AA1 Week 7

Doing the vocal recording this week made me realize how far we are into this course and really confirms what I'm studying.

This is the Avalon setting we used for all recordings

http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/z/1.1CondensorNeumansung.mp3

The first recording was done with a Neuman U 89 close up with a pop filter and connected to the Avalon. A very nice sound, but very bland and non-professional.

http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/z/1.2CondensorNeumanCompressionsung.mp3
We altered this by applying compression. (see below)

http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/z/CondensorNeumanOffaxissung.mp3
The next recording was done again with the Neuman U 89, but this time we removed the pop filter and recorded from the side angle. There was no compression or EQ added to this example.

The following recordings was done with a Shure SM 58. We were using this microphone to see the difference between dynamic and condenser vocal recording styles. The condenser is by far the better option for the vocal applications we decided to cover.

http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/z/DynamicSM58sung.mp3
The first of the two recording was just a simple sung piece. No effects were used. Although it was very clear, it was still very bland.

http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/z/DynamicSM58Eqspoken.mp3
The second recording was a spoken piece. But the EQ was used to extreme proportions, we created a digital radio like sound.

Overall I really enjoyed doing this exercise because much of the techniques learnt will be useful in many many applications other than vocal.

Forum Week 6

Listening to people who have actually collaborated with people in real situations really helped put music, and music technology, into perspective. The collaboration that interested me the most was with making the short film. The fact that he never met with the sound editor was interesting as the music in the film was linked so closely to the sounds of the environment, it was by no means a separate thing, like in a romantic movie.

The collaboration with the art display opened my eyes to the possibility of sound in art and, more specifically, sound in visual art. The amount of time and effort that would have gone into setting something like that up would have been quite a bit. Although i don't fully understand the overall point of the display, i give credit to the work involved and the attention 2 detail.

The presentation on the animation gave me a peek into what to expect in the next few years of music tech. I am quite looking forward to doing a project like that with some one. It really was a fantastic piece. However if i could make 1 criticism, it would be with the rendering of the animation. Sometimes it was a little too jerky.

The final discussion about collaborating with 'everything,' although interesting, way to general and really posed more questions that couldn't be answered than actually discussing the nature of collaborations. Some interesting things were said, but overall quite meaningless.

CC1 Week 6

http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/z/Soundscape3.mp3

This task was much more challenging than the previous tasks. Actually following a score with your own sounds and interpretations is much harder than just making one up. However i still believe that i have used sounds, in my sound library, that would best represent the images on the score. The soundscape is fairly easy to decipher which sound matches what image on the score. What i am particularly proud of is the opening sound and the first image of the crumpled rising paper. This matches perfectly. And the last sound with the gradually decreasing sizes of paper.

Photo from ProTools LE, and information from Mus Tech Lecture on Thursday 5th April

AA1 Week 6

Recording the Acoustic Guitar is something that I am very interested in, being a guitarist i can see myself using what we have learnt in the near future.

http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/z/gr1angledup.mp3

The first recording was with the Neumann U 89 I pointing straight at the sound hole. This created a very average guitar sound. It sounds very amateur and a little too "bassy" for my taste. It doesn't sound very dynamic.


http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/z/gr2fret.mp3

The second recording we did was with the microphone placed over the frets. This creates a much thinner sound than the other position, however this is one of the more clearer and dynamic recordings.

http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/z/gr3angleddown.mp3

The third recording was angled down on the guitar. This produced a very similar result to the 1st example. Yet again missing the dynamics that i desire.

http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/z/gr4straightup.mp3

The fourth recording was done a fair distance away from the guitar. In this example you can hear the reverberations form the walls and overall sounds like a very amateur recording. The sound isn't clear and doesn't present a dynamic timbre.

http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/z/gr5xy.mp3

The Fifth recording we did was in an XY position using 2 Rhode NT5. This position recorded the best sound by far. It was very dynamic and clear.

Overall, i really enjoyed this exercise. When i record acoustic guitar in the future i will endeavour to record in an XY position. I really love this sound.

CC1 Week 5

Soundscape2.mp3

In this new soundscape I have utilized the panning, volume and time scaling effects and automation.

The piece begins with a rustling paper that i gradually increased the rate at which it pans between the 2 channels. It is a fantastic creepy effect that makes me dizzy when i listen to it.

The additional sounds that I've used are the same as in the first soundscape, as you can see in the accompanying score.

The one sound that I'm particularly proud of is the high pitched frequency squeal that goes almost all the way through the piece. It is an already time stretched and "spear" dissected audio sample that i have again stretched with Protools. I have duplicated this sound and made the second copy slightly out of align with the first to create a distinct dissonance. In addition to this dissonance, i panned one to the left speaker and the other to the right. This sound actually gives me a headache when i listen to it through headphones. In the score i have indicated this through a stretched photo of rubbing paper. I know that stretching the photo isn't entirely an assignment parameter, but if i had done this in real life, i would have done something of a similar nature. For example, place many pieces of paper together to create a very long piece.

The score is very similar to the original, so i won't go into too much detail in explaining it. But the different thing about this score is that now the alternating pictures means a panning from left to right speaker. The rest of the score is very descriptive and you can see how i have created the sounds in the soundscape.

This photo shows the panning of the different sounds.

This photo shows the volume of the different sounds.

I have used Protools 7.3

And used information from Creative Computing Class on Thursday 29th March

Forum Week 5

Collaborations this week was the defiantly more interesting last week. Because the presenters took a different angle than last week's presenters.

The first, a collaboration with experimental dance and pop/rock/indie/electronica music in an improvisational style was certainly an interesting idea to learn about. Although this presentation didn't present us with many questions, merely a description, the example was an excellent demonstration of abstract collaborations.

Darren's presentation was, by far, one of the best presentations to date. In addition to this, he discussed bands and artists that i have a great interest in. Weather Report and Steely Dan are fantastic examples of fused music, not only fused with styles of music, but also styles of people. Steely Dan working with players that would bring a certain sound to their songs, collaborating out of necessity, maybe not out of choice. An interesting point to bring up. Many people collaborate with other out of necessity and not choice for a host of reasons, usually money however. "Never sell out, unless its for money."

Although I know very little of Michael Patton's music, and from what I listened to, probably will listen to little of his music. The diverse range of music he has been apart of was astounding. And his ability to bring people together to work on a project is a very impressive skill.

Finally, the last presentation about collaborating with other artists to sell your songs is a valid point to make, especially in today's music (i.e. dance). As you find, most of the popular (and even unpopular) dance songs are remixes of other songs. This collaboration between the original artist and the DJ is essential for up and coming DJs and groove writers, but also for older artists to reinvent their songs and come back to the music scene. A prime example is Leo Sayers "thunder in my heart" which was a very popular contemporary dance song on the charts for a significant amount of time. And this revived his career.

Overall, very interesting points made and i will now think differently when i hear a collaboration.

Points Taken from Forum Class 29th March

AA1 Week 5

Using the microphones was an interesting task. The first challenge was actually getting a signal, and after discovering that you needed to patch "Protools out" into the "line in" I was ready to go.

The constant sound i used was radio static

The first sound sample I created was through twisting the AKG Condenser mic around on the figure 8 polarity setting. I.e the mic is in a vertical direction and twisting it on the vertical axis.

You can hear twice in the sample where the sound cuts out, that the mic is in the middle of the figure 8 polarity.

http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/z/Audio1_05.aif

The second example i created was by placing the AKG Condenser at a distance from the sound source. You can hear the reverberations from the room. This was done with a normal cardioid polarity.

http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/z/Audio2_01.aif


The next example of mic technique was done using the Shure SM57. This example demonstrates that the louder the sound is, the signal of the lower frequencies are boosted within the mic. So what i did to demonstrate this was move the mic close to the sound source and back out. I used an actual song for this to show the bass boosting.

http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/z/Audio3_02.aif


In this example I used a Shure SM58. What I did was twist the mic horizontally to demonstrate the polarity of the mic, this being cardioid. It starts off facing the sound source, then racing the opposite direction, then again back to the sound source. It also demonstrates

http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/z/Audio4_02.aif


The final demonstration is using a PZM microphone resting the back of the plate against the sound source. You can hear the vibrations through the plate in the mic and you can hear the reverberations from the wall.

http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/z/Audio5_01.aif

I apologise about the file sizes. I didn't have any software to change the aif into an mp3.
I will endeavor to avoid this issue in the future.

I used Protools to create these examples.