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.