Week 5 Audio Arts - Sound Art of Laurie Anderson

Full Bio

Laurie Anderson is a performance artist from Illinois whose work spans across many fields including visual art, poetry, photography, film, and music. She began performing in the 1970s and found fame in 1980 with the hit "O Superman". Her performances vary from spoken word to large multimedia events. She has published six books and her visual works have appeared in major museums. Laurie was the first artist-in-residence of NASA.

"Two Songs for Tape Bow Violin" combines spoken word, piano and tape bow violin (her own creation). The spoken word is a plain style that reminds me of a recording of John Cage's Einstein on the Beach. I think the tape bow violin is an interesting medium as it is both an instrument and an audio playback device and it is both a mechanical and electronic sound medium.

The work makes me feel quite sentimental. The piano and violin change the way we emotionally interpret the spoken words just as sound design may do for movie dialogue. I think the warped playback of the tape helps to portray a manipulated sense of time or a reliving of past events. I think this sound work was designed with a feeling in mind rather than musical form.

References: 

Christian Haines. "Week 5 Audio Arts - Sound Art." Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, 26 August 2008.

"Laurie Anderson." Laurie Anderson Official Website. http://www.laurieanderson.com/downloads/LaurieAndersonBio.pdf (1 September 2008)

Week 5 Forum - Negativland

I really enjoyed Stephen's Negativland presentation. Watching him nod his head happily and quietly sing with his opening track was an absolute joy (and treat).

For me, Negativland was a chance to think about the nature of satire and humour in art. I'm sure Stephen would agree with me that there is a place for jokes in music (The other Steven has been known to exclaim that Haydn is a very funny man). I think that Negativland's strategy of satirising everything whether they have a problem with it or not has good spirit because they are also satirising themselves and the idea of satire at the same time as making a point. I agree that "Christianity is Stupid" probably does not represent Negativland's actual opinion on this religion and in fact they are possibly making fun of the idea of satirising or complaining about religion. I am not offended at all by their work because I think they it is obvious that they are never entirely serious.

That said, I think that some works were clearly more serious than others. For me, 'My Favourite Things' was the most light-hearted while 'Guns' was the most pungent and affecting (and not very funny).

Thanks!

Reference: Stephen Whittington. "Week 5 Music Technology Forum - Negativland." Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, 28 August 2008.

Week 5 Creative Computing - Isolation (MIDI Reggae Version)

Isolation MIDI Reggae Version MP3

I thought it would be interesting doing reggae as opposed to rock or something because it's got a really loose feel that is hard to emulate with MIDI. I used a large dynamic range in the hihat programming to emulate the heavy accenting of a real reggae drummer. I also allowed the notes to be not exactly on the beat with the kick and rim click landing slightly behind. I emulated strumming on the guitar which was also lagging behind the beat. I programmed the bass by ear, using a varying amount of swing in different parts of the groove. I noticed while programming that quantized rhythms did not sound at all right in the bass part due to the style's complex feel. I added a slide which does instantly make the part seem less synthetic as we are not used to hearing MIDI instruments imitate this technique.

Apart from all that, I think that Joy Division should have replaced Ian with a trombone player and kept playing their old stuff.....

Reference: Christian Haines. "Week 5 Creative Computing - MIDI Programming and Humanization." Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, 26 August 2008.

Week 4 Creative Computing - Logic!

NIN Ripoff Attempt MP3

NIN Ripoff lso

In order to explore logic a little and demonstrate a MIDI sequenced project, I decided to try to shamelessly rip off Nine Inch Nails a little. Listening to them afterwards, this project sounds no-where near as aggressive, but I don't think it's important.

I created most of the original MIDI data by hand and quantized it for a horribly rigid sound then edited it to add some new material. I created the (barely audible) triplet by changing the grid spacing to 1/24. The hat build is obviously manual. The drums were created from 2 instances of Ultradrum, one of which was distorted. The synths were slightly edited presets of the ES1 with some distortion for a bit of extra grit.

The bell sounds are FM, and there is a piano, an organ with a fast rotary speaker and another with a slow one.

Reference: Christian Haines. "Week 4 Creative Computing - Logic." Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, 19 August 2008.

Week 4 Audio Arts - Analysing Sound for Ads

This toothbrush ad uses comical, overdone sound design in a similar way to classic cartoons to accompany a similar use of slapstick comedy. The comical xylophone tinkling appears to mock the cat while it meows curiously. When the cat falls over, the crash includes cymbals which references the orchestra effects once used in cartoons, as does the classic brass wow wow when the cat meets its fate. The swanky jazz is also reminiscent of older films and makes you feel increasingly smarter than the cat.

This higher budget CGI advertisement uses hyper-real mechanical noises in a similar way to modern action films. When we enter the world of the fuzzball table, the bassy grinding sounds suggest that it is a huge-scale version that may fit the human soccer players in it. The kicking sounds are also larger-than-life in order to create a strong sense of power and toughness. Non-diegetic crowd sounds add atmosphere and increase the sense of unreality of the fuzzball players coming to life. The action sounds contrast with the sparseness of the beginning and end of the ad which is set in the real world. The clock ticking makes this contrast more dramatic and suggests the event that is about to happen.

Reference: Christian Haines. "Week 4 Audio Arts - Advertisement Sound Design Analysis." Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, 17 August 2008.

Week 4 Forum - Indian Classical Music

Haysa

Joy, Humour - we can laugh by being happy.

Orchestra pianissimo major chord, twittering birds, crowd of people laughing, happy sigh, sustained synth tone

Adbhuta

Mainly Wonder - rasas.info says "When we understand that there are things that we do not understand, it makes life beautiful and exciting." The related ideas include curiosity and astonishment.

Windows 95 Startup sound, Major 9 Chord, Reverbed sigh, lush digital synth pad, rising shepherd tones, shiny FM tones

Veera

Courage also determination, pride, concentration. Interesting: Talking about your powers will reduce them, also courage does not mean independance. 

Viking metal riff, V-I in a minor key, cello solo within an orchestra, solo military trumpet, 

Karuna

Sadness, pity and compassion. The aim is to try to feel a less self-centred sadness and have pity for others. 

Minor 7 chord, Cry of a single bird/any dying animal, a constantly evolving noise with unsettled filter sweeps which appears to be unable to resolve

Krodha

Anger.

Distorted sounds eg guitar/drums, diminished chord, growl, metal whack, grinding noises, white noise swell 

Bhibasta

Disgust

Loosely distorted flapping guitar, clipped recording, hihats, sounds of vomiting, spitting, violin bowed incorrectly, untuned year 8 band, very bright low analog synth tone

Bhayanaka

Fear and worry, nervousness, jealousy etc.

Raised 7 in melodic minor scale moving up to 1, listening to the radio when it's almost tuned to a station and you can only hear unrecognisable voices, whimpering animals, creaking of doors/any creaking, breathing

Shoka

Grief, remorse, sorrow, misery

Quiet minor flute melody, quiet swell of diminished triad, whispers that you can't quite make out, radio white noise (the non-scary kind)

Shanta

Peace. Also: calmness, exhaustion. Sounds like you get there by obtaining the things you want as well as repaying your debts to society and thus making everything harmonious and chilled.

Root position tonic triad with octave below, single analog synth bass note, soft filtered characterful white noise, jungle ambience, cat purr, wind in trees, sigh

I've also come across Raudra - anger, shringara - love, vibhatsya - disgust.

References: 

Stephen Whittington. "Week 4 Music Technology Forum - Indian Classical Music Emotions." Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, 21 August 2008.

"9 Rasas - The Yoga of 9 Emotions." Rasas.info. http://rasas.info (31 August 2008)

"In adolescents, periods of sadness may come when one feels neglected and tries to produce pity in others." - mmmm agreed.

Week 3 Forum - First Year Presentations

Cool to see what everyone's been up to!

For me, one highlight was Josh's composition and sound for the short animation project. I think I noticed a clever segue or two where the music changed in mood while cleverly retaining elements of the previous section. Can't believe this is just a hobby for him.

It was great to hear everyone's music concrete, though as the second and third years commented, that genre can be a little harsh on the ears if you are subjected to it for great time periods. I really enjoyed everyone's for different reasons, especially Jamie's trumpet skills.

Was nice to hear a contrasting AA project from Alex. Was definitely a good recording and sounds better on nice speakers (sounds incredible in studio 1). I reckon a wider mix would really help to make things sound clearer and more interesting.

I thought it was interesting that we all turned out these themed concrete pieces that were meant to tell a story (I was guilty but luckily no-one could recognize my kitchen sounds and plot of using the microwave). Then Stephen announced that concrete was more about abstracting real sounds to create something that may not have any explicit meaning. Hmmmm we look kind of stupid.....

We need to hear from Lisa...

Reference: Stephen Whittington. "Week 3 Music Technology Forum - First Year Presentations." Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, 14 August 2008.

Week 3 Creative Computing - Modding the Spectral Freeze Crossfader

Here is the updated synth:

Audio Example

Patch File

It was already quite complete with a fair few modulation options so I haven't changed much.

Additions:

Key -> Filter Option

• Check the box to sync the filter frequency to the pitch of the note so you can use it to emphasize certain harmonics or the fundamental and have the filter pick the right range for any note.

FM Synthesis

• You can modulate the pitch of the original oscillator with another high-frequency oscillator by a variable amount.
• The frequency of the modulator is locked to the carrier and is defined by its ratio to the carrier.
• The original oscillator can now be sent to the outputs bypassing the spectral section and a mix can be created between the original FM section and the freezer section which is also fed from the FM section.

FM->Freezer Envelope Crossfade

• You can make notes begin with the emphasis on the FM section and then fade towards the more atmospheric spectral section over a variable time.

FX

• Recorded the audio demo with some FX.
• One of them is this stereo modulated delay thing. 
• Basically the delay time is modulated by an oscillator and the oscillator is the opposite phase in either channels.

Reference: Christian Haines. "Week 3 Creative Computing - Modular Programming with Bidule." Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, 12 August 2008.

Week 3 Audio Arts - Deja Vu Sound Design Analysis

Deja Vu (2006)

I chose this scene because it contains cuts, tempo changes, and copious sound effects. All the sounds are very exaggerated, particularly the stylised machine sounds. This analysis helps me to understand how sound design is used to vary the rhythm and intensity of a film and make it more dramatic.

The first scene in the excerpt is of a character preparing to time-travel. It is hard to determine if the rising synthesized whirs are intended to be diegetic machine noises or non-diegetic mood effects. Keyboard typing foley sounds acoustic. Crashes and volume swells increase the tension and edited and reversed dialogue give a sense of time-travel.

Cut to a hospital where a character is being treated for serious injury. The rattling of his convulsing body changes in timbre and increases in amplitude as we cut to closer shot of him. Non-diegetic drum hits add intensity. After the buzz of the defibrillator, most other sounds are suddenly replaced by a dramatic rumble.

We jump to a more peaceful time several hours later when the character regains consciousness. Quiet footsteps, the murmur of the TV and a single beeping machine contrast with the rising tempo of the previous section.

Reference: Christian Haines. "Week 3 Audio Arts - Movie Scene analysis." Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, 12 August 2008.

Week 2 Forum - Some of David Harris's favourite things.

The first item was David's latest composition "Terra Rapta" which was written for the Grainger String Quartet. I really enjoyed it, particularly the disjointedness of the rhythms. Perhaps it really helps having such great musicians interpreting the music because they add an extra layer of musicality to the aggressive writing. I find Steven's view on program notes interesting. I think that they can particularly narrow your mind for instrumental music where there is no text and your mind is free to wander. But I understand that this piece was written with a particular theme in mind and so David was keen to express this.

The second part of the forum involved listening to an entire Schubert string work. It was definitely a great experience for me to listen closely for this amount of time (relating back to Steven's discussion of listening habits last week) however I didn't enjoy the majority of the piece much. I was very prepared to listen to it because I could tell that David really sees something special in it and so I wanted to try to see the magic that he sees, however I missed out.

References: David Harris. "Week 2 Music Technology Forum - My Favourite Things." Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, 7 August 2008.

Week 2 Creative Computing - FFT Freeze Crossfader Synth

After experimenting with the "FFT Freeze" bidule, I attempted to build a synth that uses its glassy digital sound. I fed the FFT chain from an oscillator that emitted the frequency required. The FFT freezer is triggered on note on so that the new freeze is of the new note. I added a harsh, random frequency peak filter between the oscillator and FFT analyser so that every freeze has a different character. 

To make the sound less static, I implemented a refreeze at regular time intervals. To make the sound less static, I added a second freezer with a freeze cycle 180˚ out of phase with the first one and then a crossfader that crossfades between the two freezes and is phase synchronised such that refreezes are not heard and the sound is liquid and musical. A compressor decreases the swelling resulting from the primitive crossfader.

Added amp and filter envelopes. 

I had heaps of issues trying to get the patch to stop glitching when it's polyphonised possibly due to the several CPU intensive FFT bidules. As you can hear, I still have some problems, however slow attack pads which this synth is suited for are generally click-free. 

Audio Example - Includes delay and reverb.

Patch File

Reference: Christian Haines. "Week 2 Creative Computing - Modular Programming." Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, 5 August 2008.

Week 2 Audio Arts - Soundscape Analysis

Soundscape MP3

I attempted to record the interesting soundscape of the train, however my phone recording quality turned out to be unusable because few sounds could be distinguished. I then decided to settle for a room soundscape which contained various interesting elements including a TV. I tried to stir up the cats because I hear most people are indifferent to cats and so they won't be offended. 

For my notation system I tried to find graphical ways of representing many of the attributes of sound in a way that allows information to be precisely represented. I think that the strength of the system is that it represents volume, prominent frequency range, distance, L-R placement, and kind (eg percussive, continuous, intermittent) without resorting to messy symbols or labels. I think that its weakness is that it is hard to represent the envelope of a sound using just line thickness. Issues like these could be improved upon by using better graphics software that allows tapered lines, fading colours etc to represent smooth changes over time. This notation system would be compatible with these improvements. Perhaps I should have used height for amplitude and thickness for frequency as amplitude may be more important to present accurately.

Reference: Christian Haines. "Week 2 Audio Arts - Environment Analysis." Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, 5 August 2008.

Week 1 Music Tech Forum - Listening Culture

Excessive volume levels

I think that this is a problem and it may exist because it's easy to crank up an ipod to full volume without annoying the neighbours.

Lower listening quality

Possibly people are paying less attention to music when they listen to it.  One thought is that there is nothing wrong with music designed to be listened to with reduced attention. Often the duration is longer than normal music and so you can still perceive the same amount of detail though it is more spread out.

My Life in the Bush of Ghosts

Steven was talking about the whole cocoon idea where we bring our own music in order to provide comfort in unfamiliar situations or to shut out the scary outside world. Perhaps this is really a cultural shift towards people preferring their life to have an artificial movie soundtrack (as Steven describes it). Well, as scary as it sounds, I think this is half interesting. Maybe we are all just striving to make our lives like the stereoptypes we see in the movies, but actually I think it's fun to crank Philip Glass and walk around the city and pretend you're living in Koyanisqatsi. Also observing the quiet businessmen on the train to a soundtrack of Mr Bungle can be quite hilarious.

References: Steven Whittington. "Week 1 Music Technology Forum - Listening Culture." Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, 31 July 2008.

Week 1 Audio Arts - Windows 95 Startup Sound

Copy and Paste URL - http://www.angelfire.com/games5/clockmaster/themicrosoftsound.wav

by Brian Eno

This work is an example of sound design as it was created for a particular purpose in a product that has other features. Eno was given particular guidelines for creating the sound and it had to be suitable for its role within Microsoft's product.

This sound has the technical function of telling the user of the computer that it has nearly finished booting up as well the more psychological purpose of making the operating system seem helpful and user friendly. To compliment the improved interface, the operating system has a sound that contrasts with the harsh bleeps associated with more primitive systems and makes the user feel more at home. Familiarity with this sound may help users to feel comfortable on all Windows 95 machines.

The sample contains a synthesized electric piano arpeggio followed by an echoing acoustic piano note and a rising and falling synthesized string chord. The sparse arrangement exudes a calm, futuristic mood. The combination of the synth, piano and stylistically fake strings juxtaposes old and new elements to create a sense of movement with sentimentality. This is supported by the transition from sound to sound rather than layering them up. One consideration is that a sonically simple work may experience less adverse effects from the usually mediocre playback equipment.

References: Selvin, Joel. "Q and A with Brian Eno." The San Francisco Chronicle . June 1996. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1996/06/02/PK70006.DTL (accessed 3/8/2008)

Week 1 Creative Computing - Bidule experimentation

I tried to experiment with a few different modules to create a sound work. After experimenting with the step sequencers, I decided to focus on the 'stochastic midi note list' as the source for most of my midi data. In this object based environment where the emphasis is on creative routing and processes, I think it makes sense to leave the source notes to chance (to some degree) rather than using copious amount of sequencer objects.

Beat

• Separate stochastic note list for each drum
• Different settings for each drum
• Used a transposer to change note from A to desired note

Toned backing sounds

• Various synths fed by a sequencer or stochastics

FFT

• Some sounds were created from FFT data created by analysing audio from a synth controlled by both stochastic note list and live midi input
• FFT data resynthesized after processing
• FFT data is converted to midi and triggers synths (claw and waveshaped drum)
• The midi data is then looped back to the synth that feeds the FFT analysis to create an interesting data loop.
• During the audio example performance I played some MIDI data live.

Occasional FX used eg reverb, delay, stereo spread reduction

If only I'd experimented a bit more first because now I've just discovered the wonders of parameter linking and the xy pad.

Bidule File

Audio Demo