wind instruments

.aa – week five.

Wind instruments are something that I have recorded fairly little of, and have never really had much of an idea about how to go about recording (until now). If you think it’s as easy as pointed the microphone at the ‘blow-hole,’ you are sorely mistaken.

A big thankyou goes out to Martin Cheney and Lydia Sharrad, who came along to help Dave, Will, Luke and I get some practise with the art of recording wind instruments. To begin with I asked Martin to walk around the room playing his Alto Saxophone, while we all walked around searching for the “mojo.” During this session with the two wind players, I was able to genuinely appreciate the difference that instrument positioning can have on the sound. I found that the popular area directly in front of the studio one was not as pleasant for these instruments (most likely caused by reflections from the glass). I should mention that I got quite the feeling of achievement when I was able to hear to differing ‘mojo’s’ that the EMU space has to offer!

We found a very nice spot in front of the studio one window, but back about half way across the room. In this spot we decided to mark down some tape on the floor for our wind instrumentalists, who tend to move around a lot while they are playing (causing microphone positioning issues). As usual we played around being engineers, producers and discussing ideas to trial. One idea was to try out a SM58, but that just did not work and the mic was quickly abandoned. Here’s the first recording:

Alto Saxophone (1)

This recording is made of an:
- on axis Shure SM-57 (slightly above the bell)
- off axis AKG C414 BULS (height is parallel with the keys)
- overhead Neumann KM-84 (above, much like in class (work Ben!))
- room microphone Neumann U87 (just outside the EMU “bass trap”)

I would like to also point out that for the most part the U87 was pretty lame as a room microphone for the sax. I feel that this has something to do with it being such a sensitive mic; in the flatter dynamic of a room mic recording, the pressing of the keys, breaths, as well as the sax sound all got blended into one wash of unproductive sound. Not to sday too many bad words against the U87 (Im sorry baby), because later, however, Dave found that putting the U87 just outside the “bass trap” added a bit of useful low-end warmth when mix-in faintly.

Also Saxophone (2)

This mic positioning behind this one is similar to first recording, except that:
- SM57 and AKG position have been switch around (AKG – on axis; SM57 – off axis)
- the KM-84 was swung about 40 degrees away for Martin, where we found a nice sound.
- the room mic (U87) has been removed.



For Lydia Sharrad (awesome flutist) we used similar microphones, the main difference is that the room mic was swapped to an additional AKG C414. I think this next recording is one of the most accurate (to real world) recordings that I have been a part of:

Flute (1)

In this take we used a C414 up around Lydia’s mouth, and the SM57 down near her keyboard. In the next recording (Flute (2)) we switched the position of the SM57 and the C414 microphones around. We also swung the overhead KM-84 to a pleasant off-axis position in Flute (2).

Flute (2)

.sources.

Gemme, Keith 2003, "Tips from the Pros: Recording brass and woodwind, MusicTech Magazine, viewed 29.3.07,
http://www.musictechmag.co.uk/mtm/download/tips-from-the-pros-recording-brass-and-woodwind

Grice, David 24.3.07, Audio Arts: Week 5, "Wind Intruments," Tutorial presented in the EMU space, Schutlz Building, University of Adelaide.

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.

aa - week one - session planning + management

Burn the Priest are an American metal band who got together in around 1990 but never really hit it big until they added a second guitarist and changed their name to Lamb of God with the released of “New American Gospel” in 2000.

.members instrumentation gear and approaches.

Chris Adler - Drums
-plays an extensive Mapex kit.
-is left handed but plays hats with his right hand.
-two kick drums (double kick).
-hi-hat x2, splash x3, crash x5, china-boy x3, ride.



Mark Morton – Guitar
-almost always with heavy distortion.
-plays a Gibson Les Paul with Mesa rig.
-uses a Crybaby wah pedal.

Will Adler – Guitar
-almost always with heavy distortion as well.
-plays a ESP Willer Alder Signature guitar with a Mesa head and Framus cabs.

John Campbell - Bass
-plays a Jackson with a Mesa rig.
-plays with a pick.

Randy Blythe – Vocals
-no melodic content.
-screams in a couple of different ways.

-the guitarists use drop-D tuning.

.recording order.

With a thick guitar-rich sound like Lamb of Gods’, I would use a lot of overdubbing. To begin with though I would get the whole band playing together in a space, so to then create a ‘sketch recording’ of the song/s. In this time hopefully I would get pretty clear understanding of song structure, aesthetic, lyrics, meaning and that sort of thing. Over the original sketch, I would most likely order the recording overdubs from most rhythmic to melodic, with vocals last because they do not compliment the other musicians and can be dumped over the top afterwards quite easily. So, the order: Drums, Bass, Guitars then Vocals.

.tracking assignments and microphone selection.


.instrument layout.

Ignoring the fact that I have used 20 channels, in EMU I would probably begin by being in the same space as the band during the initial sketch recording by using studio five. Then I would overdub the drums in EMU space from studio one, and I would probably close all the curtains and put up a few soundboards around the kit. This is due to the very live sound in EMU space, a sound which I think might be too reverberant for the many rapid percussive hits of Adler’s playing. Next I would record the bass, then guitars from the dead room to studio one. Lastly I would try out Bruce Bartlett’s idea of “over-dubbing in the control room” for recording the vocals. Blythe’s technique of screaming finds some of its best moments during Lamb of God live performances, because he feeds of the enthusiasm of others. Being in the same room as him would inspire the best recording.

.recording.

"The musicians will catch their flubbed notes during playback; you just listen for audio quality." (Bartlett, 2006)
A very good point, the fact is most producers are most likely to instrumental musicians as well. In previous recordings I have done, I'm guilty of listening to too much of the playing technique than the audio quality.


.sources.

Bartlett, Bruce. 2006. “Session Procedures” at http://www.tape.com/Bartlett_Articles/session_procedures.html (accessed 27.2.07)

Grice, David. 27.2.07. “Session Planning & Management.” Lecture presented in EMU space, 5th Floor, Schulz Building, University of Adelaide.

Haines, Christian. “Electronic Music Unit – Microphones” at http://www.emu.adelaide.edu.au/resources/guides/hardware/microphones.html (accessed 27.2.07)

"Sacrament" (Bonus DVD) 2006, Lamb of God, Sony, video DVD, ASIN: B000GRTQUM.

eclipses

by jake morris & deanna djuric
image by ben probert

there were some issues with the gain levels going over 0 in the recording bidule (which unfortuanatly doesnt display this) and so this recording is a bit shabby. if you feel upto ignoring those issues, then click the picture and have a listen.

here's the music technology (sound design) minor project. this is the stereo bounce of a work made for 5.1 surround, but it gives you a bit of an idea into what i came up with, so enjoy!

Unlike last week, where the ‘mojo’ was perfect for improvisation, this week the group had a little more difficulty making a decent sound. Nevertheless, the members (who attended) should be congratulated in that we indeed managed to achieve a good sound at several points in the jam session. It may not have fallen together easily, but we were still able to come up with something, so well done crew. One song in particular was awesome; in this my drum loops did not change too much, but I just tweaked them gradually to sound cleaner and more complex as the song went on, to the point where I really did not want them to stop. Ever.

As I have done every week, I wanted to bring something new to the session. However having not had time to make any other loops for the session, I instead decided to get a copy of the freely available, under 65 Mb demo of Live 6 to change things up a bit. My verdict? Wow. Live is an easy to use program, with endless possibilities and is becoming more and more refined in being able to do what you want it to. I truly would recommend playing with Live to any aspiring musician.

By the time I had fired up Live 6 for the first time, my group had already begun rocking out. As I really threw myself in the deep-end with this software, I probably ruined the chance of creating a decent drum sound for 15 minutes at most, but by the time everyone was starting to settle and listen to each other I was able to work my way around the nuances of the new Live well enough to create a decent beat. I know that once I have Live 6 worked out as closely as I have Live 3, that I am going to be a multibillion dollar rockstar skilled loop artist.

This session we spent together will probably be the last before the end of year concert, where the EMU guys and gals all let there hair down for one more chance to dance the night away. Actually I was being sarcastic, but who knows, I remember being at my school formal thinking ‘why are they all dancing!? NOBODY told me there was dancing?’ Assuming I do not have to dance, I am actually rather looking forward to this concert. So long as the members of our group who never turn up do the same for the concert, I am convinced that we can put on some decent music.

So loyal readers of weimerhead: the untold tales of the ninja robot samurai from outer space, this post sadly brings the year to a close. I myself will henceforth be busily finishing assignments, so drink a beer for me and I will see you all at TOOL - BIG DAY OUT 2007.

Last Thursday my group had much more success in the improvisation session. We all seemed to fit together much more, and for a change the hour we spent jamming was actually a lot of fun. We set up a little bit differently than we usually do, with everyone in a circle. This allowed everyone to make eye contact anyone else and on the whole communication was increased greatly compared to other weeks. Another factor aiding the level of communication, was the fact that Ben walked around and was able to dictate to the group upcoming ideas that we could consider. An example of this was, in one particular song Ben wanted to slowly decrease the tempo. Obviously if I did this ‘mid-jam,’ without everyone knowing my intentions, it would have quite disastrous effects, but Ben was able to say to me- ‘gradually slow it down, everyone knows it coming.’ Dragos and Albert were absent, and our bass playing started to play more rhythmically than melodically, which left melodic construction in the capable hands of Dave and Matt. I was busy concentrating on the rhythmic side of things, but from what I heard Matt and Dave seemed to share the weight pretty well.

In the rhythm section Ben and I were at last able to share the sound of the drums a little more freely. For a change this week I starting with very cut back drum loops, usually with only hi-hats to play around with for a while. This allowed Ben much more freedom with his own improvised beat over the top. This format would continue for a few minutes and depending on what Ben was doing, usually I would start to put in a snare on the same beat as Ben. By this time Ben would be starting to fatigue a bit, so I might then take over the drums for a while. While Ben and I were doing all this, I noticed that our bass line was very in tune with what we were doing and seemed able to lock in and even adapt with the changes in the drum section. In the rhythm section at least, it was one of the first times I have really felt like I am able to feed ideas of the other group members and that they are able to do the same for me.

In Music Technology’s final hour Luke Harrold came in to the EMU to give the students an idea of the goings on of NIME 06. He presented a video of a performance by Adachi Tomomi in which he gives a demo of a couple of his creations- the carrot flute and an infered music shirt. It was pretty obscure really, but I must admit that Mr. Tomomi put on an exciting show. The way he begun each performance was to casually sing old style Japanese chants, and then abruptly bring in the futuristic sounds and movements of his instrument. This made him look quite comfortable with the equipment, making the performances feel almost like a glimpse into the future.

Lastly I will add that I am quite sick at the moment, and you may not see too much of me in this last week of the term. Feeling very out of it, but I am doing my best to get everything done one step at a time. Update completed!

Reference:

Harrold, Luke. “NIME 06.” Lecture presented in EMU space, 5th Floor, Schulz Building, University of Adelaide, 19 / 10 / 06.

Disorganised is the way I would describe last weeks’ improvisation session. This thread was perhaps seeded in the late email I received (on the Thursday morning) that established this forum slot would indeed be used to play with your group. As a result I did not have my laptop with me, and could not perform the way I normally do. However, the email is not all that can be blamed; their are certain members of my group who are still deciding which method they want to use to create sound for the effort- even a week after the performance?!?! This disorganisation led to an atrocious sound and on my part a headache.

With the loss of my beat-box laptop, I decided to instead play the electronic drum kit, using the little drum skills that I have salvaged from drum lessons I took late last millennium. For some time at least I tried to keep my playing simple, just so that everyone might stay in some sort of time. However the amplification of the kit was not placed near me, and I my playing was dwarfed over the G5 which basically surfed different samples of drums and who knows what else, while everyone attempted to play. When I say surfed, I do not denote any sort of Ableton Live-esk real time seamless integration of samples, I mean someone opening sound files when they like while people attempt to create music. Here I make an example of the sound-source responsible for giving me a head-ache, but might I add this was not the only contributor apparently ‘in their own little world.’ Sometimes I feel like the few in the group who do in fact try to collaberate with others, and ‘do their homework’ so to speak, have pretty much given up. And who would blame them? Who would want to play in a three-piece band with a few soloing anomalies, when everyone could just solo?

If this week will be the same session of playing with your group (with no email as yet to confirm nor deny), I hope that things could be improved via the following:
- less sound
- stable, repetitive rhythm section
- synthesizer’s (if played during that particular week / jam) placed on a quieter and more ambient (less tonal) setting
- levels checked, then maintained
- no mish-mash of people jamming and others working out which synth / electro kit patch, drum sample etc. to use
- everyone commence the ’jam’ at the around the same time
- decided scale / mode
- one main melodic cetre / voice at a time

AudioArts - Spectral Water: week 10.

audio arts - week 9 - tone wheel

week NINe - creative computing

Click on the image below to hear Will & Luke using the Open Sound Control to manipulate a Plogue patch running on my computer, which I'm controlling with the JV-30 keyboard. The music I'm playing is 'Right In Two' by Tool. Luke is manipulating the harmonics with the menu shown, while similarly Will is using the flanger shown. We call it 'Will & Luke slamming my bar' - a gay time was had by all.

On Thursday DJ TR!P spoke in to the forum class about his understanding and application of improvisation. What I found interesting about his presentation was that his situation is a little ‘closer to home’ for me, compared to Dr. Chandrakant Sardeshmukh’s presentation for example. His public speaking ability was not that great, but that did not get in the way of him ultimately being able to get his message across, and I feel that those who payed careful attention to what he had to say were rewarded. He spoke extensively about collaboration, and gave me a few ideas to try when it came to performing with him.

Being an Adelaide based musician, I was really interested to get an understanding of TR!P’s career and how everything is working out for him and music around my city. I still have not decided whether I would be content with a career such as his, but he certainly has given me plenty to think about. There is an appeal in working in bars and clubs, having a job like that, but at the same time, I cannot see there being too much money in it. Perhaps work like this would be good to do while your still young, in your 20’s or around that mark. However if you ever wanted to start a family or business or buy a car or anything like that, well I think you might have to reconsider your line of work. Plenty of thinking to be done.

Accompanying TR!P was a CD turntable, something I have heard about but never scene in the flesh before. If I ever were to consider using a turntable (it is very possible) I would defiantly go for one of these- simply before you can burn a CD with your own material on, rather than having to recycle old music as with a turntable. The rest TR!P’s arsenal: a sampler, a fader/mixing desk, a game boy and of coarse a laptop running Windows. He, like so many of his kin, used Fruity Loops from his laptop.

The actual performance went really well from what I could tell. The audience seemed very pleased with what we produced- this is the main thing I guess. The only thing that I am a little concerned with, is that people might not have been able to distinguish between what was coming from my laptop and TR!Ps’. Apart from that it was a reasonably deep performance and a nice environment for everyone to jam in. As always, Dave’s guitar lines were tasteful while still being over-the-top awesome- his ability to improvise on his solo instrument was surely freer than mine or probably anyone else. I certainly envy his skill with improvisation. Nevertheless the rest of the group had their moments, and it pulled together well.

One other thing that I though about in the performance was the how TR!P and I had to agree on a tempo before each song. We verbally told each other the tempo then manually set it from our computer. However, if he were using a Mac, and if Live and Fruity Loops supported OSC (OpenSoundControl) we perhaps would not have to discuss the tempo, but rather just have them synced. Also we could have then changed the tempo if we so desired and still been on exactly the same page. All this in the future I guess.

Bibliography

Hopprich, Tyson. “Improvisation." Workshop presented at EMU Space, 5th Floor, Schultz Building, University of Adelaide. 5/10/06.

The moment I entered the EMU space last Thursday I was helplessly enchanted by the wonderful sound of Dr. Chandrakant Sardeshmukh’s Sitar (like a guitar except you sit to play it). This man’s wonderful instrument really was a testament to the fact that there are just so many different types of sound out there. At one stage near when I first walked in I think the doctor looked at me and smiled; I must have been sitting there grinning like a schoolgirl. Just such a truly beautiful sound.

His playing ability was obviously very advanced, I would probably gained a lot more from the workshop if I were able to understand more of what he said. Much was mentioned about Indian music and form, and unfortunately I really did not understand much of what he said! However, it is quite refreshing to hear people from other countries speak English, especially to hear words that you are familiar with, used in contexts that you are not.

Toward the end of the workshop it once again came time for the guest to rock it out with one of the improvisation groups. During this concert I was particularly impressed with the performance Vinny. He played a sort of whiney ambience sound from his laptop and then went ahead and played the tabla. Prehaps his own Indian heritage assisted him understand the playing style of the doctor, or perhaps his own skill with improvisation allowed him to preform quite comfortably and effectively. Most likely both of these things. The remainder of the group contained Tyrell, Luke, Seb, Daniel and Poppy. Tyrell was quite good, he was able to listen to the others and know when to enter with his old-school synthesizer. The fact that he used a tone that sounded like it would suit an Atari video game, he did well to fit in with the natural sounds of the Sitar and Tabla. Luke and Seb were again able to choose when to play and when no to. However, I think if given the chance to perform with the group again they might have added a lot more of their dirty tones and not act as such a slave to the Tabla and Sitar. Daniel played some weird noise maker thing and among all the sound I am not too sure what sounds he made and which he did not, but he certainly did not seem to detract from the overall aesthetic. Finally Poppy used her voice to produce both long droning howls and short, percussive shrieks. I thought that at one stage she might of broken into one of her infamous ‘spoken word’ recitals and start preaching anti-Immigration propaganda, but alas, she choose to stick safe with ‘non-English.’

Bibliography
Sardeshmukh, Chandrakant. “Improvisation Technique.” Workshop presented in EMU Space, 5th floor Schulz building, University of Adelaide. 14/09/2006

the Soundscape of Pitcairn Avenue

BUS (Distant)
1. 200 metres
2. 30 dB
3. Distant, but somewhat distinct
4. Lo-fi, technological
5. Isolated
6. No Reverb

CAR
1. 40 metres-pass-15 metres
2. 62dB
3. Indistict, except when hitting a ditch (crescendos, decrescendos)
4. Lo-fi, technological
5. Periodic repetition
6. Short reverb

DOOR SHUTTING
1. 20 metres
2. 68dB
3. Heard distinctly
4. Hi-fi, human
5. Short, percussive
6. Long natural reverb

BIRDS
1. 15-50 metres
2. 35-55dB
3. Distict
4. Hi-fi natural
5. Peridic repetition
6. No reverb

Ambient Murmer
1. 250+ metres
2. 25dB
3. Indistict
4. Hi-fi, natural
5. Unending
6. No reverb

This Thursday’s forum contained an extremely intriguing presentation from saxophonist Derek Pascoe. He talked primarily about his experience with improvisation, taking on a purely personal perspective. Rather than taking the common ‘this is about what I do and why everything do is great’ angle, he simply deconstructed his improvisational technique and how he developed it from the ground up. I really enjoyed the way he was able to meld completely abstract concepts like spirituality with practical ideas to consider in an improvisational situation. He talked in detail about techniques he has practised in daily to become prolific in improvisation. His own worship to improvisation, through such practises, has given him a personal and unique view into the art. Every concept mentioned he was able explain how he came to arrive at that idea. This made the forum very interesting, particularly as did not simply seem to constantly quote ideas from other musicians, but rather discuss his solitary approach to thinking about improvisation technique.

As a part of the presentation Derek Pascoe perform with one of the improvisation project’s groups. There were four songs performed, which by and large progressively improved as the afternoon progressed. The first song involved audience participation, however everyone was too nervous and really the whole thing was not worth mentioning. However, during the next three songs there were certain moments that were really quite fascinating. In the third song, the performers were instructed to follow and mimic each other’s noise. This unfolded with quite interesting results, with at one time the bass, guitar and saxophone sounding quite trance-like. The last performance involved the performers having conversations. To get the ball rolling here Derek Pascoe played ‘smoke on the water’ and whatever that song you hear on the trumpet at the race track. John responded, but unlike Derek Pascoe who extended and lengthened each note, he embellished the line in a guitar shred. In that respect I think that John was what Derek Pascoe titled “the villain” towards the saxophone part. All considered, it was a very interesting couple of hours, and it certain changed, in some way, how I listen to music since.

Bibliography


Pascoe, Derek. “Improvisation Technique." Workshop presented in EMU Space, 5th floor Schulz building, University of Adelaide, 07/09/2006.

click on the picture for sound

here instead of using a MIDI keyboard for MIDI input I have used the note generator (or two, simulating the left and right hand i hope). It sounds like the ocean, does it not?

This week’s improvisation session sounded possibly worse than last week. The additional of two tone-exploring synthesizers had much to do with this I feel. Every week in the improvisation session I seem to pick up some way to improve my drum loops, usually in response to critisms made by my colleagues. Again this week Dave was the catalyst here, suggesting that listening to the same two-bar loop for the hour can get a little tedious (no surprises here). I have decided then, that maybe it would be a good idea to create longer samples, so that they take longer to loop over, and are not as grating. Also Dave suggested maybe adding ‘fills’ to the performance, reminding me of an idea I formed weeks ago- to set the drum loops to group A (within Live) and a continuously playing (but muted) fill to group B. Hence, whenever I feel the time is appropriate, I pan across to group B and play a fill. Thankfully, the issues I had last week have been overcome, that is, no longer are people complaining that the drums cut-out completely and leaving them exposed as the tentative improvisers they mostly are. I achieved this by implementing the idea I specified last week.

This week’s presentations included Tyrell, Poppi, Albert and Josh. I particularly enjoyed Poppi’s presentation. Her movies were very intriguing and well suited to the music, as was her solemn ‘spoken word.’ All of these films were cut short for the sake of saving time, but now I would really like to see more. This might sound a little strange, but the movies were very typical of a uni student, if that makes any sense. Probably not. Tyrell talked a bit about the music he has been making for video games. I was pretty interested to hear something of composed by Tyrell, but unfortunately he mainly played us music he created for a video game for children so the emotional depth was severely shunned, in place of… well… childhood cheesiness. Despite the fact Josh seemed about as excited about his musique concrete piece, as I am about going to work 21 minutes, I thought the piece was really very good. Interesting too that when I went up and talk about my piece I spouted about some elaborate story of a mythological hero and the best that Josh could say is that ‘he tried to use sounds that sound metallic’, yet that the final result is reasonably similar. But hey, if it were the final sound that counted, words like Scheonburg and Boulez might not sound like more than fancy small cars or import wines (and I am going to hell).

im worked to hard to count the music (final)
the final sound track for the sd1.mov with plogue FM synthesis and other variations.
the video is avaliable in a previous post.

click on the picture for sound

click on the picture for sound

So during this week’s improvisation session I began using Live to play with a drum sample. Yes, no plural here as I have only made one so far. One of the more promising sections of our free-for-all jam was when I used the Three-Band EQ to remove everything but the high-hat from the sample. This both allowed for and seemed to inspire the other improvisers to create appropriate music (remembering our group’s motto: to make music and none of this ambient stuff). However, when I tried using the EQ to solo other parts of the drum beat, such as the kick and snare, the EQ didn’t seem to work as well. This has led me toward the next step in my development of this project- that is to make individual sound files for the kick, snare, high-hat and whatever else. These files can be easily collated in a single ‘scene’ within Live, and that way can have there own effects added to them. Having specific effect added to each part particularly appeals to me due to one main compliant my group made of my sound during the jam- inconsistency of rhythm. It makes sense, I hold a key role in the rhythmic grounding of the project. This failed me during points of the jam when I would dump a new effect such as ‘BeatBox’ onto the drum loop and it would immediately ruin the rhythmic grounding, which the rest of the group relied upon. However, if I were able to drag such an effect onto just the high-hat for example, the total annihilation of this sample would not have such a disastrous effect, as would completely ruined the whole drum sample. Hence, the rest of the group would not have to stop while I quickly switch off/adjust the parameters of the plug-in. Other than this I am slowing learning which plug-in’s sound cool, provide something interesting to improvise with, have bugs and which individual parameters are best to map the XY pane that Live provides. As the weeks progress I intend to narrow in on the particular rhythmic grounding I will offer the rest of the group, who I think will have more apparent avenues for improvisation than me, through the use of melody and so on. Live itself is far from the ideal piece of software, but it is nonetheless really intuitive, easy to use and fun. This use of a vector-driven interface is more than just the ‘gimmick’ it seemed to be when I first looked at the application months ago. Rather, it provides a clever flow to the interface, in a way I find difficult to explain. However, take the use of the F11 shortcut, which allows the application to use the full width of your display or monitor and the way the program resizes in an instant, which I think must owe something the use of vector graphics. This way in which the whole interface flows around and is easily customisable through minimal clicks, is important for is onstage applications. Having had used the program now in a ‘jamming’ situation, I really commend Abelton on the way they have made this program simple and smooth. Never in this ‘tense’ situation did I feel at all lost or confused in the interface that in all honesty, I had only used about five times. And that, my friends, is Live.

Apart from the fact that during my presentation the word ‘um’ seemed to have manifested through my vocabulary beyond all sensibility, I think it went okay. Ben commented that at the end of every sentence the pitch of my voice went up a little, or something, and I certainly appreciate any such critisms because I understand how important presentations like this are in the metropolis of Academia. My great respect for all the music technology students and staff, along with my dream to create great music, made me quite a nervous little camper during my presentation of ‘new surroundings’. Anyway, from the feedback I have received, people did not pick up on this too much, but if you feel otherwise then please let me know via the comment button below.

The other presenters included William, Ben and Timothy Gabbusch. Like everything he is involved with, I could not help but laugh when it came to Ben’s speech. His presentation style was confident, light and humorous while his piece ‘Vocalikov’ was really very good. William’s piece was equally very cool, with a particularly rhythmic ‘glitchy’, ‘buzzy’ sound that caught my attention and is stuck in mind. Timothy’s piece contained a lot of awesome sounds and was quite good, but lacked a feeling of form and structure. I feel this probably owes to his use of analogue techniques in its composition.

Referances

Whittington, Stephen. "Music Technology Workshop." Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, South Australia, 24/08/2006.

Gday fellow soldiers in the eternal struggle of the Blog.

My group has continued making baby steps towards the improvisation project that we will perform one day not so soon. This week I brought in my laptop and played a few drum loops I composed in Sibelius and played them in Reason 3. Both Dave and Ben seemed to take a liking to them; might I quote Dave who remarked, “shall we go with that for this Rhythmic basis.” (Or something similar). This was fairly encouraging, especially because I know the drum loops would be heaps better if I had spent more than twenty seconds on them. Apart from this part of the session, we continued listening to people moan about technological disabilities of studio 5 and Dave’s (awesome) guitar playing. Adrian’s computer bit the dust so we may have to wait some time before hearing anything from him and SuperCollider. Dragos was away, so still pretty uncertain about what he is doing. Ben seems pretty enthusiastic about his vocal/effects contribution, and the other day I was listening to “Intergalactic” by the Beastie Boys and thought of how this may offer him some inspiration (‘another dimension, another dimension, new galaxy’). We also welcomed a new member to the group, Albert. I was less than excited by the thought of adding yet another instrument to melange of sound we have at the moment, but going by his usual attendance, I do not think I have to much to worry about (needless to say, I will be glad to be proved wrong here).

Next up, a few more students presented their work in the new Tech (“now like Jazz and Classical students”) Forum. This commenced with Henry Reid who played ‘Lucky’ a song written about his Grandfather’s life. After the initial excitement of how this form of song writing has recently produced favourites of my own like Tool’s “10 000 days part 2 (Wings for Marie)”, I was a little bit disappointed with the final product. This dissatisfaction mainly stemmed from one instrument which played throughout in what I can only call a lame synth tone, because the rest of it was pretty good I think. Daniel played a recording by his band ‘Enemy Of?’ and I have to say it was pretty good. I intend to record a Heavy Metal later this year, and I am pretty intimidated by their two guitar, bass, drums, vocal line up. Daniel mentioned how he used a program other ProTools to record the drums. After this I was left thinking- there are other programs than ProTools: WHAT THE HELL?!?! Anyway, one day if I am feeling social enough, I would like to talk to him about this program and what his thoughts are on recording heavy music. One thing I really want to learn to do is make good drum recordings. More than anything else. Getting back to Daniel’s piece called, “When you say the heaven you mean the gates of hell” I was overall quite impressed with the song, but the recording did not have the edge (not surprisingly) of a professional recording. But why? I feel like we have all the equipment there to do it. Maybe I will figure it out one day if I stop playing video games…

It is a little disappointing that we will no longer have any of David Harris’s tripped out offerings to look forward to on a Thursday afternoon. This class will be replaced with the improvisation project. My personal experience with group work at uni thus far has lended me to trying to avoid it where possible. Nevertheless, going by last weeks workshops, things may well be different- the Music Tech’ers seem and enthusiastic bunch. My randomly selected group contains four members from my year: david, ben, matt and myself. The other members are Dragos Nastasie and Adrian Reid who are second and third years’ respectively. So far not much in the way of themes or have surfaced, while many ideas have been thrown around. Ambience has been affronted quite thoroughly, I was hoping this might turn into some kind of right-wing new-music crusade, but so far we only decided that chords will be used. But what chords?

I must c e the rest of my group for their effort in bringing instruments along for last weeks session. It sure inspired me to want to be ready with something for this Thursday. For this, I am thinking of composing a few drum loops in Sibelius, making them sound cool in Reason and finally improvising with them using Ableton’s Live. This program is the muse of Creative Computing at the status quo. Another option I was considering was to learn some SuperCollider. Adrian mentioned that he is thinking of doing something with it, so it might be a good opportunity to get into it. I know the JITLib interface is tailored for live applications. I only know about || much SuperCollider though, so I might just be barking up the wrong tree. I will talk to Adrian about it.

My experience with ‘playing music’ is far older than that of my improvisation. This certainly is not something I boast proudly, but as they say, sometimes that’s the way the cookie crumbles. I have to say that I will be glad to discover myself as an improviser.

creative computing - soundtrack for sd1.mov

"im worked too hard to count the music so i only dance to the video anymore"
translated by weimer in under an hour.

Cubase Video Setup

In creative computing we have finally got our heads out of the ProTools gutter and found that other software exists. Namely, this was Steinberg’s highly-documented sequencer Cubase. Interestingly, we focused on using Cubase to manage video. Since the ACMC I have been quite curious toward new media, particularly video, but unfortunately these are things that cannot be used towards assessments. However, I do not think I should let this hold me back, and I am hopefully going to use my knowledge of Macromedia’s Flash to make a video for my next Musique Concrete project piece. I have also decided that it’s not going to be as strictly Musique Concrete sounding either. We are not cutting up tape anymore so why pretend?

Anywho, here is a couple of snapshots of my experience with importing video into Cubase and getting a few markers laid out. I found Cubase very easy to use, much easier than learning ProTools. Whether this is because it is similar to ProTools, or due to a better interface: who knows?


Using Cubase: Less painful than you may think.


Time Markers: Mark out your project files.


I got the ReWire bus running pretty easily, Christian kindly showed me how to lock host Reason with ProTools last semester. For pictures, see one of my fellow first-year colleague's blogs.

The readings we were provided in Audio Arts this week were pretty interesting. It was quite intriguing to hear that Christian has worked as a graphic designer, as this not only something that interests me, but what my brother does for a living. The reason I posted this picture here is that as I was reading it- the way it describes the way to sort through a complex reminded me a lot of fourth-level (event driven) programming languages like those used by Visual Basic. IF THEN ELSE statements and so on. Interesting too that it refers to breaking things down to a set of smaller functions and that this is exactly what code does. Or maybe it's boring and I'm just a loser.



















I’m having a fair bit of trouble tearing myself away from Blizzard’s World of Warcraft at the moment. I feel like a 6 year old and it’s defiantly detracting my studies. But then again, I feel like a 6 year old!


It’s 8pm and DJ Shadow just starting playing at Thebby… and I’m here updating my blog :_(

Bibliography

Haines, Christian. “Cubase Video Setup.” Class of the University of Adelaide, in the Schulz Building, EMU, level 4 (Audio Lab) on 27 / July / 2006. Class of Adelaide, in the Schulz Building, EMU, level 4 (Audio Lab) on 27 / July / 2006.

Martin Armiger stopped by the EMU last Thursday to give us all insight in his wonderful life as a film composer. It was great to see him talking about what inspires him with what he does, even if I didn’t personally get excited by the film “The Sea Hawk” and whatever the other one was. His ability to speak to the audience was quite notable; the audience was indeed larger than normal for a Thursday afternoon at the EMU, with new faces showing up for Armiger presentation. I would of perhaps preferred if he had talked a little more about work that he has done, I only realised this when someone asked me what films Arminger has worked on- I could only respond with ‘uh, dunno!’ Nevertheless seeing Arminger get all animated during ‘the Sea Hawk’ scene with strings playing arpeggios representing wind and similarly with the torture scene from ‘Reservoir Dogs’ was good value. Of all the lines of work that music technology students can consider, he certainly did not turn me away from film music, which was something presenters had been getting good at last semester. I though during his speech he might have touched on multichannel sound, as this available to the film (& DVD) music world. In fact, when he commenced his speech with the ten dollar question- “What’s wrong with film music?”, I thought he might be going to say something like ‘most film music is produced for stereo while film composers can use 5.1’… or something. Oh well. Seems nobody really cares about multichannel except computer nerd music composers and sound installation artists. Maybe. I really do not know much about the stuff, but it just seems like noone gets as excited by more speakers like me.

Mr. Whittington gave us EMUers a few pointers in scoring, analysing and generally commentating our music, during the hour David Harris normally fills with Pink Floyd. I am glad someone talked a bit about these things, because they are a part of all music technology major assignments and something I felt pretty unsure and ending up not caring about last semester. His allegory of the cut paper to a score for music was very understandable, and I am starting to see that he is good at what he does and why he is the head of my faculty.

Bibiography
Armington, Martin. "What's wrong with film music?" Presentation made at the Adelaide University, Schulz Building, EMU (level 5), Emu Space on 28 / July / 2006.

Whittington, Stephen. "Commentating Music." Presentation made at the Adelaide University, Schulz Building, EMU (level 5), Emu Space on 28 / July / 2006.

Audio Arts: Sound Design
San analysis of sd1.mov:

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).