My Fully Sick Instrument!

http://www.mydatabus.com/public/rewind/VOICE006.wav

AA Week 5 - Sound Art

Alvin Lucier
Born in Nashua, New Hampshire, Lucier was educated at various schools growing up, including Portsmouth Abbey School, Yale and Brandies. He also won a scholarship which led him to Rome for two years. He then went back to Brandies at the age of 31 to teach Choir and Performance of new music for 7years. Then in 1970 he also taught at Wesleyan University.
He has invented many types of new ways of expressing music, including the notation of performers' physical gestures, the use of brain waves in live performance, the generation of visual imagery by sound in vibrating media, and the evocation of room acoustics for musical purposes.(1)
His main focus of late involves sound installations for both orchestras and solo instruments, by which he can manipulate the sound waves and make them spin through space.
He has done many performances, like at the ‘Abiko Festival’ in Tokyo, ‘Music on a long thin wire’ in Kyoto, at ‘Time of Music’ Festival in Finland and has even had his own five day festival, appropriately named, ‘Alvin Lucier: Collaborations’.
He has also performed with many famous composers, including Aki Takahashi, DAAD Kunstler, Douglas Simon, John Ashbery (poet), and Robert Wilson.
Here is a link to a related website:
http://www.otherminds.org/shtml/Lucier.shtml

“I am Sitting In a Room”

"I Am Sitting in A Room" is a psycho-acoustic classic by Alvin Lucier for voice and tape. The spoken sentence, talking simply of what he is trying to do, are recorded, then played into a room and re-recorded. And that goes on over and over again, until eventually all you can hear is the resonance of the room, proving his point. As the recording gets played over and over again, the sounds given by the room and the sounds common the spoken statement are reinforced, with all the other noises being eliminated. This is almost like a filter, leaving only the pure sounds.
This song was composed and first performed in the same year at Guggenheim Museum in 1970.

I found this piece fascinating when i first heard it. I honestly didn't even know that this kind of theory existed and thats what could have happened.
I know that Alvin was one of the main composers involved in the evolution of sounds design. Spending almost all of his days dedicated to exploring the boundaries of sound and music, and also teaching others how to think the way he does. Feeling compelled from a young age, Alvin has changed the way many think about sound and music.

AA week 4 - Scene Sound

My first commercial is rather funny, I'm just going to say that. Oh, and very sexist on males' account, but i still thought it was funny.It uses a very simple, but effective way of advertising milk.
Its a pretty simple commercial, with only a few different sounds in it. These are:

> 00:00 - 00:30 = Background music (pretty funky) playing throughout the whole commercial.
> 00:17 - 00:22 = man's deep voice talking
> 00:27 - 00:28 = mans calling out to wife
> 00:29 - 00:30 = "got milk?"

I like how it is very simple, but very effective. No fancy graphics or sound effects are used. They also seem to use one fact as their basis, using humour to work on it.

Here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnVJ-cOrZsI





This next add is from a company called 'Antena',which is advertising an antiboredom campaign.
Also a very funny commercial, although a bit more witty.
Here are the main components:
> 00:00 - 00:05 = birds singing in the countryside
> 00:05 - 00:06 = car drving close past camera
> 00:06 - 00:40 = background noise of car motor
> 00:08 - 00:40 = music playing
> 00:31 - 00:35 = car screeching off road
> 00:32 - 00:40 = Woman laughing

Visually this add was better quality than the first one, although it gave a much more 'old school' feel, especialy with what the oldies were wearing!

Here is the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dye_ibjPY0g

References:

> Haines, Christian, Audio Arts Week 4 Tutorial, "Sound Scene", University of Adelaide,16th August, 2007.

> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dye_ibjPY0g, YouTube.com, "Funny Commercial 4", Viewed August, 2007.

> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fnVJ-cOrZsI, YouTube.com, "Best Milk Commercial Yet", viewed August, 2007.

AA Wk 1 - What is sound design?

The digital camera. Beeps and whirrs when you turn it on, beeps when you take a picture, makes a different beep when you delete a picture, makes a different beep again when you turn it off.
These beeps are designed to inform you when you have activated a part of this hardware. None of them are natural, nor do they mimik what would be natural for a camera. They are simply there for informing.This is a form of sound design.
Another example is the microwave. Although it does include natural sounds, such as the noise the door makes when you open it, or the slam it makes when you close it, there are also the beeps it delivers when the time is up. Although it can get quite annoying at times, this sound design has been very important in the development of hardware. How else would people know when the microwave has finished cooking? a flashing light? Not very convenient.

References:

Haines, Christian. Audio Arts Week 1 tutorial. "What is Sound Design", Univeristy of Adelaide, 24th July, 2007.

AA - Week 3 - Sound Design

Dirty Dancing Minutes 02:40 - 05:21

Sound scene:
Set in 1963. Mostly natural sounds, not much foley or sound effects. "Big Girls Don't Cry" playing in background.

Diegetic sounds:
> Sister complaining to father, and father telling her off, mother calming her down. Conversation about what defines a tragedy.
> Focuses on gamesman talking through a held microphones (03:26)
> Owner walking up and talking to guests (03:40)
> Luggage man taking luggage out of car (03:59)
> Focuses on dancing feet in dance class after guests have arrived
> Women instructing dance class calling out rules to dancers

Non- Diegetic sounds:
> Car pulling up in background which camera focuses on hotel
> Doors closing offscreen
> Music playing from loudspeakers throughout the hotel grounds
> Gamesman and commentator on loudspeaker in background
> Birds singing
> Guests walking around and talking (also movement noises)
> Sound of luggage being removed from cars around them.
> Hotel onwers' body noises
> Merangae music starts in background just before moving to dance class scenes.
> Women directing dance class in offscreen as focuses on dancers trying to dance
> Body movement noises during dance class (shuffling feet etc.)
> Women laughing at instructer's jokes.

Foley:
> Accentuated car doors opening and closing
> louder luggage noises
> Feet louder in dance class
> Body movement whilst getting out of car.

Dialogue:
Family travelling in a car to a hotel for a holiday. Starts with main character (yougest daughter) explaining what was happening, the era, etc. Oldest daughter start complaining that she hasn't brought enough pairs of shoes with her. Mother tries to calm her down. Father and youngest daughter explain that it wasn't a tragedy. Owner walks up to welcome them and tell them to go to a wonderful dance class.

Effects:
Not many effects due to the era that the movie was made. Mostly just accentuated noises for things such as the car pulling up off screen, car doors opening and closing, background talking, and the luggage being taken out of the car (also offscreen).

Overall a pretty simple couple of scenes, but helped me learn what to look for.

CC 1 - Week 4 - Cubase

This week we had to use cubase and, creating 4 different instruments, write a song. In the beginning i had a little bit of trouble getting the sound to work, but, after that, the instructions i wrote down from class seemed to make it pretty simple. I used cheeze machine, harmonizer, and the drum kit to create a failry simple tune on the keyboard. I started with a simple melody, then adding some funky basslines, harmonic backing, and a simple drum beat. Overall, apart from the annoying crashing of the comptuer about 5 times, i found the exercise fairly simple, as setting up and exporting was similar to that of Pro Tools etc.

http://www.mydatabus.com/public/rewind/CUBASEDONE.mp3

http://www.mydatabus.com/public/rewind/cubase1wk4.cpr

CC2 - week 2 - Modular programming

This week i had quite a bit of difficulty with the tuorial, seeing as the computer i was using shutdown TWICE! Grr! I have definately learnt my lesson about not saving! Anyway, i managed to finish it, and the first picture shows the result of what i did. I couldn't complete one of the parts of the tute as i did not have a MIDI keyboard thing. But i still read it and reckon i have a pretty good idea of what to do. For my piece i used the base from the tute and played around with almost every modification, causing the computer to actually freeze a couple of times, but i guess that was the only way i was going to learn. I decided to use the 16 step sequencer 2, and p[layed around with the notes until i found a melody that i liked, as opposed to just moving them on the first 16 step seq. I also added two different effects, the 'Freeverb' and the 'TwoBandDistortion - 0', i changed the levels until it suited me and then recorded. I was pleased with what i came up with. Overall i found it difficult but whorthwhile.

http://www.mydatabus.com/public/rewind/firstblog.bidule

http://www.mydatabus.com/public/rewind/secondblog.bidule

http://www.mydatabus.com/public/rewind/audioplogue.wav

http://www.mydatabus.com/public/rewind/ccweek2.wav

AA2 - Sound Design

This week we had an environmental focus on what sound is. i decided to do my assignment at my boyfriends house seeing as its in the country and he has quite a few animals, so i knew there would be a lot of 'environmental' sounds, as opposed to more 'suburben' noises. Rohan decided to join me, and, whilst doing my sound study, very thoughtfully decided to sit next to me making stupid noises. As you can tell in the picture the only way i could make him stop was by kicking him, which, unfortunately, only made him sing louder. I also had other noises to incorporate, including the kitens running around and play fighting, birds in the trees, cars going past, and background noises, which included a chainsaw and cooking noises coming from inside the house. Unfortunately i had nothing to record it with, so i just tried to make my pictures and graph as detailed as possible. Overall i found it pretty simple and (almost!) relaxing.

AA 1 Final Assessment

For my recording i did 'If You Dont Know Me By Now' By Simply Red. My performers were Nathan on bass guitar, Doug on piano, Amy on Vocals and Sanad on drums. The aim was to try and make a similar sound to that of the original, recorded in the 80's, but also try and use as little effects as possible.
The recording sessions went quite well, although the piano was played slightly too slow and the voice was recorded along to the piano, so that when the drums were recorded they ended up being slightly too fast throughout the song. My other little problem was that Amy was drowning in the flu when i recorded her, and i couldn't wait any longer or i would have run out of time, so i had to use quite a lot of reverb on the main melody plus the fills to try and covr this (even though you all already know because i just told you!)
When it came to mixing i used compression on the drums and the voice,to try and stop any clicking. I also used reverb on both of these, to cover the cold in Amy's voice, and also the give the 80's effect on the snare that was present in the original recording.
I know this recording was quite rough, as i don't know enough about recording and the programmes yet to use them to my full advantage, but i believe that this is only the beginning and that it can only (hopefully!) get beter from here :D.
( I am unable to post the music up right now because my USB died, so i have to fish them off of Christian, but i will get everything up her ASAP )

CC1 - Week 12 - Musique Concrete Project

Composition Reproduction

Name: Laura Gadd

Course: Music Technology


Description

Develop a compositional plan and describe it in detail (300 words). The plan must research, examine, assess and describe items under ‘aesthetic criteria’.

When I began to organise what I was going to write for this assignment, I started to think about what I wanted to get from it. When looking up some extra information on ‘Musique Concrete’ from Wikipedia (1), I discovered a word that Pierre Schaeffer loved to use; ‘Jue’. Jue, originally coming from the French word Jouer, means 'to enjoy oneself by interacting with one's surroundings', as well as 'to operate a musical instrument'.
When I read this it made me realise that I wanted to write something that would really represent musique concrete in its early stages, because this was where the subject fascinated me most. I want to keep my finished product as simple as possible, as Pierre had done with his first piece Etude aux chemins de fer (Study on railways) (2).
I will use the materials I have produced so far throughout the term, and use programmes such as Pro Tools, SoundHack and Reason to manipulate them. I want to try and create something that is not so much ‘harmonic’ as it is ‘abstract’ or ‘musique concrete’ as Pierre likes to refer to it, as he believes ordinary music is ‘abstract’.
I want to try and use as least amount of my sample materials as possible, as I feel this will help to keep my piece simple.
I will be using a lot of reverb and delay, as well as other effects such as ‘shuffling’, transposition of sound levels, pitch and volume, until I find the sounds that I desire.
This piece will not make any sense, as I do not want it to. This piece is intended to be very ‘random’ and ‘spectral’, as this was what helped Pierre prove his point to the public that this new found ‘Musique Concrete’ was not intended to always ‘follow the rules’, but used as a way to express yourself with newfound technology.


References:

(1) Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ‘Musique Concrete’, Viewed on May 5th, 2007, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musique_concr%C3%A8te

(2) Carrol, Mark, Perspectives in Music Technology , Week seven, Pierre Schaeffer and musique concrete’,EMU University of Adelaide, viewed on May 5th, 2007.

Forum week 11 - Build &/or Destroy Music

This week was a very interesting topic, talking about how remixed music is either being built or detroyed when remixing popular songs.
Simon (1) went first and brought up the first and very simple fact that pretty much everyone hates Justin Timberlake's music, but whenever you hear his famous line 'I'm bringing sexy back' and one of his many remixed version, it will make many want to get up and dance.
He then went o to talk about similar songs like the 'Ghostbusters' Theme, showing a remix that he did himself, als which he decided he had 'destroyed' not 'built'. haha. I actually didn't think it was that bad.
He also had a large section on 'Daft Punk' Showing a few songs that they had "Jacked" a very repetitive word used in his speech. One of these songs, which actually turned out to be a no. 1 was 'Stardust'.

Nathan went next talked about Metal music, black metal in particular. He talked about how they like to go the opposite way with technology, many recording their songs by the simplest technology means, and definately not using any high tech equipment. He also pointed out a very amusing fact that there are christian bands that play 'Black metal', the only problem is, is that they actually calll it 'Unblack Metal'. (2)

Thirdly the third person (I'm so sorry i did not get your name!) talked about 'music's power to create different emotions and influence us', particularly focusing on scary music. He described it as being a lot like bright music Vs. scary music = Major Vs. minor. He also explained how both physical and timberal elements are used when trying to get the right effect. He then went on the play us many exampls, many from an artist named 'Lustmord', whose music i found very interesting.

References:

(1) Whitelock, Simon, Forum #1 music technology Week 11 - 'Building &/or destroying music', EMU University of Adelaide, May 24, 2007.

(2) Shea, Nathan, Forum #1 Music technology Week 1 - 'Building &/or detroying music', EMU University of Adelaide, May 24, 2007.

CC#1 - Week 11 - MetaSynth (2)

This week was an extension of last week's prac, where we learnt how to use the rest of the rooms (1). These included the Image Filter, the Spectrum Synth, and Sequencer and the Montage Room. The montage Room was able to put all of the effects you had made together and our task this week was to try and make a small 30 - 60sec sample of our effects put together (2). I found this week much more fun as i understood it more and had the change to put more thought and imagination into it.
I have taken pictures of some of the effects that i used and the overall finished product in the Monage Room. These should pretty explain themselves.


Here is one of the first effects i made using the shuffler effects in the sound effecs room.


Here is the bassline i used, although in this pic it is inverted and i forgot to take a pic of it when i re-inverted it back again.


Here is the overall setting in the Montage Room, where i have put all of my effects together to make a 'sort of ok' sample.

The hardest problem i had this week was to get everything in the same pitch. I would make a really nce bassline or melody, but it would be completely out of key with the one i wanted to put it with. I'll have to try and overcome this problem.

http://www.mydatabus.com/public/rewind/Finalmotageyea.mp3

References:
(1) Haines, Christian, CC#1, Week 11 - 'MetaSynth #2', EMU University of Adelaide, Thursday 24th May, 2007.

(2)MetaSynth Pro 4.0, 2004, EMU University of Adelaide, last used on May 30th, 2007

AA Week 11 - Mixing (1)

This week was the start of our mixing process, and to be honest i actually had no idea what to do. After asking about 50 thousand people i had a rough idea of what to do, so I am hoping what i have done is right.

Mix #1:
For my first mix i individually changed the faders and changed it to stereo form, with the same panning as when loaded.I Turned up the vocals quite loud, and i believed it had a good effect. It was a personal choice as i don't like hearing all the songs that come out these days where you are unable to hear the lyrics. I also had the piano and 'effected' piano up quite loud. I liked the effect.

http://www.mydatabus.com/public/rewind/Fadedmono1changed.mp3


Here is the fading i used kept in mono form.

Mix #2:
This time i kept pretty much the same fading as i had in Mix #1, but had it instereo form and put panning in, mostly in the parts which already had a left and right setting, and also in things like the guitars and piano parts. When listening to this in my headphones i thought this sounded awsome, although, as i was told in Audio Arts (1), i knew that you would have to stand right in between the speakers to hear the full effects when being played out loud.

http://www.mydatabus.com/public/rewind/Pannedstereo2changed.mp3


This was the panning i used for mix #2

Mix #3:
For my last mix i kept it in stereo and had the same fading, but by this time it was plainly obvious that the drums needed to have some EQ put on it, as they sounded horrible. I applied different EQ effects for the kick, snare and KitFX. Overall i found the drums to be a lot clearer and the whole piece seemed to have a lot more clarity.

http://www.mydatabus.com/public/rewind/EQtodrums3changed.mp3


Here is the EQ i added to the kick


Here is the EQ's used on the drum parts.

References:

(1) Fieldhouse, Stephen, Audio Arts 1 - Week 11 - 'Mixing (1)', EMU University of Adelaide, May 22nd, 2007

CC1 Week 10 - Metasynth (1)

This week we were introduced to a new programme; "Metasynth" (1). We were showed how to use two of the functions 'Effects Room' & 'Image Synth'.(2) We were to create a 45 second piece by manipulating the recorded quote used in previous weeks.In my recording i used 4 different manipulations of the quote using different effects in the effects room. The first time i used the quote i simply changed the speed with a random fast, slow, fast, slow effect. For the second quote i, firstly, harmonized it using an almost contrary motion of triangular waves with the high and low voices. I then put a shuffler over it and adjusted it until i found a beat that i liked. For the fourth recording i transposed my voice up a 5th, then added a gradually increasing reverb over the top. For the fifth quote i changed the pitch and time, where both the pitch and time rise both about a third, then stay that way for approx. half the piece, then rise fully for the 2nd half.For the third recording, wch was done in the 'Image Synth' room i started by analyzing the first of my quotes down into the picture grid. I then added notes spaced ocatvely at the beginning of each bar. The notes were represented as blocks. I then used a different (smudged) brush to put some more octave notes at the bottom, almost like a bass line. I then rotated it so that everything i had just done sounded completely random and nothing like it was supposed to.




http://www.mydatabus.com/public/rewind/ccwk10audacity.mp3

References:

(1) Metasynth.4, 2006. Website = http://unisoftware.com/MetaSynth/index.html

(2) Haines, Christian, CC#1, Week 10 tutorial - MetaSynth (1) (Processing), EMU, University of Adelaide, May 17th, 2007.

AA1 - Week 9 - Bass Guitar Recording

Recording #1:
Fr this recording i used an AKG 414 and put compression on it. To ,e this sound was very 'bassy" with a very deep sound to it, and, although the melody was still clear, it seemed to almost ruin the dynamics a bit.

Bassrec1.mp3

Recording #2:
This time i used a Shure 56 Beta and fed the line straight through the Avalon. I found this sample to be a bit 'scratchy' and to me i think it would have done well with a bit of compression to it.

Bassrec2.mp3

Recording #3:
For this sample i used a Yamaha MZ 204. I liked this one a lot and i felt it was very clear and distinct. It also sounded a lot brighter than the other recordings.

Bassrec3.mp3

Recording #4:
This time i used a DI and had it going directly into Pro Tools. To me this one was my favourite, with good dynamics and a very clear tone.

Bassrec4.mp3

Recording #5:
This was my most difficult recording, as i used two different methods together. The first i used an AKG 414 (compressed) again and had it coming through the left speaker. For the right speaker i used the DI. I also found this to be very clear and distinct, but not as good as the DI by itself.

Bassrec5left.mp3

Bassrec5right.mp3

AA1 - Week 8 - Electric guitar recording

This week, similar to week 6, we had to record samples of electric guitar,using different microphones and and positions.

Recording #1:
Using a Sennheiser mic, this sample was set up right in the middle of the soundhole of the amp. I also set it to have a large amount of distortion. Personally i thought this sample sounded horrible, with no clear distinction of the melody and an overall horrible scratchy sound to it. Not something i would personally want to use, unless i was about 14 years old in my first 'hardcore' band.

aa6rec1.L.mp3

Recording #2:
Again, using the Sennheiser mic, i moved the mic to the egde of the speaker cone. I also did not put any effects on it. The effect turned out to have an extreme amount of bass, thereby ruining the overall melody and losing clarity. It could be good depending on the song you were playing and the effect you were looking for though.

aa7rec2.L.mp3

Recording #3:
This time i used a Neumann U 89 and placed it about 6 - 7 inched away from the centre of the speaker cone on the amp. I also turned the 'crunch' effect on. I liked this effect a lot more than the distortion as it still, as it amplies, has a 'crunchy' effect, but is still moderately clear and you can still hear the melody quite well. Much preferred against the distortion effect.

aa7rec3.L.mp3

Recording #4:
Again, using the Neumann U89, i placed the mic in the corner of the dead room, about 1.5m away from the amp. This gave a 'roomy' sound, almost sounding like the old school 'live' sounds. I thought it was very interesting, although it did lose some clarity and sounded a bit 'rough'.

aa7rec4.L.mp3

Recording #5:
This time i put the Neumann U89 on the edge of the soundhole on the amp.With the piece that was played (ACDC)this 'bassy' effect was well suited, in my opinion. I can see though that this effect would not be well siuted to many songs, and the amount of bass wanted would have to be decided first.

aa7rec5.L.mp3

CC 1 - Week 8 - Processing (2)

This week we had to do the same as alast week, except incorporate another programme, SoundHack, to help further our sound manipulations. We started by using the programme "Orator" to record the quote "We shape our tools, and thereafter our tools shape us." We then used 'Peak LE" Cut cut out, loop, assign to a section of the keyboard, and save 5 - 8 different syllables from the quote. This had to be enough to fill up the whole keyboard with different noises. We then had to open "SoundHack" and either speed up or slow down, change the pitch of, or just generally manipulate the syllables further, then save them. Lastly we opened "Reason" , using the programme " NN19" to set up the keyboard and record a song using our new manipulated noises.
This week was alot easier for me as i understood a lot better what i was doing and have actually managed to post something this week. Just my luck something on the blog will die and it wont work properly. I can send you the sound through email if this is the case!

ccompweek9yea.mp3

Forum week 8 - Gender in Music Technology (2)

This week was my turn to do my speech, and, just my luck i had to do it on 'Gender in Music Tech'. I had a bit of a 'tiff' the week before with the boys when i didn't agree with a lot of things that they had stated. This week i knew i had to, not only, properly explain what i meant, but also give a different perspective on gender in music tech, not just talk aout how there aren't many women in the industry. I started by explaining that i wasn't a feminist, and that i had actually gone onto the special 'women in music tech' support websites and read their completely bitchy forums on how bad men were. I told them, very similarly to Amy last week, that i wasn't trying to make the amount of women in the industry equal to that of the men, i just simply stated that i am in this course because i want to be, i hope i will do well at it, and that it wasn't any more difficult for me to get into this course as it was for any other male.
I then went on to talk about how i felt there was a big difference in the way that men and women expressed themselves in songs, particulary in their lyrics. To help me show my point, i toktwo extremely different singers, Eminem and Kylie Minogue, and particulary focused on both love and hate of the other ses. I believe that women are very expressive of their feelings, where as men, especially when they are angry, tend to just write down the first thing that comes to their mind, generally being a bit more agressive than women. Here are some of the examples i gave.
Eminem in an angry song :
" Maybe I'll love you one day, maybe we'll someday grow, till then just sit your drunk ass on that fuckin runway ho' "
and
" I'm not a jelous man, but females lie, but i guess that's just what sluts do, how could it ever be juse us two, I'd never love you enough to trust you, we just met and i just f***ed you"
and
" What's sad is what is attracting us to each other, they say every man grows up to marry his own mother, which would explain why you're such a motherf***ing bitch"
As compared some angry lyrics from Kylie with:
" You never send me flowers, you don't want to hold my hand, when i was sa or lonely, you used to understand"

overall i felt the speech wen quite well, starting a big discussion at the end.

Forum 1 - week 7 - Gender in Music Tech

This week I found to be, not frustrating, but almost a forced opinion. We were given the topic of talking about gender in music technology, so, naturally, pretty much the only thing that people could talk about is why there are fewer females in the music industry.
Firstly, Ben did a talk about why there is less female interest in the subject of music technology, stating things such as it being a 'masculine' subject, that the teaching style may not cater for a diversity of learning styles, and that there has been an increased use of technology to 'attract' males to music.
Next Doug talked about the genetics; the difference between males and females. He pointed out the 'strong' subjects for both women and men, and stated that I.T. and technology is generally better adapted to males. He also stated that he believed that music technology is a 'masculine' subject.
Thirdly, Amy talked about how she isn’t a feminist, explaining that feminists only want equal opportunity so as to get as many females in the music technology industry as males. She talked about how females should be able to get in the industry as much as men, but for the reason being that they would be good at it and want to do it, not just to make the numbers in the industry equal to that of men.
Lastly, there was a very short talk from Jake, focusing on Bjork and how both men and women like to buy her music creations. He then showed us a DVD of her and left us with a very interesting saying, “Choosing between males and females is like choosing between ice cream and cake."
Overall, i think everybody thought i was trying to rip their heads off because i didn't agree with them, but i just needed them to explain themselves properly so as to not come across as sexist.

AA 1 - Week 7 - Voice Recording

This week was very similar to last week's assignment, except instead of recoridng accoustic guitar we had to record voice. Here is a run through of the 5 recordings i did. I used a Neumann Condenser microphone for my recordings and a pop flter for the first four recordings.
Recording #1:
This was Doug talking about 2 inches away from the microphone.



Recording #2:
This was Amy talking in the corner of the dead room, about 1.5meters away from the microphne.



Recording #3:
This time Amy sang into the mic, standing approx. 2 - 3 inch away.



Recording #4:
This time Amy sang into the microphone, but whilst standing off axis to the mic and with no pop filter.



Recording #5:
For the last recording I modified the 4th recording by compressing the attack and lowering the release.

cc#1 - Week 6 - score interpretation

This week we had to interpret a picture of an abstract score given to us through email. I thought this would be an interesting experience to see and hear what everyone in the class would come up with. It was.
I started by dividing the score up into 10 sections, and finding, out of my collection, sounds that woul fit the picture.
1st Section:
I could see a moderate crescendo
2nd section:
I used the normalizer on one of my noises that i thought acceptable and made it louder so as to make it fit better.
3rd section:
I thought of this as just a random loud-ish section
4th section:
i used the same sound here as i did for the 2nd sound as i thought they looked the same, i did change the normalizer on this one slightly though.
5th section:
This to me looked scattered, and i had an 'outer space' sound that i thought would fit quite perfectly, so i used that.
6th section:
that was almost like another loud section, although i wanted to make it more prominant than the first loud section.
7th Section:
For this sound i thought it to be also loud, but slightly different, so i chose exactly that; another loud noise that was loud, but different from the one used in the previous section.
8th section:
This was a large loud section, with slight decrescendos in the middle. I had made quite an interesting sound in the previous week using the 'Mooger Fooger', and, slightly modifying it with the normalizer i used that noise.
9th section:
Here i found quite in interesting change in the score, with just a random quiet bit, so i used a paper tear folloing the loud 'MoogerFooger' noise.
10th section:
With the last section there was a simple dounble decrescendo, so i used another noise made by the 'MoogerFooger' to finish this piece off.

Unfotunately on the Mac computers i spent about an hour trying to find the 'Print Screen' button, but no matter what i pressed it would not work, so i was unable to give you a picture of the actualy score, which is extremely frustrating for me!
Overall i had fun working with this score.

gaddcc1wk6.wav

Forum 1 - Week 6 - Collaborations final

Unfotunately i was absent for this weeks forum as i was struck down with a wonderful case of the flu, which not only helped me lose grades, but also completely ruined my Easter... just thought you might like to know. I talked to a few people and read a couple of blogs, and apparently this week was just an overview of the whole collaboration process with a couple more examples.
This week i would like to give my opinion of the collboration process as a whole. I think that collaboration is a very important aspect of the music industry. It shows that people can change their style, no matter what they are used to, and that new types of music can be derived from it. I believe that people who collaborate must have a very open mind as they are willing to try something new, rather than just keep to the typical 'normal' music that they know everyone will like. Trying new things it how new styles/new music is made. I mean, look back in the days when people only ever used to sing hymns about thier God or their religion. Now, especially since synthetic/electronic music has been made, a whole new side of music has been made, and there is a lot more with which people can collaborate with and create.
Overall i am generally one for sticking only with the type of music that i like, but since starting this course, it has opened my ears to many kinds of music, and also new types of music in which i would not normaly be willing to listen to.

AA1 - Week 6 - Accoustic Guitar recording

This week was definately the most fun i have had with one of my assignments! Working in a group, for once we got everything right.

The pictures and recordings prety much explain them selves,but i will put a brief explanation for each of them anyway.

Guitar Recording #1:

Using a Neumann U89I for the first four,the first recording i pointed it angled up at the sound hole, so as to get a much deeper sound with a lot of bass. Very basic and standard sound. Nothing too special. I wouldn't have used it for a good recording.




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Guitar Recording #2:

This time i had it pointing at the 14th - 16th frets on the neck. This sound had much less bass, but was a litle bit tinny to me.





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Guitar Recording #3:

This time i had the microphone pointing angled down at the sound hole. Unfortunately i could not actually hear any difference from the first recording.




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Guitar Recording #4:

For this recoridng i had the microphone placed across the other side of the dead room, approx. 1.5 meters away. The sound wasn't clear at all and you could hear a lot of background noise. This was my least favourite of the recordings.




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Guitar Recording #5:

For the last recording i used two Rhode NT5 microphones set up the the XY position infront of the sound hole. This was definately my favourite recording of the five, giving a much richer sound without too much bass.




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Overall i had a really fun time recording these sounds, and i can definately see how they will be useful in the future.

Forum 1 - Week 5 - Collaborations (2)

This week we had another set of four students do their presentations, this time, again, about collaborations. The first speach was done about a man named Marc Cunningham, a dance teacher who made his own dance studio in 1953. He ad always been interested and heavily involved in collaborations. Late in the 1990's he decided to do a collaboration with two different popular bands, Radiohead and Cigros.
Radiohead was your typcal rck band, whilst cigros stepped out and became electronic to be different.
For the performance they split the performance into two halves - radiohead's performance and Cigros's performance, having two different sets of dancers. Cigros went first and radiohead preceeded. The performance was said to be a huge hit.

The second talk was about a man anmed Mike Pattern who did collaborations with many people including John Zorn, Kool Kieth, and the Executioners, which was interesing seeing as they were a hip hop band. He liked to make concept albums based on movies, one albmun hense named 'Director's Cut'.

Darren was the third person to do his speach, talking about two collaborators - Wayne and Joe. They were said to almost work as one, although it was hard to say as they always seemed to lie in interviews. It was said though that Joe always seemed to control everything.After many years they eventually went their own ways, Joe forming his own band.He also did a solo album in which he played al of the instruments throughout recording.
Frank went on to collaborate with different genres. He then started making movies and learnt about collaborating with film/TV/Sound people.

Lastly Alfred did his talk about why people collaborate, and went into detail about the advertising/world demand process. This started a good conversation throughout the class, letting everyone have their own opinion on what he had talked about.

aa1 - week 5 - sequencing (2)

This week we had to create another 45 second piece using our modified paper noises, incorporatng new aspects of Pro Tools that Christian had taught us in this lesson.These includd things such as volume control, changing the names of the regions and audio titles, as well as teaching us many new shortcuts. My piece is similar to last week, as i still used 'audiosuite' to change the sound of my noises, but i was also able to change the names of my regions and audio line, as well as changing the volume throughout the piece.
Overall i was very pleased with the outcome, as i didnt actually know that you were able to create sounds like these from something as simple as a piece of paper!


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AA1 - Week 5 - Introduction to microphones

This week we had to record five different sound techniques using ifferent microphones/settings on microphones. For my recordings i chose to use two different mics; AKG Condenser mic and the Shure SM 58 Dynamic mic. I used these microphones set up in front of a radio, moving them around to get different sounds.

First Recording:
This recording i used the Shure SM 58 dynamic mic and simply moved it from side to side in front of the radio as it was recording. You can tell that the input gets louder as the microphone moves closer to the speaker, thats just logic, but you can also hear the better quality of the sound as the microphone moves closer as well.




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Second Recording:
This time i did exactly the same thing with the mic, as in moving it from side to side infront of the radio again, but instead i used a different mic; the AKG Condenser mic, and chose a different radio station. I also had it set on the cartiod setting at the back of the microphone. The sound was pretty much the same as with the first recording, although somewhat milder.




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Third recording
This time i used the AKG mic again, chose a different radio station, and had it set onto the Hyper Cartiod setting at the mabck of the mic. This time I, firstly, had it close to the radio, pulled it away, turned it 90 degrees, brang it back close to the radio, turned it 90 degrees again, and kept repeating that. This sound also turned out to be quite mild when listening to it afterwards.




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Fourth recording
For my fourth recording I, once again, used the AKG mic, but had it changed to the omni setting on the back of the mic. This time. after changing the radio station, i simply moved the mic close to the radio then pulled it away again, repeating this pprocess for 5 seconds. This had a similar effect to the third recording.




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Fifth Recording:
For my last recording i used the AKG and used the last setting on the back of the mic, the figure of eight. Whilst recording on a new radio station i held the mic infront of the speaker and simply turned it on the spot. YOu could notic where it wasn't picking up as much sound in the weak spots.




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Overall, after learning the hard way from recording the paper noises, i found this exercise quite easy and fun.

CC1 - Week 4 - Sequencing

This week must have been the most frustrating week for tryiing to understand what we were supposed to do. When Christian explained to us what we were supposed to do, it almost seemed like the other weeks; have a no fear approach to making a 45second 'abstract' piece in Pro Tools, using sequencing to get the effect you wanted. Not only every time that i tried to find a Mac they were all T.A.K.E.N., but in one case Pro Tools wouldn't even open, and another the other time it would not read my files.Just as i was about to give up, just then, Christian came in and saved my sanity.He managed to get the New Pro Tools working. Once it was open i found a menu window called 'Audiosuite'. This was definately the funnest window i have ever come across in my life! This was because i discovered the... MOOGERFOOGER! This high tech piece of gold was the ultimate in making my soundscape awsome. If you turn up all the dials on it, something i decided to randomly do, it turns your noise into what sounds like thunder, or an explosiion. It was so good! When listening to it, you will notice one near the middle of the piece, and the other (my personal favourite), at the very end.
Unfortunately, due to the fact that i amost died trying to get this excercise done before Christian helped me, i was unable to load any pictures inot the site. Very regrettable. :(
Throughout the soundscape i also used other applications such as Wave mechanics, Funk Logic, AmpliTube,mixer, JOE MEEK Compressor, Flanger and the Cosmonaut voice. These helped to change my original paper sounds into my soundscpe today.
Overall, a very frustrating, but satisfying excercise.

lg.ptf

lauragadd.ptf

Forum 1 - Week 4 - Collaborations

This week the students started their presentations, this week being on the subject of 'collaborations'.
David started with his presentation on a orchestral performance incorporating Metallica.
The orchestra was conducted by a man named Michael Karmen. He was actually the man who thought of the idea of having Metallica play with his orchestra. After agreeing to the idea in 1998, they had the actual performances in 1999. There were a few critics who said it was a failure, but personally i really enjoyed it. I thought it was great that Metallica can show this side of them and prove that this type of band can even work an orchestra.

Vinny went next, doing his presentation on an Indian composer named Trilok Gurtu. He told us about how Trilok composes many collaborations with people like Daniel Gayone, Nana Vasconcelos (Brazillion Percussionist), Nicolas Fiszman (Belgium Bassist) and Tundes Jegedee ( British Kora player).
We listened to a few of his songs, including 'African Fantasy' and 'Cheery Town'. I found this composer very interesting, as i had never heard music like this before, and it made it so much more enjoyable seeing to enthusiastic Vinny was when talking about him!


Thirdly, William decided to talk to us about the 'process of collaboration' instead of choosing a composer or performance. I didn't really understand what he was talking about most of the time, but it was interesting to see that he took a different approach towards the subject, and if i did understand what he was talking about, I'm sure I would have been very interested.

Lastly, Sanad handed out to the class a sheet of paper stating his opinion on music technology and 'Globalisation'. He then went on to explain how he thought that the term 'world music' was being used unfairly, when being referred to Australian, American, or, on a general note, English music. What was interesting about this talk was that it almost seemed to start an argument throughout the class, with each seperate person having their different opinion.
It was almost like he started a discussion which ended up going in a completely different direction! He told me later on that he would try to keep his mouth shut as mmuch as possible from now on!

AA1 - Week 4 - Input and Output

This week we had to draw and label a floor plan of the recording room, dead room and studio, showing all inputs and outputs that you would need to record a standard band. We had to show the signal flow starting from the instruments, through the patch bays, through the mixer, the digital converter, and lastly into Pro Tools on the computer. You will see on my picture i have swapped the mixer and the digital converter around, purely to make drawings purposes easier.
I had a couple of little troubles with this, mostly the names of things, but overall i found it mostly manageable.

Forum 1 - Week 3 - Sound Vs Music

This week our other teacher David Harris discussed the topic "There is no noise or sound that isnt music."
It turned out to be a lot different from Stephen's talk last week, as, not only did David hardly speak throughout the lesson, the whole class was involved in the topic.
We were each given either a page of music, beats, voice volumes/pitches/ or a page of words, then sent to our instrument/seat, where we waited for instructions. The pages of music/beats/writing each had certain times written above each note/beat/phrase and the instructions given were to play the notes in the bar etc for however long you wished, just as long as they were played in the time given above. Another interesting point about this piece, was that it was 45 minutes long.
The point of this task was to try and help us get a better understanding/opinion of what the difference between music and sound was, or whether all noise/sound could be music.
Once the timer had been set and the music started playing, i realised i had never heard anything like this before. It was almost music, but at the same time it was almost horrible to listen to, as it had no actual timing, harmony or melody.
When i first heard the saying "There is no noise or sound that isn't music", I instantly believed that the answer was simple; that this saying simply wasn't true. How could a car horn, a door closing, a piece of toast popping out of the toaster, a rustle of a tree, be music? Heard individually, i still believe that not every sound is music, but i do now believe that appropriate sounds incorporated together can be turned into a certain type of music, even if it does sound quite odd.
Although the song went for quite a long time, and everyone was quite bored of it by about 15 minutes, it gave me time to really think about this saying. I believe it has changed my opinion, to an extent, something of which i was quite certain wouldn't happen at the beginning of the year.

CC1 - Week 3 - Sound editing

This week we were to expand on our paper noises by using a programme called 'S.P.E.A.R.'. We were to edit our sounds and make them sound completely different and re-submit them. I decided to do this on my PC as i wanted to have something on my computer that i could actually use instead of requiring a Mac. Here is the list of changes i made to each sound:

Laura's Throw:
I usd a number of different thing as this was the first sound i edited. I used the frequency shift, the time stretch, i transposed it up 9 semitones and i also cleared sections using the lasso selection.

Laura's Fast Rip:
Again i used quite a few different applications to make this sound different. These included transposing it up 12 semitones, changing the frequency, time stretching it, and using the time offset.

Laura's Rips:
This one was quite easier than the other two as i just used to lasso to clear some bits and changed the frequency which changed the sound completely.

Laura's Shake:
This was pretty much a mix of everything. The lasso was used, as well as the time shift, frequency shift, time stretch and clearing of certain sections.

Laura's Slow Tear:
I was a bit creative with this one. Using the rectangular sectioner i made checkers out of the sound waves and cleared the selected section. This made, i believe, quite an interesting sound as compared to what i started with.

Overall, i found this exercise very interesting as i was able to play around with the sounds i had made the previous week and change them into completely new sounds. Apart from fun it was also quite simple.

Laurasfastrip.spearsdif

Laurasrips.spearsdif

LaurasShake.spearsdif

Laurasslowtear.spearsdif

laurasthrow.spearsdif

AA1 - Week 3 - Studio Quickstart

Im in the action as we speak! We literally just got the music playing through the speakers. Hooray! Unfortunately for Amy and I, we were unable to get our 3 hours studio time, but, for a change, what we had to do turned out to be quite easy compared to everything else i have attempted in this course so far.Using the D.O.R.A. system, which, luckily, i had written down quite extensively during the lesson, determined to do something right, we were able to set up the recording system. After doing that a few times without blowing up the speakers, we got ready to turn everything off and leave, when, conviently, Freddie turned up and told us we had to set up radio/speaker/headphone connections so as to be able to hear the radio through our speakers. I found it was pretty straight forward, as i had written down what all the buttons do on the mixer. After getting the sound to work through the headphones, we then set out to make it work through the mixer and speakers. After pressing a few wrong buttons, and finally realising that Amy had pressed the button below the main mix button which wasnt supposed to be on, everything started working. We were extremely pleased, except for Freddie, who seemed to be holding back his joy.
Overall, very pleased that we were able to do this,properly. :)
Ok. Maybe not. As i wrote that Freddie then told us that we had to get a signal through Pro Tools. After setting everything up and opening Pro Tools, just our luck, there was no signal. We tried everything but nothing would work.We had signal through the mixer but nothing through the actual computer programme. In the end we had to get a teacher to come in and help us, who discovered that in the 2 input cables in the back of the 192, someone had changed it from the -10 input to the +4. The input is usually set to -10 so thats was th reason why we werent getting any sound, something apparently by which only people with extra knowledge could fix, so thankfully it wasnt out fault.
For my second overall, i think it wen sort of well. Maybe.

Forum 1 - Week2 - Originality

For our forum presentation this week our teacher gave a talk about the topic "I want to be original... like everyone else"
He covered some very impotant points whilst talking about this. Some of these were:
Plaigerism.
He talked about the saying," Stealing from one person is called plaigerism, stealing from many is cal research." I thought this was a very good point. How can you make your own opinion of something, or educate yourself about something if you have not learnt about it first from somewhere else? I can also see the point that you cannot just copy someone else opinion word for word when you could perfectly well make up an opinion of your own.

Erik Satie.
This was a famous composer that was actually expelled from music school after being deemed 'lazy'. He ended up composing a wole genre of pieces even with his limited knowlegde about composing music. Although they were all very similar, the first of three was a worldwide favourite. "Gymnopedie No.'s 1,2 & 3."
When he did go back to school at 40 years of age and completed a three year composition course, fans of his music started saying that he had lost his originality in the pieces he wrote after the course was completed.

"How much value is it worth? Is it important?"
Stephen then talked about how in the sixteenth century composers names were never released with a piece, as it was not deemed that important. After that people started realising their efforts should be recognised, and after the sixteenth century names started being published.
In theearly days in Europe originality was seen as being loud, having power, and making a point, where as today originality can be seen as many different things, even a simple as just writing down your feelings. It doesnt always mean making a point or having power.

"What does the idea of originality mean in the 21st century?"
He then told us a story about how in the 1930's, a man named Benjamin wrote an essay, and in it he wrote, "In the process of reproduction, something from the original work is lost.: He called this 'aura' Later on in the century this thesus was taken further by a man named Bandrillard, calling it 'Simulacrum.'

Lastly, we listened to a few pieces, one being 'Roadrunner', a solo accordian piece by John Zorn. These pieces showed extreme originality, and pushed the limits of what is defined as 'noise' and 'music'.

I was suprised by the amount of opinions made by the class. I also was suprised by my own opinion. A man in our class, Bradley, made a very oing point by which i completely agreed with. He told us of the saying, " Poeple don't know what they like, they like what they know." This made me realise why originality was so important, as showing your passion may be rejected by many, as they only want to hear what they know and like.
Overall i thought it wa a very good speech :).

CC1 - Week 2 - Editing

This week our exercise was to record and edit 5 different noises made by a piece of paper. Thinking this was comical at first, i thought it would be easy. I. Was. Wrong. After finally finding a studio in which to record my noises, Amy and I discovered it imossible to work the computers, (ie which programme to use, where to put the microphones, where to get the microphones, why nothing was working!)
We had a saviour though as Bradley, Darren and another teacher from the music department came in and managed to save us by helping to set everything up, and taught us how to use the 'M Box', something of which i had never heard of before. After finally getting the noises recorded, we saved them into the TempHD file and went downstairs to edit them, only to discover that there is no TempHD file on the downstairs computers. After trekking upstairs, again, and saving them to my USB, we went back downstairs only to discover that they were the wrong format and we were unable to open them. By then we had run out of time and had to go to class, but after that Amy went and managed to change them to a WAV file.
After finally being abe to get them onto the computer, I started to edit them. After cutting and pasting each of the 5 noises into new documents I started to add effects. Much to my dissapointment you cant hardly heard them. I have left the effects in there, but it is very hard to distinguish them I'm sorry.
Overall, i feel that i am about 30 steps behind everyone else in my course, which is very frustrating. I'm not really catching on and my practical skills seem to make me look even worse.
Laurasfastrip.aif

Laurasrips.aif

LaurasShake.aif

Laurasslowtear.aif

LaurasThrow.aif

AA1 - Week 2 - Session Planning & Management

This week we looked at how to plan and manage and recording session( I.e. the steps you need to take before having a recording session).
We looked at the two parts of the planning; post - production and production.
Post-production involves things such as: duplication, sound level, tracking artwork etc, and production involves things such as: recording, editing and layering.
We then looked at the producer's roles. These included:
>Helping with the overall sound - Instrument choice, choosing the rights sounds, improve recording
> Performance - Help to improve the captured performance
>Song choices - arrangement choosing (eg taking/adding parts)they may even help to write/re-write songs
>Budget distribution - including time management, quoting process etc
> Communication/people skills - Helping the band with motivation, organising musicians to give their best performance, keeping them 'sane', stopping any fights, helping them get out of ruts etc.
We then loked at pre-production roles. These included
>Meeting with the musicians - possibly even seeing them play live
> Getting demo tapes
> Finding out their musical style, what they want to achieve etc
> Getting thier numbers, email etc
Lastly, we looked at the steps involved in the planning of the recording session. These included:
> Assessed and musical style
> Duration, number of songs, time given to record etc
>Analysing instrumentation - Additions, harmonies, more voices, more pieces to drum kit, placing of mics, effects, MIDI sequences, costing etc
> Analysing musicians - Suggestions (nicely)
After we went thourhg this we were given our weekly exercise. This was to create a session plan example including instrument name, microphone/DI to be used and A/DC required. I chose a band consisting of a standard drum kit, bass guitar, electris quitar and voice to be used for my session plan. My session plan is to be handed up im my next 'Audio Arts' class.

Forum 1 - week 1 - Introduction

For the first week of our forum, after going through the course outline and everyone introducing themselves, we learnt that we were to do a presentation in groups about a topic given to us. I was chose, along with three other classmates, to do a presentation on "Can you tell the difference?" relating to gender in music technology. Over the next couple of weeks we are going to be watching some example presentations, given by the teachers, then we will be moving on to working on our own in our groups. We then moved on to having a class discussiong, mostly asking questions about what was involved in the course. I enjoyed talking with the class, I felt it gave everyone an opportunity to have their say. It was also a good opportunity to get to know everyone better as it was only our first week together.
Lastly, the other music technology forum class came into our room and we had another opportunity to meet some more people. After spending some more time asking questions and talking to each other, we were allowed to leave.

cc1 - week 1 - DME's

In this lesson we, once again, went through the outline of the subject, talking about what was involved in the class and what we would be learning about. Once that was done, we were introduced to Desktop Music Environments (DME's). We talked about the two levels of DME's, being audio and MIDI, the computing systems you can work with them (OSX & Tiger) which is an application programming interface (API) and how to use them on a basic level. We also talked about the operating system levels and the application levels.
Lastly we learnt the definiation of a buffer, being " a temporary storage area for sound".

AA1 - Week 1 : Facilities Introduction

This lesson was actually one of the only lessons during my first week of Uni where we actually did work. We started by going through the course outline, something by which i was very familiar with by this stage. We then dived straight into our first week's contents.
We talked about the very basics very basics of sound thoery: "What is sound?", taking it right down to the definition of "The organised movement of molecules (e.g. air) through a medium (e.g. acoustic guitar)."
We then went on to talk about the cause and effect of sound, both physically and psyco-physically, discussing the phrase " If a tree was to fall down in a forest, but you weren't there to hear it, would it make a noice?". When we discussed the physical/real world causes and effects, the answer turned out to be 'yes', but when we dscussed the psycho-physical causes and effects, the answer was 'no'.

Lastly, we talked about the characteristics of sound, which include amplitude abd frequency.Sound is made by compression and rarefraction, over the period of time repeating over and over again.