CC1 Week 7

This weeks task was lots of fun, i found it particularly difficult getting the timing correct, i.e. when to initialize the next loop section, however with time this will become much easier to with practice.

Although not as fun, but much easier, than mixing with decks and mixers, it still represents a way of creating music with the sampling medium.

Here is the recording.
http://www.box.net/shared/3hx8t0q1aj

References:

Haines, Christian. Lecture "Live" 6/9/07. Adelaide University.

AA1 Week 7

For this task i used the Roland SH 5. I chose this because it has the most freedom, the mixer being one of the best functions on this analog synth. Although, in my opinion, most of the sounds created little resembled anything that might be found in real life, there is certainly many timbrel options to synthesise sounds natural and unnatural. I could see 60s and 70s sci-fi and horror movies flashing by while playing the instrument.

Ive posted a 1 minute mp3 of the best samples among the original 9 minutes recorded. In this mp3 you can hear wind (noise generator) planes, ambulances, alien spaceships (this one is defiantly more creative, but i think that it is reminiscent of classic sci fi movies).

Very fun task, and look forward to playing around with the analogue synths in the future.

Here is the mp3 of the samples
http://h1.ripway.com/loudman/GatheredSamples.mp3

References:

Haines, Chrisitan. Lecture "Basic Synthesis" 4/9/07. Adelaide University.


White, Paul. 1994, Sound Foundation - A Synthesis Primer Part 1,
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1994_articles/feb94/soundsynthesis.html

White, Paul. 1994, Sound Foundation - A Synthesis Primer Part 2,
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1994_articles/mar94/analoguesynthesis.html

CC1 Week 6

For this task i added a few effects to the original MIDI instruments. I used the MIDI effects and a bus to Plogue to make the original recording sound much more natural.

The first effect i added was to the drums, i used a delay. This effect was actually a fluke, it made the drum beat much more dense and interesting.
I played around with the effects on the guitar (Saw wave), but it really didn't do much at all. So I bussed the MIDI signal to Plogue and added a reverb and an EQ to the sound and it created a much more natural, resonant sound.

Here is a photo of the Plogue effects chain.

Here is the original file.
http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/BackInBlacKORIG.mp3
Here is the naturalised file.

http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/Backinblacknatural.mp3

References:

Haines, Christian. Lecture 30/8/07 Adelaide University.

"MIDI realtime parameters and effects", "Rewire", "Audio Effects". Carlson, L. et al. 2003.
"Cubase SX/ SL: Music Creation and Production System - Operation Manual". Steinberg
Media Technologies GmbH, Germany.

AA Week 6

For this task i have chosen to look at DVD menus as an example of interaction design. They are have now become a very important artistic and fictional part of the movie/DVD experience. In early times of Digital Video Disk productions they were merely used as a quick way to get to certain parts of the movie, and the most obvious, higher video and audio quality.

What defines a good DVD menu is whether or not is follows the accepted menu structures, and whether these structures are appealing to the eye, easy to follow to follow and present something different from every other DVD available.

These different things may be "Easter eggs" or offering whole new sections not seen before. The example I'm using is from "The Girl Next Door" DVD.

It has a fairly simple structure, easy to see the words, simple sections and easy up down selection. The indicator is a simple red dot that is easy to see yet unobtrusive on the background image which captures a great scene in the movie.

The music is unobtrusive. Although when selecting a section no sound is played (very difficult in DVD authoring), the button flashes and indicates the DVD is loading the new section. Ultimately this is a very successful DVD menu, however very unoriginal.

The form of the DVD is everything except the indicator and the sections text. Everything else is aesthetic and is unnecessary.

The function of the Menu is in the indicator and the selector. There are very few mixed, or none in face, form/function mixtures in DVD menus. Most of DVD menus are atheistic.

Here is the sound map. ( I was unsure as to what to do for the DVD Menu sounds, as many sounds are not present, so i did a diagram of a general DVD and indicated when sounds are present and the functionality of the DVD sections)
http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/e/SoundMap.jpg

Materials:
http://www.tappin.me.uk/Linux/dvd.html

References:
Haines, Christian. Lecture "Interaction Design." 28/8/07

"Chapter 1 - What Is Interaction Design?". Saffer, Dan. 2006, Designing for Interaction:
Creating Smart Applications and Clever Devices, Peachpit Press.

Lord, Max. 2004, Why Is That Thing Beeping? A Sound Design Primer,
.

Tannen, Rob. 2006, Acoustics and Product Design: An Introduction, 2007,
.

CC1 Week 5

Normalisation, something so simple yet very affective. To test how affective it was i used a saw wave not a GM distorted guitar to simulate the guitar. Although still very "MIDI," it does now resemble something similar to a guitar, and if it were integrated in a heavy mix, it could work.

I downloaded a horrible version of Back in Black by ACDC. What Ive done to the original MIDI is add strumming simulation to the block chords that were originally there, i.e. delay notes and decrease velocity over the chord. With the delay i have included simulated up and down strokes on the guitar.

To the drums i have added a fill to create a bit of diversity, but as the song has a fairly set drum beat, i didn't want to fiddle with this much more.

The bass already sounded fairly normal, any effect wouldn't have made any difference to the sound and there was no slides in the song, so pitch bends were not needed. The only thing that i could have done for both the guitar and bass is include a screeching sound simulating fingers sliding up and down the neck, however i couldn't find a sound similar to this in Cubase.

Here is the Original mp3
http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/BackInBlacKORIG.mp3
Here is the Normalised mp3
http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/BackInBlack.mp3
Here are the Before and After Photos of Cubase.
Before
http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/Picture2.png
After
http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/Picture1.png

References

Haines, Christian. Lecture 23/8/07 "MIDI Naturalisation." Adelaide University.

www.computermusic.co.uk Normalisation Tutorials.

AA1 Week 5

I'm still very confused by this week's task, however i have attempted to do a sound analysis of Amon Tobin's song Foley Room.

Amon Tobin is a Brazilian DnB artist however for his latest album, Foley Room, he sampled naturally occurring sounds found in his neighbourhood and at home to create his album, in particular the song "Foley Room."

More about Amon Tobin can be found at these addresses
http://www.amontobin.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amon_tobin%22%3Ehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amon_tobin

This piece defiantly remains in the Time Domain, in Hess's terms. It is highly rhythmic and is in context is a song on an album. It is not strictly Sound Art however contains so many elements that would classify it loosely as sound art. Its meaning i am unsure about, it wouldn't surprise me if Tobin was just trying to be clever by using commonly found samples to create a complex rhythmic song to impress its listeners, which it has done so brilliantly.

I must admit, i am completely a loss as to what to do with the sound map, and of what to do with the analysis. I hav read the readings, but reading is another thing from understanding what to extract from them. Somebody please explain this task to me!!

Forum

This is a bulk of all the recordings and assignments that Ive completed at home during the last month for forum. The first task for the semester, the Victorian Synth, i found a bit childish. If it weren't for the breadboarding then i would defiantly be unenthusiastic about forum.

Weeks 1&2

Following on from that with the Peizo, this was a little more interesting, a small hardy microphone has a great potential for creativity, Terminator 2 as an example of this. Upon being given the kits my eyes widened with the possibility of future tasks. This is when Forum became interesting.

This is the Peizo recording that i have done at home.
http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/computerrecording.mp3

It is simply placing the Peizo against my computer casing. Although easy to be heard just by putting your ear against your PC, but still a sound that could be useful. The clicks of the hard drive could be used.

Week 3

The oscillator tasks were the best, this is defiantly where my instrument is heading. Here are my recordings.
This first one is with just 1 oscillator.
http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/Oneosscilatorwithpot.mp3

This second one is with two oscillators.
I didn't have a lot of success with this one, however there is a slight change in out put, you can slightly hear a second oscillator changing intonation.

http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/2oscillatorspotandlight.mp3

This next task was great, including a mixer with an oscillator to create a tone and intermittent signal from the output source, in this case it was from the gun given to us in forum class. This task will most defiantly be included in my final instrument.

Here is a sample of what i have done with this task.
http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/Oscillatorwithmixer.mp3

Weeks 4&5

Circuit bending wasn't as much fun as i originally thought. I found it quite frustrating at times, the "finicky" work and the inconsistency is not only the most surprising, but also the most frustrating. What i have done for homework was buy a tamogotchi and try to find a loop or sound to bend, however after playing around for a couple of minutes with no results, it finally just stopped working. Frustrating!!! So i just used the mobile phone given to us in class and found the pitch bending connection and soldered a pot in between this points. Unfortunately the circuit stopped working soon after, with no good luck trying to repair this.

Here is a diagram of what i have connected to achieve a pitch bend.
http://www.mydatabus.com/public/loudman/MobileCircuit.pdf