on collaborations

.forum – week four.

Collaboration is the way people connect for common goals. Without the collaboration of minds and ideas, we would not benefit from the great(er) understanding of the universe we have today. All areas of modern science – physics, geography, chemistry – have progressed through the collaboration of thousands of exceptional ideas. Names like Newton, Halley and Einstein spring to mind, but ultimately it took the support of thousands to investigate and propagate the theories that have brought us to where we are today.

Music, like science, has grown in a similar fashion of evolution. Again the names like Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven may quickly spring to mind. However, their composition methods were inspired by the work of other people. Hundreds of them. Like Einstein’s celebrated Theory of Relativity, compositions like Beethoven’s Pathetique Sonata stand as beacons, inspiring eras of inquiry for their respective fields.

It is of little surprise that in the modern day, a liberal age of innumerable musical 'approaches,' collaborations are more and more common. Not to argue that these are all 'successful' (or perhaps 'artistic'), as I am sure forum presenter Sanad would agree. Sanad made mention of Britney Spear’s tracks that include “Arabian melodies”. I personally do not blame Britney, I am sure she has little to do with the creation of her music. Moving on…

Much of the exceptional and significant art of the twentieth century is a blend. For Dave, one such blend was the Symphony & Metallica collaboration of 1999. Trilok Gurtu, presented by Vinny, was shown to comprise most of his artistic output in one form of collaboration or another. Will appropriately pointed out that to make a modern video game, cooperation’s require extremely extensive, organised and collaborative working models.

Over the coming weeks we will continue to look at collaboration. Hopefully it's something that we can do together and get some practice with, rather than simply theorise about.

This next one may come a little from left-field. Needless to say, globalisation- it's happening:

"Look at a globe and what you are seeing really is a snapshot of the continents as they have been for just one-tenth of 1 per cent of the Earth's history." (Bryson 2004, pg. 231)

.sources.

Byson, Bill 2004, "A Short History of Nearly Everything", Great Britain, Black Swan.

Whittington, Stephen 22.03.07, “Collaborations,” Forum presented at EMU space, 5th floor, Schultz building, University of Adelaide.

ninboard v2

.cc - week four.

Max Patch | Text Format

If you do not own the application Max/MSP please download the runtime software or "player" which is linked in the downloads menu. Then right-click and 'save target as' the "Max Patch" link above. Sounds like a rigmarole, I know, but you get a free keyboard for your computer, it even has a NIN logo on it. Sweet!

This next song Max/MSP patch is dedicated to Mr John Delany who went to the extent of writing out all 128 MIDI instuments, and whose keyboard contains a full list of the such instruments in its 'program changer.' Cheers for that John!

I am actually quite enjoying Max/MSP and am going to be rather bummed when my demo mode runs out!

.sources.

Cycling'74 2006, Max Tutorial, 27.03.07, http://www.cycling74.com/twiki/bin/view/ProductDocumentation

Haines, Christian 22.03.07, "MIDI Information and Control," Tutorial presented 4th Floor, Schulz Building, University of Adelaide.

drum recording

.aa – week four.

This week we had the pleasure of recording the drums, a task not as easy as it sounds. Especially if you happen to be listening to “Lateralus” by Tool, like me.

Unlike the amplifier which usually contains one (sometimes four) separate sound sources, the drum kit can have anywhere upward of eight. Usually these require at least one dedicated microphone each, which for an instrument you play sitting down means a lot of equipment (mics, drums, cymbals, stands) concentrated in a smallish area. The pitfalls are numerous.

With the help of my able comrades Dave & Luke, we attempted to cater for these perils by starting simply with playing a single drum and finding a place in the room where the sound was good. This is a task I like to call ‘finding the mojo,’ as it is way too difficult to explain what you are listening for, you really just have to go with your ears and your heart.

Once we’d found a place with suitable mojo, we:
-built the drum kit up on carpet.
-put the drum and cymbals into a nice symmetrical sort of playing/sounding position
-put microphones into an approximate position
-used a spaced pair of overhead microphones (Neumann KM-84i)
-surrounded the area with absorbing boards
-put in a room microphone (Neumann U-87)
-took turns in playing the kit / adjusting microphones position / listening to the result in the control room (dishing out orders to the drummer/engineer)
-panned the drums in the stereo image, as per the overheads
-some minor mixing (kick / snare boosted, toms reduced slightly)
-switched from spaced overheads, to an X/Y configuration (still Neumann KM-84i)

.drum recording.

pap-happy beat | swing beat (spaced overheads) | swing beat (X/Y overheads)

Tool's Danny Carey doesn't mess around: try out his kit...

.sources.

Grice, David 20.03.07. “Percussion.” Tutorial presented in the EMU space, 5th floor, Schulz Building, University of Adelaide.

Robjohns, Hugh 1999, “Rhythm Method – Recording Real Drums,” Sound on Sound, viewed 24.3.07, http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jul99/articles/recordingdrums.htm

and it continues again and again and again...

.forum - week three.
I can see where David Harris was going with his piece “compossible,” which was performed by all students of last week’s music tech forum, just, I do not think he wrote it very well. For example, his piece was a self-proclaimed means to exploring new sounds, but the spoken word sections were repeated throughout. I hardly see how you can have a new and repeated sound, no, I am pretty sure that’s an illogical paradox. More to the point, if you are going to write a piece of music in the style of John Cage, write a piece of music in the style of John Cage!

Around this point people start shaking their heads, the vocal types might exclaim, “But this is not music!” Ahhh, but here is the clever part about writing a piece “in the style of John Cage”: Has this changed your idea about what music might be? After forum class were you walking to the bus stop, looking at people riding bicycles, thinking: in a way that bike might be his instrument.

I did, but I got bored of the idea in about the time it takes to eat a tic-tac. If you attended that forum, I am pretty sure you were just waiting for the 46th minute of “compossible” so that you could leave. Music may be many things yes, a valid point you make Harris, Cage, but one thing that I am sure it is not meant to be, is boring. My opinion of the topic is forming thus:

Create the art to say something.
Do not,
Say something to create the art.

Well one thing is for certain. Somewhere John Cage is hiding a smirk, watching the academically and the commercially driven people still doing battle, over a decade after his death.
And it continues...

.sources.

Harris, David. 15.03.07. "There is no sound or noise that isn't music." Nothing of interest presented in Schultz Building, Level 5, University of Adelaide.

MIDIKeys _/NIN/_

.cc - week 3.

Max Patch | Text Format

This emulates the OSX application MIDI Keys, except it's made for anyone who likes nine inch nails. Also, white notes are black – black notes are white. Adjust the amp (volume), time (note length) and MIDI out.

MIDI output:
1 - Piano
10 - Drums

Wouldn't it be great if you could play .mxf applications in web-browsers?

.sources.

Brouhaha Music Marketing, Music Merchandise, 20.03.07. http://www.brouhahacd.com/Products.asp?Action=View&ID=19165&Path=T7,0011

Haines, Christian. 15.03.07. "Program Structuring." Tutorial presented in the EMU, 4th floor, Schulz Building, University of Adelaide.

electric strings

.aa – week three.

With my recording project in mind, I aimed to assimilate a modern metal sound in my electric strings recording for the week. The guitar I recorded from EMU space, I would also like to record guitar from the dead room, but it was being used at the time. Manning the axe is Dave, who began playing with his very nice Ibanez, with distortion. To begin with I placed a Beta 52 on axis of the speaker, as well as a Beta 57 off axis, all around the same height (horizontal to the middle of the speaker). Also I walked around the EMU space as Dave played, and much as we had done in class, I found an area of the room where I liked the sound. There I put a Neumann U87. However this setup did not work at all:


bad guitar sound

Realising the need to completely change the sound I was getting, I started by getting Dave to use my Epiphone Les-Paul. I have heavier gauged strings, so straight away that gave me a thicker tone. Next I reviewed EQ settings on the cabinet, setting it to: Bass -2, Mid -2 and Treble +2. The Gain was set to +8 and the volume to around 4.

To actually capture this sound, I also needed to make some changes to the microphone positioning. After fiddling around a bit, I eventually came to the conclusion that the Beta 52 (a kick drum / bass guitar mic) found the best low end grunt from being placed closer to the ground. The final positioning:



modern metal sound

After this I experimented with moving around the room mic (U87), finding out which places around EMU gave the distortion guitar a nice natural reverb sound. In this recording you can hear Dave playing more of a lead guitar / solo part, I think the recorded audio quality matches it nicely.


solo lead

Next I recorded the bass guitar from the dead room, with the help of Nathan. Eventually we worked out how to route the bass so that he could sit next to me in studio one but play to the amp placed in the dead room. For this recording I again used the SM57 and beta 52. This first recording was made with the cabinet set up in a corner of the dead room.


bass guitar

Because the dead room was so far away from studio one (and after already running around, figuring out how to record the bass from the control room) I did not get much of a chance to play engineer, and run back and forth fiddling with the microphone positions. However to change the sound, I moved the bass cabinet into the middle of the room. Due to our routing, I figured we would turn up Nathan’s amplifier to as loud as it would go prior to losing some sound quality, which unfortunately was not all that loud. In this next recording you can feel the bass sound as being much ‘boomier’ and fuller, as the amplifier is much louder, however I think you loose some of the sharpness of the attack of the bass sound (as compared to the previous recording).


loud bass

I only had a brief opportunity to experiment with a DI recording from the bass cabinet. Admittedly, I know very little about DI, but the sound of the next recording does not seem to have the low-end balls that the microphone recordings offer. The obvious benefits of a DI recording are in a group situation, as nothing will bleed from other instruments into the DI recording. Doing audio processing onto that DI recording would be ideal, as it will not effect the sound of any other instrument. So perhaps this DI recording is in need of some compression, EQing and other effects, even if it is only done digitally?


DI bass

.sources.

Grice, David 13.03.07. “Electric Strings.” Tutorial presented in the EMU space, 5th floor, Schulz Building, University of Adelaide.

Crisp, Pete 2004. “Recording nu-metal guitar tracks.” Music Tech Magazine, viewed 12.01.07.
http://www.musictechmag.co.uk/mtm/download/recording-nu-metal-tracks

chromatic note Max patch

.cc - week two.

Max Patch | Text Format

This is a patch that triggers the notes of a chromatic octave selected by the user. The tempo can also be specified by the user.

.sources.

Haines, Christian. 08.03.07. "Max Quickstart." Tutorial presented in Schulz Building, 4th floor, University of Adelaide.

what is creativity?

.forum - week two.

Anyone studying the creative arts finds themselves looking inward. We look into ourselves, perhaps into the subconscious as Jungian philosophy would suggest, to merge what we know and then, to create. Ultimately the burning, philosophical question of this field stands: What is creativity?

Enter Stephen Whittington (director of the Electronic Music Unit) and his forum discussion topic. Just as I am sure that around the campus scientists struggle to define exactly what is the atom, in our humble Music Technology forum Stephen mused the similarly mystifying stump of our study. As one would expect there was no simple answer, no real answer at all. I did overhear masters student Tristan Louth-Robins offer one interesting answer; creativity likened to ‘happy accidents.’

When one asks such a question as what is creativity, perhaps we consider too deeply the process of our actions in the world around us. Ethnomusicologists certainly, carefully consider our actions, how we have made use of the instruments around us. It is here I think, that we come abruptly against the wall of our understanding of art. Surely we can study the body, its relationship with a musical instrument, a paintbrush, or perhaps just a pen on paper. ‘Mastery’ of a musical instrument is certainly an attainable goal for an aspiring musician, particularly one who studies at a conservatorium. When we look into the mind, however, we start to loose a grip on the understanding our actions. Where we can now say, in this day and age, how a young musician may learn to play the instrument well, we do not or cannot say how he should look into himself and utilise his or her imagination. Such is our society; obsessively focused on the outer self rather than the inner self.

Mentioned above was the aspiring musician who can endeavour to master an instrument through a higher education. A musician / composer who could not be further from this hackneyed stereotype is Erik Satie. Stephen’s interest in the late 1800s, early 1900s musician has got me interested to. I read about piece he composed, “Vexations” (1893), titled his “most enigmatic and abstract work.” It’s a one page score (180 notes) and only score note is:


‘To play this motif 840 times in succession, it would be advisable to prepare oneself beforehand, in the deepest silence, by serious immobilities.’

Its premiere performance was done over half a century later, by who else, but John Cage (and a team of 10 pianists). It took them over 18 hours. After the mammoth event apparently Cage woke up feeling different about himself and the world. Later the 10 pianists reported that they had undergone a similar experience.

Well, if you have made it this far, thanks for reading my rather self-indulged update.

.sources.

Holmes, Thom, 2002. "Electronic and Experimental Music." New York: Routledge. 34 - 35.

Whittington, Stephen. 08.03.07. "What is Creativity?" Seminar Presented in the Schulz Building, 5th floor, EMU space, University of Adelaide.

aa - week two - voice recording

.mic vs mic.
With the vocal recording exercise my main goal was to test out a few different microphones. The three mic's I decided to try out were a Shure SM58, Rhode NTV and the Neumann U-87. Follow each link below to hear a recording using each microphone. These recordings demonstrate the naked sound of the microphone. Speaking is Ben Probert, who willingly agreed to help me with the recording by assuming the voice of a pirate (cheers!). Ben had each mic placed around him 10cm from his mouth. Also he was surrounded by sound boards in a pseudo-dead room setup. Each of these recordings were made with the same take, but from the perspective of each different mic:

SM58
U-87
NTV
(naked microphones)



.narrowing mic selection & adding dynamic compression.
From this recording, I gathered a bit of information about how each of the microphones were performing on the day. The SM58 had a slightly rougher sound, with more low end, as compared with the sound of the U-87m which was my favourite vocal sound. The NTV was perhaps a bit too gentle for this role, so later I decided to try it out 4 metres away when I recorded a more 'room' sound (less direct). With the SM58 and U-87 left as my preferred sounds, I decided make another recording with them, this time using the popper stopper, dynamic multi-band digital compression as well as getting Ben to speak more directly into each mic.

SM58 vs. U-87
(compressed)

.spoken word.
Once again I personally prefer the sound of the Neumann microphone, even with all the parameters (compression, mic placement and so on) changed, so I decide to use the U-87 to record a spoken word recording. In this take, instead of prattling on with as much enthusiasm as the idiot in the Mr. Bankrupt commercials, Ben just reads the text in his usual voice. Again this is with compression.

U-87
(spoken word)

.room sound.
For something a little different, and to try to get the expensive Rhode NTV to do something useful, I removed the sound boards and recorded Ben about 4 to 5 meters from the NTV mic. This recording is might sound a little bit dull, but if combined with another close-miced recording (with the U-87 for example) and with appropriate mixing, one might achieve an interesting and physical reverb sound.

NTV
(room recording)

.whisper.
Finally, I decided to use the NTV microphone, which I have already dubbed "gentle," to make a recording of Ben whispering the script. We used the popper-stopper for this take, and got Ben standing pretty close to the mic. Once again this is with digital compression.

NTV
(close mic, whisper)

and remember weimerhead readers:



.sources.
Grice, David. 06.03.07. "Voice Recording," Tutorial presented in EMU space, 5th floor Schulz Building, University of Adelaide.

forum - week one

There was not a whole lot to the first Music Technology forum, it finished half an hour early, giving me time to eat a turkey, cheese and barbeque sauce sandwich before I went to work. I would post a picture of my favourite homemade sanger for you all but, alas, I ate it many days ago.

Without digressing too much more, forum class was spent in a getting-to-know-you format. Everyone, aside from the new first-years, all already knew each other though. Hence, getting-to-know-you was simple. There are a new slew of first-year degree students, one of whom (Nathan Shea) went to Immanuel like me. We had a chat about the old school days and the degree for a while and I had the chance to catch up for a beer with him Friday night, at Flashpoint’s gig.

First semester forum will mainly contain student-run discussions on such topics as collaboration, gender in music technology and also construction / deconstruction of music. Should be quite interesting, I have had a couple of preliminary inspirations about my area (gender in music technology) thinking of Marilyn Manson’s Omega (genderless) character used in his “mechanical animals” era, see below.



YES! He’s a Looney. Nonetheless, his lyrics from this period talk about technologies impact on things like religion, spirituality and sexuality, as well as all the usual subjects like love and drugs. If you’re at all interested, have a read of “New Model No. 15,” a song which primarily focuses on a robot capable of giving sexual pleasure. Why not?!

Another brainwave I had for ‘gender in music technology’ relates to the violent, male-targeted nature of video games. If the music technology staff are wondering why they have over 90% boys in their classes, well I would hazard a guess that we are all geeks; grown up slaying bowser, pin-pointing head-shots on Halo, doing 900 degree spins with Tony Hawk and using the force to destroy the death star. Do these not sound like a bunch of jobs for da boys? Interestingly, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata intends for his new Wii console change all this by incorporating new people into his video game market, (like housewives and older people, who haven’t played a lot of games before). The wiinds of change?

.sources.

Whittington, Stephen, 1.3.07. "Introduction to Music Technology." In EMU space, 5th Floor, Schulz Building, University of Adelaide.

cc - week one - pseudocode

The following pseudocode converts notes of the major scale to the equivalent relative minor scale note. These notes are then played on a musical device, until twenty notes are heard.

playnotes = 20

REPEAT
CASE 1: scale degree 1
lower a minor third
output to device
playnotes = -1
CASE 2: scale degree 2
lower a minor third
output to device
playnotes = -1
CASE 3: scale degree 3
lower a major third
output to device
playnotes = -1
CASE 4: scale degree 4
lower a minor third
output to device
playnotes = -1
CASE 5: scale degree 5
lower a minor third
output to device
playnotes = -1
CASE 6: scale degree 6
lower a major third
output to device
playnotes = -1
CASE 7: scale degree 7
lower a major third
output to device
playnotes = -1
CASE 8: scale degree 8
lower a minor third
output to device
playnotes = -1
ENDCASE
UNTIL playnotes = 0

note: blogger does not let me put in tab or spaces to align this code correctly.