Forum out at sea

In brief, today's forum was a tribute to the recently deceased Tristram Cary who, among many other illustrious things, finished building the Adelaide uni EMU and then taught here for many a year. It seems this non household namer in parallel with other modernist composers, carved himself out a niche as a pioneer of electronically generated music. In fact, teamed up with another fellow, creating one of the first synths was an exercise in raising capital (cash). When he wasn't making his knowledge of electronics and music work for him he was creating avant garde compositions. In fact, his composition provides the music for the early episodes of Dr Who. Eventually he ended up teaching Music tech at Adelaide uni. It's a nice city, the living is cheap, certainly, he would have had no competition here. Anyway, the idea that most interested me was in post presentation discussion time. Something about music in context, the masses might not put on an album of Tristram Cary compositions on but they will enjoy his music in the context of Dr Who. Likewise, a Raver probably won't sit still and listen to Drum and Bass, the will consume this product in the context of the Rave. I haven't any opinion on this phenomenon yet, it's just interesting to note.

Creative

Sigh

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 a forum and mash it up some

This week’s forum saw us spend a large chunk of time listening to mashups in conjunction with completely unrelated visual material (which of course, our minds spent the entire time trying to relate to the audio). The end of forum featured the obligatory debate between 2nd/3rd years and lecturers again with the theme of value. So, our bringer of mashupdom, a woman called Vicki Bennet says herself that she takes music of little note and mixes it with more music of little note. (of course, this is assuming that everyone hates a catchy tune just because it is simple). It was suggested that because the end product possibly required little energy to create, it has little value.. Well, to me, it seems like Vicki is using the songs like Pierre uses sampled sound, like a DJ uses vinyl, like a pianist uses the piano or dare I say, like a composer uses an orchestra. Does the end result have worth? It is certainly listenable. How much energy goes into making it? Does it matter? The composer is still striving for a preconceived musical aesthetic. Does that not put the mash up artist in the same category as a traditional composer? Could it be that the concept of instrumentation is evolving, ever more things coming under this scope (I mean, if John Cage can stand there is all seriousness and play a bowl of water…). Whatever conclusions people draw, I think Vicki could conceivably be put in the same box as our friend Pierre.

Week Fix Creative Curmudgeoning

Well, didn’t feel like I needed to do too much more to my sequenced composition
as I had already effectively mixed it (I felt) and incorporated such tools as
volume automation and effects to make it feel more natural. I did however
attempt to pan one of my more melodic sounds for the sake of interest and I
panned the ‘snare’ and ‘hihats’ a little to the left as they would be if they
were in a rock recording. The end result being a somewhat empty right-hand
speaker for most of the 45 seconds but oh well, in the name of realism ha ha.

MP3 here

Patchwork take 2

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!

For Rum...where is the rum?

Truly, hit and miss/random chance composition is the composition of our era. It is rife through commercial music (the stuff of bands, not the stuff of pop singers who could not be more removed from hit and miss composition if they jumped on a boat to the Antarctic), it certainly appears to be the main mode of music creation amongst the electronic noise artists, even the Classicists sometimes abandon themselves to formulas (take Serialism for example). So, today in forum we found out about a French, Music Concrete fellow named Pierre. I wouldn't say so much that this guy is a composer of one kind or the other, more a fanatic of sound. Sound is his instrument, he has a library of samples as long as my arm and the means to summon them at will (almost, and with the aid of his wife Bernadette). His compositions consist of to my interpretation, simple improvisation with his samples as the notes on his instrument. Of the works that we heard, I much preferred his collaboration with standard rock music than his pure noise works (with Pierre referring to his best known Rock music collaboration as being to him as The Bolero was to Ravel...to both these composers I say - lighten up, perhaps the people like these because they sound good, perhaps a good composition is not necessarily a technical one!). Amazingly enough, his remixed Classical music features standard mainstream techno beats, these works have aged quite well...