mf - week 02 - some favourite things

David Harris presented a work of his for string quartet, Terra Rapta, as recorded live by the Grainger Quartet.
It had some very lovely timbres. I would quite like to "remix" the piece (ie process the f**k out of it) and play with some of those interesting timbres. Oh if only I had time to do what I wanted.
EDIT: I just noticed the amusing contrast of timbre and chainsaw :P

Also a Schubert string quartet (from the same performance).
When listening to "classical" pieces, I often note the one bar of prime minimalist material that flashes by - if only I could quickly rip and edit and capture that bar , I would have an amazingly beautiful and repetitive moment to repeat - and perhaps intersperse with another bar...

Mmmm, I recall someone telling me of a composer whom took all his favourite bars from potentially a Beethoven piece, and reworked them into a new order. The only thing is he then scored it all and got someone else to play it !! OMG where is the technology ?!

Some of my current favourite things :
sunshowers - I have seen more of these during this winter than I have for possibly the last 15 years... delicate/thin drops of rain vectoring along the current gust direction catching the sun making the air glow.
synthesisers - been reading a history of the Moog. Synthesis is just the bomb !!!
my daughter - Raven is now 1 and a little, talks with a little interpereting and wanders around with her mouth wide open laughing manically.
max/msp - related to synthesisers really. I've been daydreaming about writing extended equations that will synthesise weirdly morphing square waves with no use of its own oscillator style objects.
coffee - I also have to bear its scar as an addiction.
chainsaws - bloody good fun, but a bit scary sometimes.
rocket and silverbeet from the garden - wet with raindrops and green !!





David Harris, "Music Technology Forum: Semester 2 - Week 2 ". Lecture presented at the University of Adelaide, South Australia, 07th July 2008


Stephen Whittington, "Music Technology Forum: Semester 2 - Week 2 ". Lecture presented at the University of Adelaide, South Australia, 07th July 2008

cc2 - week 02 - signal switching and routing

In implementing the mute function, i found the mute~ object not appropriate yet as last weeks object don't feature any sort of cycle~ style object. So I integrated a toggle switch to trigger the line~ up/down. It works very well.

The ek.sinegen~ difficulty was deciding on the GUI, mmm, knobs/sliders or number boxes..

The ek.sawgen~ features an extra step of extending the basic phasor~ object to ramp from -1 to +1, rather than 0 to 1. I just though it was fun.

The GUI draws my attention back to integrating a default state rather than everything reseting to 0 on loading.
Either a loadbang/loadmess, or integrating a preset object to save multiple settings. The inputs in the GUI versions come in handy for a loadmess.

The GUI versions would be more flexible with a signal input as well as non-signal. At this stage implementing this involves having seperate internal channel paths, or perhaps seperate objects .

And after all this time and cross platform irritation it makes me wonder - how much is this blog worth ?

Zip of everything: http://www.box.net/shared/icea6yv7bq

REFERENCES

Haines, Christian. 2008. 2. Signal Switching and Routing - CC2 - Music and Signal Processing.pdf

Cycling'74. 2006. MSP Tutorials and Topics,
.

AA2 - week 02 - game audio analysis

Quake 3. Quake 3 Arena.

First person shooter with single and multiplayer modes, released in 1999.

Features startup logo for ID software.

Also cinematics for single player mode;
intro movie - stylised action with tune from soundtrack and appropriate play noises.
level movies - voice over introducing bots from each level, hyperreal sounds and ominous pads.

Soundtrack from two bands, front line assembly and sonic mayhem (game musician Sascha Dikiciyan) . Featuring particular tracks for each level play, also track for battle won/lost.

There are family sounds for characters (eg different footsteps shared between some character models), also unique sounds for some characters (EG orb jump).

Weapons have different sounds, but all seem to have similar hit sound.

There are two sorts of sound in gameplay.
Diegetic sounds - characters moving/shooting/being shot and from the map features eg teleportals, jump pads and scenery eg fires.
Non-diegetic sounds can be equated with narration/refereeing which give the game the feel of performing in an arena. eg voice overs giving current stats. And sounds associated with gameplay events eg dropping the flag.

The game engine features stereo spatialisation and doppler effect, and a possible 96 channels of audio (22kHz).

REFERENCES_

McGuire, Thomas. 2001. "Creative Labs 3D Blaster GeForce 3 Ti200 review".
http://www.techspot.com/reviews/hardware/3dblaster_ti200/3dblaster-6.shtml (09 August 2008)

2007. "Sascha Dikiciyan & Cris Velasco". http://www.hellgatelondon.de/szene/musik/sascha_cris_zwei.php (09 August 2008)

Huiberts, Sander. And van Tol, Richard. "IEZA: A Framework For Game Audio."
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/3509/ieza_a_framework_for_game_audio.php?page=1 (09 August 2008)


Grimshaw Mark and Schott Gareth. 2007 . "Situating Gaming as a Sonic Experience: The acoustic ecology of First-Person Shooters"
http://www.digra.org/dl/display_html?chid=http://www.digra.org/dl/db/07311.06195.pdf (09 August 2008)

CC2_w33k 01_soft on/off for max/msp

I have created a rampdac~ object to soften the impact of turning the dac~ on/off, and a softvol~ object to smooth the effect of abrupt volume changes on an audio signal.

I settled on 12 ms as the default ramp time for both objects. I enjoyed the seeming softness it gave to the softvol~ and then gave it to the rampdac~. I assume that one could abuse any setting to give roughness to a signal, but I think 12ms gives a good all round basic setting.

The major drama (other than remembering how to make a custom argument), was trying to put the dac~ into the rampdac~ object. It took me a few minutes to realise it needed to be in the same window as the cycle~ object (the whole point of the startwindow command ).

The minor drama was creating a custom argument with a default setting. The way I have implemented it means the time for both objects can never = 0, which considering the whole exercise was to prevent this is OK with me.

Oh, and there's sort of a bug in rampdac~ in that if you press off, then on again before it turns off, it'll turn off when it should be on... behaves ok if you don't click madly or keep time at a low setting.

It seems on a basic intro to MSP that it treats audio in a similar manner to Plogue, and as such the work we did last year will stand us in good stead !!!! Hurrah !!!!

Zip of two objects plus help plus demonstration
http://www.box.net/shared/ijwefrxsso



references
Haines, Christian. 2008. 1. Introduction to MSP - CC2 - Music and Signal Processing.pdf

Cycling'74 2006, MSP Tutorials and Topics,
.

AA2 _ week 01_ancient game sound

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Levels 1 - 5 on the Apple II

For a pre 1987 gameI have chosen Lode Runner, a 1983 platform game which I played as an Apple II game.

For this review I have sourced one video of gameplay from the Apple II, one video on C64, the windows DOS game modified for slower game speed, and the MAME version (arcade version emulation).

The general plot of the game is to collect boxes of gold, while avoiding enemies (by running and digging holes) and climbing along ladders and platforms. Upon collection of all the boxes the player then escapes by gaining the top of the screen.

The sounds are all synthesised, and of varying quality. The DOS version is the worst quality, then the Apple, then the C64 and MAME version being similar in quality.

All FX are based on the current action of the player (eg falling, digging) or by the actions of the player (enemy falls in dug hole). This implies limiting simultaneous sounds due to processing limitations - there are moments of simultaneous sound eg when an enemy falls in a hole during other player actions and the sounds are not clear (some sort of battle for supremacy happens).

There is general concurrence between the versions in sound types for various actions however they are all very different. The notable differences in sound versions include the C64 having a short melodic progression upon collection of all boxes (vs. a short tone for the Apple) and lacking a sound for enemies falling in a pit. The MAME version has a timer on the levels, and a warning tone begins sounding near the end of time.

As far as music goes -
MAME features non-stop background music, at least 2 music voices plus FX sounds plus timer. C64 video feaures a brief monphonic musical fanfare with the title screen. No musical content in the MS-DOS version nor on the Apple video.

References

Haines, Christain. 2008. 1. Introduction To Game Audio - AA2 - Game Audio - Planner.pdf

McDonald, Glenn. 2002, A brief timeline of Video Game Music, 2007,
.
Video game music, 2007, 2007, .

Summers, Jason. "Welcome to Jason's Lode Runner Archive."
http://entropymine.com/jason/lr/. (1 August 2008).

"Loder Runner."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lode_Runner. (1 August 2008).

dsby. "Lode Runner on the Apple II (Levels 1-5)."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7JY5nEOUGA. (1 August 2008).

DerSchmu. "C64 Gamevideo - Lode Runner Part 1/3."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC4kT8nWQdg. (1 August 2008).

"MAME roms, L." ROMNation.NET.
http://www.romnation.net/srv/roms/mame/l.html. (1 August 2008).

MTF2_W33K 01_QUALITATIVE LISTENING VS. THE PUBLIC SPACE

ode to bus travel.
bus olng 22

Earlier this year I was considering the options of the portable generation/manipulation of sound/music (eg using a laptop on the train), and apart from battery life, the main issues was being able to hear what I was doing and its associated generated subtleties. In the public arena ambient sound is an issue, and one cannot hear the subtleties unless they are louder than the ambient sound and even then one cannot be sure that the subtleties are not created by the ambience.

Even earlier than that I purchased my first mp3 player and its associated lifestyle/freedom, I then quickly gave up listening to certain musical style/genres (eg almost anything with drums) because of my inability to enjoy them against the background of public transport . This led me to adapt my public listening to sounds of a more ambient nature that could easily meld with the the general ambience without needing to be cranked (eg Acreil).

Here lies one of the key issues regarding the noise levels of shared portable listening; to actually listen to some music in a public space it must be louder than the ambient noise....

This implies to me that public listeners whose earbuds are audible from a distance are attempting to overcome background noise so as to fully appreciated the subtleties of their musical choice. And possibly that others whose listening is at more discrete levels are perhaps not listening as hard, but rather using the music as an enhancement to their surrounds rather than seperate themselves for their surrounds.

Of course this does not take into account the use of mobile phones as tinny boom boxes, where sound quality is not even worth mentioning. Perhaps here, the essence of popular music is revealed as not being embedded in the sound quality but rather melodic/rhythmic/lyrical content. Perhaps even its associative memories account for more than sound junkies would like to admit...



[1] Stephen Whittington, "Music Technology Forum: Semester 2 - Week 1 ". Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, South Australia, 31st July 2008

the chickens are in the television !!

http://www.last.fm/music/shadows+do+Not+dwell/shadows+do+Not+dwell

cc2 - sound project - iterative parabola

Sound Project: Program Note
Parabolic function as iterated through colour and melodic transforms
Edward Kelly
04’43”




This piece is a composition based on the manipulation of data from the generation of a parabola (and associated transforms) of the iterative function, y = R(x+1) where R is a constant and y re-enters the equation as consequent value of x.

The function output is transformed and mapped onto an LCD screen. There are a number of transforms operating ;
manipulation of the constant R, manipulation of the number of iterations used, inverting the X Y planes as the parabola is mapped, a variety of coulour options for the pixels as mapped, a variety of shapes/drawing options.

There are two melodic variations based on the function output and LCD state.
1. parabolic melody uses succesive iterations of the left hand parabola output for its melodic content. In this case note duration is responsible for triggering iterations of the parabola.
2. colour melody divides the screen into a 16 x 16 grid and samples the center pixel of each grid square. The parabolas operate independently of this, and note duration is responsible for triggering data sampling.

Both melodic forms translate the pixel data (location, colour) into melodic data (pitch, panning, amplitude, duration/rhythm).

The parabola dictates the melody in two ways
1. sucessive iterations as melodic form. Also when using the incremental colour scheme (this pre-samples the pixel colour data and increments it upon drawing) prior events can shape outcome.
2. the LCD state (as sampled) is completely dependant upon parabolic output.

Note : the different drawing options effect the melodic outcome only in that other areas of the screen are effected by these. This is very obvious whilst using the incremental colour scheme with larger ovals.



MP3 of performance and score at
http://www.esnips.com/web/cc2-iterativefunctionasaudio

Zip of MaxMSP files at
http://www.box.net/shared/i3j9vpssgk

aa2 - recording project - ben gillard quartet

Recording project _ Ben Gillard Quartet You Don't Know What Love Is

Four piece jazz ensemble recorded live.

http://www.esnips.com/web/aa2-bengillardquartet

aa2 - recording project - reverb

Recording project _ Reverb - Helter Skelter.

Four piece rock style cover band recorded live.

Documentation and mp3 at :
http://www.esnips.com/web/aa2-reverb

mtf - week 12 - dj Skilz

Well, scratching is all well and good... however more than 30 seconds continuous is just tedious. It reminds me of the Theremin - at first it's a really interesting use of time/space, then "OMG is that is ? A warbly pure tone ? Where's my polyphony ? Let alone distortion/delay/chorus/etc...?"

Apart from that minor quibble, the art of DJing is a very fine art. There are practitioners of all skill levels and it is rare that I experience the finer end.

On the blunter end, my experience of CutDemUp, a digital hardcore freak, (whose approach to scratching was perhaps improved with a blunt needle) was at the time a veritable laugh and a half. Techniques included dragging the needle sideways, and dropping it repetitively. And given the material he was mixing (digital hardcore - and if you don't know, then..here) it blended relatively seamlessly.

On a personal level, my finer moments of DJing have included using the infinite loop at the end of a record for extra "authentic record crackle", and leaving the needle on an unrotating platter - and cranking the volume for quality record feedback (a lovely warm sound).

In regards to the quality DVD we were exposed to in the name of education :P I am a bit curious as to the lack of emphasis on EQ as a tool. The EQ on a decent mixer is incredibly intense, and when used with something as simple as whatever it's called when you have two tracks on at once (beatmixing?) can enhance the layering. Not to mention the use of EQ killswitches (switch based band on/off), which when used with quality psy-trance, can raise the level of your generic middle eight peak to a level of glowstick abandon !!!





[1] Stephen Whittington, "Music Technology Forum: Semester 1 - Week 12 – Itching and Scratching". Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, South Australia, 5th June 2008

mtf - week 11 - 3f1x

Here's a beautiful quote from an un-named author in a vitamin catalogue.
"Laundry powder - you know you'll use it up over time, so why buy a small bottle that'll only end up in the bin ?"
go green. Glow magazine. Winter 2008 edition.

This is just common sense, the like of which often falls by the wayside. A small bottle costs 1/3rd the price (or whatever) so obviously it's cheaper to buy the small one...... or is it ? Let's try a little math.
I do recall at some point in my dim distant past, supermarket trolleys with inbuilt calculators !!
Although, in personal research into toilet paper, as far as the Safe brand recycled paper is concerned, it is often cheaper (by the roll) to buy 9 rolls rather than the larger packet of 12 - I figure it is a super market conspiracy to shape purchasing.

My conclusion, is if that life is happiness, ethics is maintaining yourself in a state of conscious happiness rather than an unconscious zombie. ie buy bulk, use energy efficient lightglobes and give your mum a kiss XX



hurrah for being !!


REFERENCE
Whittington, Steven. Harris, David. Forum presentation on Ethics and Technology at EMU space, University of Adelaide. 3rd June 2008.

aa2 - week 10 - mastering

I had a go at 'mastering' 3 different tracks. I used similiar chains on all 3, EQ, stereo imaging, and compression, although I experimented with multi band and single band.

Examples are first half pre-mastering, second half post-mastering.

This track, metal style, I think I lost a bit of overall level but gained clarity.
http://www.box.net/shared/urq9p1neo4

This track, weird pop style (early 90's), similiar result, loss of level but gain of clarity.
http://www.box.net/shared/gr9o68740s

Third track, electronic, gained clarity and level. This one has fairly dirty synth pad that becomes more noticeable.
http://www.box.net/shared/6fu0m14gso

Sitting back and listening to them makes me keen to try again :)

I'm keen to try and use more EQ for pre compression control, narrowing in on particular frequencies, and to experiment more with compression I've always found compression amusingly difficult on a overall mix, individual instruments ok, but when you combine sounds it makes it another step difficult.





REFERENCES
Grice, David. 2008. “AA2 – Mastering.” Seminar presented at the University of Adelaide 27th May.

CC2 - Week 10 - Interface Design

two offset windows for the multislider bpatcher, and the ramp value bpatcher..

note the blue slider...


With the variable size MultiSliders it can be hard to tell where in the cycle it is, so now the slider that is being called will change colour. This limits the variability size to 8 as that is the definable colours for candycane sliders. I could use mulitple Multisliders to get more than 8 sliders - but that is a programming challenge for the future.

I put a mulitslider in a bpatcher, with the use of offset to display additional settings - very cool, and space saving !!

However I discovered that I was unable to save presets in the bpatcher window.. I can save the presets in the original patch, but this is quite limiting but good for pre-loading. This caused me to leave the duration multislider as it was, as it uses a range of 0 - 5 for the sliders.

Also bpatching the ramp to controllers, making it neat, but again harder to use re. presets.

I dig the bpatcher, I really did what I did with the multisliders "other settings" button.

link to zip..
http://www.box.net/shared/i93c885voo

UPDATE:
have worked out preset dilemna !! so have added more bpatchers..

References

Haines, Christain. 2008. CC2 - Week 10 - Interface Design - Planner.pdf

Cycling'74 2006, Max Tutorial, 11/1/2007,
http://www.cycling74.com/twiki/bin/view/ProductDocumentation

aa2 - week 10 - mixing 03

For mixing down this week I've chosen an electronic piece I sort of finished several months ago, and dug out for a new perspective.

It features an interesting array of drum sounds, with most of the track having a "click" rather than a kick. And pretty much most of the bass spectrum actually lives in the bass line, with other sounds rarely touching the low end.

It turns out however that the first sample is from a section featuring another kick. It is in other respects quite a sparse section.
tiny tiny bits 01.mp3 (http://www.box.net/shared/tcxtrlx2cc)

The second sample is the first with a HPF and compression on the stereo mix.
tiny tiny bits 02 hpf+cmp.mp3 (http://www.box.net/shared/ozi60gbkkg)

Third sample is a different section and features the HPF and compression on the stereo mix.
tiny tiny bits 03 hpf+cmp.mp3 (http://www.box.net/shared/rfr7ru5a8c)


All files are at
http://www.box.net/files#0:f:15566470



REFERENCES
White, Paul. 2006. Mixing Essentials. Sound On Sound magazine.

Stavrou, Paul. More Salvage Mix Techniques. Audio Arts 2 Readings.

forum - week 09 - of electronics and harmonics

.. these different musical styles ... affected the evaporation rate of distilled water...
From full beakers, 14 to 17 ml evaporated.. in the silent chambers, 20 to 25 ml..under the inflene of Bach, Shankar and jazz; but, with rock... 55 to 59 ml.
[142: Tompkins and Bird]

George E. Smith.... planted maize and soyabeans ... in two identical greenhouses, both kept precisely at the same level of temperature and humidity. In one...Gershwin's 'Rhapsody in Blue' 24 hours a day....in that greenhouse sprouted earlier than those given the silent treatment.... their stems were thicker, tougher and greener.
[137: Tompkins and Bird]


In the early 1950’s, Dr T. C. N. Singh of the Department of Botany at Annamalai University, Madras, India, discovered under microscope that plant protoplasm was moving faster in the cell as a result of the sound produced by an electric tuning fork. This discovery led to his conclusion that sound must have some effect on the metabolic activities of the plant cell.
[Singh]




REFERENCES
Tompkins, Peter and Bird, Christopher. 1974. Secret Life of Plants. Blackburn, Victoria: Penguin Press.

SINGH, T. C. N., On the Effect of Music and Dance on Plants, Bihar Agricultural College Magazine, Volume 13, no. 1, 1962–1963:

CC2 - Week 9 - Data Management and Application Contro

This week's problems were.

Upon the patch loading - the probability sequencer looked like it was loaded with note, but it wasn't.

Attempting to get the note recorder to record time between notes (as well as of notes), and play back sequence with this info. The major problem being metro won't change time between bangs. and I couldn't get the coll object to succesfully spit out appropriate address' eg 12 13 10 11 8 9 6 7

SO the recorder will play notes back in the same order as played, and has the option of either using the time recorded (for the previous note) or triggered by main sequencer or modifiers.

Other problems were with the layout, my patches just seem messy, but I don't know what to do about it... also there may be a better way of laying out the sections and relating them to each other.
I think I need to look at other peoples well developed patches..

IMPORTANT note, the record section can be sent to any channel (Prob Seq = 1). Giving more variety.
Getting Reason to work with two incoming MIDI channels is bloody annoying !!!

http://ed.growerscollective.com/uni/cc2/week09/edwardkelly_week09_cc2.zip
http://ed.growerscollective.com/uni/cc2/week09/WEEK09_EDWARDkeLLY.mp3

References

Haines, Christain. 2008. CC2 - Week 9 - Data Management and Application Control - Planner.pdf

Cycling'74 2006, Max Tutorial, 11/1/2007,
http://www.cycling74.com/twiki/bin/view/ProductDocumentation

aa2 - week 09 - mixing 02

This week I've mixed down sections of a recording I did last year of Tristan Louth-Robins.

It features numerous guitar tracks, vocals, backing vocals and melodica.

I've pretty much maintained eq settings on instruments, just varied levels and effects between mixes.

I'm quite enjoying the fairly dry vocal sounds, and the varying levels of backing vocals and melodica.
That said I think mix01 works the least with the vocals being too forward and dry.
And mix03 is my favourite with much a much wetter mix than the other two.

http://ed.growerscollective.com/uni/aa2/week09/edwarKelly_Tmix01.mp3

http://ed.growerscollective.com/uni/aa2/week09/edwarKelly_Tmix02.mp3

http://ed.growerscollective.com/uni/aa2/week09/edwarKelly_Tmix03.mp3



This weeks lesson to be learnt was what happens when you use plug-ins on one computer that aren't available on another computer :P




REFERENCES
Grice, David. 2008. “AA2 – Mixing.” Seminar presented at the University of Adelaide 13th May.

cc2 - Week 8 - MIDI and Virtual Instrumentation

Since last week I have modified the phrase slider/tables to be more flexible (theoretically up to 128 sliders and including a random selector - non weighted, just random selection).

I added one of these to be a controller modifier, and three line objects for triggered changing values (the bottom one is half speed).

I also found the preset object as a way to load the patch with number boxes with a useful value (with loadmess).

Bugs -
the ramp subjects, are only triggered by a change in the max value OR by the sequencer running.

zip of files
http://www.box.net/shared/3lrkz4ls84

mp3
http://www.box.net/shared/9fqe4bp1c8

EDIT: have neatened the patch a little and updated the preset so it loads better. 160508.

References

Haines, Christain. 2008. CC2 - Week - MIDI and Virtual Instrumentation - Planner.pdf

Cycling'74 2006, Max Tutorial, 11/1/2007,
http://www.cycling74.com/twiki/bin/view/ProductDocumentation

mtf - week 08 - industry nerd jabbering on

In this case, not the parish priest, Peter Dowdall...

Peter Dowdall gave a rather interesting talk on both recording a large ensemble in the EMU space, and working for such multi-nationals as PEPSI. (mmmm, it makes me wonder what pepsi tastes like ?)

His use of organisational skills in the preparatory process of recording gives a good sense of necessities when approaching a recording with such a big set up, and in a space which is not something one is totally familiar with. Hence spending an amount of time prior to the actual session running through the process proves itself invaluable. For example I myself am curious as to exactly how many mic leads there are at EMU, and to hear Peter saying he had to outsource comes as no surprise.

His over the top photographic journal of the experience was also amazing !! Just recently I have had cause to bemoan my own lack of note taking when I was attempting to document some of my past works (like 6 or 7 years ago), and my own experience in the mixing world also brings home to me how bloody good it is to know what's going on now, and what was going on yesterday.


I was also very amused by his description of editing to a grid. Cutting of the end of phrases because fall outside the appropriate length.. I am looking forward to trying it at the appropriate juncture :P It's a bit like slow motion glitch.


REFERENCE
Dowdall, Peter. Forum presentation at EMU space, University of Adelaide. 8th of May 2008.