Open Arena

.aa - week nine.

One day I was backing up an old cassette tape to digital, and I spent some time fiddling around with the tape player and amplifier before I had them going into my laptop at a useful level. In doing this I made a few scratchy recordings before I was able to just get tape, and from one of these recordings comes the basis of my UI mouse-over button sound effect for Open Arena. The first step toward getting the sound to how I wanted it (in my mind) was by doing some EQing – removing that hiss that seems to always come from tapes. Here I used my “favourite” EQer, particularly for this kind of digital Sound Design exercise, which is just the AU Graphic EQ (in Plogue).



One thing I particularly like about starting in Plogue, is that you can easily loop the file, and then you free to do whatever you want to it in real time – and if that means stacking five of the EQs after each other, so be it. Here is how the Plogue patch ended up looking to create the final sound.

Having created a short 'clickly' mouse-over sound that fitted in with the general Industrial aesthetic that I was hoping for, I then decided to make the selection sound aswell. I loaded my original mouse-over sound into Reason this time and added a 'DDL delay-line' and a 'reverb RV7000 unit'. This allowed me to make a slightly altered, attenuated, version of the mouse-over sound. The delay-line is set to 30 ms, making it sound more metallic and the reverb is set pretty low, using the "healings hall.rv7" algorithm.

The next sound I chose to work on was the grenade explosion, as this is one that be quite significant in Open Arena. This was a pretty difficult sound to come up with, but basically I started with a recording of me closing my door. I then time stretched the recording out to double the size. After this I used Plogue / AU plug-ins to compress, spectrally granulate and decimate the sound. I was left with a sound file of about 10 seconds legnth, which I created a 'best-of' of, in Peak.

Finally, I created a walking sound, which I am not particularly happy with. I have already loaded onto fileden.com so I am not going to be bother changing it, but basically from here I think it will need to be pitched down at the least. I created it using white noise, my Granular Synth patch, Plogue's EQ, Compression and also a cool feature of Peak called "Amplitude Fit..."

jake_aa_wk9.zip (74 kB)

.sources.

Haines, Christian 7.10.07, "Assets (1)," EMU. Adelaide University.

+ MIDI control

.cc - week eight.

Had some fun adding some controllers to the granular synth patch. Basically, I had the idea of creating pseudo-MIDI controllers using only the keyboard and mouse. The way I have implemented these is to use the mouse to control the grain density using the mouse. While the caps lock key is switched on the value rolls forwards and backward depending on how the mouse has been moved. While the shift key is held down, the mouse acts more like a pitch-bend wheel, moving back and fourth, then snapping back to its previous value once the shift key is released.

The grain density is parameter of the synth patch that I have chosen to modify, however the controller patch is encapsulated in a sub-patch and easily be added to other parameters. Here's where the magic happens:

jam.keyUI.pat.zip (4 kB)

Get it? You can see it used in the synth patch itself, which is shown below.

jam.gransynth~II.zip (8 kB)

The mp3 result that I have put together this week is a sort of sound design extract that I imagine accompanying space ships flying around the cinema. Say, like this:

ccweek8.mp3 (1.6 mB)

Ignore the clicks. Sitting ironing out the bugs.

.sources.

Haines, Christian 13.09.07, "MIDI and MSP," EMU, Adelaide University.

Star Wars IV intro on YouTube

active noise reduction

Today I was 'ploguing around', trying to test out the phenomena of wave cancellation. I really wanted to find out whether 'noise cancellation' can occur binaurally. Unfortunately, I couldn't get the cancellation working through headphones, nor even speakers. I could not get phase cancellation happening in the physical world - the only way the signals canceled out was if I ran them through the same channel inside Bidule. Thinking that perhaps the latency created by using the phase-invert unary operator was offsetting the waveform enough to ruin the cancellation effect, I recorded a sine wave, then inverted it in Peak. I placed both these sound files in a 'dual mono' sound document but to still no avail. It seemed however that there was some reduction in the sound, like maybe the fundamental had been lost/changed.

Any thoughts?
Maybe I need an anechoic chamber for this.

.forum - week five.

Tying up loose ends before the mid-semester break - here's the week five blog that never got posted. To kick-off this weeks electrobitz bonanza, Ben and I adventured to Toys R' Us. Alas, we again bought a toy that did not work!



Anyway, we ended just using the phone toy again. This circuit was welded together, as you can see here:



This circuit was built with a potentiometer to control pitch.

video evidence

.sources.

Haines, Christian; Tomczak, Sebastian 23.07.07, "Physical Computing (1)," EMU, Adelaide University.

.making peace with satan.

.forum - instrument proposal.

name :
additive / granular synthesis guitar

statement :
The basic idea is to use an electronic guitar as an input device into a computer, more specifically the music coding environment Max/MSP. Firstly, I would like to be able to play the guitar quite naturally, but manipulate the timbrel content of the sound via a Max/MSP interface (additive synthesis). Also, I would like to incorporate the concept of granular synthesis, a method oftentimes suited to making complicated sonic textures - drones which can float gently amid improvisatory performances. It would be desirable to be able to manipulate the aesthetic of these textures from firstly the 'grained' samples from the guitar, but primarily then the Max/MSP interface.

sketch :

physical computing II

.forum - week seven.

After a trip to Toys R' Us and a second dud toy later, Ben and I were left using the 'opewator' telephone toy again this week. Our first operation was to set it up with both the Arduino and Breadboard, so that we control the power through the computer and Max/MSP. After doing this we decided to add a 'metro' object to the patch, turning the power on and off every 50 milliseconds. Having added a potentiometer to control the pitch of the circuit too, the parameters of the device reminded somewhat of a crude granular synthesizer.

After completing this, the next circuit on the agenda was called some like "the generative moley decepticon" (or something like that). I was pretty excited by the title, and too the fact that all of the legs of the chip were being used by 33kΩ resistors. But alas, the circuit did not do anything for some reason or another, and I am sure it was not because any of the resistors legs were touching! At this point Seb, Ben and I had to part ways so I suppose you win some and you lose some.

video evidence

.sources.

Haines, Christian; Tomczak, Sebastian 6.09.07, "Physical Computing (2)," EMU, Adelaide University.

starcraft gameplay trailer

.aa - week seven.

physical computing

.forum - week six.

This week we got introduced to 'physical computing' via the Arduino board. I am extremely pleased by this new topic, physical computing is something that has more or less been on the back of my mind, the end of tongue for awhile now, and now we are getting into it. Having said that, I do find that the 'step-by-step' tasks dampen the exciting prospects of creative outlet that physical computing provides. However, and I guess as always, you need to learn to walk before you can run.

These introductory exercises had Ben and I creating square-waves pretty quickly. Initially we play the oscillator with the Ptah Max/MSP patch, then through just a potentiometer. All of this is shown in video evidence on this page.

.sources.

Haines, Christian; Tomczak, Sebastian 30.07.07, "Physical Computing (1)," EMU, Adelaide University.

i invented the granular synth not Ben nor Xenakis

.cc - week seven.

I worked together with Ben Probert to create this patch. Currently he is creating a new interface for the patch, so keep your eyes out on his blog.

As usual I have spent all of my time making the patch and left none to simply using it - however, I can see how this granular synthesis concept could have great outcomes. If you happen to download the patch, clicking on the load button will prompt you to open the sample (noise) twice. Just select the same sample both times. I tried to get around this but loading the file for both the buffer~ and sfinfo~ was a necessary evil. If there a way you can load it into both through a single pop-up window please let me know.

version 1.0 (as of 11.09.07)

gransynth.mp3 (1 mB)

version 1.1 (as of 12.09.07)

jam.gransynth~1.1.zip (4 kB)

I created the mp3 example using version 1.0, however the improved 1.1 contains an envelope feature (inside the poly~ object) which removes the clicks. Also, there is a CPU usage display, a new colour scheme and "no more frills" inside the patch.

The slight change of delivery of this weeks class was greatly appreciated, particularly the flowchart diagrams that provided a broad sketch of what the Max/MSP patch required. You could almost say that it provided 'a point of departure' which I was able to build from considerably.

.sources.

Everything.

Haines, Christian 6.09.07, "Sampling (2)," EMU, Adelaide University.

Nothing.

buff man

.cc - week six.

jam.scratch.zip

jamscratch.mp3 (660 kB)

This week I've put the time in and struggled quite a bit with the task. After playing round with the buffer~ record~ index~ count~ play~ groove~ wave~ and selector~ objects, the whole "buffer" concept really was not all that clear - the different things that these objects (must) offer is not all that obvious. As far as I can tell, incorporating these objecs into making your own objects is a 'finicky' task at the least. In what I have uploaded above I think I have atleast achieved something; my idea was to make an object which could record from your DPS input, and then playback at different speeds (and 'scrub') that soundfile.

.sources

Haines, Christian 30.08.07, "Sampling (1)," EMU, Adelaide University.

club and mace?

.cc - week five.

This week our given task was to make a FM synthesis object with all the usual features (user interface, polyphonic version, help files and so on). In doing the task however I got a side tracked and ended up just playing around with all the sounds that you can make using FM. Here's the result:

hard.mp3 (1.9 mB)

This track was taken straight from Max/MSP - has had no post production. I'm not trying to boast this point, I just need more time for such things.

.sources.

Haines, Christian 23.08.07, "Vibrato, FM and Waveshaping," EMU, Adelaide University.

machine gun design

.aa - week six.

This week I had a go at the 'cycle event' tutorial using FMod and created a machine gun sound effect loop. Here's a screenshot:




machinegun.mp3 (208 kB)


In this audio example I let the sample (originally taken from freesound) I let the loop run for a few seconds before hitting the 'key off' button.

.sources.

FMOD 2007, "FMod Designer," accessed 30.08.07.

Haines, Christian 30.08.07, "Sound Asset Design," EMU, Adelaide University.

sound design with fmod

.aa - week five.

FMod seems like a fairly useful program for sound designing a video game, even if its user interface is a little bit confusing to get used to. I used Plogue Bidule to knock together a few example game sound assets - in this case a waterfall, wind and a teleport device (like the one in halo 2). The examples I grabbed from FMod actually sound a bit less realistic than what I originally created in Plogue, because the parameters of the sounds have been randomized. In hindsight I do not think randomising the pitch of the waterfall, nor wind, was such a great idea but at least I can tick that box for the exercise. Here's the 'event editor' for the teleport sound and an mp3.

teleport.mp3 (32 kB)

Next up are the two environmental sounds I created. These are deliberately lower in volume.

waterfall.mp3 (208 kB) | wind.mp3 (208 kB)

Getting over the initial frustration of learning how a user interface works is a common task nowadays, not least for geeks like me. It's fair to say that FMod is one of the more frustrating of these, however I think once you get down to the nuts and bolts it is pretty awesome.

.sources.

FMOD 2007, "FMod Designer," accessed 28.08.07.

Haines, Christian 21.08.07, "Audio Engines Analysis," EMU, Adelaide University.

circuit bender

.forum - week four.

Oft partner in crime, Ben Probert, purchased the car toy shown in the video below. I really do not wish to start with the "back in my day" rant at age 19, but, as if they make kids toys that yell 'You're a dead man!' What the...


I made a quick sketch of the circuit on my laptop, which is shown below. As it shows, there was no obvious resistors that Ben and I could get our hands on, which made our bending task a little labourious.


Here a few of our outcomes, firstly we got the recording to speed up gradually which was quite comical. Then we got this weird droning tone sound going, which comprises the next two videos. Videos of Ben and I destroying the car are shown on Ben's blog.







...Well, all this YouTubing should kill off my internet quota by the mid-semester break so I guess after this point we wont have to blog anymore :)

.sources.

Haines, Christian 16.08.07, "Circuit Bending (I)," EMU, Adelaide University.

additive synthesis

.cc - week four.

i. Additive Synthesis object

jam.addsynth.zip (8 KB) | addsynth.mp3 (488 KB)

.sources.

Haines, Christian 16.08.07, "RM, AM and Additive Synthesis," EMU, Adelaide University.

halo engine

.aa - week four.

Both Halo and Halo 2 use a similar GDE (Game Development Environment) created by Bungie Studios, with “creative oversight” (financial support, I’d suggest) of Microsoft. The major development between these Halo installments is in fact in a middleware upgrade – the widely used physics engine: Havok. In line with the new features this development offers, the audio team decided to develop entirely new audio for Halo 2. Martin O’Donnell, the chief sound designer and also composer for the Halo franchise said this on game sound: “I believe that there are three equally important stages for game audio: producing content, implementing content and mixing content” (O’Donnell, 2002). This ‘three stage’ system reminds me of the "Audio for Games: planning, process and production" publication by Alexander Brandon that we have been looking at in Audio Arts.

The sound effects are implemented through various tables in an extensive database. Even the music for the game uses its own database system which allows for the mood, theme and tempo of the game-play to dictate the audio. Halo is certainly not the first game to utilise such an audio system, but its defiantly one of the better and most successful implantations of this, somewhat lofty idea of what music for game could be. In fact this is true of the audio throughout the game, in the final stage of O’Donnell’s process (‘production’) he has made the entire soundscape of the Halo 2 a seamless integration of VOs, SFXs and music in which the other world of Halo truly comes to life.

Game Development Environment (Halo Engine)
Advantages: Well established, bug issues ironed-out, upgradeable (eg: Havok physics), proven to work, cross-platform (using C/C++ and developed for PC and various consoles).
Disadvantages: Fundamentally out of date (for example, unable to display at 1080p resolution).

Game Audio Environment (Halo 2 Audio Engine)
Advantages: Many technological advantages, 5.1 channel audio, integrates with the physics engine (Havok) to control DSP effects parameters (for example reverberation size), programmed specifically for this title.

Both Halo and Halo 2 use a similar GDE (Game Development Environment) created by Bungie Studios, with “creative oversight” (financial support, I’d suggest) of Microsoft. The major development between these Halo instalments is in fact in a middleware upgrade – the widely used physics engine: Havok. In line with the new features this development offers, the audio team decided to develop entirely new audio for Halo 2. Martin O’Donnell, the chief sound designer and also composer for the Halo franchise said this on game sound: “I believe that there are three equally important stages for game audio: producing content, implementing content and mixing content” (O’Donnell, 2002). This ‘three stage’ system reminds me of the “Audio for games: planning, process and production” publication by )(#*)( that we have been looking at in Audio Arts.

The sound effects are implemented through various tables in an extensive database. Even the music for the game uses its own database system which allows for the mood, theme and tempo of the game-play to dictate the audio. Halo is certainly not the first game to utilise such an audio system, but its defiantly one of the better and most successful implantations of this, somewhat lofty idea of what music for game could be. In fact this is true of the audio throughout the game, in the final stage of O’Donnell’s process (‘production’) he has made the entire soundscape of the Halo 2 a seamless integration of VOs, SFXs and music in which the other world of Halo truly comes to life.

Game Development Environment (Halo Engine)
Advantages: Well established, bug issues ironed-out, upgradeable (eg: Havok physics), proven to work, cross-platform (using C/C++ and developed for PC and various consoles).
Disadvantages: Fundamentally out of date (for example, unable to display at 1080p resolution).

Game Audio Environment (Halo 2 Audio Engine)
Advantages: Many technological advantages, 5.1 channel audio, integrates with the physics engine (Havok) to control DSP effects parameters (for example reverberation size), programmed specifically for this title.

Here is a link to an interesting interview with the man himself Martin O'Donnell. It's quite insightful, despite not saying one bad work against halo (heresy).

.sources.

Haines, Christian 28.08.07, "Game Engine Overview," EMU, Adelaide University.

plogue bidule II - oscillate this

.forum - week four.

Dual Potentiometers



Light-Sensitive Potentiometer



DJ Probeboy hacking up Tool


On the topic of electro-bitz and hacking, I found this interesting tutorial on how to turn a DVD player into a light saber. Freakin' laser-beam!

Laser Flashlight Hack! - video powered by Metacafe

.sources.

Haines, Christian 9.08.07, "Modular Electronics," EMU, Adelaide University.

polyphony and instancing

.cc - week three.

This week we updated our cycle~ and phasor~ objects. They are now polyphonic.

i. Polyphonic Cycle

jam.polycycle.zip
(8 KB)

i. Polyphonic Phasor

jam.polyphasor.zip

(8 KB)

Thankfully this weeks subject matter was a little bit easier to get my head around. So hope you like it.

Is it really week four already?! What the hell happened? Where is the time going?

.sources.

Grosse, Darwin 2006, "The Poly Papers (1)," cycling 74' online.

Haines, Christian 9.08.07, "Polyphony & Instancing," EMU, Adelaide University.

halo 2 online

.aa - week three.

Halo 2 has been played online several million times. The audio component to this online sensation is vital to its success, and has been observed as such by many ‘game award’ ceremonies. As shown in this video, Halo 2 multiplayer is intensely fast paced, where players must use absolutely all information feed to them from the game to their own advantage.

Halo 2 assets.xls (excel doc) | Halo 2 assets.jpg (image)

One aspect of the audio that I do not mention in this asset list is the player-to-player communication provided by the Xbox Live headset (pictured). This type of communication is widespread now in almost all online console gaming and all online PC gaming. Everyone who uses plays online games is affected by this development in multiplayer gaming. It makes for a much more personalised gaming experience, and I see it very much as a new avenue of globalisation. We have all heard of online dating, well this development in game audio has made the online game environment just as suitable place to find new love as the pub. And yes, that’s a little unnerving.


.sources.
Haines, Christian 7.08.07, "Process & Planning," EMU, Adelaide University.

fun with piezo

.forum - week two.

Learning to solder was going great, until on the last weld I burnt my finger. ƒΩçK!!

From there I had a bit of a play with a piezo mic (or speaker if you catch them on a saturday night). The great thing about these is you can throw them about like a cheap whore - just like you'd normally do to university microphones. Haha that's a joke just for you Christian (you read these right?)

Anyway, I tried a number of different way of using the piezo as a sort of 'contact' mic to try and catch sound vibrations out of water. Toward this goal, I filled my lunchbox with water and put a layer of glad-wrap over the top. I tried swishing the water around but it just did not achieve the sound I was after. Then I had the idea of putting my iPod headphones onto the glad-wrap - to see how traveling through water would alter the sound of .. Parkway Drive as the case was.

parkwaywater.m4a (792 kB)

I must confess this is simply a reenactment of the way it went, I actually recorded the setup much further back from my laptop, so to avoid spill from the headphones into the laptop mic. After accidentally getting my headphones, the piezo and my iPod wet I figured I would just mess around with the little mic to see what sounds (nay, noise art!) I could come up with. The result was entitled i need take a piezo bad (584 kB)

.sources.

Haines, Christian some time last week i rekon it was "Welding and fondling the electro-bits," EMew! Aderaide University... You know the one on North Terrace. NO~ not the the cool looking one next to Fowlers, the one further up where all the ugly kids get off the bus

musick

i have been working on some new tracks. this one's sits in the minimal glitch electronica vain again.


slow.mp3 (4.2 MB)


it starting off being called 'slow', then 'not quite asleep', the 'dress formal for bed', and now it's just called 'slow' again. ahh, whatever... perhaps i need through a cricket ball at my keyboard and see what comes outs (ala Autechre).

signal switching and routing

.cc - week two.

i. sine function generator


jam.cycle.zip

ii. sawtooth function generator


jam.phasor.zip

We added these sound creation objects to our MSP libraries this week, as well as adding a mute function to our previous objects. You can find these updated objects in my archived library below.

jam.msp.library.zip (16 kB)

The major challenges I faced this week was understanding the concept of the 'phase' inlet with the phasor~ and cycle~ objects. I understand the fundamental concept of phase, but what I can not figure out is how sending a number greater then one or less then negative one effects the sound, if that is the range of these functions..?

Aside from that it was another fairly straightforward week of MSP, with my main challenge being to read through the tutorials. Reading a Max/MSP tutorial is an exercise that I likened to eating a raw Weet-bix.

.sources.

Haines, Christian 31.07.07, "Signal Switching and Routing," EMU, Adelaide University.

final fantasy VII

.aa - week two.

Final Fantasy VII came out in 1997 for the PlayStation X and I was stoked.


There are absolutely no VO (voice-over) recordings in the game whatsoever. Basically the story is so long and convoluted, and contains so many characters, that audio director Nobuo Uematsu decided that the limitations of using recorded audio were too great. Interestingly this was not the only limitation he was faced with, he decided to only use the PlayStations internal chip and created a huge score of MIDI tracks for the game. He did this not only to free up the disc to utilise the power of the PlayStations visual hardware, but also so that the music would never stop to load – much unlike the visual element. In this way, FF7 is certainly an example of a game in which the audio was a primary factor to its success. Given that the game comprises three discs, it was a truly colossal game, with hours of typically frustrating game-play, movies and (best of all) music.

Aesthetically the game opens in the industrious world of Midgar (shown below), with the sounds of steam blow-offs and chrome metal smashes. Most of the sounds tend to conform into this feeling that a dark, cold metal city sits in the night sky. This kind of image is often painted too by industrial music, making use of sharp ‘nasty’ MIDI sounds; this is what probably draws me to FF7 the most.


The interface is navigated with two sounds – as you move the cursor over different buttons and when you select one of these buttons. Environmental sounds normally come intertwined with the music – for the most part the game is set in industrial cities, and the music matches this. Also I recall a part of the game when the characters walk through a windy desert, for which the music contains a swishy white noise sound. As well as the environment, the music often incorporates the mood of the story. A simple example of such mood-music would be the characters enter battle or face a boss, and also when the player wins a battle. In this last case, a triumphant marching band sort of theme is played, and a ‘chimey’ sound effect represents the money being collected from the bad guy.

.sans analysis.

These recordings are pretty average quality, but hopefully you get the idea.

UI SFX
In this example you here me move the cursor three times then make a selection. These are the interface sounds used throughout the game (main menu, ingame and so on).

FMV music
This is the audio that accompanies the opening cut-scene, in which I think you get a good idea of the industrial feel to the music. After around 5 seconds you here the ‘verby’ footsteps of the Aeris Gainsborough walking down a chrome metal street in Midgar. Towards the end, after 31 seconds, you hear the huge chords which accompanies the main FF7 logo (see above) coming onscreen.

Battle music
This sample begins with a swishy blow-off sound, which any FF7 player will know, occurs when a player goes into battle. The feel of increased tension in the music suits the in-game action. You can hear the same UI sounds as before after about 11 seconds (selecting to attack) then at the 12 second mark you hear the main character Cloud Strife jump over the enemy, attack him with his sword, and finally you hear the enemy die. This is last sound effect makes the sorts of ‘a-o-waaa’ noise. Love it. At around the 25th second, you hear the music change, playing big strong chords, signifying the battle has been won. After this music changes again to a more mellow feel, as the player chooses what loot to collect from the defeated enemies.

Critical Strike
Many games make use of ‘critical strikes’, whereby the attacker has a chance to do around double the damage they would normally do on a melee attack. After this sound effect this sample also contains the enemy dying (a-o-waaa).

.sources.

Brandon, Alexander 2005, "Audio for Games: planning, process and production," New Riders Games, Berkeley, Calif.

Haines, Christian 31.07.07, "Game Audio Analysis," EMU, Adelaide University.

2 + 2 = 5

.cc - week one.

This semester we are creating our own MSP (Max Signal Processing) libraries, with the aim of pooling them altogether for the final project later on. To begin with we were asked to make the following two objects:

i. Pop-less DAC (Digital to Analogue Converter)

jam.dac.zip

ii. Volume fader

jam.fadeamp.zip

.thoughts.
For the most part the original dac~ object is better than the jam.dac~ object. While my object may not pop to begin with, it instead has a small volume ramp. Having said that, I have not really encountered a problem with the original dac~ popping. On top of this dac~ has other features like the 'stopwindow' message, as well as an endless addition of channels and messages which arrange those channels. If you double click on the dac~ object it opens the Max "DSP Status" window which has heaps of options/preferences for Digital Signal Processing in Max. So while I learned some stuff about MSP making jam.dac~, it's not going take over dsp~ just yet.

.issues.
The only way I know incorporating these objects into other patches is by using the 'bpatcher' object or by creating a 'patcher' and copying the whole objects patch into that window. Having said that, clicking on 'help' for each of my custom objects will only open the 'thispatcher.help' window. And also, I was unable to set the 'Ramp Time' for the jam.fadeamp~ object as a argument (it's only inputted through an inlet).

It is going to be a semester of number crunching. I can smell the blood, sweat and tears already.

.sources.

Haines, Christian 26.07.2007 "Music & Sound Processing." EMU, Adelaide University.

victorian synth

.forum - week one.

victorian synth on youtube

Making a ‘Victorian Synth’ in Music Tech forum was a fun and simple introduction to the realm of instrument construction. As far as I could tell, the two main ways to alter the sound of the speaker being connected to a 9V battery was to, firstly, alter the signal flow between the battery and speaker (like running the connection point over a metal file) or to, secondly, alter the output capability of the speaker itself (like burying the speaker in a bowl of rocks). Using the second of these possibilities, Seb used a paper clip to generate a pitch sweeping pseudo-oscillator tone. For me this was the most impressive used of the victorian synth.

Mitchell Whitelaw’s keynote presentation at ACMC last year featured a video in which a small green dot wobbled around and expanded into different shapes. I was really impressed with by this video. He went on to explain how it was created; by connecting a weird mishmash of electronics into a video input. I am hoping that this ‘Electronics, Instruments and Improvisation’ course touches on other media (particularly visual) at some point.

This kind of experimentation with electronic componentry can obviously have breathtaking results, having said that, I do not think I will ever need to play a victorian synth again. Just on that, if we were to compare what we were doing with the vicorian synth to the tele-visual media, that is, if we were outputting through a screen rather than a speaker, we would then have been perhaps drawing on a screen and putting objects on it, like we were doing to the speaker. However in the visual medium one would tend not to do this, it seems a little stupid, and having said that I am happy working from the behind the output device. The possibilities of what one can create and send to a speaker, rather than what one can create by altering the vibration of that speaker, are greater and preferable.

This course intends for each student to create an instrument, which to then use for improvisation. I have idea for my own interface/intrument, which springs from this dilemma: Oftentimes I am sitting at my computer tapping a beat on the desk then trying to write this into a program like Sibelius or Reason. While both extensive experience with this, and years of aural classes have diminished this problem for me, I still feel that an interface which cuts out the middle man between my desk, my brain and the computer should exist (perhaps one does?). So basically what I am envisaging is an electronic drum kit that is played with your fingers and is primarily (but not exclusively) a tool for composition. As I have said already, the avenues toward visual output are also attractive. Just an idea.

.sources.

Haines, Christian. Tomczak, Seb. Whittington, Stephen. 26.07.07 "Introduction to Electronics, Instruments and Improvisation," EMU, Adelaide University.

game audio

.aa - week one.

Bubble Bobble was released in 1986, before I was born, but was popular enough to make it onto plenty of subsequent game systems. Beginning as an arcade game, its now avaliable for PS2 and xbox 360.

It incorporates two-player cooperative really well (second player can join whenever). It was one of the first games to have multiple endings; finishing the 100 levels in single player mode will only warp the player back to a previous level. Finishing the game with two-players will successfully rescue bub and bobs' girlfriends. Giggity. However, this is not the "true" ending, for that, one must enter the code obtained from rescuing the girlfriends and enter that on the starting screen to unlock 'super' bubble bobble. In this mode the enemies are randomised, making it very difficult for the two-players to complete the game (again) and clock the true ending! Some of the baddies...

Stoner


Baron von Blubba


In the game there is this repetitive song that loops over and over, until the single melody of the song is so ingrained in your head all you can think about is shooting bubbles out of little dragons mouths and bopping along to that silly tune. Apart from that the only sound effects are the sound of the dragons jump and the sound of a bubble popping. Aesthetically, the music blends in nicely with the sound effects and the feel of the whole game generally - bubbly and silly.

There is a remake of the game available for OSX here

.sources.

Haines, Christian 24.07.07, "Introduction to Game Audio," EMU, Adelaide University.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubble_bobble
accessed 27.07.07

saxophone quartet

In the previous week I recorded a saxophone quartet. The quartet includes:

Bianca Pittman - Baritone Saxophone
Hamish Buckley - Tenor Saxophone
Martin Cheney - Alto Saxophone
Kristy Williamson - Soprano Saxophone

a ragtime nightmare | a study in contrasts

extravehicular

9 ‘ 19

score | extravehicular.mp3

This piece is built over a thick ambience drone, which is composed from a drum sample being played extremely slowing – at a speed that oscillates back and forth, playing it in reverse too. The main instrumental accompaniment to this is a “probability” drum machine. This specifically written program uses programmed percentages to determine the likelihood of playing each drum. The resulting drum score is hazardous, lending itself to the industrial samples used. Together the drone and drum parts offer a very ‘digitally’ imbued version of electronica. Against this an acoustic piano is juxtaposed, to provide a small and distorted element of human melody – distorted in the way the piano is produced and cut up to add unnatural elements to the instruments distinctive sound. Aesthetically, the piece sits somewhere around the Industrial sound of Nine Inch Nails and the minimal glitch sound of the Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto collaboration. The piece is also greatly inspired by the “Odyssey” series by Arthur C. Clarke; this piece is too a snapshot of a human operating in space. The droning ambience part would here be emblematic of the machinery in such a scene, while the piano would be representative of the human.

snerf snerf

.cc - week twelve.

"I want this to go from this beat to that beat over this amount of time, with this curve, which is shaped according to this equation." (Booth, 2004)

This quote from Autechre was my primary inspiration for this semesters Max Patch. I have called it a 'probability drum machine', which basically uses user-defined percentages to determine whether a drum should be played on a certain beat. For example, a user can specify 100% chance of a kick on beat one, and 56% chance of a kick on beat 'two-and'. This creates an exciting deference to what is commonly found in dance music- instead of the common 'hit the crash every four bars', there could be a 25% chance of hitting the crash every bar. Another nice thing that the prototype produced was the ability control the bar between randomisation and specified input- it was easy set up a train of kick on one and snare on three, but over the top have somewhat more random, and realistically intuitive hi-hat hits. I also want to be able to morph from one beat to another over time (ala Autechre), create simple panning and volume automations and simply turn the thing on 'auto'.



The program itself will work best in collaboration with "real" instruments. So for the piece I make I intend to accompany the laptop with the piano. In the piece I am drawing inspiration from Autechre, some Nine Inch Nails industrialisation, as well as the electonica minimalism produced from the collaberation of Alva Noto and Ryuichi Sakamoto.

.sources.

Haines, Christian 31.05.07, “Miscellaneuos Topic,” Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide.

sit on the spiral

.forum – week twelve.

It is an interesting polarity between improvised and composed music. Like all good polarities, I am interested in (for some strange reason) comparing it foremost to left and right wing politics. As such, improvised music I would compare straight away to communism, while composed music would be more indicative of dictatorial Fascism. Now, what the hell does that have to do with anything? Well…

Polarity. It is a scheme which seems to control everything; darkness versus light, good versus evil, classical versus jazz. No matter what your philosophical viewpoint is, surely it sits somewhere on a scale, a polarity which caters for all. Perhaps the most intriguing polarity to which I have thus far been introduced is the one that Professor Mark Carroll is oftentimes found spouting. That is, the polarity between Apollo and Dionysus, the head and the heart and between intellect and the senses.

So how does this sit in the war between improvisation and composition? Composed music requires a certain degree of intellectualism, while improvised music could be considered more impulsive and sensual. Stephen Whittington seemed to make mention of composition appearing to ‘win out’ in western culture. I feel that this is just one battle of polarities that continues to define the life of music, to this day. While certain entities can sit entirely on one side of the spectrum, the spectrum continues to exist with many wonderful exponents.

In the current day, post-modern as I later found out, I find it quite amazing that people can still cling so stringently to their particular position on the spectrum. It is obviously still accepted, I mean there are still people making money with dance music and even ‘old-school’ metal is making a return. But to be honest, at the moment I am listening to Gui Boratto’s new techno wonder “Chromophobia,” I have Stravinsky’s “PȨtrouchka” in my car’s CD player, am learning “Laid to Rest” by Lamb of God on guitar and one of Clementi’s Rondos’ on piano. I like dipping my toes into all aspects of argument, and am just genuinely interested in doing way too much. In other words, right now I am sitting a bit like white noise on the spectrum.

Although, it’s entirely possible that I am just a dirty commi.

.sources.

Whittington, Stephen and Harris, David 01.06.07, “Composition versus Improvisation,” Electronic Music Unit, Adelaide University.

mastering superman

.aa – week twelve.

This week we continued the mastering exercises, taking original (un-mastered) recordings to make our own using digital plug-ins. We also had the Edensound Mastered versions to compare our own efforts to. I used the filterbank EQ, Aphex Aural Exciter, MC2000M4 compression, Maxim Limiter and the power dither.


superman (un-mastered) | superman (my version) | superman (Edensound)

The main difference between my mastering and the Edensound, is the bass is stronger in my version and the Edensound sounds a little more ‘chimey’ and ‘verby’ around the vocals and acoustic. They are both loud, the Edensound is both a little louder and a little warmer (less crunchy) in pushing the gain. This is the difference between digital and analogue equipment. I noticed also that while I grew to prefer my EQ and compression settings, the only worked particularly well with the speakers I was monitoring with, but when I played the recordings through my laptop speakers the Edensound version was again better.

.sources.

Grice, David 29.05.07 "Mastering (2)." Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide.

conjacking and deconjacking

.forum – week eleven.

Commencing forum this week was Simon Whitelock who used his experience in DJing / club music, to talk about remixing, sourcing and plain out stealing, or ‘jacking,’ music from different places. His manner of speech was very funny, likable enough because he actually raised a very good point – he demonstrated at least dance three songs which are extremely well known, and that are very much ‘jacked’ from other artists. The fact that only one or two people in the room knew how unoriginal the tracks were, was disturbing I thought. This is not a room full of classical student, not even jazz, but music technology students, who in my experience have a great knowledge of modern popular music, and who had no idea that this music was utterly ‘jacked’.

When the forum opened up into general discussion, many points were raised about this ‘jacking’ issue; the post-modern climate, the over abundance of ideas already around, but for me one that I think these artists should think about: who is going to look back in twenty years or more and care about a composer who just slightly sped up someone else’s music? Further, are you as the composer going to be happy your life and work when the music you composed was simply music borrowed from someone else? Having said all this, I have nothing intrinsically against DJs, club music; just if I were ever to create music in such styles I would be a little apprehensive toward putting my name to something that I feel does not really have a stamp of ‘me’ in the music somewhere.

Next up Nathan Shea gave us a bit of an insight into the realm of ‘black metal’. He talked about the advancement of technology, and the way that some artists reject “new wave” technology. Case in point – some Norweigan artist who apparently basically uses 4 track tape desk, as well as a Discman to make his records. This guy sounds like the penultimate goth, he hates everyone so much he can not even face going into a studio. This particular goth must be metals equilivent to ‘lo-fi’ electronica. I have to say that all this lo-fi, lo-tech stuff is an intriguing field of interest, I am reminded of Seb Tomscek’s work with Game Boys.

Final presenter was John Delaney, who talked about visual sound. He discussed both the role of sound design in film, as well as the visual effects of ambient music. He referred to artists like Aphex Twin and Lustmord (who I will be investigating in the near future). I know some people think it is a toss, but I really like listening ambient music - letting it ignite your imagination in a way that no other music can. Delaney revealed a piece which made him feel he like he was ‘alone in a forest’; I certainly agree that it can be a very environmental experience. Ambient music does seem to evoke visual imagery, in the same that dance music evokes, say, dancing. Someone mentioned that ambient music is monotonously dark and dreary. While there is some truth to this statement, I would point them to the work of Sigur Rós, on their albums ( ) and Agætis Byrjun. Although for the most part they explore a similar dark low-level tension, over large lengths these constructs are subsequently shattered, releasing from tension with some the most beautiful, uplifting resolutions that I have heard in today’s music.

.sources.

Delaney, John 25.05.07 “Construction / Deconstruction,” Electronic Music Unit, Adelaide University.

Shea, Nathan 25.05.07 “Construction / Deconstruction,” Electronic Music Unit, Adelaide University.

Simon, Whitelock 25.05.07 “Construction / Deconstruction,” Electronic Music Unit, Adelaide University.

laptop duet

.cc – week eleven.

On Monday night Craaaazy Matt and I teamed up for a jam. We both were on our mac laptops, and as such found it incredibly easy to network. See here:


The main idea for our collaboration was to create some drum beats. Having done some work with this idea in Max/MSP already, I decided create the drum beats then send this to Matt over our network, and for him to map it into a program such as Reason. So while I was in charge of creating the initial MIDI data, Matt would fine tune the resulting audio data.

Distributed Performance

weimer vs crazy matt

We jammed away using this model several times, and we certainly enjoyed it. We did notice that there was lag using the wireless network, however I was creating the drum beats in advance so it did not matter. Above is an audio sample that I liked, there was plenty more - for another check on Matt’s blog.

.sources.

Haines, Christian 24.05.07 "Distributed Performance." Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide.

mastering

.aa - week eleven.

This week we explored the process of mastering, taking a look at Edensound Mastering. This is a Melbourne based company. Using a few software plug-ins I had a chance to pretend to master the 'drama queen' remix I made a couple of weeks ago.


Drama Queen (Corgan Mix)

...the old (un-mastered) mix can be found here.

.sources.

Grice, David 22.05.07, "Mastering (1)," Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide.

interface design

.cc - week ten.

This week I started by upgrading my Max patch from last week, but ended up tearing my hair out trying to debug 'delta time,' so I decided to cut my losses and use this patch from week eight. This is used with Reason (ReDrum).

Random Drum Sequencer

.sources.

Haines, Christian 18.05.07 "Interface Design" Lecture presented in the EMU, University of Adelaide.

the great deconstructor

.forum – week ten.

Frederick May kicked forum off this week by letting us all know that there is one secret elusive formula behind every number one song, making it number one, and which lacks in songs that do not. It is an interesting idea, but I tend to think is a very western view of music – one that tends to build pop stars up to be ‘larger than life’ all to often. This is something that has happened for centuries in western culture, for example the famous writings of Ernst Hoffman in ‘Beethoven’s Instrumental Music’:

“Mozart is concerned with the superhuman, the miraculous element that inhabits the inmost spirit.”

To be honest, I actually much prefer the pre-Romantic view of the musician as the ‘craftsman.’ I really do not think the musicians who are rich/famous sit on some other plain to... anyone else. Musicians are musicians, lots of historically famous musicians only reached acclaim after their death, so what does that say about their formula? There is no (one) single secret formula to musical success. Unlike when creating KFC.

Dragos Nastasie spoke next. Well actually he mainly played music, with the
Prodigy, the Chemical Brothers, as well as Nine Inch Nails making a welcome
Appearance into the forum. He talked mainly about the construction and deconstruction that can occur within a single song. This is approach to composition can be quite effective, especially in tandem the mechanistic aesthetic of ‘Techno’ and ‘Industrial’ music.

Craaaaazy Matt Reverie presented a television commercial he created for the Media Resource Centre. Alas, his presentation went quite amiss with the technology crumbling around him! He talked about how he came to create the music, using major and minor tonalities to construct matching moods to the visual sources. It was interesting really, I appreciated his honesty about his whole project, specifically, how he came to land the project and then how he went about doing it.

.sources.

May, Frederick 17.05.07, “Construction/Deconstruction,” Forum of the Electronic Music Unit, Adelaide University.

Nastasie, Dragos 17.05.07, “Construction/Deconstruction,” Forum of the Electronic Music Unit, Adelaide University.

Reverie, Matt 17.05.07, “Construction/Deconstruction,” Forum of the Electronic Music Unit, Adelaide University.

avalon preamp

.aa - week ten.

William Revill and I missed this weeks audio arts class because we went to Melbourne to see Nine Inch Nails. Anyway, today we had a chance to play around with the Avalon preamp (covered in class), which has Dave has dutifully been explaining to us nin fans.



Will and I used a semi-acoustic guitar with a direct line in. We also used the Amplitude plug-in to give a bit of colour. The track is Radiohead's "I Might Be Wrong:"

AVALON DIRECT INPUT TEST
DI (guitar's mic/preamp) | DI (avalon preamp)

The Avalon preamp gives the guitar a much warmer sound in my opinion, here's another recording I made while I was just messing around. Jammin with avalon preamp

MIDI sequencer

.cc - week nine

A little bit shabby this week. Delta time goes into the Coll Jake object, as a note with a velocity of 0 for the duration of the rest. Im not sure that this works though, or how MIDI deals with rests.

MIDI Sequencer
archive | midi seq test.mp3

.sources.

Haines, Christian 05.05.07 Creative Computing "Data Management and Application Control" Lecture presented in the EMU, University of Adelaide.

resonances/frequencies from mr louth-robins

.forum - week nine.

This week Tristan Louth-Robins presented an overview of his master project still and moving lines which focuses on the work of Alvin Lucier while also looking Tristan’s own creative work. Before I go on, does that not sound like an awesome format in which to do project?

The basic premise of Alvin Luciers work which Tristan looked at, is to present the wonders of acoustic phenomena in a creative way. Examples of this are his “I Am Sitting In A Room,” as well as “Music for Solo Performer” which blasts amplified subsonic brain waves onto percussion.

As such the project will need to look at the science of sound (Science? Who the hell said science?) in considerable depth, I would assume. This is something I know I would probably struggle with, because science ‘aint my bag baby.’ Hearing Tristan talk about standing waves and resonant frequencies did not really clear the water for me at all. Ok, these things do make some sense, just not a lot of sense, make sense?

Tristan talked about his intriguing work teapot, or perhaps tpot_(x). This follows the vain of “I Am Sitting In A Room,” using the resonant frequencies of a teapot to gradually filter subsequent playbacks and recordings, cycling on and on. It is always refreshing to hear someone experimenting with instrumentation, so I think the teapot here is an excellent choice. Teapots of coarse come in different sizes, colours and materials, these are all things Tristan is mewing over.

Finally, I had my own idea for a Lucier-vained piece. What if you amplified your subsonic brain waves so loud that they melted everyone nearby’s insides, by around 140 dB I suppose. You could walk the streets are literally melt minds not with your guitar, but with your mind!

.sources.

Louth-Robins, Tristan 10.05.07 "Still and Moving Lines (Project Outline)," Presented in the Electronic Music Unit, Adelaide University.
(http://tristanlouthrobins.blogspot.com)

drama queen mix

.aa - week nine.

drama queen (corgan mix)

This is the second mix of 'drama queen,' around 40 seconds worth. I went for a sort of 'Mellon Collie & the Infinite Sadness' era Smashing Pumpkins sound. The basic elements here are some slightly dirty guitar sounds, juxtaposed with some fairly clean polite high guitar lines, as well as a healthy dash of electronica in the drums & percussion. Listen for where I use a signal generator to make a short sine wave pitch of 48 Hz, generously coaxed with reverb. I only used it the signal generator twice, when the band first comes in, and at the start of the chorus. If you guys do look at this mix first thing in class (as was mentioned last audio arts) the signal generator is in the track called "floor buzz" or something. Although this is only 40 seconds, most of the work toward making the full song in this style mix is done really.

.sources.

Grice, David 08.05.07, “Mixing (2),” Tutorial presented in the Electronic Music Unit, Adelaide University.

random ReDrum controller

.cc - week eight.

This is a Max/MSP patch that controls Reason (Adapted for DigiDesign version). The main patch to look for in the .zip archive is named CiCE8 (mother patch). Hopefully the redrum.rsb file loads the samples straight into the virtual ReDrum, if not they are located in folder "CiCE8." What is CiCE8? C(reative) C(omputing) (week)8 with an 'i' and an 'E' added.

Probability ReDrum Controller
archive | random drums.mp3

Unfortunately I spent more time making the software than playing with it, as you might hear. There are bugs with the program, but hey nothings perfect; as if the 10 MIDI controllers Reason sets for "Drum Length" refer to the two-way decay switch, not the big knob next to it!

.sources.

Haines, Christian 26.04.07 Creative Computing "MIDI Information and Virtual Instrumentation" Lecture presented in the EMU, University of Adelaide.

mixing

.aa - week eight.

In the first take I went for a bit of a light distortion sound, trying to emulate the Alanis Morrisette early 90s simple grunge/lead sound.
drama queen with lead

In this version I tried to give the Reason drums a slightly more modern electronic sound, while maintaining some of the grunge dirt. To get some extra control over the overall drum sound, I routed the each of the drum tracks to an Aux track, and used effects on it.
drama queen with boxy drums

.sources.

Grice, David 01.05.07, “Mixing (1),” Tutorial presented in the Electronic Music Unit, Adelaide University.

arrogance from the status quo

.forum - week eight.

In the exciting to conclusion to ‘gender in music technology,’ everyone again got to have his or her say on the topic. I entered with a open mind; I hear new things. Stephen introduced the topic once again, with the interesting idea of modern technology being a somewhat of a “boys toys” competition, using an amusing penis extension metaphor. While this has some truth to it, I find that socially women are more concerned with owning an up-to-date mobile phone, so once again, the line begins to blur…

Stephen Whittington presented topics like ‘technology fetishism’, cyber identity and the sexuality of cyborgs. To hear these modern subjects addressed by someone of Stephens generation is really rare, and it is refreshing to hear his learned outlook. Generally as far as I get with technology and baby-boomers, is teaching them to lock/unlock their new phones that they’ll probably never use. It is a pity there is no forum on this topic!

Bradley Leffler started things off this week, with a look at Kraftwerk. As with many of the presenters, he began by stepping back and exploring the fundamental, historical differences between a man and a women. Though all these presenters are obviously correct in that, I feel that since we were in the caves, even since 50 years ago, humans have changed (evolved?) a great deal (psychologically at the least). My point here is that though I myself believe in evolution, comparing the man-ape to the modern computer user is somewhat absurd. In fact what we today are doing with the computer, is difficult to compare to... anything.

Laura Gadd presented the lyrics of such artists as Pink, Eminem and Kylie Minogue. She tried to represent these as ‘typical’ emotions for each gender type however (as I am sure subsequent speaker Peter Kelly would attest to) these were pop-culture saturated lyrics. So even if these singers did happen to feel that way, I doubt they even wrote those lyrics themselves. So really, who cares what some male record company executive says about female emotions through some young singer? Sure, I made that scenario up, but who knows if it is true or not? Who knows anything more about these musicians than you can buy there new hit as a crap sounding ringtone for $3.95?

After Ben Cakebread broke the ice very nicely by performing one of the all time great “Bohemian Rhapsody” on the piano, I was a little disappointed that his presentation was really just a Queen worship session. Nevertheless, I dig Queen; all is forgiven.

It’s been an interesting topic where much light has been shed, however I still feel that ‘gender in music technology’ is something that will not be understood for some years to come.

.sources.

Whittington, Stephen 03.05.07, “Gender in Music Technology,” Forum of the EMU, University of Adelaide.

Leffler, Bradley 03.05.07, “Gender in Music Technology,” Presentation of the EMU, University of Adelaide.

Gadd, Laura 03.05.07, “Gender in Music Technology,” Presentation of the EMU, University of Adelaide.

Cakebread, Ben 03.05.07, “Gender in Music Technology,” Presentation of the EMU, University of Adelaide.

Kelly, Peter 03.05.07, “Gender in Music Technology,” Presentation of the EMU, University of Adelaide.

probability note generator

.cc - week seven.

Probability Note Generator Max Patch
max patch | text format

.sources.

Haines, Christian 26.04.07 Creative Computing "Messaging & Analysis." Lecture presented in the EMU, University of Adelaide.

keyboard instruments

.aa – week seven.

This weeks task was to record the piano. Since starting at the EMU it is something I have done regularly, but it was defiantly worth hearing the things that you pick up covered in class.

A good set of microphones to use for recording the piano are the Neumann KM-84s. Perhaps the KM-84s only drawback in this respect is that they lack a little in the lower end. Also where you place these microphones can have a huge impact on the sound. Having tried several position one that I liked was just behind (and above) the performer, in a spaced pair. I have provided below an example how the height of these microphones can change the sound:

KM-84 pair parallel to performers head | KM-84 pair raised 1.5 metres

The microphone stands were not moved between these recordings; only the height of the microphone was adjusted. I think you will agree that the second (raised) recording is preferable – something that seems to ring true most times I have used the KM-84s (that they like sit up and over the performer). The sound of these KM-84s can be added along with other microphones inside the piano, adding a nice clear attack, gorgeous top-end, and a dash of room ambience.

.mid-side.
The best piano recordings I have ever made employ the Mid-Side technique. This technique involves:
- place a pair of microphones parallel
- set one to figure 8 and the other to cardioid.
- once you have made the recording, duplicate the figure 8 track and invert it. Pan the two figure 8 tracks fully opposite.

The Mid-Side gives you a very warm rich sound, with a good sound for the full spectrum of the piano. It is also a very characteristic sound; I would be a little wary of when to use it, depending on genre and so on. If you are just after a realistic sound of the piano then it is defiantly the way to go, but I would not necessarily say that that’s what you want with most modern popular styles.

.recordings.
For these recordings we used the Neumann U87’s in the Mid Side configuration, and also added a room microphone - Rode NTV. As usual we just experimented, trailing different positions for the NTV. The place we ended up using was over in front of a window, quite a way from the piano. The cardioid microphone was faced to the widow, so was concentrated primarily on the reflections – this added a nice level of natural reverb. Anyway this collaboration of the spaced pair (KM84s), Mid Side (U87s) and room mic (NTV) could probably have used some mixing, but more on that next week.

Gymnopedia no .1 | X-Files Theme

.sources.

Grice, David 24.04.07, “Keyboard Instruments,” Tutorial presented in the Electronic Music Unit, Adelaide University.

Robjohns, Hugh 1999, Piano principles, Sound on Sound, viewed 27.04.07,
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/may99/articles/recpiano.html

you tell the difference

.forum – week seven.

This week Ben Probert, Douglas Loudon, Amy Sincock and myself presented under the topic of “Can you tell the difference? - Gender in Music Technology.”

Ben Probert raised some very interesting points about archetypes in the fields of technology and music respectively, and then related his discoveries to his area of interest – Music Education. Clearly he had researched thoroughly, and followed through with a composed and articulate presentation. Ben truly is a fine academic, the only way his presentation could have been improved is if he perhaps spoke a little more slowly, I feel that he raised some points that were swept over before I had really considered them properly.

I have hand it to Douglass, I really could not see myself doing a presentation such as this, without a script. But he did, and he generated plenty of discussion around the forum, which is always good to hear, and something that I really enjoy.

Amy seemed quite nervous, I would hate to think this topic has made her study of Music Technology awkward in any way. She raised some very rational points; that anyone with the determined inclination to study in a particular field should do exactly that. I agree.

Finally my presentation looked at some of the work of Björk, and I considered whether art itself has gender/sexuality, what role gender/sexuality plays in the creation of and reaction from art. In this I highlighted the song “And I love her” by the Beatles, among others, and tried to suggest this point – Why should you tell a difference?

Stephen finished the forum by giving us a ditty from John Cage’s comprehensively study of mushrooms - that mushrooms have not two, but hundreds of different genders. Nature really is amazing.

.sources.

Loudon, Douglas 26.04.07, “Gender in Music Technology,” Presentation of the EMU, University of Adelaide.

Morris, Jacob 26.04.07, “Gender in Music Technology,” Presentation of the EMU, University of Adelaide.

Probert, Ben 26.04.07, “Gender in Music Technology - And the lack of female interest,” Presentation of the EMU, University of Adelaide.

Sincock, Amy 26.04.07, “Gender in Music Technology.” Presentation of the EMU, University of Adelaide.

Whittington, Stephen 26.04.07, “Gender in Music Technology - Can you tell the difference?” Forum of the EMU, University of Adelaide.

nin keys final

.cc - week six.

NINKEYS archive

The patch file that you want to start by opening (in the downloadable archive) is called "ninboardfinal."

The Keyboard shortcuts are the same as last time:
arrow up/down : Toggle Octave
Z - , : white keys
s - j : black keys
space bar : MIDI initialise

.reflection.

The only thing I struggled with this week was creating help files for (sub-)patcher objects. I recalled from class that you simply needed to append ".help" to the end of the a subpatcher's filename to create a helpfile for that subpatch. Anyway, someone can show me what I am doing wrong once Uni goes back I am sure...

Having gained heaps of knowledge with using Max, I am looking forward to leaving the MIDI keyboard patch behind... it's a mess that's I don't thinks worth repairing; I'd sooner start again. I get the feeling that the MSP side of the coin is going to be more enjoyable, raw MIDI info really does not get me going. So looking forward to that in this half of the semester.

.sources.

Haines, Christian 02.04.07, Creative Computing - Week 6, "Messaging and Routing”. Lecture presented at Tutorial Room 4.07, Schultz Building, University of Adelaide.

forget my name, forget my face

.forum - week six.

In the final week of the “collaboration” themed forum class, we heard the thoughts of a few of our seniors around the Electronic Music Unit:

.the 9:13.
Luke Harrold presented a short film called “the 9:13,” which he composed the music for. Directed by Matthew Phipps, the project did not sound like ideal environment for collaborative work – Luke mentioning that he never met with the sound designer – however, I guess it’s not an ideal world. I thoroughly enjoyed what we did see of the film, Luke’s music was eerie and well suited to the train station set. Being an Adelaide based film, it straight away reminded of the (also Adelaide made) film “2: 37” (similar title no?) which I recently watched, and too recommend.

.compossible.
David Harris presented yet another of his ‘out there’ works’ – Compossible for twelve musicians (with artist Pamela Rataj). What can one say about this one? Trippy!

.behind the door.
Honours postgrad Poppi Doser then treated us to her collaborative piece “behind the door,” which she created with the animator Betty Qian. I thoroughly enjoyed it, the simple, plain and yet still weird and alien aesthetic of the work connected across the mediums. The piece in fact reminded me a lot of such Tool video clips as ‘Parabola’ and ‘Schism.’


.forget my name, forget my face - björk.
Finally jedi-master Whittington, as he does so well, got a little deep. A little spaced out. He played the beautiful Pathetique Sonata by Beethoven, then pondered the idea of collaborating with deceased composers – the dead. This interested me greatly – one thing I have always admired about great musicians is the timelessness of their achievements. I think it’s the dream of any musician to become a household name like Mozart or Lennon. Stephen is quite right in his point: the further you dig into the music of an adept composer such as Beethoven, more of their personality comes out of the music – the more of a collaborative venture the music becomes between the composer and yourself.

One other idea that surfaced during the forum, which I would like to consider was that of leaving you ego at the door. To be honest, I tend to disagree with Luke and David, who think you need to bring your ego to the party. Ofcourse your ego never leaves you fully, but this was advice that just did not seem correct. In collaborative ventures I have been involved with, the people who do, in fact, leave their ego at the door tend to be more open to new ideas. The beauty of collaboration is that you can combine the best of several people, into something unique. I find when someone brings an ego into the group, they become overbearing and spoil the collaboration by not adapting to their associates. This all depends on the situation of course, but might I add that in the realm of studio recording, everyone needs leave their ego at home and be willing to work with the producer, to really take them in as their own.

.sources.

Doser, Poppi 5.03.07, "Behing the Door," Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide.

Harrold, Luke 5.03.07, "9.13," Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide.

Harris, David 5.03.07, "Compossible," Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide.

Whittington, Stephen 5.03.07, "Collaboration with the Dead." Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide.

recording strings

.aa – week six.

In this weeks ‘audio arts’ session we recorded stringed instruments, in particular the cello. Being able to capture and understand the sound of these old instruments is an important studio skill to have, with strings featuring in a huge range of styles of music, from video hits latest to classical masterpieces.

There are several perspectives you can take on the sound of a stringed instrument. We discussed how the sound of a cello would differ from the perspective of the performer compared to the audience (with the strings sitting next to the performer, their ear away from the f-hole chamber). Another sound to consider is the bowing against the strings.

We decided to explore each of these perspectives; using several microphones to create of mix of each of these characteristics of the instrument. The obvious next step was to pick a microphone for each of these roles.

Chamber/Sound Board – AKG C414 BULS
Fingerboard – Neumann KM84i
Room – Neumann U87

These are the microphones that I think suit the task for recording strings, obviously each instrument and performer is going to offer different sounds, and have different requirements, but this is a good start point.

In coming to these conclusions I have tested also the Shure SM57 and Rode NT4. Also, in terms of a room mic, we faced the Neumann U87 and U89 models off, with the U87 coming out on top. These mics were placed on the other side of the room from Anna (cello player), placed around 2 metres in front of the far windows (which did not have the curtains drawn). See what you think:

room U87 | room U89

As mentioned, we tested the Rode NT4. It was placed around the head of the cellist. I do not think it provided outstanding results, perhaps there is more to using an x/y microphone than I know of. As a result I decided for each take I would include a recording using the NT4 and without:

Take 1 (NT4) | Take 1 (no NT4)

-AKG C414 at f-hole
-NT4 bit higher than anna’s head.
-KM84i over fingerboard, to anna’s right, over the instrument
-Room mic U87 next to glass windows

Take 2 (NT4) | Take 2 (no NT4)

- KM84i moved to behind anna’s head (behind cello)
- Room mic moved closer, to anna’s side of the room

.sources.

Grice, David 2.4.07, AA – week six, “String Instruments,” Tutorial presented in the EMU, Schultz Building, University of Adelaide.

Robjohns, Hugh 1999, Strings Attached, Sound on Sound, viewed 12.2.07, http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/apr99/articles/recstrigs.htm

the max patch from hell

.cc - week five.

Still going with the MIDI keys ripoff: the ninboard. This week we have a black/white keys selector added, as well as crude delay effect. It may be crude but it's got twice the parameters of the echo effect in Garageband! That's something right?

Max Patch | Text Format

This version has keyboard shortcuts:
arrow up/down : Toggle Octave
Z - , : white keys
s - j : black keys
space bar : MIDI initialise

.reflection.

This Max patch (from hell) is so full of objects and signal flows I barely know what happens with it even now when I look at it. Time to starting using the "sub-patcher" object, I am not exactly sure why, but I avoided it like the plague this week. This ugly patch ending up being a complete overkill of the "send" & "receive" objects which are useful at times, but if overused can create just as much confusion as they resolve. At the end of the day they're (at least) two additional objects to add to your patch, so, best to use them tastefully. The patch could be improved (what patch couldn't?) but I think I have wasted enough of my life on it... for this week anyway.


.sources.

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

Haines, Christian 22.03.07, CC - week five, "UI Controls and Application," Tutorial presented 4th Floor, Schulz Building, University of Adelaide.