and timbrel variety in music. It’s this aspect that makes the extremely complicated music a little dull. He’s still a genius though - sorry Bach if you're reading this.

Further into the forum, second year student Vinny Bhagat consumed the class with an emotional performance. In a bit of a Sigur Ros or prehaps Mum vain, he soloed on the piano while electric drones wailed from his laptop running Reason. It was a fantastic performance, congratulations to him.

Later, Patrick spoke about a concert being held in an observatory later this year – asking if anyone was interested in taking part. I was quick to let him know that I share his interest in space, and would like to perform at a concert were everything is pitch black. Sounds freegin’ cool! A friend of mine, who plays the bass, has taken interest also, so I’m thinking I will compose something for bass, keyboard and umm… laptop.

For all the LSDj addicts here's the x files fugue.

Well its come to that time of the uni year, the first semester is over. It has gone so damn fast, I’m starting to get envious of the C4 students: I can feel my time running out already. It’s been great (and somewhat relieving) meeting and getting to know people who share my passion for music making. You, and the mass of work we do, make everyday exciting.

Referances

Haines, Christian. "Audio Arts – Recording Drum Kits." Practical Class presented in the Electronic Music Unit, Studio 1 and EMU Space, 5th floor, Schulz Building, University of Adelaide, 30th May (2006).

Haines, Christian. "Creative Computing – Music Concrete Type Techniques" Lecture presented at the Audio Lab, 4th floor, Schulz Building, University of Adelaide, 1st June (2006).

Harris, David. "Music Technology Workshop – Gutbucket, Bach, Toby Twining, Arnold Dreyblatt, Yoshihide and Stravinsky." Workshop class in the Electronic Music Unit, EMU space, 5th Floor, Schulz Building, University of Adelaide, 1st June (2006).