Week 6 Audio Arts - Electric Guitar (Is this a crime against the state?)

I chose to compare dirty samples, because I find that the fuller frequency range of a distorted tone allows me to more easily evaluate tonal differences.

AKG 414 

Centre of speaker, facing directly at it, 1 inch away

Tinny and brittle, however I like the way it picks up the grit in the upper mids. Could be attractively disgusting in a combination.

Beta 57 

Rear of the speaker, 15cm from the cone

Very scooped and metallic with too much boomy bass and thin treble fuzz but probably useful in a combination.

SM57

Towards the side of cone, facing inwards, 1 inch away

A little scooped and thin with fair amount of treble fuzz. Definitely useful for contributing upper-mids and treble fuzz.

SM57 

Next to other 57 but facing perpendicular to amp face

Very close in-your-face sound with much treble. Needs more smooth body in mids, but useful close ingredient.

SM58 

On opposite side of speaker perpendicular to amp face 

Tinnier and sounds further away than the 57s. I like the upper-mid bite. More mids which could be useful. Slight plastic tinnyness compared to raw-sounding 57s.

U87

1 metre from amp facing at it

Extended treble is audible and could be useful. Could fatten another tone, also bass sounds tighter than close-mics.

Very sorry that the samples are too long, we had some issues and I could only get mp3s which I didn't want to edit and recompress, so I left them. Also the jazz-funk/metal song we began is here if you want a listen!

Week 6 Creative Computing - Mixing the Guitar Sample Project

Mixed Project MP3

I'm assume that mixing an electronic piece refers to using techniques associated with mixing conventional recordings such as realtime effects, automation, volume and panning etc. I already used all of these because I think they are important creative tools in electronic music.

Some of the changes I made to the session since last week were aimed at making the sounds more clear and balanced while others are probably more creative endeavors. Though I miss the greater ambiance from last week I do like the beat-focussed sound. I guess the point I've changed the sound and demonstrated mix techniques.

New changes

• Added punch to kick and snare using compression, EQ, and double tracks with different processing.
• Bus compressed drums
• Used pan automation on individual ambient sounds so they all sweep from the middle to a side
• Processed ambient sounds in a separate bus
• Decreased volume make beat more powerful
• Cut bass for less muddiness and boosted lower mids for warmth
  
• Used volume automation to create dynamic swells
• Used automated left and right panning on the the intro ambience bus to make sound spread outwards from the centre
• Automated a low pass filter on the master bus during intro
• Volume automated a sudden master volume increase as the drums begin

Week 6 Forum - Vicki Bennett's Chunky Sample Sound Works

This week David introduced us to the sound collage radio shows of Vicki Bennett. We listened to some of her work and then heard about her ideology. We then watched a film by David Harris while concurrently listening to another of Bennett's radio shows. David explained that the video was not intentionally synchronized to the sound work at all however it was interesting that there seemed to be strong connections.

During the usual philosophical after-party, Stephen raised the question of whether the practice of "recycling" music to create new works is becoming more prevalent and whether there is a separation between "creators" and "recyclers". As was suggested, music has always been recycled in various ways eg the medieval motet which uses pre-existing chants. I think that there is no clear separation between new and recycled music because all music is influenced by other music and takes some elements from pre-existing works. I think that Vicki has a characteristic (and idiosyncratic) way of using modern technology to recycle and the unique methods and results make her work original. Though some fret that her work is not time consuming to create, neither is improvised jazz or bird-song and they are both rad and legit.

Reference: David Harris. "Week 6 Music Technology Forum - People Like Us". Lecture presented at Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, 10 April 2008

Week 5 Creative Computing - Piece using 1 Guitar Sample

I created a short electronic piece using only one guitar sample and protools. I used the Audiosuite to radically mould samples and the realtime effects to mix the project.

Guitar Sample Project MP3

Ambient Pads

• Cut single chords out from guitar sample
• Timestretched them to be longer and sound more glitchy and electronic
• Compressed, EQed, reverbed, delayed
• Applied Amplitube in some cases
  

Snare

• Cut out a short transient
• Distorted with amplitube to move towards white noise
• Faded out for a percussive sound
  
• Compressed, reverbed

Kick

• Cut out guitar transient
• Pitch shifted down an octave
• Cut lower mids extremely while boosting 80Hz and 3kHz
• Faded out
• Compressed

Whines

• Grabbed a chord
• Timestretched it
• Used EQ with very high Q value to boost fundamental frequency and one overtone by >15dB
• Applied heavy high and low pass
• Pitch shifted to create any pitched sound I needed eg intro sounds
• Bass sounds were created by pitch shifting
  

Week 5 Audio Arts - Vocal Recording Mic Test

Jamie, Stephen and I recorded samples of a few different mics and techniques for spoken word. The mics used were a Shure SM57 and Neumann U87, each with a pop filter. Here are the samples and my thoughts.

SM57 (cardoid) at 3 inches
Focussed on upper mids, lacking in lower mids and bass. Quite present, probably due to SM57 presence peak. Very dry and intelligible but not as rich and detailed as the U87.

U87 in cardoid at 3 inches
Much proximity effect brings out rich lower mids and bass. Lacking slightly in upper mid presence and quite soft sounding for condenser. Possibly useful for an authoritative male voice over sound where unnatural bass is required. A slight bass cut or a little more distance may help.

U87 in omni at 3 inches
Similar to cardoid but less bass due to lack of proximity effect and more upper mids presence. Maybe good for a close, personal voice over sound without so much extra bass.

U87 in cardoid at 80cm
Soft in tone, some mid to low room resonance/reflections audible? I thought it sounded very slightly chorused and ringy. Strange because the dead room should be extremely dead. A more smooth, homogenous, compact tone which may fit better with other sound elements.

Week 5 Forum - Pierre Henry Documentary

This documentary and subsequent listening session was my first experience of the work (and personality) of pioneering music concréte composer Pierre Henry.

I enjoyed some of Henry's music from a general listening perspective, however I was more attracted to the philosophy of most of the pieces. I thought his use of speakers in different places and faced in different directions for the performance of his work was very interesting and seems novel even today when one would expect such a simple idea to have been more widely used. "The sound of your footsteps is beautiful" Henry hurriedly explains to a jogging man. I guess this sums up his belief in the music of sounds not made by traditional musical instruments, which was obviously very radical in the 1950s when he first became known. This was evidenced by the comments from the audience of one of his early concerts which were sometimes confused or negative.

Henry's speaker-filled house was also very cool as was his use of electronic beats in a concert outside the pompidou centre which are characteristic of a musical genre that only came into being around 40 years after Henry's early music concrete. He is must be very open-minded to use such modern sounds.

Reference: Stephen Whittington. "Week 5 Music Technology Forum - Pierre Henry." Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, 3 April 2008

Week 4 Creative Computing - A4 Paper Score Interpretation

I tried to interpret the score to create a piece of about 45 seconds using only my processed paper samples.

The Work

1. I used the most rhythmically textured sound that I created in SPEAR to match the texture of the score. A filter sweep and fade in represent the upward motion.

2. 5 distinct beats created out of a combination of different rhythmic hits that aren't perfectly in time represent the next 5 sketchy lines.

3. The round ball is rendered as a rounder, warmer sound which sweeps outwards then inwards using high and low-pass filters.

4. The more cluttered vertical rectangles became a cluttered beat that uses many overlapping rhythmic samples on different tracks that are panned and EQed differently for richer texture.

5. The sparse, scattered pieces section is my sweeping upwards and downwards samples. I reversed the upwards one and added it to the downwards to reinforce it. Stereo delay used to create a "speckled" sound. I insist that you close your eyes and imagine a piece of paper being torn up and then thrown into the air.

6. Next comes clear, solid beat (entirely paper samples). You can hear the ephemeral fluttering after the first short beat section. In the second half, some small parts are less powerful and descend downwards as in the score.

7. A smoother sound descends downwards and then increases to a lower height and descends downwards again using a resonant low-pass filter.