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

AA wk 2

I stayed home it was warm thank you gas heater

Forum wk 1

This week's forum raised some interesting issues, one which I have contemplated in some detail. We were looking at the nature of technology and how it affects our consumption of music. Today finds music more accessible than ever before in history courtesy of developments in recording technology and distribution through the internet. Some wonder if the ease of access to music has lessened its value. Certainly, the live performance has suffered from the recording (although more recently there has been an increase in live concert going as the record companies lose their stranglehold on music distribution to the internet). The other intrigue is the issue of fidelity. Up until about ten years ago, the quality of fidelity consistently improved. Then audio quality reached a point where the fine tuning of clarity became imperceivable to Joe Average, since then, the masses have in sacrificed quality in favour of ease of access and reduced cost (in the form of MP3 files shared over the internet). I have also seen people sacrifice fidelity through their play back devices. The MP3, headphone combo that has infiltrated the mainstream in the form of the ipod, listening to songs played back through mobile phone speakers and, my own personal dilemma, play back through crappy laptop speakers. In my own case, I often lament the reduced quality of playback but, without an easily accessible speaker system, make compromise in order to still be able to listen to music in some form. I have also had it suggested to me that the fact that people are happy to sacrifice fidelity is a compliment to the quality of the music that has been captured. That they are able from an incomplete image to still get full enjoyment from a song is testimony to the value that music has in our lives.

CC wk 1

wedges wedges icecream