Tim's Music Tech Blog

2006-11-16T10:23:00.000-08:00

Audio Arts – Major Project

Finally here is an update on my major project. This semester has been up and down for Audio Arts, my original animation partner seemed to be struggling so much that I had to find a new partner. I later found out that my previous partner had come into the course partway through the year and was quite behind in her knowledge of the software, these details may have been more useful sooner! So I joined my new partner Lyn who has very limited English which has made things interesting. Her animation is about the life of this lantern which she spelt lanten! I have really enjoyed doing this project. I have completed a rough stereo mix for her as she had to present on Wednesday. She was really happy and apparently her lecturer said it was good too. I now just have to tidy up the music and do my 5.1 mix and then I will be done. I will probably look to put the final stereo mix up on YouTube as well so stay tuned for that.

I've been having issues exporting my final stereo mix from ProTools so I have uploaded my stereo mix I gave Lyn on Wednesday for her presentation.

2006-11-16T09:58:00.000-08:00

Creative Computing – Minor Project

For my minor project this semester I chose to do creative computing. It was always going to be stressful and without doubt it was an absolute pain. I decided to do two GUI’s, one for granulation and the other for real-time algorithmic break beat manipulation inspired by Nick Collin and his BBCut2 library. The Monday before the due date I was feeling good, I thought I just had a few bugs to iron out mainly in the BBCut GUI. Little did I know that the 24 hours later fixing those initial bugs had created more bugs and I ended up re writing the whole thing. Unfortunately there are still bugs in the code especially in BBCut GUI and when they are used at the same time there are some bussing issues which I would like to address for my own personal satisfaction.

So without further a due here is a link to the two codes

Granulation GUI

( s = Server.local; s.boot; ) // SynthDef's for buffers ( //Synth1 SynthDef('fplayer1', { arg rate1 = 1, density1 = 1, timedispersion1 = 0, grainamp1 = 1, grainampdisp1 = 0, grainsize1 = 1; var file1, env1, trigger1, grainamplitude1; ~b1 = Buffer.read(s, "sounds/break2.wav"); trigger1 = LFPulse.kr(density1+(LFNoise1.kr(10, 0.5, 0.5) * timedispersion1)); grainamplitude1 = TRand.kr(grainamp1, grainampdisp1, trigger1); env1 = EnvGen.kr(Env.new([0,1,1,0], [1,1,1]), trigger1, grainamplitude1, 0, grainsize1); file1 = PlayBuf.ar(2, ~b1.bufnum, rate1, loop: 1.0); Out.ar(10, file1*env1); }).send(s); //Synth2 SynthDef('fplayer2', { arg rate2 = 1, density2 = 1, timedispersion2 = 0, grainamp2 = 1, grainampdisp2 = 0, grainsize2 = 1; var file2, env2, trigger2, grainamplitude2; ~b2 = Buffer.read(s, "sounds/break2.wav"); trigger2 = LFPulse.kr(density2+(LFNoise1.kr(10, 0.5, 0.5) * timedispersion2)); grainamplitude2 = TRand.kr(grainamp2, grainampdisp2, trigger2); env2 = EnvGen.kr(Env.new([0,1,1,0], [1,1,1]), trigger2, grainamplitude2, 0, grainsize2); file2 = PlayBuf.ar(2, ~b2.bufnum, rate2, loop: 1.0); Out.ar(12, file2*env2); //bus must change for xfade }).send(s); //2dsynth ( SynthDef('xfadebuf1', { var in1 = In.ar(10,2), //from cutmixer for fplayer1 out = 0; Out.ar(out, in1) }).send(s); SynthDef('xfadebuf2', { arg out=0, xFade=xFade.value; var in2; in2 = In.ar(12,2); //from cutmixer for fplayer2 XOut.ar(out, xFade, in2); }).send(s); ); ) //GUI Code ( var w, serverbut, slid2d, openDialog1, addbut1, removebut1, ratesl, ratesl1, openDialog2, addbut2, removebut2, ratesl2, densl1, timedispsl1, grainampsl1, grainampdispsl1, grainsizesl1, densl2, timedispsl2, grainampsl2, grainampdispsl2, grainsizesl2, grainarray1, g1, grainarray2, g2, xFade, yAmp, vol, xfadeCtrl, volCtrl, label,slid2dlabel, xfadesl, spec, a; g2 = Group.new; grainarray2 = Array.new; ( // Create a window. When it is closed, the buffer b will be freed w = SCWindow("Granular Synthesis", Rect(200, 200, 410, 500)); w.view.decorator = FlowLayout(w.view.bounds); a = Synth.new('fplayer1'); w.onClose = {a.free}; b = Synth.new('fplayer2'); w.onClose = {b.free}; c = Synth.new('xfadebuf1'); w.onClose = {c.free}; d = Synth.new('xfadebuf2'); w.onClose = {d.free}; w.front; // A button to start and stop the server serverbut = SCButton(w, Rect(04, 05, 100, 25)); serverbut.states = [ ["Start Server", Color.black, Color.white], ["Stop Server", Color.white, Color.black], ]; serverbut.action = { if (serverbut.value == 1, {s.boot;},{s.quit;}); }; w.view.decorator.nextLine; ); ( //For "fplayer1" Synth.new('fplayer1'); openDialog1 = SCButton(w, Rect(10, 40, 100, 25)); openDialog1.states = [ ["Open File1", Color.black, Color.new(0.8,0.8,0.8)] ]; openDialog1.action = { CocoaDialog.getPaths({ arg paths; if (~b1 != nil, {~b1.free}); ~b1 = Buffer.read(s, paths.at(0)); },{ "Cancelled".postln; }); }; addbut1 = SCButton(w, Rect(115, 40, 100, 25)); addbut1.states = [ ["Add grain1", Color.black, Color.new(0.8,0.8,0.8)] ]; g1 = Group.new; grainarray1 = Array.new; addbut1.action = { grainarray1 = grainarray1.add(Synth('fplayer1', [ "rate1", 1*ratesl1.value, "density1", 20*densl1.value, "timedispersion1", 0.2*timedispsl1.value, "grainamp1", grainampsl1.value, "grainampdisp1", 0.5*grainampdispsl1.value, "grainsize1", 0.5*grainsizesl1.value ], g1)); }; removebut1 = SCButton(w, Rect(220,40, 100, 25)); removebut1.states = [ ["Remove grain1", Color.black, Color.new(0.8,0.8,0.8)] ]; removebut1.action = { grainarray1.pop.free; }; //Rate Slider w.view.decorator.nextLine; ratesl1 = EZSlider(w, 400 @ 24, "rate", ControlSpec(-4, 4, \lin, 0.01, default: 1), {|ez| g1.set(\rate1, ez.value); },1); //Density Slider w.view.decorator.nextLine; densl1 = EZSlider(w, 400 @ 24, "density", ControlSpec(0, 1, \lin, 0.01, default: 0.5), {|ez| g1.set(\density1, ez.value.postln); },0.5); //Time dispersion slider w.view.decorator.nextLine; timedispsl1 = EZSlider(w, 400 @ 24, "timedispersion", ControlSpec(0, 1, \lin, 0.01, default: 0.5), {|ez| g1.set(\timedispersion1, ez.value); },0.5); //Grain amp slider w.view.decorator.nextLine; grainampsl1 = EZSlider(w, 400 @ 24, "grainamp", ControlSpec(0, 1, \lin, 0.01, default: 0.5), {|ez| g1.set(\grainamp1, ez.value); },0.5); //grain amp dispersion slider w.view.decorator.nextLine; grainampdispsl1 = EZSlider(w, 400 @ 24, "grainampdisp", ControlSpec(0, 1, \lin, 0.01, default: 0.5), {|ez| g1.set(\grainampdisp1, ez.value); },0.5); //grain size sampler w.view.decorator.nextLine; grainsizesl1 = EZSlider(w, 400 @ 24, "grainsize", ControlSpec(0, 1, \lin, 0.001, default: 0.5), {|ez| g1.set(\grainsize1, ez.value); },0.5); ); ( //For "fplayer2" w.view.decorator.nextLine; w.view.decorator.nextLine; Synth.new('fplayer2'); openDialog2 = SCButton(w, Rect(340, 40, 100, 25)); openDialog2.states = [ ["Open File2", Color.black, Color.new(0.8,0.8,0.8)] ]; openDialog2.action = { CocoaDialog.getPaths({ arg paths; if (~b2 != nil, {~b2.free}); ~b2 = Buffer.read(s, paths.at(0)); },{ "Cancelled".postln; }); }; addbut2 = SCButton(w, Rect(445, 40, 100, 25)); addbut2.states = [ ["Add grain2", Color.black, Color.new(0.8,0.8,0.8)] ]; addbut2.action = { grainarray2 = grainarray2.add(Synth('fplayer2', [ "rate2", 3, // 1*ratesl2.value, "density2", 20*densl2.value, "timedispersion2", 0.2*timedispsl2.value, "grainamp2", grainampsl2.value, "grainampdisp2", 0.5*grainampdispsl2.value, "grainsize2", 0.5*grainsizesl2.value ], g2)); }; removebut2 = SCButton(w, Rect(550, 40, 100, 25)); removebut2.states = [ ["Remove grain2", Color.black, Color.new(0.8,0.8,0.8)] ]; removebut2.action = { grainarray2.pop.free; }; //Rate Slider w.view.decorator.nextLine; ratesl2 = EZSlider(w, 400 @ 24, "rate", ControlSpec(-4, 4, \lin, 0.001, default: 1), {|ez| g2.set(\rate2, ez.value); },1); //Density Slider w.view.decorator.nextLine; densl2 = EZSlider(w, 400 @ 24, "density", ControlSpec(0, 1, \lin, 0.001, default: 0.5), {|ez| g2.set(\density2, ez.value);},0.5); //Time dispersion slider w.view.decorator.nextLine; timedispsl2 = EZSlider(w, 400 @ 24, "timedispersion", ControlSpec(0, 1, \lin, 0.001, default: 0.5), {|ez| g2.set(\timedispersion2, ez.value); },0.5); //Grain amp slider w.view.decorator.nextLine; grainampsl2 = EZSlider(w, 400 @ 24, "grainamp", ControlSpec(0, 1, \lin, 0.001, default: 0.5), {|ez| g2.set(\grainamp2, ez.value); },0.5); //grain amp dispersion slider w.view.decorator.nextLine; grainampdispsl2 = EZSlider(w, 400 @ 24, "grainampdisp", ControlSpec(0, 1, \lin, 0.001, default: 0.5), {|ez| g2.set(\grainampdisp2, ez.value); },0.5); //grain size sampler w.view.decorator.nextLine; grainsizesl2 = EZSlider(w, 400 @ 24, "grainsize", ControlSpec(0, 1, \lin, 0.001, default: 0.5), {|ez| g2.set(\grainsize2, ez.value); },0.5); ); ( //crossfade w.view.decorator.nextLine; w.view.decorator.nextLine; w.view.decorator.nextLine; // Labels for 2D controllers w.view.decorator.shift(100); Synth.new('xfadebuf1'); a = Synth.tail(s, 'xfadebuf2'); xfadesl = SCSlider(w, Rect(12, 12, 200, 24)); xfadesl.value = 0.5; xfadesl.action = {a.set(\xFade, (1*xfadesl.value))}; a.set(\xFade, 0.5); w.view.decorator.nextLine; w.view.decorator.shift(100); slid2dlabel = SCStaticText( parent: w, bounds: Rect( width: 200, height: 20 ); ); slid2dlabel.string = "1<-------X-FADER------>2"; slid2dlabel.align = (\center); slid2dlabel.font = Font("Arial", 12, 2); slid2dlabel.background = Color.new255(84, 194, 234); ); ); ); )

BBCut GUI

( s = Server.local; s.boot; ~thisPath = (PathName.new(Document.current.path)).pathOnly; ) ( var sf1, sf2; var w, chooseriff, shuffles, fillchance, stopchance; var chooseriff2, shuffles2, fillchance2, stopchance2; var openDialog, playbut; w = SCWindow("Thrashing BBCut", Rect.new(700,80,620,150)); //b1 button openDialog = SCButton(w, Rect(4, 1, 100, 25)); openDialog.states = [ ["Buffer1", Color.black, Color.new(0.8,0.8,0.8)] ]; openDialog.action = { CocoaDialog.getPaths({ arg paths; if (sf1 != nil, {sf1.free}); sf1 = Buffer.read(s, paths.at(0)).postln; },{ "Cancelled".postln; }); }; //b2 button openDialog = SCButton(w, Rect(516, 1, 100, 25)); openDialog.states = [ ["Buffer2", Color.black, Color.new(0.8,0.8,0.8)] ]; openDialog.action = { CocoaDialog.getPaths({ arg paths; if (sf2 != nil, {sf2.free}); sf2 = Buffer.read(s, paths.at(0)).postln; },{ "Cancelled".postln; }); }; //playbutton playbut = SCButton(w, Rect(260, 1, 100, 25)); playbut.states = [ ["Start", Color.black, Color.white], ["Stop", Color.white, Color.black], ]; playbut.action = { if (playbut.value == 1, {ExternalClock(TempoClock).play;},{ExternalClock(TempoClock).stop}).postln; }; chooseriff=DDSlider( w, Rect.new(5,30,150,40), "chooseriff", 0, 3, 'linear', 1, 0); shuffles=DDSlider( w, Rect.new(5,80,150,40), "shuffles", 0, 10, 'linear', 1, 0); fillchance=DDSlider( w, Rect.new(156,30,150,40), "fillchance", 0.0, 1.0, 'linear', 0.01, 0.0); stopchance=DDSlider( w, Rect.new(156,80,150,40), "stopchance", 0.0, 1.0, 'linear', 0.01, 0.0); chooseriff2=DDSlider( w, Rect.new(314,30,150,40), "chooseriff", 0, 3, 'linear', 1, 0); shuffles2=DDSlider( w, Rect.new(314,80,150,40), "shuffles", 0, 10, 'linear', 1, 0); fillchance2=DDSlider( w, Rect.new(465,30,150,40), "fillchance", 0.0, 1.0, 'linear', 0.01, 0.0); stopchance2=DDSlider( w, Rect.new(465,80,150,40), "stopchance", 0.0, 1.0, 'linear', 0.01, 0.0); w.front; Routine.run({ sf1= BBCutBuffer("sounds/break.wav",8); s.sync; BBCut2(CutBuf1(sf1), ThrashCutProc1.new(0.0,0.125,8.0,[0.25,0.25,0.25,0.25], {chooseriff.value.round(1.0).asInteger}, {shuffles.value.round(1.0).asInteger}, {fillchance.value.coin}, stopchance ) ).play(2.33); }); Routine.run({ sf2= BBCutBuffer("sounds/cage2.wav",8); s.sync; BBCut2(CutBuf1(sf2), ThrashCutProc1.new(0.0,0.125,8.0,[0.25,0.25,0.25,0.25], {chooseriff2.value.round(1.0).asInteger}, {shuffles2.value.round(1.0).asInteger}, {fillchance2.value.coin}, stopchance2 ) ).play(2.33); }); )

Here is the score.

I will also be uploading a video instead of an mp3 to accompany the score so stay tuned!

Here's the embedded video which should be up soon...

2006-11-16T09:48:00.000-08:00

Long Time No Blog - Improv Summary

Well after letting my blog slide something chronic over the semester I thought I should comment on what has been the final semester of the degree (as long as I pass).

I’ll start off with improvisation. At first I was a little weary of the concept having not really been involved in anything like this before. We started out by getting divided into groups and it became apparent that our group would be quite interesting. We discussed what we each could bring to the group sonically and over the next few weeks slowly bought these elements together. Our group consisted of bass guitar, fx pedal, microphones on vocals and objects and then myself on laptop doing some live coding. We experimented with this configuration and slowly worked out some sort of structure. In the middle of the semester we improvised with saxophonist Derek Pascoe in front of the rest of the class. It was an interesting experience not only performing with someone who we had never met but also performing in front of the class as we were open for criticism. It was also good to hear about Derek’s experiences with improvisation.

In the next two weeks the other two groups performed with guests. The week after us improvised with Dr Chandrakant Sardeshmukh, a classical Indian Sitarist. This too was interesting to hear about his experiences with improvisation and it was good to be in the audience this week. The following week last of the 3 groups performed with Tyson Hopprich aka DJ Trip. It was very interesting to hear how he uses technology in his compositions and performances. I was quite surprised at how he on his computer he limited himself to Fruity Loops, which a lot of people would agree is a very basic program. It is his use of Gameboy and CDJ that makes things very interesting and for me I got the most out of hearing his angle on improvisation than the previous two weeks.

In-between these sessions and end of the semester our group made weekly changes to how we would be configured. Finally we ended up with Marco using miked objects, Henry on bass guitar, Will on effects pedal, Martin on vocals and myself on a granulation program I made for my minor project in Creative Computing and shotgun mic running through a delay in Logic. I also had a send of the group running into a long reverb which was sent back to the desk. Our group performed an ambient mix of sounds which was fun and challenging to perform especially in front of the rest of the class where we hadn’t tried this new configuration before. Hopefully it was interesting for everyone that was listening.

2006-08-09T04:19:00.000-07:00

Audio Arts - Week 2 - Reservoir Dogs Analysis

The film I have chosen to look at is Reservoir Dogs, which is directed by Quentin Tarantino.

Scene 1: 9 min 15 seconds – 11 min 11 seconds
Dialogue: The opening dialogue is faded in whilst the opening credits are still playing. Mr Orange expresses his fear of dying with Mr White as they escape after a bungled jewellery store robbery. Mr Orange has been shot whilst stealing a car to escape in. Mr White try’s to calm down Mr Orange as they drive back to the rendezvous point. The news is on the radio is faded up to a barely audible level at the end of the scene.
Music: The music fades out as the dialogue is faded in. Music drops dramatically when picture cuts to two men in car and gives effect of being on the car radio, which is then subtly faded out completely.
Fx: Cars driving in the opposite direction past the car Mr Orange and Mr White are travelling in.
Foley: Noises made by Mr Orange as he moves on the back seat of the car including hitting feet on the seat and door as well as springs in seat
Atmos: The noise of the car Mr Orange and Mr White are travelling in which is very faint.

In this scene the music is not very important. It serves as a transition from the opening credits to the next scene. The dialogue is the primary sound source as the story takes it first step towards being pieced together. The Fx of the passing cars are used to add the feeling of movement particularly as they are panned in accordance with their direction.

Scene 2: 74 min 21 seconds – 74 min 14 seconds
Dialogue: The dialogue is at the start and end of this scene. The opening dialogue is between Mr Orange and the son of Mr Orange’s boss telling him to come down to the car. The end section if dialogue is of Mr Orange reassuring himself of the work he has done so far undercover. The music is off at this point and the focus is on the dialogue.
Music: Scene starts with radio playing softly. I am unsure of the title of the song however the lyrics feature the words “fool for love”. There is some dialogue at the start which when finished; the music is faded up as the main focus. The film cuts to some members of the gang who are waiting outside and the music cuts. When the picture returns to Mr Orange in his home, the music returns at a louder volume which giving a sense of location. The music acts as a symbolism of the work he has done as an undercover police officer. The music also gives a sense of anticipation as to the ensuing action. As with the music throughout the film, the music is playing from the radio. The radio is switched off just before he leaves the flat and just as the dialogue starts again.
Fx: most sounds I feel fall under the Foley category
Foley: This scene uses a lot of foley as Mr Orange is getting ready to leave for the robbery. As the music takes the forefront in the scene, only certain aspects are accented via the foley otherwise the usual sounds like footsteps are not heard while the music is at the front. Some of these feature sounds include checking the two guns, putting the first gun in the holster and picking up the cigarettes. When the music is at a lower level more foley is predominate such as the keys, footsteps, coins, phone ringing, etc.
Atmos: No atmos in this scene that I could tell.

In this scene the music is used to create a sense of anticipation as Mr Orange is getting ready to leave. The dialogue is still the most important part at the beginning and end of the scene, which is shown by the lowered/off music volume at these points. The foley plays an important part accenting certain aspects of Mr Orange’s preparation.

Summary: I have wondered why this movie doesn’t feature scored music and uses already existing songs from the era. Whilst researching this film abit more on the Internet I have thought that one of the reasons ma have been budget restrictions of the film as it was an independent film and Tarantino’s first feature film. However I also think that the music on the radio idea creates a line that runs throughout the whole movie and gives the audience a sense of time. The songs also create a connection with the members of the audience who have heard them before.

2006-08-09T04:03:00.000-07:00

Creative Computing - Week 2 - BBCut2

(
//Global Variables
~thisPath = (PathName.new(Document.current.path)).pathOnly;

//Buffer Sounds
~sf1 = BBCutBuffer(~thisPath++"drum.wav");
~sf2 = BBCutBuffer(~thisPath++"fx.wav");
~sf3 = BBCutBuffer(~thisPath++"indian.wav");
)

(
// Clock
~clock = ExternalClock(TempoClock(2.5));
~clock.play;

//Cut Buffers
~cutB1 = CutBuf1(~sf1, 0.1);
~cutB2 = CutBuf1(~sf2,0.1);
~cutB3 = CutBuf1(~sf3,0.1);

//Playback Buffers
~bufC1 = BBCut2([~cutB1, CutMixer(0, 1.0, 1.0, {0.1.rand})]).play(~clock);
~bufC2 = BBCut2([~cutB2, CutMixer(0, 1.0, 1.0, {0.3.rand})]).play(~clock);
~bufC3 = BBCut2([~cutB3, CutMixer(0, 0.07, 1.0, {0.9.rand})]).play(~clock);
)

//ChangeTempoClock

~clock.tempo=0.1;
~clock.tempo=1;
~clock.tempo=2;
~clock.tempo=3;
~clock.tempo=4;

//Clear Buffers

~bufC1.clear;
~bufC2.clear;
~bufC3.clear;

2006-08-02T04:00:00.000-07:00

Audio Arts - Week 1 - Analysis

0:00 Man with movie camera on shoulder walking through crowd
Diegetic Sound - On Screen | footsteps of man, crowd noise, noise from moving camera on shoulders
Diegetic Sound - Off Screen | crowd noise, footsteps, cars and trams

0:05 Two women with baskets
Diegetic Sound - On Screen | women talking, footsteps of people, other conversations of people in background
Diegetic Sound - Off Screen | people noise (talking and footsteps), quite tram noise

0:09 Tram
Diegetic Sound - On Screen | main tram noise moving from left to right with other distant tram noise, footsteps, bike noise and talking
Diegetic Sound - Off Screen | trams, footsteps

0:16 Women hanging clothes
Diegetic Sound - On Screen | clothes being hung up, footsteps

0:18 Man with eggs
Diegetic Sound - On Screen | noise of eggs against each other and hand, background noise of people

0:21 Street scene
Diegetic Sound - On Screen | tram noise, car noise, pedestrians

0:27 Shutters opening
Diegetic Sound - On Screen | shutters opening possibly latch opening and creaking of hinges

0:29 Teeth brushing
Diegetic Sound - On Screen | close noise of teeth being brushed back and forth with noise of brush hitting lips as well as teeth

0:31 Man walking past store
Diegetic Sound - On Screen | man walking from right to left, footsteps of man walking towards gate, sound of gate being moved

0:35 Letterbox
Diegetic Sound - On Screen | poster moving, footsteps, letter falling into letterbox
Diegetic Sound - Off Screen | wind, other footsteps

0:40 Woman walking past store
Diegetic Sound - On Screen | women walking right to left, handle turning, shutter opening, noise of man moving handle
Diegetic Sound – Off Screen | women’s footsteps

0:45 Traffic/pedestrian officer
Diegetic Sound - On Screen | talking between officer and women, crowd noise including footsteps, noise of signal moving
Diegetic Sound - Off Screen | pedestrian noise, tram noise

0:48 Shutter up
Diegetic Sound- On Screen | shutter going up
Diegetic Sound - Off Screen | noise of person opening shutter

0:52 Vehicles on road/rally
Diegetic Sound | On Screen – car and bus noise, pedestrian noise, horse and carriage noise

1:06 Fountain
Diegetic Sound - On Screen | fountain noise increasing with water flow
Diegetic Sound - Off Screen | pump noise of fountain and any people near by

1:08 Close up of fountain
Diegetic Sound - On Screen | close up “dry” water noise
Diegetic Sound - Off Screen | pump noise of fountain and any people near by

1:12 Shutters opening (multiple times)
Diegetic Sound - On Screen | shutters opening, people opening shutters and wind in trees seen from shadow

1:20 Sewing machine
Diegetic Sound - On Screen | sewing machine noise
Diegetic Sound - Off Screen | pedal of sewing machine being operated

1:24 Sliding up of door
Diegetic Sound - On Screen | screen roller door opening close up
Diegetic Sound - Off Screen | noise of person opening it

1:27 Door opening
Diegetic Sound - On Screen | door opening
Diegetic Sound – Off Scree | foot steps of person walking through door

2006-06-29T15:56:00.000-07:00

Max T-shirts!

Thought you would all get a laugh out of these Max T-shirts

More info here...

2006-06-25T17:05:00.000-07:00

Found a quote by Edgard Varèse I thought was quite interesting. It is partially in response to criticism of his perceived desregard of the past...

You only have to turn to the revered past for the corroboration of my contention. The links in the chain of tradition are formed by men who have all been revolutionists! To the student of music I should say that the great examples of the past should serve as springboards from which he may leap free, into his (or her) own future.

- Edgard Varèse 1939

2006-06-20T11:06:00.000-07:00

ARRRRGH

I don't know about you guys but SuperCollider is killing me at the moment and i'm supposed to be studying for exams and trying to do other assignments... *bashes head*
/end rant

See all you classical context students tomorrow!

Tim

2006-06-12T23:10:00.000-07:00

Minor project :: Audio Arts

On the 7th I recorded a 3rd Year Jazz Quintet. The group consisted of Drums (Dom), Bass (Dean), Piano (Nhan), Alto Sax (Lauren) and Guitar (Tim). It is great to record good musicians although doing it by myself was difficult. I would've liked to have spent more time trying some different mics out however this was difficult due to time restrictions and the lack of a spare set of hands. Overall I was happy with the recording and we recorded 5 tracks from which I chose 2 mix dwn. The first was titled Compromised and was composed by Nhan Phan, the piano player of the Group. The second was titled McKibbon Walks the Dog and was also composed by Nhan. It is good to hear such catchy music being composed here in the Conservatorium.

Here are some photos I took while recording.

Studio 1 - Recording

The Band

L-R Dean, Lauren, Tim

Dom on the drums

So after some technical issues, here's the songs!

McKibbon Walks the Dog, composed by Nhan Phan

Compromised, composed by Nhan Phan

2006-06-12T05:50:00.000-07:00

End of Semester

Well this is supposed to wrap up the weekly blog entries for the semester so I will be commenting on the course as a whole. It has taken me a bit to get into the whole blogging concept although I think it is a good inclusion to the course. I particularly enjoy reading my classmates thoughts about the weeks lessons. Having the blog due on the Mondays, the same day as our Perspectives class has made it difficult though (particularly with Super Collider) which has lead me to fall behind.

Audio Arts has been really good this semester, I have found David’s lessons to be interesting although at times a little wayward although this is to be expected for someone with no formal teaching experience. It is good to hear about the industry from someone in it rather than looking from academia, no offence to Christian. I am looking forward to hearing everyone’s Audio Arts projects. I recorded for my project the other day, it was hard work (as is expected) and it would’ve been nice to have an extra hand particularly with sound checks. I took some photos too which I will post up with the mp3’s later. I was really impressed with the band particularly as they played all original works. We also went to David’s studio, Fat Traxx during the week.

All semester David has been saying how good his control room is for monitoring and he wasn’t wrong! Comparing the reflectiveness of David’s control room to Studio 1 is like comparing a G5 to an early Pentium computer and the lengths David went to soundproofing was enormous but worth it particularly with the V8’s on near by every year.

Creative Computing has been a steep learning curve. I have found Super Collider bloody hard to get my head around, maybe because my mind is still in min:sec mode rather than code mode. As mentioned earlier, having the SC homework due the same day as Perspectives caused troubles straightaway particularly on weeks with heavy Perspectives readings. I will endeavour to get some more code up soon although it finding time is always a problem.

Workshop I feel has been a waste of an hour and of blogging time. I am still wondering what the exact point of this class was. I would’ve preferred to have an extra 30 minutes for audio arts and creative computing as these classes always run short of time. This was a main issue I still feel hasn’t been resolved that we raised with the Dean back at the end of 2004. In saying this I have still enjoyed parts of Workshop and have been exposed to some great music so the whole hour hasn’t been a waste of time. I especially enjoyed Steve Reich’s Electric Counterpoint and Different Trains from this week’s class.

There was no forum this week as there were none to catch up on however I have really enjoyed Forum this semester, especially having the guest presenters such as Robin Minard during festival time. I feel it has been a great addition to the course and I’m looking forward to next semester.

2006-06-07T06:53:00.000-07:00

Super Collider

Here is some SC code I did on the weekend. Started doing week 10's excersise but I have found I am having problems creating a SynthDef with the required parameters. I also hope to get audio samples up of the below code soon.

Week 8 Code

AM_Synth
(

//AM Synth
SynthDef("AM_Synth",

{
//Arguments
 arg midiPitch = 60,
  dur   = 0.1,
  amp  = 0.5;

//Variables
 var carrier,
  modulator,
  out;

//UGens
 modulator    = SinOsc.kr
  (
  freq:  440,
  phase: 0,
  mul:  0.5
  );
 
 carrier    = SinOsc.ar
  (
  freq:  midiPitch,
  phase: 0,
  mul:  amp * modulator
  );

  // Output
  out = SinOsc.ar(
    midiPitch.midicps,
    mul: amp
   );

//Output
 Out.ar(0, carrier)

}
).load(s);

)

(
r = Task({

 inf.do(
 {
  // Arguments
   arg  item
     ;
     
   // Variables
   var  next = 0.250,
     cnt = item % 6,
     pitch = 40 * (cnt+6)
     ;
   
   // Feedback
   cnt.postln;
   
   // Execute Synth  
   b = Synth("AM_Synth");
   b.set(\midiPitch, pitch);
   
   // Pause
   (next).wait;
  }
 );
 
});

// Start Routine
r.start;

)

(
 // Stop Routine
 r.stop;
)

Week 9 Code

AM_Synth
(

//AM Synth
SynthDef("AM_Synth",

{
//Arguments
 arg carrierFreq = 440,
  carrierVol  = 1;

//Variables
 var carrier,
  modulator;

//UGens
 modulator    = SinOsc.kr
  (
  freq:  220,
  phase: 0,
  mul:  0.5
  );
 
 carrier    = SinOsc.ar
  (
  freq:  carrierFreq,
  phase: 0,
  mul:  carrierVol * modulator
  );

//Output
 Out.ar(0, carrier)
}
).load(s);

)

//Play

Pbind(
 \scale, [0, 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11],
 \degree, Pseq([1, 2, 3, 2, 3, 4, 3, 4, 5, 4, 5, 6, 5, 6, 7, 6, 7, 8, 7]),
 \oct, 0,
 \dur, 0.3
 ).play

(
 // Stop Routine
 r.stop;
)

2006-06-06T03:43:00.000-07:00

Week 12

We spent the first part of the lesson discussing issues with our projects. It was good to hear how everyone else was going. As I am recording a 5 piece jazz band I got some suggestions on mics to use, hopefully they are all in stock when I go to record. It was good to hear some of the issues and solutions for other classmate’s recordings so I will be able to fix that if I come across a similar problem with my recording. We then spent the rest of the lesson discussing marketing yourself/product in the music industry. I found it useful hearing some of the stories of bands and their efforts to get noticed by record companies and what to do when you have a CD and are looking to get signed. It’s good that we discussed this topic as I doubt it will come up in the core component on music careers with Mark Carroll and the rest of the B. Mus students. Particularly as the majority of students won’t be looking to get signed by a record label.

Grice, David. 2006. PR and Publicity. Tutorial presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, 30 May.

Workshop this week primarily looked at new experimental electronic (to some extent) compositions from New York. The first piece, Assembler Mix by Nobakazu Takamura was quite an interesting piece with loops the reminded me of a carnival or country fair and a glitchy beat which I liked. Other layers were introduced including strings and gave it a audio collage feel. Gutbucket’s Snarling Wrath of the Angry God’s contrasted Assembler mix with a snarling baritone sax over a heavy rock back playing in an asymmetric time signature, again another piece that I feel doesn’t fit into the music technology category apart from recording in a studio.

Gutbuster image from www.gutweb.com

Again to contrast Gutbucket followed Bach’s Ricecar, 6 voice, and then Toby Twining’s Kyrie, again how is this related to music technology, good and interesting pieces of music none the less. The rest of the lesson consisted of 3 other pieces ranging from Stravinski to Arnold Dreyblatt. While I enjoy listening to music I feel this hour could be spent better but I will touch on this more next week.

Harris, David. 2006. Workshop presented at the Electronic Music Unit, EMU Space, University of Adelaide, 1 June.

Squawk Box was the name of Forum this week as anyone could get up and present something to the EMU students. Vinny was up first with an interesting composition that I have heard him play before. His story about the development of the composition was just as interesting (composed for female jazz singer to accompany). I find it amusing yet despairing that some students outside of EMU are reluctant to step outside their comfort zones and experiment! This is not a surprise particularly when watching “classical” students in Music in Context and Approaches to Music switch off whenever the word “technology” is mentioned or a piece of music that has a synthesizer or tape techniques is played to the class. The fact is that I feel that being so narrow minded isn’t going to help their music carrier. Classical music (in the broad sense) i feel is definitely not a growing area, you only have to talk to any high school music teacher and ask them what children want to learn at school, it’s certainly not the oboe! I heard that there is only one 1st year percussion student at the conservatorium... surely the warning bells should be sounding. /end rant. We also heard Patrick speak about his plans for a collaborative composition based on the stars and Tyrell showed us some music which sounded like modern day minimalism, both were interesting although my word count is up!

Forum presented at the Electronic Music Unit, EMU Space, University of Adelaide, 1 June.

2006-05-29T03:04:00.000-07:00

Week 11

I missed the Audio Arts this week so I’ll comment quickly on the articles. The two SOS (Sound on Sound) articles were quite interesting although I am unsure if I will be able to implement some of the techniques in my major. There are 2 reasons for this, I’m unsure if we have the plug-ins mentioned in the article and wether they are appropriate for my recording of a five piece jazz band. I found The Darkness article very interesting. The amount of time that was spent recording the same thing but with a different mic placement or amp or room was astonishing not to mention the fact that it was all recorded on tape. Stav’s article contained some useful tips. My recording will have a limited time so the article was quite relevant to me.

David was sick this week so we didn’t have workshop so it was straight into forum. Stephen spoke to us this week about the area of vocoding and distributed performance, which has been an interest of his for some years. For Approaches to Music my research topic was on using the Internet and computer networks to make music so the relevance was convenient. I am quite interested in using the Internet as an interactive music tool. I had seen VoiP whilst looking at broadband Internet pricing but I hadn’t thought of VoiP as a use for distributed performance.

Whittington, Stephen. "Vocoding and Distributed Performance" Forum presented at the Electronic Music Unit, EMU Space, University of Adelaide, 25 May.

Super Collider work to come son…

2006-05-24T05:33:00.000-07:00

Adelaide Symhony Orchaestra - The Edge

I heard on Triple j the other week that the ASO will be performing arrangments of modern "rock" songs. Found this info on the ASO website..

The Edge will seek out the sounds of contemporary culture fusing the music of the X and Y generations to the classical. The Edge will merge the forces of Triple J with ABC Classic FM, 1960’s French poet of jazz Serge Gainsbourg with Radiohead, Sigur Rós, Muse and Jeff Buckley. The emergent sounds will have its audience listening to music standing bravely on The Edge! These late-night, one hour concerts at the ASO’s Grainger Studio will be recorded for broadcast on Triple J Radio with the support of ABC Classic FM.

Good to see the ASO doing something to try and connect with a new generation. Kinda makes me wonder why certian parts of my study seem to be stuck in the past.

The first series is..

The Edge: Re-writes
Grainger Studio, 91 Hindley Street

Thursday 27 July at 9pm
Friday 28 July at 9pm

The second series is..

The Edge: New Beats
Grainger Studio, 91 Hindley Street

Friday 1 December at 10pm

ASO website link

2006-05-22T00:03:00.000-07:00

Red Bull Lectures...

I stumbled across the Red Bull Music Academy website which features a great section of lectures by the guest presenters. Some very interesting topics are covered.

Go forth and watch!

2006-05-21T23:51:00.000-07:00

Week 10

Mixing was covered in Audio Arts this week. I had never really known the process that I should go through when mixing a recording. I was happy to find I knew the basics for example removing the excess at the start and ends of recordings/tracks., make sure everything is flat i.e. effects, eq, etc, set the panning, invert tracks which need their phase inverted i.e. figure 8 in mid side piano recording and underneath snare mic and finally set up groups. Once this is done we are ready to mix. Usually you start with the drums then the bass. Other rhythm instruments are then done followed by the melody instruments and finally the vocals are done last. David gave us a quick run down of EQ-ing particularly with the drums. My knowledge of EQ-ing has been quite limited so it was good to have some clarification. David explained that it is better to reduce frequencies rather than boost the others around it. The one thing we did learn though is that the better the microphone placement, the easier EQ-ing will be and the better it will sound.

Grice, David. 2006. Mixing. Tutorial presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, 16 May.

The music of workshop this week primarily featured two artists/composers, Mr Bungle and Karlheinz Stockhausen. The first song we listened to was Love Is a Fist by Mr Bungle. Followed by Dead Goon off Mr Bunlge’s self titled album. The sound of the record reminded my of the Red Hot Chili Peppers album “What Hits!?” Mr Bungle” was released in 1991 and “What Hits!?” was released in 1992 both I felt shared a similar bass sound that was reminiscent of the later years of the 80’s.

Image from Bungle Fever

Stockhausen’s experiments with short-wave radio led to the composition “Hymen”. Stockhausen used short wave radio to obtain interesting sounds then used voice recordings, looping and other filtering to create the piece. Hymen had many ideas inside the one song with the piece regularly skipping in-between the different ideas. This idea was called moment form and was adopted by Mr Bungle in their compositions, although on a more accessible level. We finished with “To Love Knows When” by My Bloody Valentine. Nice piece although I wasn’t sure of the relevance to the days class.

Harris, David. 2006. Workshop presented at the Electronic Music Unit, EMU Space, University of Adelaide, 18 May.

Forum was interesting this week. Robert Chalmers, an employee of the university came to talk to us legal issues that effect us as users and consumers of music technology. The issues of copyright and intellectual property featured in relation to sampling. One thing that I didn’t know was that the date for things to go into public domain is now 70 years after the death of the composer rather than 50. We also spent a lot of time discussing the mash up which we had discussed in Perspectives at the start of the term. The legalities of the mash up are very blurry and chances are a bedroom producer will be breaking the law when they attempt to create one. Robert pointed us to a blog for more up to date information on copyright and intellectual property in Australia.

Chalmers, Robert. "Law, Music and Technology" Forum presented at the Electronic Music Unit, EMU Space, University of Adelaide, 18 May.

2006-05-14T07:53:00.000-07:00

Week 9

This week’s Audio Arts class saw us focus on the topic of reverb. I had used reverb previously for spatial effects in 5.1 mixing but I didn’t really know about using it for vocals and other instruments. In Pro Tools David showed us how the various parameters on the Digidesign D-Verb effect the sound. We then patched in the Ensoiq reverb unit installed in the rack. It was good to hear what a decent reverb (compared to the D-Verb) sounds like. David then showed us the range of reverb settings such as the gated reverb in the unit. I’m looking forward to experimenting more with this hardware in the future.

Digidesign D-Verb image from Sound On Sound

Grice, David. 2006. Reverb. Tutorial presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, 9 May.

This week workshop got me thinking about the relevance of what we were listening to. We listened to Pink Floyd’s Shine On You Crazy Diamond. Apart from the odd synth part I wasn’t sure whey we were actually listening to it. It would have been good to get some explanation from David. We also listened to a turntablist called Christian Marlcay from the 1980’s. One piece was a music concrete style montage of John Cage compositions which was interesting. The other Marclay compositions we listened to were “scratched” collages of original works including Hendirx Strauss (only one artist per song). The music concrete style is about all I could draw links with to our study. As far as turntablism is concerned the past decade has seen the development of new techniques that are much more interesting and challenging than what was shown to us. For example the Invisable Skratch Piklz recreated the effect of a band by scratching records of various instuments to create their own compositions. Here is a link to a small clip of 3 members of the group performing.

Invisable Skratch Piklz image from Wikipedia

Harris, David. 2006. Workshop presented at the Electronic Music Unit, EMU Space, University of Adelaide, 11 May.

This week’s forum continued on from last week with presentations from two more honours students. Seb Tomczak was first to present to us his project of developing Do-It-Yourself Physical Interface for Music Technology. Seb explained that his aim was to develop a cheap interface for transferring physical data i.e. from light or infrared sensors to digital data on computer for music technology applications. Seb then explained that he would be using the MJoy Mapper to convert the data and some of the background and costs behind MJoy. I look forward to seeing Seb’s progress later on in the Year.

Darren Curtis was followed Seb and introduced us to his topic of Frequency Medicine. I found Darren’s topic quite interesting although some parts went over my head. It was interesting to hear about something completely different to what I had heard of before. It seems like a very big topic to be researching

Curtis, Darren and Tomczak, Seb. "Honours Topics" Forum presented at the Electronic Music Unit, EMU Space, University of Adelaide, 11 May.

2006-05-07T22:59:00.000-07:00

Week 8

Voiceover recording was the topic for Audio Arts this week. Christian had sent out an email recently asking for people to record voiceovers for the media student’s commercials so David gave us the low down on the process. Some things I found obvious such as recording in the dead room, using the pop shield, etc. however the topic of compression was quite new to me. Compression is used to reduce the dynamic range of a signal. On most compressors there are 4 main things you can adjust, the ratio, threshold, gain and attack/release. For voiceovers the idea is to have the signal as loud as possible to draw the attention of the listener. To do that the ratio was set at 4:1, the threshold was set to minimise the dynamic range and the gain was turned up just below clipping level. It was good to learn about compression and I look forward to applying it in my Audio Arts assignment.

Grice, David. 2006. Voiceover Recording. Tutorial presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, 2 May.

I workshop this week we listened to rock music that was influenced by electronic music techniques and instruments. Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Frank Zappa and Pierre Henry were the featured composers. Some of the pieces gave me flashbacks to first year with the use music concrete techniques. It was also good to hear the VCS III used in Breathe by Pink Floyd.

Harris, David. 2006. Workshop presented at the Electronic Music Unit, EMU Space, University of Adelaide, 4 May.

Honours student Tim Swalling spoke to us about his honours project looking at A-Life in music. Tim explained to us what a-life was and had various examples of the different programs that use a-life to create music. He also discussed his aims and issues for his study. Tim’s speech was informative and easy to understand. Honours student Jasmine Ward then spoke about her studies. I found Jasmine’s talk to be hard to grasp. It seemed that she may have been nervous as she was talking rather fast. This made it hard to understand exactly what she was talking about as she was talking about something new before I could grasp what she had just said. A handout similar to Tim’s with a basic outline of the talk may have helped with this problem.

Swalling, Tim and Ward, Jasmine. "Honours Topics" Forum presented at the Electronic Music Unit, EMU Space, University of Adelaide, 4 May.

2006-04-30T23:58:00.000-07:00

Week 7

Creative Computing

This week we solely looked at making some sound with Super Collider. Christian explained that we needed to create one AM SynthDef and one FM SynthDef and post the code and a recording of each in our blogs.

Here are my results

AM Synth


AM_Synth
(

//AM Synth
SynthDef("AM_Synth",

{
//Arguments
 arg carrierFreq = 220,
  carrierVol = 1;

//Variables
 var carrier,
  modulator;

//UGens
 modulator    = SinOsc.kr
  (
  freq: 220,
  phase: 0,
  mul: 0.5
  );
 
 carrier    = SinOsc.ar
  (
  freq: carrierFreq,
  phase: 0,
  mul: carrierVol * modulator
  );

//Output
 Out.ar(0, carrier)
}
).load(s);

)

//Play
b = Synth("AM_Synth").play
b.set(\carrierFreq, 440);
b.set(\carrierFreq, 330);
b.set(\carrierFreq, 220);

I used a combination of David Cottle's examples and fellow classmates entrys to try and work out how to complete this question. Click here for a list of students blogs.

Haines, Christian. 2006. SuperCollider. Tutorial presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, 27 April.

Workshop

This week in workshop we listened to three songs. My favourite and the one I was to focus my comments on was Voyage absolu des Unari vers Andromede by Iannis Xenakis. I found this to be an interesting composition to listen to. The piece featured an obvious space theme that reminded me of science-fiction type movies such as Star Trek. I felt that the sounds Xenakis created fell into the movie sound design genre rather than a musical composition as such although Xenakis does paint a sonic picture of what a journey to Andromede may be like.

I also felt I should comment on the second piece, In Flagranti by Gabriele Manca. Considering this piece was for slide guitar, I am unsure as to the exact relevance of this piece to our course.

Harris, David. 2006. Workshop presented at the Electronic Music Unit, EMU Space, University of Adelaide, 27 April.

Forum

Honours student Seb Tomczak spoke to us about some of his projects he created over previous years. Milkcrate was the main topic he spoke on. The idea behind Milkcrate was that participants spent 24 hours confined to a location to create music. Each participant brings a milk crate full of objects they wish to use to create music with. Sounds are recorded onto a computer then manipulated and arranged into quite interesting compositions. Seb showed us some footage of previous Milkcrates and some of the music that was created. It was interesting to see (and hear) what sounds the participants. I am definitely interested in being part of future Milkcrate sessions.

Here is a link to the Milkcrate website. http://www.milkcrate.com.au

Tomczak, Seb. "Presentation" Forum presented at the Electronic Music Unit, EMU Space, University of Adelaide, 27 April.

2006-04-30T12:02:00.000-07:00

Audio Arts Project

Our first assignment for Audio Arts was to do a short recording using one of the microphone techniques we had discussed during last term. I chose to record the piano using the Mid-Side technique, a technique that I had not experimented before.

In short the Mid-Side technique uses two microphones of the same type, in my case the Neumann U87. The first microphone is set to the figure 8 polar pattern. The microphone is then placed inside the piano near the soundboard approximately half way down the piano close to the side. The hotter side of the figure 8 pattern is facing towards the bass. The second microphone is set to omni and placed upside-down above the first microphone.

Music education student Damian West was recorded playing the piano. After a few takes the piece titled Bygone Days by Eileen Ivers, was recorded.

Overall I was happy with the stereo image of the recording however I felt it lacked some hi frequencies. I feel that getting over a cold may have affected my hearing to some extent. I also found that when the pedal released the padding from the strings of the piano it created a light strumming noise that was very obvious in the recording. Damian realised he had to take notice of his pedaling technique to minimise this problem.

2006-04-09T22:54:00.000-07:00

Week 6

Music Technology?

This week I’ve decided to change the way I layout my entry and not divide it into separate parts.

This week’s forum was set up as a discussion lead by lecturers Stephen Whittington and Mark Carroll joined by masters student Tristan Louth-Robins. The topic of the discussion was ‘What is Music Technology?’, a topic which I have not given much thought to even though I am now in my fourth year of studying ‘music technology’ at Adelaide University. Each of the three above mentioned discussed what they thought ‘music technology’ was with Stephen reading out some definitions of ‘music technology’ from other academics in prominent institutions around the world. They all seemed to agree that ‘music technology’ as a whole was an interdisciplinary field drawing on music, science, maths, engineering and performing arts in varying degrees. From my experiences at Elder, ‘music technology’ obviously has close ties with music, with the core subjects of Music in Context and Approached to Music which all undergraduate students must partake in. As the music technology course is part of the music faculty, ‘music technology’ at the University of Adelaide has minimal focus towards maths, engineering, science and performing arts. Although I have little to no knowledge in areas such as maths, science, engineering, etc, I feel that it would be good for me personally to look at improving my knowledge in these areas. It is good that in my year we have 2 students with knowledge in the maths/computer engineering so we can see the ideas they have coming from a different perspective other than my own.

Group discussion inevitably went to course content and the strong focus of traditional (classical and jazz) theory. Students expressed their opinion that the relevance of the theory aspects of the course to music technology was poor. This brought back flashbacks back to the end of first year and the issues we brought up and a subsequent meeting with Charles Bodman Rae. It is good to see the fruits of our labour with Forum, Workshop, Perspectives and also elective The Science Of Music now added to our course, hopefully those new students will read this and see that the Music Studies (music technology) is an ever-changing degree that in open to student input however from forum discussion they now know the focus on academic study rather than the sometimes initially perceived commercial ‘music technology’ applications.

The closest we have at EMU to commercial ‘music technology’ applications is the subject Audio Arts. This week we were joined again by the string quartet from the previous week in the EMU space. With a focus on getting a good stereo image we set up various pairs of microphones (i.e. Neumann U87, Rode NT4/5, etc) to hear how the placement and type of microphone will change the sound of the recording. The U87’s had the fullest sound. Creative Computing again moved more towards making sound in Super Collider with Unit Generators and using the Scope (oscilloscope in SC) to view them.

I am quite enjoying Workshop. It is good to get exposed to deferent type of music although other class members feel otherwise. It is good to hear how music technology compositions have developed over the previous decades as the technology has developed and the composer’s compositional ideas have developed. For me this opens my ears and helps me to listen to compositions on a focused level. Truax’s piece was especially interesting for me after looking at granulation in second semester last year.

Reference -

Grice, David. 2006. Stereo Miking. Tutorial presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, 4 April.

Haines, Christian. 2006. SuperCollider. Tutorial presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, 6 April.

Harris, David. 2006. Workshop presented at the Electronic Music Unit, EMU Space, University of Adelaide, 6 April.

Whittington, Stephen, Carroll, Mark, and Louth-Robbins, Tristan. 'What is Music Technology?" Forum presented at the Electronic Music Unit, EMU Space, University of Adelaide, 6 April.

2006-04-02T23:43:00.000-07:00

Week 5

Audio Arts

This week we did a location recording with a string quartet over in the basement of Elder Hall. This proved to be quite difficult and showed how easily things can go wrong and effort needs to be made in planning for any issues that could arise. We had a selection of microphones, cables and a flash drive recorder with two inputs. We spent some time listening to the quartet and had how they sounded in the space then decided where we thought the ideal spot for placing the microphones would be. When we went to record, we found there was no memory in the recorder then and no spares. We had to swap to a DAT recorder because of this, however it had no pre-amps so we could only use the microphone that came with the kit. Pushed for time we made a quick recording and the lesson was over.

Grice, David. 2006. Tutorial on Field Recording. University of Adelaide, 28 March.

Creative Computing

Code elegance was Christian’s focus for the lecture. We were shown the top down approach for coding which allows an ease of reading and allows debugging to be faster. Christian explained that commenting is essential for programming in SC. Regular use of commenting is used to explain what the function of certain parts of the code is. By doing this, not only is it easier for others to see what you have programmed and the function of it, it is also easier for you to understand what you have coded when revisiting it some time after it was created. I am looking forward to getting into SC more next term.

Haines, Christina. 2006. Tutorial on Gating. University of Adelaide, 30 March.

Workshop
David chose to look at some works by American composer John Cage (1912-1992). Some of these included Music for Carillon (1954), Williams Mix (1952) and 101 (1989. The second piece was particularly interesting for me with a strong music concrete containing 8 taped sound sources.

Harris, David. 2006. Tutorial on listening – John Cage. University of Adelaide, 30 March

Forum

Chris Williams was the guest presenter this week. He explained to use his role as the “producer” of ABC radio dramas, which included finding material, taking care of the performers on recording days and rehearsing, then recording, post production and sequencing. He explained to us some of the issues involved in the process particularly the recording space, time restraints, plot development, mono broadcasting and how some of these were overcome. Williams also described how sound design was an important part in creating a sense of space in a recording. I found it interesting to hear about what is involved in creating these projects although I have never listened to a radio drama in my life. Williams finished by showing us Monologues for an Apocalypse. It was good to hear something Williams had worked on that had more of a musical feel.

Williams, Chris. 2006. Lecture on Radio Drama. University of Adelaide, 30 March

2006-03-26T21:49:00.000-08:00

Week 4

Audio Arts

In Audio Arts this week we looked at gates and gating. Basically a gate’s main function is to remove background noise from a recorded source particularly for drums although has other applications. In the gate plug in Pro Tools, there are 5 parameters you can select.
1. Threshold sets the level at which the gate is opened and the signal is passed through.
2. Attack sets the rate at which the gate opens thus smoothing the opening of the gate.
3. Hold defines the length of time the gate remains open after the signal is below the threshold.
4. Decay is the inverse of attack thus smoothing the closing of the gate.
5. Range allows a little bit of bleed to come through.

Setting the correct parameter/s can drastically affect the sound of a drum mix. Gating has also been used to keep the stabs of an instrumental section sounding tight by triggering the gate of the section from the lead player.

Grice, David. 2006. Tutorial on Gating. University of Adelaide, 21 March.

Creative Computing

In Creative Computing, we looked over a section of the Super Collider help file to give us a grounding in the basics of the program. We looked as the different types of message format including long, int, float, double, string and bytes as well as the tags which accompany them. In SC the backbone of the program is made up by a unique, modern and sophisticated idea of server architecture. In SC there is the internal sever (graphics) and the local server (audio) which need to be booted or switched on for there to be an outcome. Christian then explained to that Open Sound Control or OSC was a protocol for controlling synthesisers in SC. As a group we then looked at examples in the help files to explain the function code, which is found in the curly brackets of the code. The function code encapsulates unit generators or synths that create the sound.

Haines, Christian Haines. 2006. Tutorial on Creative Computing. University of Adelaide, 23 March.

Workshop

This week in workshop David Harris he brought in a selection of music by north-east American composers. the first piece we listened to was titled Surf Music II composed by Jack Vees. Vees’s specialty is electric bass which was used in the composition. To me the piece had an underlying drone with swirling water noises over the top of it much like the feeling of the swell of an ocean rising and falling waiting for a wave to break whilst surfing. This outcome was created by using a combination of bowed bass guitar, electric guitar, delays, feedback and filters that created a sonically interesting composition. We them listened to a composition titled Fog Tropes II by Ingram Marshall. This was composed for string quartet and tape. I liked how the tape was used to create a delay which layered the sounds of the strings over each other and how the tape output interacted with the strings. the next piece we listened to was by composer Michael Gordon titled Trance IV. The recording we heard was performed by a group called Icebreaker. While seeing it’s place in the scheme of composition of that time I found this piece un-interesting and a little ‘cheesy’ mainly due to the progressive rock feel. David Harris then played us a pieces titled Piano Piece which he composed that explored the harmonies created by the resonant frequencies. The piece focused on the process of the instrument rather than the process of the composition. It was interesting to hear how cupping my hands over my ears changed what I heard. David finished the session by playing another piece he composed titled COmpossible 14 which was influenced by bird sounds for Piere Boulez and was a homage to John Cage and obviously influenced by Cage with a use of space in-between notes like the Japanese concept of ma.

Harris, David. 2006. Tutorial on listening. University of Adelaide, 23 March

2006-03-19T20:31:00.000-08:00

Week Three

Audio Arts

In Audio Arts this week we continued on from last week with the topic of stereo micing techniques. As a group we created the mid-side technique for piano. When using this technique, it is best to use two of the same microphones thus we used two Neumann U87’s both in their cradles. The first was set up just inside the piano as close as possible to the soundboard with the polar pattern set at figure 8. We then experimented with the direction of the microphone to find the sweet spot where the bottom end sounded fuller. The 2nd microphone was placed above the first microphone however this microphone was placed upside-down about .5cm away from the microphone below. The polar pattern was set to omni. We then recorded the piano into Protools creating two tracks. The recording from the figure 8 microphone was then duplicated and the duplicate was inversed. The original was panned right and the inverted was panned left. The result of this process was quite striking with the sound similar to that of actually being seated at the piano.

Grice, David. 2006. Tutorial on Mid-side Micing. University of Adelaide, 14 March.

Creative Computing

We started off the class by looking at what a node was in Super Collider. As Christian told us, a node is an object that is shown by a chunk of code. These objects are a widely known as a synth or a group. A synth can be an actual synthesiser, a sound modifier or a trigger. An actual synthesiser in SC is a collection of unit generators. A group is a bunch of synths. Each node is accompanied by an identifying number or ID. Each synth in a node has audio and control data which is known as the control bus. We also touched on Buffers. Buffers are a memory/location to store information in the SC code. 32 bit sound information is stored in the header information in the SC code

Haines, Christian Haines. 2006. Tutorial on Creative Computing. University of Adelaide, 16 March.

Workshop

This was our first week of workshop with David Harris a composition lecturer at Adelaide University. David showed us some examples of electro-acoustic composition, the first of them being an installation piece by Robert Ashley. Ashley’s piece was also an example of sound poetry where he had used tape-like techniques to create an effect that sounded like he was not taking a breath. This gave the piece a feeling of uneasiness and awkwardness. The second piece we listened to was Gloria from Glen Branca’s Symphony no.3. This piece was composed for keyboards, guitars and drums. This may sound like the instrumentation of a rock band however there were 6 keyboards that were tuned for overtones over 7 octaves and 7 guitars that were bowed instead of plucked or strummed. Throughout the piece the changing combinations of overtones gave the piece a spatial feel that swirled around like waves creating something that was interesting to listen to.

Harris, David. 2006. Tutorial on listening. University of Adelaide, 16 March

Forum

This week in forum we had composer and mathematician Gordon Monro speak to us. He explained to us that his area of specialty was generative artwork which involved creating a system that was used to create the art. The system created rules and boundaries for the piece but the exact outcome was unknown. An example that he showed to us was a program he created called Evochord which was a genetic algorithm which tried to evolve the harmonious chord. This was represented by a visual element consisting of blob like objects that moved and changed colour to represent changes in pitch, modulation, etc. Monro also showed us examples of some other works including Red Grains and What Are You Really Thinking. It was interesting to hear about Monro’s ways of using mathematics to composed music and his thoughts on wether musicians should have a strong knowledge of maths.

Monro, Gordon. 2006. Tutorial on Generative Artworks. University of Adelaide, 16 March

2006-03-12T19:49:00.000-08:00

Week 2

Audio Arts

This session focussed on micing techniques so firstly we discussed microphone types and polar patterns. The main polar pattern types are omni, cardioid, hyper-cardioid and figure 8. We then talked about various micing techniques such as spaced, x.y, and mid-side. The mid-side technique was new to me and involves the use of 2 mics, one with a figure 8 pattern and another an omni. The 2 mics are placed on top of each other then positioned above the edge of the piano by the mid strings. The sweet spot of the figure 8 mic is aimed over the lower strings. In post production, the recording of the figure 8 mic is copied then inverted and paned left adding another special element.

Grice, David. 2006. Tutorial on Stereo Micing. University of Adelaide, 7 March.

Creative Computing

This week Christian introduced us to the program Super Collider, and the parts inside it. The post window was first discussed with Christian describing it as similar to the Max window in Max/MSP. The post window is used to post data/output to the screen and is used for debugging. Christian explained that coding for SC is done in a text document saved in RTF format. The pros and cons of the format were also covered. Christian then showed us the hello world coding example demonstrating .post and .postln and how it is similar to the print object in Max/MSP. Christian also told us that when debugging code we should print it out and highlight the mistakes to improve our understanding of the code.

Haines, Christian Haines. 2006. Tutorial on an Introduction to Super Collider. University of Adelaide, 9 March.

Forum

Composer Warren Burt was bought in to talk to us. Burt’s presentation followed his history with music technology and was accompanied by photos from the past 30+ years. Burt explained that he had a background in electronics as well as music, which allowed him to be involved in synthesiser construction. Burt also had a strong interest in tuning, creating his own tuning forks and composing for them as well as creating his own scales with aid from the computer. Burt believes in deep structure in music thus given his education, Burt has a liking of algorithmic composition and the use of maths in composing. He spent some time explaining randomness and chaos and how it relates to his music. Throughout his presentation, Burt had some interesting photos of his pieces similar to Minard in the previous week, particularly the installation style use of using large objects such as advertising signs as speakers. Burt spoke about what he would be doing as part of the festival, which was interesting. He explained how he uses a program called Scala to create an audio and visual piece with Scala being triggered via a PlayStation controller. I found Burt’s presentation to be interesting although I wasn’t as inspired as I was by Minard’s Presentation although that may have influenced by the longer length of this week’s presentation. It was good to see what other ideas technology composers use in their creative process.

Burt, Warren. 2006. Tutorial on Warren Burt and Music Technology. University of Adelaide, 9 March

2006-03-12T19:44:00.000-08:00

Week 1

Audio Arts

In audio arts this week we spent some time getting acquainted with David discussing his history as well as our backgrounds, future plans and current musical/audio experience. This was a good way to hear about David’s credentials and also hear about other classmates ambitions and current projects. We then spent the remainder of the class in the control room. We looked at session management particularly Playlists and Groups. Although parts of this were revision, it was good to see them applied to a high level, as the session David had was larger than anything I had worked with. This showed me how it is important to use Playlists and Groups to achieve efficient session management.

Grice, David. 2006. Tutorial on Session Management. University of Adelaide, 28 February

Creative Computing

Christian introduced us to Super Collider which we will be spending this year learning. He started off by explaining textural or text based programming, known as procedural programming. This includes programming languages such as Java, C++, etc. Super Collider was constructed from the C programming language by James McCartney in 2002. SC has a higher level of abstraction that causes the programmer to develop a new methodology of thinking. Due to the text based coding, a high level of granulation of control is enabled for the user, which allows a high level of precision and accuracy particularly in the areas of music, audio and visual production. We also discussed the idea of programs being extensible. This concept allows the consumer to expand the software by adding script thus modifying the software within certain restraints. This is known as an open system. A closed system is the opposite of this with Mictrosoft’s Windows an example of this.

Haines, Christian. 2006. Tutorial on Procedural Programming. University of Adelaide, 2 March.

Forum

This week we have musician and sound installationist, Robin Minard to speak to us about the development of the Sound Installation idea. Robin gave us a brief talk about his history then focussed on how he came up with idea of a sound installation. He explained that he lived underground in Montreal, an environment where Musak is played all the time. This prompted Minard to think about the function of music in relationship to the space. This lead to thought on how the sound changes the perception of the space it is performed in and also that traditional music looses it’s meaning when performed in a public space like in the tunnels in Montreal. Further experimentation by Minard led to the use of small speakers used to add an extra dimension to a space and then later, the use of sculpture to add to the visual element of the installation. Minard’s presentation was accompanied by some detailed photo’s of some of his works particularly the works with use of multiple output sources that create a sense of movement in the space. He also looked at how colour influences your perception. Minard explained that he uses synthetic sounds that sound natural to accompany the space and plays them at a level such that the listener is unsure if the sounds are coming from the space or the speakers. I found this talk very interesting especially the examples of works that Minard had constructed.

Minard, Robin. 2006. Lecture on Sound Installation. University of Adelaide, 3 March.