aa - Week 1 - What is Sound Desighttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifn?

For my example I chose to show sound design for games. I remember back in the day the amazing music on the old C64's. One track which I loved more than the others was from the game Myth. I was unable to find any of the original music for this game, but there are a few remixes floating around, including a performance of many other C64 songs by the C64 orchestra, scored by Rob Hubbard himself.

This is a video of the game itself with a remix of the original song.

And this is the live performance of several other C64 songs.

To me the music is very reminiscent of these old games. In any of todays games you would rarely hear soundtracks as amazing as this. For their times the songs were also quite different from common songs, as obviously it sounds more like a classical song, yet in the game it is performed with that 'electronic' 8-bit sound, which gives it a mix between electronica and classical, which is definitely a trademark of older games.

CC1- Final Composition

Ah, good old Creative Computing. I actually surprised myself by liking my final composition, which is probably not a good sign because as far as I can tell your not meant to like musique concrete. This is probably because my song sounds more like an Eno influenced ambient work than a Varese influenced concrete work. Oh well, it may not sound like musique concrete, but it does have that sense of randomness that is typical in concrete. I have attached all my documentation so you can read about my inspirations etc (if you actually care). So here it is, my musique concrete, made solely using Spear and Pro Tools (and a Logic Pro plug-in).

Movements in Space MP3

Pre Production

Program Note

Analysis

AA1 Final Mix

This is the final mix of the song I recorded, which was a cover of the B52's Rock Lobster. I originally had two bands ready to record, but at the last minute they both fell through. As a result, I decided to record some of the students in the EMU, as well as a friend of mine. I composed the song myself, gave some people the music and gradually recorded and overdubbed. I wont go through the whole recording process, as I will attach my recording and production sheets. The one problem with doing a song I composed myself rather than a bands song, is that I continually kept adding more and more to the son, resulting in it being over 10 minutes long. I had great fun doing this song, although next time I would much rather get a band in and record them. I may have an opportunity to record the death metal band TzunTzu, (www.myspace.com/tzuntzu) in the next few months, which should be quite an experience. Overall I was pretty happy with the final mix of my song, although I wouldn't have minded a few more weeks to mix in (although I imagine I would say the same thing at the end of that).
Peace out yall
see you next month.

Rock Lobster MP3 - Now ripway is not letting me upload this in mp3, I will go home and convert it and fix it later.

Pre-Production

Recording

Production

AA1- Week 10 - Drums

This was the most fun of all of our AA assignments, but it was also the most time consuming.

We recorded several samples, most of them just us 'attempting' to play along to songs. We picked the two samples which had the best drumming, although it was still pretty poor.

For both the recordings we had the whole kit miked up. We used 421s on the floor and mid toms, a Beta 52A on the kick, 2 Rhode NT5's for the overheads, 2 Neuman U87s for the room mics, an SM 57 for the snare, a Neuman KM 84i for the hi-hat and finally a Shure 56A on the high tom.

The first recording is with the whole kit mixed in. I went through and added some compression and EQ for most of the parts. I also did a general mixdown of volume so everything was at the right levels. LISTEN.

The second recording is with the whole set-up, but with everything except the snare, kick and two overheads muted. LISTEN.

You can obviously hear that the first recording has the more 'fuller' sound, but I think that in many situations the simple '4 mic' set-up would work just fine.

AA1 - Week 9 - Bass Guitar

O.K. I have been here in the studio since 3 in the morning, having lots of fun recording in several different ways. At about 5 'Tools decided it couldn't back up files. It's O.K. I thought, just that deleting thing that happens in the morning, but it shouldn't delete my files as they are being used by a program. Well it didn't delete my files, but it did delete my session file. I could listen to everything in the file, but when I bounced it out there was no sound there. I spent nearly half an hour trying to make the bounce work. It wouldn't. I tried to save my Pro Tools session again, but that didn't work. I ended up exiting out of 'Tools out of frustration and thought to myself that I would just find the files in the audio files folder. I then realised the implications of this as I had been recording for the last 2 hours. I spent a while trying to find the files, but in the end I gave up. I will give you a quick run through of what I did anyway, although you obviously wont be able to listen to any of the files.









First off I did a straight DI into the avalon. This was my favourite sound as it sounded more natural than through the amp.

Secondly I did a recording with the Shure Beta52A. I hated this recording the most. It was really clicky and boomy, and although I could have got rid of the sounds, it just wasn't very nice to start with.

Next I did a recording with the AKG. I cant remember what this was like, I think it might have sounded OK though.

After this I did a recording with the Yamaha mic. Once again I can't remember what this sounded like.

My final recording was with an AKG through the Avalon, and a DI box going out of the amp into a stereo channel. This was my favourite as it had the most natural sound which still gave some of the characteristics of the amp.

Overall this was a fun, but slightly frustrating exercise for me. Being a bass player it is important for me to know how to record it well.

As a final note I would like to say a happy birthday and RIP to Chuck Schuldiner of Death and Control Denied. You were a great bloke and wrote some amazing music. RIP. \m/.

Stephen Fieldhouse. “Audio Arts”. Tutorial at EMU, University of Adelaide, South Australia. 8th May 2007.

CC1 - Week - NN19 (2)

This week we had a similar task as to last week, except this week we had to change our samples using the program called SoundHack.
I simply took all my exported regions from last week, opened them in SoundHack and applied various effects to them.

I then opened all the samplers in the NN19 in reason, automapped them and was ready to go. This week I did not need to play with the filter and oscillator as much as the sounds were already quite effected. I still did this a little bit anyway though.

My internet is going crazy right now, so I cannot upload my pictures or my sounds. I'm actually not even sure if this will post. If it does, and you are reading this I will try and fix it later tonight.

AA1 - Week 8 - Electric Guitar Recording

This week we were to record electric guitar. This was an important week to me as I will most certainly be recording a guitar for my final project.

The first recording we did was with a Neumann U89 on a slight angle pointing towards the cone set in a cardioid pattern. This recording had a quite bassy sound, and to me sounded sort of 'rocky'. You can listen to it HERE.

Our second recording was with a SM57 pointing straight at the speaker cone. This tends to make the sound less bright but stronger. This sound is more like a distorted metal sound. You can listen to it HERE.

The third recording had a U89 on an angle and a 57 pointing straight at the cone. Both were panned hard left and right respectively. I like this sound the most as it combines the brighter sound of the U89 with the stronger sound of the 57. You can listen to it HERE.

For our fourth recording we decided to do a clean guitar sound. We kept the mic configuration the same as above. I did not really like this sound as much as it was a bit too dynamic, although a tight compression could have resolved this problem. You can listen to it HERE.

The final recording was with a Sennheiser M481. This was definitely my favourite recording, as it sounds dynamic but not too dynamic, and does not accentuate either the bass or the treble too much. You can listen to it HERE.

This was a great week for me, as I have learned the best ways to mic up an electric guitar.

Forum - Week 7 - Gender and Music Technology, Can you tell the difference?

In the last week several people talked about their views on gender and music technology. The discussion got quite heated at times, so I tended to stay out of it for as much as I could. I particularly noted Dougs presentation, as although he had interesting ideas which I tended to agree with, he did not portray them as soundly as he could of, and many people did not agree at all with his views. After the general talkings (without really getting anywhere I might add) about why there arent many girls in the industry (a few people tended to stay away from this all together) Stephen dropped in with the idea of also talking about gender as a more broad term, including sexuality as well. I was also left with the quote in my head from Bjork "Choosing between men and women is like choosing between cake and ice cream." I think I can safely say I will never eat icecream cake the same again.....

CC1 - Week 7 - Sampling

For this week, we had to record a quote using a program called Orrator, create several short samples from it, and then load it into the NN19 sampler in Reason. Once loading it into reason we had to set up the samples so they could be played via MIDI keyboard as a live instrument.

I initially opened Orrator and wrote the quote in using the voice Bahh! After saving the sound file I opened it up in peak, then created several (about 8) short regions, then transported them out as separate wave files. After this I re-opened all the samples and embedded sample data inside, such as their root key and other things such as loop settings.

Next came the part which I had the most trouble with. I spent upwards of an hour trying to find a way to create my own sample bank in the NN19, but eventually gave up. Just when I was about to leave out of frustration, I found that I could delete the samples from the already loaded Acoustic Guitar sample bank. After deleting all these samples, I loaded mine in and automapped them all.

I tested the samples by pressing random buttons on the keyboard and all seemed to be going as planned. I also messed around quite a bit with the different LFO, filter and amp settings to create some weird and crazy sounds. For the first time round recording I had a bit of a practice, pretty much just pressing random keys and messing around with the different settings as I was playing. I would have liked to map the different filter settings onto the keyboard controls, but in the end I was content to simply use my mouse to change them while I was playing.













My result was a really crazy sounding piece, as I often had the LFO cranked. This was a useful exercise, and I can see how it will be quite handy for our major musique concrete piece.

You can listen to my final score HERE.

Christian Haines. “Creative Computing”. Tutorial at EMU, University of Adelaide, South Australia. 26th April 2007.

AA1 - Week 7 - Vox

This week we had to undertake the recording of different vocal techniques. I was originally going to enter into the studio with my friend and get him to do some death metal growls and grunts, but as he had to go away you will have to put up with my dodge punk vox instead.

I booked the studio, went in and set up a mic stand, a pop filter and a Neumann U89i. I decided to record two spoken quotes into the mic, one with the pop filter and one without. I decided to also record to singing parts into the same mic with the pop filter using both the hyper-cartoid and wide-cartoid patterns. The spoken quote was taken from the song Abysmal Depths are Flooded, by Xasthur. You can listen to the song HERE if you wish.

This is the first spoken quote with the pop filter.

This is the second spoken quote without the pop filter.

For the singing part I sang a line out of the song 'Never Sell Out', by The Exploited. Listen to it HERE.

This is the first recording with the U89i in the hyper-cartoid pattern.

This is the second recording with the U89i in the wide-cartoid pattern.

Note that all the recordings done with the U89i were recorded with the pop filter about 2 inches from the mic and my mouth about one inch from the pop filter.

Finally I did one more recording with a Shure SM58, as I figured this type of mic is more fitting with the genre being recorded. You can listen to it HERE.

Once I had recorded all of the parts into Pro Tools (via the avalon) I went through and EQ'd, Compressed and Reverbed them all to my liking.

Overall my favourite spoken recording was the one with the pop filter, and my favourite vocal recording was with the SM58, as the sound is much more consistent, as the mic can be kept close to the face at all times.

Stephen Fieldhouse. “Audio Arts”. Tutorial at EMU, University of Adelaide, South Australia. 24th April 2007.

CC1 - Week 7 - Pro Tools

This week we had to make yet another soundscape using Pro Tools. I can safely say that by now I was becoming slightly sick of the prospect of using our paper sounds to make songs, although the provision of a score made the task more interesting, as I was not placing sounds as randomly as before.











For this scape I used many of the techniques such as time stretching and automation effects. I was also quite keen on using the cutting tool to slice my sounds, but i could not work out how to do this, and the computer I was on lacked a Pro Tools reference guide. For the automation effects I made special use of both mute and pan. I found I came up with some interesting effects when I set the drawing tool to random and then muted a long track.

You can here my sound HERE.

Overall I was quite happy with this track and how it turned out. I am also confident that my skills with 'Tools are increasing, and I am gradually getting the knack of all the different functions.

Christian Haines. “Creative Computing”. Tutorial at EMU, University of Adelaide, South Australia. 5th April 2007.

AA - Week 6 - Acoustic Guitar Recording

This week we had to record an acoustic guitar, which was an exciting prospect as I've always wanted to know how to do this properly.

In the first recording, we had used a Neumann U89i angled up towards the sound hole. I didn't really like this sound as it was a tad bassy (which we could have fixed via roll off function on Avalon if we were using it) and it also sounded to me just a bit average.











You can listen to the recording HERE.

The second recording was with the same microphone, except this time it was pointed straight towards the frets. I didn't particularly like this sound either, to me theres was too much top end now, although there is a higher dynamic range than the first recording.










You can listen to the recording HERE.

For the third recording we once again used the U89i, except this time angled down on the guitar, I found this result sounding too similar to the first, which is not to my liking.










You can listen to the recording HERE.

For the fourth recording we once again used the U89i, except this time as a room mic. This recording once again does not sound very nice at all.










You can listen to the recording HERE.

The final recording was my favourite, and was done with two Neumann KM-84i's in the X-Y position, as you can see by the picture. To me this sound had the best and clearest dynamic range and sound.










You can listen to the sound HERE.

This was a good exercise and I have gained some good knowledge on the best ways to mic up an acoustic guitar. In the future I will most likely utilise the X-Y technique.

Stephen Fieldhouse. “Audio Arts”. Tutorial at EMU, University of Adelaide, South Australia. 3rd April 2007.

CC1 - Week 5 - Sequencing

This week we were shown several more features in Pro Tools, and were once again required to construct a song using our 'paper sounds'. I will admit i left this slightly to the last minute, as I only just started it today. The problem was all the studios were booked, and the PC lab was constantly full of classes. I managed to start my song but got kicked out after 5 minutes. Having not completed my song, I will simply post my score and planned ideas.

Blogger is not uploading images at the moment

For this track I decided to use my new skills in Pro Tools to make a dnb track. For this I started to cut up my original recording to make some new sounds suitable as a kick drum, snare and hat. I am planning on adding a few ambient sections, and also on using spear to make some crazy distorted spectral bass lines. I had a quick squiz at the plugins on Pro Tools, but when in the PC lab it seems extremely limited. I thought i might try and use Logic Pros SubBass plugin, but then I realised I don't know how to find the dongle. Maybe next time.

I will possibly now return in the early hours of the morning to complete my song, as even though it will be to late to gain marks on, I would still like to do it just for the skills involved.

Edit: I have now completed my song in the dnb style. As you can see I used a variety of different plugins, often using EQ or Ampli-Tube. I have run out of words now so you will have to deal with my pictures.

You can listen to my song here.





















Christian Haines. “Creative Computing”. Tutorial at EMU, University of Adelaide, South Australia. 29th March 2007.