Week 11 - AA

This week was learning about mixing. This week was an awesomely fun week! Ok, not very professional there, but I really enjoyed the mixing side of things.

The lecture showed us how to basically go about it *(1), and then we just had to do three different mixes of an Eskimo Joe song, "New York".*(2) The first mix was to be a basic mix, with the only thing done is using the faders in the mix window. For this I decided to make the bass guitar and piano extra loud, and the vocal that sung the bridge loud. Some of the parts I didn't include because it was simply too much and I felt it was a little cluttered. I prefered it with less instruments, but those instruments being fully appreciated.



The second mix I put panning in. I tried to do what Steve said in the lecture and make it so the instruments aren't all cluttered in the middle. I put the drums to the left and the guitars to the right. The three verse vocals I split up, with the lowest to the right, the highest to the left and the mid-range, more important voice centred. I thought it gave it a more open sound, which I liked.





The final mix was putting in the EQ. This was the best par, because I haven't actually used the EQ before, and I found it really interesting to try and do different things. I made the bass mroe bass-y, and the piano more bright. I thought the drums were a little dull, but couldn't work out how to fix it. Changing things ere just knocking other important parts of the drums. Also, I made the bridge vocals really bright so it really stood out. It's meant to sound really obviously tampered with, so that's why it does. Personally, I like in songs when the vocals are warped to the point it sounds like they're coming through the radio or some such. So that's what I attempted to do, by raising the higher frequencies and lowering the lower ones.

MY FINAL MIXES:

MIX 1: ONLY FADERS

MIX 2: FADERS AND PANNING

MIX 3: FINAL PRODUCT - FADERS, PANNING AND EQ


-------------------------------------------------------------------------
*(1) Steve Fieldhouse, Audio Arts Lecture, EMU, Tuesday 22nd May, 2007

*(2) Eskimo Joe. 2006. “New York” Black Fingernails, Red Wine (album). Mushroom Records

Week 10 - CC

This weeks Creative Computing class was all about the wonderful program known as Metasynth. *(1) It's a program (only for Macs annoyingly) that allows the user to easily manipulate sounds using general effects. It's easier than ProTools and other programs I thought, because the effects are right there, and are easy to use and understand. It's all fairly self-explanatory which is always a good thing.

This week we used two of the possible effect rooms, 'effects room' and 'image synth'. I didn't spend as much time in Image synth as Effects Room, but both have a lot of awesome things to do with changing the sounds.

The basic idea was to change around the vocal sample from last week in the program to make a minute long soundscape. The way I did mine, was to copy and paste various sections almost randomly and see what it gave me. However, one problem with this is it can be difficult to change something back. But that was overcomeable. One of the main things I did to make my soundscape was repeat sequences backwards. It gives a different sound, but feels familiar to the audience. I also used a lot of harmonics, mostly because they were just great fun! Volume helped to correct a few sound issues, and pitch and time made a lot of the sounds that little bit weirder.

In the end, I think my soundscape is a little creepy... but I like it. So here I present: Chape No More!

And of course, a picture of the Metadynth window...


>>>CHAPE NO MORE<<<

Week 10 - Forum

This weeks forum was based on constructing and deconstructing music. It's a pretty general topic to have and so the presentations were all quite different. I'll focus this on one of them.

Freddie presented his on how to write a hit record. He gave us lots of different ways and formulas to write this record. His point that was by deconstructing other hit songs, you could find the golden way to write your own. I don't think that could work. If there are specific elements that are apparent in every hit song, then it would have to be hugely generic and so not very useful. Otherwise how could we explain how such different songs like Me and You by Cassie and Another Brick In The Wall by Pink Floyd could both be hits. Then you have to define a hit. Is it something that gets number 1 for a week and then disappears, or the song that never quite hits mainstream but has cult-like following below the media line? Both are considered hits. For example, a hit on triple J might have no such title on Nova, because the audience is so different.

Overall, I thought the presentations were interesting this week. Always good.

Week 10 -- AA

This weeks class was drum recording. *(1) The class was long, but really interesting as always, and I learnt lots about the drums I didn't know. Not just in a recording sense, but the tuning and placement and things.

I'm very proud of myself this week actually, because I did everything myself. No-one was there to help me at all, which is a first. So everything, from the set up (although my drummer helped with that) to the recording to the pack up I did. I wasn't sure I could actually do it all, but I worked it out fairly easily and quickly. Always good.

And the sounds are :

FIRST RECORDING

For this one I used 2 KM 84's (Possibly not the right mic, definitely KM something, but I didn't write it down, and now I've forgotten... sorry) as overheads, and a Shure 56 (?) Beta just outside the hole of the bass drum. I quite like the sound, but some sounds are being drowned out, and the toms aren't as prominent as some drummers would probably like. Also, this technique has the problem of being un changeable as we discussed in class. If the drummer wants more toms, then it's too bad. It's set as it is.

SECOND RECORDING

The second recording is a lot the same as the first, except I used U 87's (?) as room mics instead of the overheads, and the bass mic was inside the kick. It's not too bad, same problems as the other one. Except I clearly needed to turn it up more, because it's really quiet, and there are hardly any cymbals. Not a choice I'd use often, I prefer the other to be honest.

I also forgot to take photos, so here is a picture of the ProTools window, as helpful as that may or may not be.







________________________________________________________

*(1) Steve Fieldhouse, Audio Arts Lecture, Monday 14th May, 2007

Week 9 - CC

Well, after last weeks success I semto have fallen massively downhill. Due to a culmination of events, this week has been really hard. The lecture *(1) was about doing the same sorts of things we did in the previous weeks, except using the effects in ProTools.

I recorded my human voice, and was all set to go. But first I couldn't hear the sounds in Peak. I assumed that someone had played around with the settings, and as I had no hope of fixing that myself had to leave it there for the time being. I then tried it in the mac lab and hey presto it worked, but the computer didn't have enugh disk space. So I changed computer, and then couldn't get my sounds to play from Peak to ProTools.

I think that my main problem with all this, is that I don't understand ProTools at all. I've tried to sort it out by myself, but I think I may need some background help before I can really come to grips. A lot fo the things we're learning I can do, it's the simple things that I need to have pointed out to me. So this week there is no sound, or pictures, because I wasn't able to complete the exercise. But I hope that the blog has at least shown that I attempted it. I did actually understand a lot of the lecture, it's just putting it into play from scratch is proving difficult.






____________________________________________________________

*(1) Christian Haines, Creative Computing Lecture, Thursday 10th of May, 2007

Week 9 - Forum

This weeks forum was presented by Tristan, and was about his masters degree.

It was really interesting to see what he's doing, and what it's all about. The idea that resonant frequencies can be enhanced into making music all of its own is an amazing thought. I have to say, I'm a bit of an over-thinker when it comes to these things, but the theory would imply that then EVERYTHING has a resonant frequency, and so there is always music everywhere around us. So really, what Tristan is doing, is exploring the sounds of nothing. Amplified nothing. And that is an awesome thought.

Also, despite not really understanding the idea of focused listening, the way it sat with me made me think of it as a pretty interesting idea too. The way I took it was that it means focusing your listening to music on certain aspects. Which is a good way to look at it. I mean, I wouldn;t want to do that to all my music, but sometimes its good to really concentrate and think about what you're listening to.

There isn't too much I can say on the topic, because I dont know enough about it. I just think it's a really interesting idea, and I hope to be able to hear the final composition.

Week 9 - AA

Ok this week, Audio Arts was based around bass guitar recording. *(1) As usual we went over the different mics, recording techniques, and a few examples. Bass is one of those instruments that has so many different possible soudns and recording techniques that it could take ages to understand them all. However we had a go.

Unfortunately, this week I had a lot of problems securing a bass player. The two people I asked to play, and who said they could play, bailed on me. So I despite having time booked on friday night and saturday afternoon there was nothing I could do. Which is highly annoying. However, I will write about what I thought I should've done, and what would've been the plan.

I was going to do one with the D/I, because I thought that had the best sound. There was no outside noise and the recording is crisper. The bass is more... well, bassy.

I was also going to use the Shure 56 Beta, because it makes a grungier rock sound, and that's what my band for my major project is.

I'm sure if I'd made it into the studio I would've had time to experiment with more mics, but seeing as my bass players bailed I didn't have the chance. A dodgy excuse I know, but there you have it.












*(1) Steve Fieldhouse, Audio Arts Lecture, 7th May 2007

Week 8 - CC

This week Creative Computing was a continuation of the ideas and concepts presented in the last class. *(1) Last week we learnt how to use and manipulate Reason for DigiDesign, and this week we were supposed to use FScape and Soundhack to make our soundscape. Again, not many problems were involved with this weeks exercise, so I managed to get through it fairly easily, which is making me more confident that I'm on the right track. Problems I encountered were the keyboard not getting through to Reason, which Doug showed me how to fix. Preferences and then keyboard and everything. Also FScape wasn't loading. Or it was, and was crashing. I'm not entirely sure, but after an email stating that it wasn't my fault and we could go on without it, happily went to play around wth SoundHack.

Mostly I just used the Phase Vocoder program, because that gave the most obvious sound difference, and was easiest to understand. We'd also been over it in class so I wanted to make sure I was familiar with it. I liked that you can change the time scale by either specifying the time you want the sound to be, or doubling it. I think that'll be useful when it comes to the creative computing project.

In the end, I manufactured all my sounds and played it through the NN19. One of my sounds was really percussive so I used that as a background noise, with the other sounds built around it. I tried to give it some form this time, and a repeating pattern, but it's still not a really understandable piece. I think I actually like my Chape piece better... But anyway, here is the finished product and a picture of the Reason window.



NOT THE CHAPE







*(1) Christian Haines, Creative Computing Lecture,

Week 8 - FORUM

This weeks forum has the same topic as last weeks. Gender in Music Technology. And again, it felt weird to be the only girl in the room. Well, I was once Laura had finished her presentation and left.

I thought that this week it was even harder to sit through. Mostly because I didn't have the chance to say what I thought about everyone else's thoughts. A lot of the things said could be taken one of two ways, and it just felt awkward again.

One of the views presented was that the technology is a sexual thing for males, which is why a lot of girls aren't interested. That was a little hard to hear. Well, hard to hear and not get up and tell everyone what I thought in loud and certain terms. As much as I've decided that it is an issue if people want it to be, I still dont see it as a problem. If I have many troubles in the industry because it's such a male oriented career, then I'll just have to work around it. The way they said that it's sexually male made me feel like I was doing something wrong for loving tech so much. I mean, as much as I don't want to put this on here, I think it's relevant... It's like saying that because I'm bi-sexual, that's why I'm attracted to the area. When I'm almost entirely certain that ISN'T the case.

However, the idea that women should stop worrying about number equality and aim for ability and acceptance equality is still what I believe should happen. So despite feeling awkward for 4 hours for a few weeks, I hope this topic has given the boys something to think about. In a good way.

The end...

Week 8 - AA - Electric Guitar

This weeks class was on electric guitar recording *(1) Laura and I worked together again, with Doug playing the guitar for us. Apart from not managing to get the studio booked on time, we didn't really have many problems with this one. Which is always a good thing. I like that you can have the guitar in the recording room with you. That makes a lot of things easier. Especially because you can have the amp up louder and it doesn't burt your ears. Ok, and now for the sounds... AND a picture of our ProTools window:



RECORDING 1

This recording was done with a Sennheiser 421. The mic is placed right in the sound hole of the amp. There's a lot of distortion from the amp, which is picked up well by the mic.

RECORDING 2

This one was done with the same mic but with it sitting just on the edge of the sound hole, facing sideways to the amp. There were no effects from the amp at all, and I thought it sounded muddy and basic. Not a technique I'd use on many recordings I don't think.

RECORDING 3

For this we used a Neumann U89 condenser mic about 6 inches away from the sound hole. It was facing it straight on. There was lots of crunch on the amp, so the sound was good with that on it. I preferred the Sennheiser tho.

RECORDING 4

Again, using the U89, but this time from 1.5 metres away. I actually like the live sound it gives, bouncing off the walls and everything. I'd use that technique for a solo guitar recording if they wanted it really raw. Wouldnt use it for a whole band recording though, it would sound unprofessional. But for a certain part I could see it working well.

RECORDING 5

The final recording was done with the same mic, but this time right up close to the sound hole. I thought it was a little boomy, but that would be because it was so close to the amp.

Over and out, sorry for it being late!



__________________________________________________________________________


*(1) Steve Fieldhouse, Audio Arts Lecture, Monday 30th April, 2007.

CC - Week 7

This weeks class was on Sampling *(1). The idea was to use a recorded voice to alter and make into an electrtonic instrument.

First I had to get the voice. I used Orator on the Macs, to read out the quote. I used one of the female voices, because I thought it sounded the most interesting. I then loaded that sound into Peak to choose which of the phrases or sounds I could use for my samples. I pretty much jsut chose random ones that were interesting. Now I'm thinking I should have chosen a few longer ones, because all my sounds bar one that was looped anyway were really choppy and short. Which I didn't feel was as interesting.

A picture of the Peak window:


The idea was then to translate the sounds into Reason and use the sampler NN19 to make them go to the keyboard so you can play it. After a few troubles I managed to work out how to do it. At first the keyboard was picking up the wrong program within Reason. I changed it over and was set. For awhile I just mucked around with the settings, seeing what I could and couldn't do. I looped two sections forwards and one other, the bass part, forwards and backwards. I did this to create a kind of background for my soundscape, a sound that would continue on while the other sounds were being played.

Here is a picture of the Reason window after I'd finished manipulating my samples:




I've named my soundscape 'The Chape' because one of the only sounds thats recognisable is a chape noise. It doesn't really have any meaning, I just played things until it sounded interesting. And here it is... Presenting, THE CHAPE!!

THE CHAPE!






*(1) Christian Haines, 'Processing', Creative Computing Lecture, 26th April, 2007