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.