date	venue	banda	bandb	bandc	bandd
24/07/10	enigma bar	mammoth	the baron	forest of gnomes	abyzmal
28/07/10	forresters	macabre	guantanamo bay	iron worzel
06/08/10	enigma bar	black jesus	GBCR	Patrarchal Death machine	iron worzel
11/03/12	Thebarton Theatre	Priority Orange	End Vision	British Assist	The Chofters

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major assignments

They shall be posted shortly. You don't believe me? It's true, check back in a week, before the end of 08

Week 8 CC

This was good fun. But, I could have saved myself a lot of time if I had prepared some loops before hand. Most of my samples are from a recording I made of some harp sounds. I used 8 samples in impulse for my foundation (unfortunately paying very little attention to BPM). Impulse provided wonderful facilities for making samples unrecognisable, in particular the pitch shift and stretch functions. The rest of the samples were used in audio tracks same ala the nine inch nails samples. However, they were mostly very short making them hard to cue effectively. Also. I found the warp feature difficult to master and have yet to establish how I am supposed to tweak my audio prior to sequencing (for use in a live setting). Once again, have found the restrictions to be neither here nor there, just inconvenient when the computer crashes (once again, no screenshot). I do like the way live allows me to convert melodic sounds into percussive ones and percussive sounds into melody, very handy for meeting the demands of the avant garde. Would you believe it, that cello/bowed double bass sound is nothing more than downtuned harp sounds. Ya do harp on a bit

Week 7 CC

It’s hard to make an informed comparison on restrictions versus no restrictions without using the full-blown system, I would not say that the restrictions hampered me (except when my system crashed and I had to load all that stuff in and manipulate it again, which is why there is no picture). The main thing I found with this exercise was that my real time jam would have been closer to how I imagine it if I had spent more time organising my samples (I tended to find that samples that I would have liked to have layered over each other were on the same track and so I would have to choose). The live system seems like it holds a lot of potential for ‘playing a computer’ providing some care and thought has gone into sample collection. I guess it’s a lot like turtablism (minus the scratching) except you can get control down to a much finer level. What ever would Varese think? Bite the Remix

Week 6 CC

Lots of cool things I couldn’t try because I couldn’t divine from the tutorials (or my memory) how to operate them. The Environment is just going to have to wait for another day for me I am afraid. Things I did master…. Using the transform window to humanise things, drum beats, duplicate melodies (looking quite intrigued at that reverse option heh heh), The envelope plugin. In this instance, I really don’t thing it made a lot of a difference, come to think of it, should have tried it on some of the guitar tracks, that could have been cool, or the bass. Used quantisation to try and fix up the kick but it was too out of sync, had to go in manually. Had reverb on the snare, distortion on the guitar, felt no need for EQ, envelope on the drums and I automated fade in/outs to make the beginning and end less abrupt. Improved riffage Here's an old thought from last week making things sound real, I do think my guitar efforts effectively convey the impression of the pick on the strings. yeah, the lead guitar line needs work, more of, it sounds pretty cheesey. Although, that was kinda the sound I was trying to parody.

Week 5 CC

Authentic MIDI mission went as follows Guitar (the best achievement): Created a duplicate of my riff for muted guitar (with edited velocities and staggered chords) in accordance with a suggestion from the article. Borrowed a studio trick and replicated riff on an acoustic as well. The acoustic ended up very low as the steal string sample sounds a bit too electronic). Played Riff through an OK electric guitar sample, still needed cohesiveness. Bussed all guitar tracks to an auxillary and applied distortion, this tightened everything up and made it sound pretty nice, sounded a bit like QOTSA. I could probably do to lower the velocity on the melodic notes in the muted guitar part but other than that is good. Bass, didn’t really take any advice, it sounded good how it is, it is in the key of A though which could add to realism, and, I made the lowest notes a bit sharp using pitch bend for, to make a bass that low, you have to downtune and that makes the strings very susceptible to being played sharp (too much pressure you see). Drums: Separated Snare from rest of kit so it could be reverbed a bit and potential pitch bent on the harder hits. Should have spent more time lining up kick, hats and snare, they are still a bit out. Recording drum lines makes for the quickest route to realism, when having to rectify velocity and such, I thought back to how I would play it. riffage

Audio Arts week 9

The gruelling torture continues. FM synthesis I still don't know how to modify these patches, so, my modifications continue to consist solely of elaborate modulations, check it out: So, this, in a slightly less elaborate form, this patch yielded BUBBLES. Then I added some more obscure modulatory values, grouped it all, customised the parametres and started randoming away, came up with sounds including a mossie sounds, swarm sound, some toilet humour (cavalcade of laffs anyone?) some sort of industrial sound, a fairly convincing simulation of a highschool band practice (tuning to concert c as they say) and some cool sounding sound effect that I simply couldn't leave out. I'm starting to get frustrated, I've toyed with analogue, AM, RM and FM synthesis now and I still couldn't tell you what parametres to tweak for what sound. In short, I have achieved nothing! Oh how I dream of complex envelopes. Sonic Events don't bother trying to intellectualise it, just hit random a lot and enjoy the produce

AM and RM, they do not fill me with joy. Devoid of ideas to complicate the basic patches offered us, i simply complicated the level of modulation by adding more modulatory units. Yep, sound gets more complex, fecked if I know how you find real sounds in that mess though, I grouped the monster together, added the values and wave types to the parametres box and hit random a whole lot (occasionally deviating and altering values manually, half the faders did not seem to affect the sound at all). Some vague hints of real sounds revealed themselves, a wave that could be a blowfly buzzing if it were a little less white noise like, i tried. The airplane sound reminds me of the sound of the airplane in sonic three, run sonic run. Using the RM patch (similarly modified with a heap of extra modulator units) I stumbled across this swell which could almost be the sea, if I just could have slowed it down a smidge more and gotten rid of the thump. In the interests of creating spaces, I ran this signal through to independent delays and panned the results hard left and right, with more patience and tweaking, I probably could have made something of this. The other two sounds are nothing narural, the second to last sounds like a living machine, the last thing just sounds cool. The plogue patch Music to your ears, I promise

Audio Arts week 7

Roland synth SH-5 superior to the Juno 6 and Jupitor four in terms of sound composition yet still infuriating. This synth leant itself to the composition of sound a little more readily than its brethren by means of a built in mixer that allows users to kill of various components (allowing me to hear what individual things are doing....as to if this is really helpful, I don't know). Trial and error of knob twiddling, fader pushing and switch flicking helped me arrive at a point of malleable noise that could be construed as the sound of the ocean. But, I could not for the life of me get rid of the percussive thud at the sound of each cycle, nor could I make the sound oscillate up and down (just up, or down). One can't help but day dream of the custom built software synth and its adaptability. Some more twiddling yielded wind sounds (albeit vary imperfect) and and almost convincing bird chirp, then another, more convincing, ambient sort of wind sound. As to the great scope of other real world sounds, I do not think I even came close. But I am sure that has more to do with my inability to control the synth than the synth's short comings. I await digital simulations. My sounds Ok, these sounds are not 100%, I suppose with a little automation in the post production, maybe the odd fade in or envelope, they could suffice (imagines getting rid of the thump in the wave simulation with a fade in)

Audio Arts week 6

Not as fancy as a video game or a furby but i think this is a product that has benefited from interaction design. The singing washing machine: What - washing machine Where – the household when – when ever you want to wash your clothes who – is the man in the yellow cape? A sound map of the interactive response of the washing machine when commanded to complete a full cycle on a small load using cold water. The washing machine responds with a variety of beeps when it is being set to wash. Pressing the button to select the water level will prompt beeps pitched in correspondence with, a higher beep equals more water. A similar correspondence occurs in relation to water temperature (though there is no way really to create a response sound reflective of water temperature in the same way that one can reflect quantity). Pressing the 'go' button provokes a conclusive downward run of 5 semitones (somehow landing on a perceivable tonic tone). The process of putting on the washing has effectively yielded a short, simple ditty thanks to the innovation/sense of humour of the company's sound designer, through clever sound design, a household chore has been made slightly less mundane. Needless to say, when the machine is finished, it emits a call consisting of 2 notes a third apart (from low to high) incessantly until you relieve it of its contents.

Audio Arts week 5

Ed Osborn, of Finish origin, his childhood included activities such as smuggling art out of the soviet and participating in Quaker religious ceremonies involving prolonged silence. Having learnt to listen to tiny sounds during these, Ed studied composition, taught electronic music, played in an all ski band and raced motor cars before full time dedicating himself to audio art. More info including short movies of a whole bunch of his installations go here: Ed Osborn This installation combines two elements, audio and visual. The visual element consists of specially designed metal speakers (each shaped a little different from the last), the audio element consists of music composed using translations of the shapes from image to tone. The varied shapes and subsequent composition seeks to explore subtle variations in image and sound. This piece relates to sound design in the way that it creates an immersive space which will subject its occupants to a premeditated experience intended to explore a physical aspect of the world, (the name for this piece comes from “a biological term that refers to the graded sequence of differences within a species”1)

Team work?

Does anyone need a partner for the weekly exercises? I sure do. Maybe we could combine forces for world domination (or music concrete composition...)

Weak fore

So, according to a promotional site for some particular brand of yoga, these pure emotions mentioned in forum are as follows.... beneath the explanations are some sounds that I think could express these emotions Shringara Love Romantic love, more broadly speaking family and friends love. According to Indian mythology Male and Female energy used to be one entity then it decided to play a game of hide and seek with itself. Ergo we have 'romance', the embodiment of this game. Life exists purely for the enjoyment of this emotion You know what, I got no idea what love sounds like! Hasya Joy While this may manifest itself as humour it is at its best, joy that exists for no apparent reason. A major chord of course, preferably played on a piano Adbhuta Wonder Curiosity, mystery embracing your own ignorence The sound of a cartoon lightbulb turning on Shanta Peace Calmness, relaxation can only be achieved at the highest level of meditation/yoga induced relaxation. An ambient pad Sound of a garden on a Summer day Raudra Anger Irritation, stress through to full blown fury. A good thing to try and control, express it but do not exact the punishment. Someone bowing a violin badly Cats fighting Veera Courage having perfect control of the body and mind A note on a trumpet played well Karuna Sadness The conversion of sadness from being sad for oneself to being sad for others (compassionate). Opening chord for Rei's song (Neon Genisis) Bhayanaka Fear Product of the imagination Howling wind Vibhatsa Disgust Depression, self-pity the ego that has forsaken its kingdom. Ads for mobile phone ringtones/misc

Logical sure

This task is old news to me as I learnt all this basic logic stuff last year. Alas, I could not find any of my old programming efforts so I wasted some time knocking up some imitation Cure (boys don't cry). Mostly used step entry with the exception of the solo line which I recorded in (lost patience with step entry by then). Used the Ultrabeat VI for the kit, VI samples of bass and clean electric guitar for the other 3 parts. Needless to say, no guitar sounds available to select sound anything like a guitar so I made some lame attempts to disguise this on the solo line using EFFECTS. Ended up using compression on the drums too, worked pretty shmick. "I Can't Believe it's Not" Boys Don't Cry Oh yeah, after like an hour and a half solid of programming, Logic crashed, but not before making an emergency save of my work, what a considerate program.

AA wk 4

Of advertising trickery: this week required the investigation of two separate ads in terms of visual and audio content (and the connection between the two). Ad number one - Pro Barack Obama anti John Mccain election ad. barack obama speaking - pan over a black and white still of obama 'thoughtful' background music and narrative over shots of family house for sale, mccain on a talk show, another show with subtitle of key information then black screen with more key info followed by a shot of the white house with the final message of keeping mccain out of it coninciding with V I resolution of sound track. Seven houses This ad was quite simple in construction, minimal music and images required to back the key message that McCain is out of touch with the average American. Ad number two - condom ad father and son in super market ambient noise sound effects of sweets packet, shopping trolleys dialogue of kids temper tantrum and dad going shoosh more sound effects of kid shaking trolley, throwing things on the ground still screaming subtitle “use condoms” voice over naming condom brand and listing a couple of selling points Condom ad This ad uses standard techniques for realism in video, sound effects are logical and synced to actions. Note, the ambient noise dies down when the kid throws his temper tantrum making the screaming the centrepoint and all noise dies away for the voice over which provides some calm after being forced to listen to screaming kid (thusly subliminally reinforcing the saving graces of condoms ha ha). The sound map is coming, I need some sort of paint like software first. "Curse you mac and your lack of paint"!

Forum wk 3 1st year presentations

Well, most first years just presented their music concrete pieces. I'm baffled, there is no way every single first year is an ambitious young electronic art music composer, is this just another demonstration of the skew of favour within the EMU to this archaic monster? There are a multitude of aspects to 'music technology' most of them more profitable than the composition of (often) obscure music that (potentially) alienates the listener... Having said this, some of the compositions actually sounded cool, way to cool to be titled 'art' it's like serialist music all over again. Yay for Webern, the element of compromise! I think it is a credit to the technician when a concrete piece sounds like something you might hear and enjoy on 3D :-D. While it was a little rough still, I liked Scott H's intro for his song. There were some innovative foley sources and I liked that his composition had a purpose upon completion and was not just a composition for composition's sake. Non CC presentations included the audio track for a short animation (which seemed like a pretty seamless effort to me, well done), demonstrations of some video game music which Josh has composed (please note, in his enthusiasm to break into the industry, he is working for free. Something maybe justifiable if the video game company is not actually making any income at this time but none the less worrying. I wonder what sort of royalty scheme is in place fr the composition of video game music and sound effects) and Alex's AA. General consensus was that Alex had pulled a pretty good mix. He informed us that he had gone easy on the post production (the exact opposite of my current mind set). This has set me wondering, critique of a mix being the wholly subjective activity it is, can we even ascertain a 'good mix' without a reference. And then, are you convinced your reference is perfect, or are you just using it because you like it? Why is it I am forced to process my kick drum to fit into a certain mold? A kick drum in a room sounds nothing like a kick drum through a PA or recorded, who decided that the sound needed altering? Puzzling, maybe. Personally, I think that once I have nailed imitation, I shall try and reinvent everything :-D

CC wk 3

For some reason, I find working through these tutorials amazingly time consuming, possibly because I desperately want to understand why I am doing what I am doing before I do it... going on from my simple synth I made last week, I have worked through tutorial two in full and listened to my synth progressively sound more authentic. I added the filter and envelope functions as instructed, added the sub osc and noise osc, combined various things into groups. I found when I stopped to tidy that a lot of cables should have been disconnected during the course of construction and had to go through and intuit what they were. I was also missing the fancy oscillator so I constructed my own based on the information and diagram given. I still have sound so if nothing else, the circuit is still complete. I began tute 3 and got stuck on the first instruction about the variable, it doesn't say what it is supposed to be patched into. I wish I had a keyboard to truly appreciate the products of pressing random (for now I just have my little ditty programmed into the step sequencer demonstrating the many shades of 8 bit sound). I would like to post some audio but I have yet to figure out how to extrapolate sound from plogue and into a recording program, a mission for another day.

AA wk 3

I shall do this, tomorrow or the next day

Forum wk 2

I was sick

CC wk 2

with a virus