Blogs - Black Holes of Time just like this one

It seems that by missing forum, I missed nothing of consequence as it consisted of two hours conversing on the subject of ....BLOGS So my thoughts on the things? Maybe they are a useful tool for spreading your message, promoting yourself or others, finding like minded people...the online blog provides a free, easy access platform to speak your mind, essentially becoming a virtual soapbox. I am sure there are a slim number of instances where this freedom to speak and distribute your thoughts amongst the growing number of people suffering blogitis (an overwhelming compulsion to vent your woes/joys or blabber your message freely). however, the most widespread use of the blog is meer self glorification. Most people use them as a kind of online, immensely public journal. Maybe, in a way, this appeals to people because it provides a easy, hit and miss platform to vent and seek counsel with your peers...maybe the perpetrators of these irrelevant online journals are meerly somewhat self obsessive (see the entire emo culture). Whatever, this overl;oad of personal information leads to a generation of people who know their friends better through reading their blogs and personal info than through conversation with them. It also lends itself the the growing practice of voyeurism in our society (ie the slew of reality tv shows bombarding our primetime telly). In a nutshell, I think that a 2 hour forum on blogs would probably have been a black hole of time just like the blog phenomenon it seeks to discuss.

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: Some lecture about MIDI networking that I also missed

Based on the information available to me through the reading of my classmate’s blogs, I proceeded to attempt the tranmittal of MIDI data between two Mac lab Macs by doing the following…. Open MIDI keys Open Audio MIDI setup Click on MIDI devices, Network Ensure anyone can connect to you In the ‘directory box you should see some names (humemu003, humemu015, that sort of thing). Select one and press the ‘connect’ button I get a bit hazy at this point but, you tell it where the info is coming from and where it is going to and then, n theory, you should have a connection demonstratable in MIDI keys. Having missed the lecture itself I’m guessing I am meant to comment my thoughts on the virtues/drawbacks of this function…Sending MIDI data in general from point A to point B is the whole reason for MIDI existing. In terms of controlling miscellaneous pcs in the Mac lap it seems pretty superfluous save fro playing pranks. Or, if the latency was good then you could theoretically bring in your far superior Mactop with wireless and somehow use one of the Novations as a controller for you far superior software without having to unplug anything. Whoo

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

On the surface, this appeared to be a forum about collaboration. Out of 6 speakers only 1 managed to tie in her shameless product plugging with any real advice…and anyway, I don’t think we were there to learn about collaboration at all, I think we just wanted to hear Mr Audiomulch speak his bit (and to witness awesome robot origami flowers).

Our Audio Mulch man was attempting to collaborate music and technology (not really such a radical idea really as instrument makers have been doing this since the first musical bows *footnote 1*). He wanted to create software that could augment sound in real time (IE a live performance orientated synthesizor)…the result…Audiomulch (a project which, incidentally, required collaborative efforts with 30 software engineers to get off the ground).

After the AudioMulch project, he became a collaborator in a much more ambitious music tech instrument design project….The ReacTable (apparently these won’t be
released for the mainstream any time soon because there is no market for them. PFFFFFFT!)

This instrument is a collaborative effort realised by people with a diverse range of skills. It is essentially a synthesizor but, every parametre is controlled by placing/removing and manipulating specialized objects on a big, flat, blue, round thing (I later found out that the ReacTable (probably) “sees” the objects courtesy of a scanner *footnote 2*). Even in it’s finalised form, used as a live performance instrument, the music produced by ReacTable benefits from team work.


1) David Moss – 2001 Victor Folk Festival
2) My mate Luc about 2 weeks ago

lisa wants a reactable (or, the blog we didn't need)

On the surface, this appeared to be a forum about collaboration. Out of 6 speakers only 1 managed to tie in her shameless product plugging with any real advice…and anyway, I don’t think we were there to learn about collaboration at all, I think we just wanted to hear Mr Audiomulch speak his bit (and to witness awesome robot origami flowers). Our Audio Mulch man was attempting to collaborate music and technology (not really such a radical idea really as instrument makers have been doing this since the first musical bows). He wanted to create software that could augment sound in real time (IE a live performance orientated synthesizor)…the result…Audiomulch (a project which, incidentally, required collaborative efforts with 30 software engineers to get off the ground). After the AudioMulch project, he became a collaborator in a much more ambitious music tech instrument design project….The ReacTable (apparently these won’t be released for the mainstream any time soon because there is no market for them. PFFFFFFT!) This instrument is a collaborative effort realised by people with a diverse range of skills. It is essentially a synthesizor but, every parametre is controlled by placing/removing and manipulating specialized objects on a big, flat, blue, round thing (I later found out that the ReacTable (probably) “sees” the objects courtesy of a scanner ). Even in it’s finalised form, used as a live performance instrument, the music produced by ReacTable benefits from team work.

Sound Engineering Studio (B) - Project

This assignment afforded me with a diverse range of experiences. The first recording was of a piece of music composed for a dance routine. The instrumentation was all acoustic. Recording the musicians commissioned to perform the piece was an absolute pleasure. They possessed a level of skill and professionalism I have yet to see amongst commercial acts and needed only one take to nail the piece. With the post production, at first I was reluctant to use things like compression or reverb on the signal. However, it became apparent that some things needed refining (like the double bass) and in the end, the whole thing was compressed comparatively heavily. Recording the Classic Metal act was in my opinion, a good practice at efficiency. It is the first time I have allowed myself time to arrive at the studio before the musicians to set up the microphones and ProTools sessions. Unlike the Classical piece, I intended to attempt a degree of refinement akin to the likes of Rick Rubin on the recorded audio going heavy on the compression. When it came to mastering, I tried a couple of different degrees of compression. The track on which the signal was pretty much square waved seemed to be the preferred track. If I am to continue on this path of heavy compression, I would like to find the loudest sound before the signal becomes squarewaved (out of consideration for people’s ears and speakers). Presenting: the MP3s and documentation for both recordings J.A.C. Documentation J.A.C. MP3 Hero Documentation Hero MP3