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

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)

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"!

AA wk 3

I shall do this, tomorrow or the next day

AA wk 2

I stayed home it was warm thank you gas heater

AA wk 1

Wedges

audio week 12

audio week 11

ordeeoe

acoustic guitar experiments coming

audio arts wk 9

Once again failing to get in specifically to record drums and post production them, I have for you instead some drums I recorded and worked earlier.... Standard micing used: Kick - beta 52 Snare - SM57 closed miced top and bottom Toms - beta56s closed miced overheads - KM87s a, b formation post production process went something like.... pan overheads left and right (60%), pan snare to the left (36%), tom1 (20%) to the left, floor tom to the right (40%). apply smiley EQ to kick trying to boost thump and click sounds. Apply lots of compression. EQ snare to reduce ring and magnify typical snare sound, use a noise gate (trying to remove ring still). EQ toms extensively in search of typical tom sound send all drum tracks down a bus and into an auxiliary channel where the whole lot get even more compression applied. The result, a drum track that has a bit of drive to it (finally). Photos of some of the plug in settings coming as soon as I'm at uni next as is a mix down

Audio Drums

Well, I didn't get a chance to come in and experiment with recording drums for this week's task which is annoying. I was keen to try some different mics on the toms and play with the placement of overheads and after reading everyone else's blogs, I am definitely going to have to start using a room mic as well. So, I have for you a drum recording I prepared earlier.... kick - beta 52 as inside the drum as I could get it and pointing at the beaters snare - SM 57s top and bottom Toms 1, 2 - Sm 57 close miced Tom3, floor - Beta 56s close miced overheads - NT5s left and right using rule of thirds The Kick drum has been EQed using the smiley curve to try and make it as clicky as possible. Drum track

Wk 7 oddio B b b b bass

Before I brought an amp into the equation, I recorded something straight into tools using the avalon. This sound is has the most definition. Unfortunately, this definition comes with an excess of finger and fret sound which ultimately makes it undesirable choice (with a good bass/player/the intermediary of an effects pedal, this would probably cease to be an issue). Avalon Next I miced up an amp in the live space with the 52, 414, an SM 57, Neumann and the random pick of a Senheiser MD421. Beta 52, 414: comparatively bassy/booming sounds SM 57, MD421: less low-end boom, more defined image Neumann: room sound (still maybe a good choice in a dead room…though there would still be fret sound). All mics bar the 414 pick up amp hum making none of them the preferable choice. The hum on the Neumann is the least offensive but who has one of those just lying around! The option of blending sounds remains. With my objective being a sound that seems powerful but retains definition, i would probably blend the 414 with the 57 or the MD 421 (blending with the neuman sounds fine too but I'm thinking realistically here). 414 with Neumann I have 3 other audio samples but box net refuses to load them. I give up. Bye Bye

week fix audioadvancementation

Guitar micing and results…

For an immensely distorted (and LOUD) signal coming off the amp…

57 - very trebly

neumann – bassy/muddy

414 – like a mix between the neumann and the 57

57 behind amp – very bassy


Potentially the 57 in front and the 57 behind compliment each other (phase
issues pending), the 57 and 414 sound pretty nice, 57 and neumann not quite so
nice. Various other combinations yield different balances of trebly and bassy
sounds. Really, save yourself some hassle, work with your mic/mics and your amp
to have a sound you like coming through the monitors, straight off the bat.

Double tracking is obligatory in rock music, you are a fool if you do not
practice it.

I would have been curious to achieve good results with a lesser volume of sound
coming from the amplifier (I have heard tell that this achieves good results and
from my own experiences can say that if a guitar track is recorded with nasty
distortion…all 2.5kHz static...it is very hard to redeem it.)

For my example, I have blended all four mics sounds and double tracked the
riffage with respective tracks being panned left/right by 50%. You will hear
noise at the beginning and end. I have left this in because if I was taking a
recording to be mastered, the engineer could use that noise sample to get rid of
all the noise in the track.

Tada, Scott ripping it up on the guitar check it out!

Audioooooooooooooo of voice and such

Well, revisiting old ground once again, experimenting with vocal recordings. I was really keen to try using the hardware compression now that I know how to patch it in but I could only get studio one and it doesn't seem to have a compressor. I also wanted to prove, once and for all that the 414 is a mic of considerable versatility (I had seen an engineer use it for female vocals one time and thought it sounded good). Of course, the 414 was being used by someone else. So, I got my vocalist to speak into a neumann (minus the pop filter as that was being used too) and a 58. I personally can't see any value in the tone of the 58 (unless you are going for something budget sounding). The audio example online is a monologue comprised of six different recordings: The Neumann in cardiod, the Neumann in cardiod with digital compression, Neumann in omni, Neumann in omni with compression, the 58, the 58 with compression. Black Cat Phenomenom NB My vocalist was a bit further away from the Neumann than he probably should have been, that combined with the incessant hum of the air con lends a slightly reverberant fell to the first half. Compressed to MP3 and heard through cheap headphones, the second half through the 58 actually seems to benefit from it's reduced sensitivity and direct feel. Disappointed with the apparent irrelevance of compression on the spoken word (compression didn't really make the voice sound any warmer through either of these mics, it just facilitated an increase in volume) I spent some time recording vocals through the Neumann and, before the night was out, a 414 (the other person finished using it). I think it is safe to say that the difference in sound between the Neumann and the 414 for female vocals anyway is non existent. I have yet to compare male vocals (but in a budget studio the 414 would certainly do the trick). Certainly beefing up the voice with compression through the head phones is potentially a good way to improve the confidence of your singer...I am still loathe to affect the signal being recorded, better to make the digital compression work I think. I wish the effects units in the studios actually effected the voice, if anyone wants to show me how to make them work, please do.

Wk 4 Audio

I could resubmit my experiments with recording acoustic sound from last year but I am boycotting the process on grounds of wanting to learn something new!

Wk 3 Audio studio 2

Still behind, haven't actually done anything. This lecture did provide one invaluable piece of info....the engineer that can be bothered to listen to what's coming through the cans is the engineer who is a step above the rest. An artist's performance can be made and broken depending on the vibe they are getting from their situation, a good headphone mix is a crucial part of the puzzle. At this point in my recording career, I have only ever listened to the head phone mix through the monitors, always adjusting the levels of the incoming instrument to be balanced or slightly louder and asking the musician for feed back. So, it's really time I learnt to have two or more mixes going, mission for my next recording session.

Wk 2: In studio 2

NB, even with the alterations to the signal flow in Studio 2, this lecture overall, was not one to be sad about missing seeing as I used this studio last year in the diploma course (infernal crossover and repetition of information). They’ve gone and changed the whole way the signal moves through the studio two system. From what I can intuit the procedure for set up now goes something like…… Check the speakers are off → Mains Power on → Desk On → Sound card on → Speakers on → Patch Protools 1 and 2 out to Mixer 15 and 16 in (thusly finely rendering us some sort of dummy control on the mixing desk yee hah). I haven’t done the exersise, in fact, I don't even know what it was but, if I had done it, the procedure would have probably gone something like… Open Protools → create new session saved to temp hardrive with L R stereo set up for the I/O → create a mono track with recordable input coming from A1 → mic up a noise source to be put through the first patchbay input → record arm my track → press the record button → press play → presto noise replication

Wk 1: Audio something or what I wasn't here here it is

Demo production plan Band: The Ocean Uprising Type of recording: demo Time: endless Cost: Nothing Instruments: mics Drumkit: kick – b52 Snare – 2 * SM 57 above and below Toms – 3 * b56 Cymbals and hats – pencil mics Guitar: SM57 Bass: 414 and DI Vocals: Nuemann Session 1 – standard kit micing in live space, drum tracks laid down (guitarist playing scratch track in control room) Session 2 – bass, guitar respectively played in live space and picked up with a 414.SM57 Session 3 – guitar solos (SM 57), vocals, backing vocals in live space using Neumann and pop filter Session 4 – EQ kits with band, get a rough mix Session 5 – assess rough mix, refine, mix down Session 6 - master