CC Week 8 "Processing Continued"

This has been a very stressful week. I had no time to myself, so I had to put this assignment aside for another day, which I did.

This weeks assignment was pretty much the same as last week's but it involved more tampering with sounds. I liked it! This week's assignment took me little over an hour and a half to complete. I am very pleased with my results.

In this assignment we were to create a sound bank from either our old quote from last week or something completely new. I was tempted to chop up sounds from "The Dark Side Of The Moon" but I thought better of it. Lawsuits are not my forte!

What we were also to do this week was put our quote through the program SOUNDHACK. This program performs a number of FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) processes. In other words, it messes with the sound.

We then put the already weird sound file through a processing program by the name of FScape. This program performs many functions such as spectral, multiband and many more. We used the multiband function, which split the sound file into multiple frequencies and saved each frequency as an individual sound file. For my sound file, i split it nine times.

Once this process was complete, we then repeated what we did last week through Reason NN19. I completed this process rather quickly and as mentioned above, I am very pleased with the results.

Below you will find a screen dump of my NN19 setup and a link to my crazy sounds.



Click HERE for yet another crazy sound!

CC1 WEEK 7 Processing (1)

In this week's assignment we were required to create a sampler bank in Reason NN19 from the phonetic structure of the quote from Marshall McLuhan "We become what we behold. We shape our tools, and thereafter our tools shape us".

From there we had to set the parameters in the sampler bank so they could be played on the synthesizer plugged into the computer. This would create an instrument that could be played in real-time and then recorded on Reason before being exported as an AIFF file.

To create the quote I had to use Orator, a speech program. The quote became a sound file which was then opened in Peak. I created regions which represented small portions of the quote. These portions where of such a size that they only contained one or two syllables of a word.

At first, I tried to set the parameters myself, but forgot and failed. However, I talked to Christian and he showed me how. I was then on my way again.

Once the parameters were set, I mucked around with the settings of the sounds. The moment I saw the "portamento" knob my eyes gleamed. I turned it all the way up and proceeded to record my crazy collaboration of crap!

Below is a screen dump of my Reason edit window:


Click HERE to listen to my final product.

Overall, it was a great and enjoyable assignment. I was impressed by the ability to play around with the knobs and buttons while recording a song in Reason. A great week indeed!

CC1 Week 6 (Sequencing)

For our Creative Computing assignment in week 6 we were to use ProTools and sequence our paper samples to create even more abstract sonds to what they were before. I had not created any paper samples so for this week I useed the sound recordings we created in Audio arts. (acoustic guitar recordings)

In this assignment we were given a very abstract soundscape in which we were to base the sound of our paper samples on. It was indeed a challenge. I decided to alter the volume and pan levels throughout the entire "piece". I found this enjoyable. I used the free-hand mode which allowed me to change the shape of the volume and pan lebels to exactly how I wanted it, as shown in the diagram below:


When it came to sequencing the five different guitar recordings I decided to put them in random order and then delete certain selections, hence making the playback very random. The result is shown in the diagram below:



CRAZY GUITAR SOUNDS

Overall, although I have missed out on a few important weeks, I am glad that I could get this week's assignment done. my confidence with Macintosh has strengthened greatly.


REFERENCES:
"Week 6 - Sequencing", Lectured by Christian Haines

https://www.myuni.adelaide.edu.au/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab=courses&url=/bin/common/course.pl?course_id=_172355_1&frame=top

AA1 Week 6 (Acoustic Guitar Recording)

For our Audio Arts assignment in week 6 we were required to record an acoustic guitar using five different techniques. Unfortunately, due to the misreading of a sign, two classmates and I went on a wild goose chase through Elder Hall. We ended up being 25 minutes late for our lesson.

Steve walked us through various techniques of microphone selection and setup. I was intrigued by how many different ways you could record an acoustic guitar. Every technique resulted in a wonderfully unique sound. Now it was my turn to record.

We recorded the guitar using five different techniques and two different types of microphone, the Neumann U87 and the Neumann KM-84i. Both of which are condenser microphones.

In our first test we had the U87 about 30 cm from the sound hole on an angle of around 16 degrees to the scratch board, as shown in the diagram below. In this recording not a great deal of bass is evident. The guitarist (me) could also have played a little quieter.

TEST 1

For our second test we had the U87 horizontally positioned 15cm away from the 14th fret on the guitar with angle of 90 degrees to the scratchboard. In the recording, bass is more evident than in test 1, but not much more. There are very subtle differences between the recordings of test 1 and 2.

TEST 2

Test 3 was almost identical to test 1, except we the had the U87 pointing downwards at the sound hole of the guitar rather than upwards as explained in test one The microphone was positioned at an angle of 156 degrees to the scratchboard. Again, not a great deal of bass was evident in the recording

TEST 3

Test 4 was my favourite. We had the U87 vertically positioned approximately 2.5m away from the sound hole. This produced a more echoey, open recorded sound. Bass was barely audible.

TEST 4

For Test 5 we used the "XY" microphone position. We had two Neumann KM-84i condenser microphones placed at right angles to each other approximately 5cm from the 14th fret. This produced a rich, bassy and well balanced recording sound.

TEST 5

Overall, this week's assignment has been a valuable experience. I would gladly do it again.

References:

"Audio Arts Lecture Week 6 (Acoustic Guitar Recording)" - Stephen Fieldhouse

http://www.emu.adelaide.edu.au/resources/guides/hardware/microphones.html

Music Technology Workshop Forum (week 3) "Compossible"

In this weeks workshop forum the entire class was involved in a 45 minute musical piece, "Compossible", by David Harris. It was very entertaining in my opinion. Weird, but entertaining.

The piece consisted of percussionists, vocalists, keyboardists and readers. The percussionists were given a unique piece of sheet music where certain percussion instruments were to be played once between particular intervals of time at the percussionist's own discretion.

The vocalists were to sing one note also between certain time intervals according to their sheet music at their own discretion. They had the choice of note, and whether to sustain it or not.

The keyboardists were given sheet music to sight read, but played the single notes or chords at their own discretion within the time intervals provided on the sheet music.

The readers were given sheets not containing music, but many paragraphs that were to be read in a clear voice within the time intervals at the readers discretion.

I was a reader.

In this piece of music we were not required to play, read or sing in sync with one another. We could play, read or sing whenever we wanted, as long as it was within the correct time intervals.

David suggested that we undertook a 5 minute trial run before starting the 45 minutes piece. It was the funniest piece of music I had ever heard. And that was just the trial run! All the random playing of percussion instruments, keyboards, and vocal sounds had me laughing uncontrollably. At one stage I had tears in my eyes. We were stopped at five minutes and I was told that I didn't have to "piss myself".

After I got my breath back, we started the 45 minute piece. There were times where I almost lost it again, but I controlled myself.

It was a very interesting exercise.

CC1 Week 3 "Introduction to SPEAR"

In this week's assignment, we used our paper recordings from last week, analysed and edited them in a Spectral Editing program called SPEAR. I did not make any paper recordings, so I have used a pre-made sound file.

The program SPEAR, to me, was like a "Paint Program" for sound files, where the sound waves were like a picture that I was screwing around with. I found it highly entertaining and enjoyable. I had no idea I create such weird and wonderful sounds just by moving a sound wave to different time slots or frequencies, or deleting slabs of sound waves. I could even stretch the time, or transpose the frequency of the sound waves, creating an even more unique sound. It was unlike anything I ever heard. There were points in time where the sound was unbearable, but a quick "undo" resolved such an issue.

Instead of paper recordings, I have chosen a sound file that I created last year using a mixing program called FruityLoops Studio 5. I turned ELO's "Evil Woman" into a dance number and named it "Evil Woman Benmix". All the patterns and loops in this file were my own creation.

The links below will direct you to the original file of "Evil Woman Benmix" and a small sample of the file that I have "tampered with" in SPEAR.

EVIL WOMAN BENMIX

EVIL WOMAN BENMIX SPEAR SAMPLE

AA1 (week 2) "Session Plan"

I am beginning to come to terms with how challenging Audio Arts is going to be for me this year. I listened intently to our teacher, Steve Fieldhouse, while he talked to us about his history as a "sound engineer". He has a very colourful history and worked at many studios big and small.

For this week our assignment was to create a session plan for the recording of a band of our choice. I had never heard of a session plan in my life so I naturally panicked.

Most of what Steve told us this lesson made no sense to me. I should've spoken up and asked questions, but I stayed silent instead. This, was a big mistake.

After the class a fellow classmate and I spent some time in Studio 5. This was my first time ever in a recording studio and I was more intrigued by the Electric Upright Piano than the recording software. Big mistake? I will soon find out. It was apparent that my fellow classmate knew much more about the software (and hardware) than I did. I asked questions, and he answered them to the best of his ability, which were much appreciated.

After 30 mins in Studio 5 I departed and met up with another fellow student. We discussed certain issues regarding the session plan. By the end of the discussion, my mind was much clearer on what I had to do.

I decided to make a session plan for the recordingof the Jazz cover band "Jazz It Up". I am the keyboardist.

The session plan is as follows:

No track sheet was needed in this case as all perfomance related information was recorded as partof the ProTools session file.