sideband art

This has nothing to do with any assignments perse but I just had to blog these pics after discovering the sonogram object. I came up with these psychadelic sideband artpieces that are quite Dr. Who'ish.

CC2 Week 4

I don't know if this is any good. It may be too simple. I think I understand the concept, but I am not confident. Making the patch seems difficult but I seem to be able to see how to modify it after the fact. What I was thinking of doing was adding an audio in and split it into the poly to create a reverb. I assume delays could be set between each function window, say 5 ms, to determine space. This could also be manually adjusted with a single knob connected to a series of multipliers between each function essentially making a logarithmic decay. I would assume there would need to be at least 500 function windows at least to make this work half decently. One thing I could not do was bang a list directly into the function to act as presets.

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MSP file

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Haines, Christian. 2008. “CC2 – Creative Computing Semester 2.” Seminars presented at the University of Adelaide.

1990-2005 Cycling 74/IRCAM

Forum Week 4

After searching around the best source seemed to be at www.rasas.info as none of the sources related to sound itself. It was all about spiritualism, cult movements or yoga.

Hasya appears to be about laughter but separated from forced laughter that simply becomes sarcastic. An inner joy that cannot be self created such as a direct connection with God.

Adbhuta -“The key to wonder is to remain open-minded toward the miracle of life, which can be experienced in everything.”[1] Very cryptic as most of these spiritual cult leaders are.

Veera explains that apparently the desire for freedom and independence is an illusion as everything and everyone is interdependent. Eh? More religious phylosophical gobbledeegoop.

Loneliness in general is the main cause of karuna.

What has this got to do with sound? Nothing as far as I can tell so I will have to make my own interpretations of this as will everyone else. A copy of the Natya Shastra would be handy.

Whittington, Steven. 2008. “Forum. Composition Workshop” Seminar presented at the University of Adelaide, 21st August.

Harris, David. 2008. “Forum. Composition Workshop” Seminar presented at the University of Adelaide, 21st August.

[1] “9 Rasas: The Yoga of Nine Emotions” www.rasas.info. Accessed 25th August 2008. http://www.rasas.info/wonder_mystery_curiosity_ashtonishment_adbhuta_adbhut_rasa.htm

“Rasa (aesthetics)” Wikimedia Foundation Inc. Accessed 25th August 2008
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navarasa

“Natya Shastra” Wikimedia Foundation Inc. Accessed 25th August 2008. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natya_Shastra_of_Bharata

AA2 Game Sound week 4 Game Engine Overview

Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars

Game engine: SAGE (Strategy Action Game Engine) highly modified
Electronic Arts, June 14 2001.

Audio Engine: PATHFINDER is a proprietory audio engine of EA although I could not find evidence if it is used on C&C3 or not.

After hours of searching this is as much as I could find on this game for this weeks exercise. I am not sure why we are doing this anyway as a company would surely give this information in a brief. I believe we need to know how to do the work and the delivery requirement of the assets should be spelled out by the game developers. The capabilities and limitations of a particular audio engine is something that should be addressed right at the start by the sound designers. It is no different than us learning to record a band but ignoring the fact 192k SR will not work on CD or the recording was supposed to be done on vinyl. We need to know the final medium as early on as possible and not start Googling or looking in the library to find out what type of engine an employing company will use for any given game. Either way, I would be pretty confident that a company would state what the engine is in a brief so the sound designers can work within the particular parameters and requirements needed for the game.

“SAGE Engine” Wikipedia. Accessed 24th August 2008. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAGE_engine

“SAGE” Mod DB. Accessed 24th August 2008. http://www.moddb.com/engines/sage-strategy-action-game-engine

Haines, Christian. 2008. “AA2 – Game Audio Analysis.” Seminars presented at the University of Adelaide.

“Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars” EA games, 2007.

AA2 Game Sound week 3 – Process and Planning

Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars
Electronic Arts, 2007

Without a direct audio folder to open, I could not examine the files directly. DirectX is used so I assume they are wave files. I am not sure of the meta data or file names the designers used so I applied my own based on obvious choices. It is probably not 44.1 audio either. Spoken dialogue is a large component of this game. There are many character classes. The main class is not an in game character but an emotionless voice (male or female depending on faction chosen: NOD or GDI) from the command centre telling the player certain things have been done or are being done. Each vehicle, soldier and device has its own characteristic sounds or dialogue. The ‘driver’ of a vehicle speaks different dialogue when commanded around the battlefield. I noticed in the “Almost too quiet”[1] article there is a column named ‘chance.’ I assume this is to show the programmers how often this sound is to be triggered as to which parameters are in effect in the game at that particular moment in time. The GDI faction has been chosen for this analysis.

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Assets list

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[1] Lampert, Mark. 2006, IT’S QUIET … ALMOST TOO QUIET, Bethesda Softworks, 2006,

"Chapter 2 - Sound Database". Childs, G. W. 2006, Creating Music and Sound for
Games, Thomson Course Technology.

Haines, Christian. 2008. “AA2 – Game Audio Analysis.” Seminars presented at the University of Adelaide.

“Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars” EA games, 2007.

CC2 Week 3 Polyphony and Instancing

Basically it appears that any mono audio signal path can be easily made polyphonic by inserting the poly~ object into the signal path. Now I understand what Christian meant when he referenced a reverb effect. One can create the initial algorithm and then use poly~ to easily create all the instances of delay. I am unsure why “args” now has to be placed in the object to identify my second argument (being the division of the voice numbers to prevent overloading) as anyone that uses the object has to know to put that in to make it work, but I guess that is the way it has to be.

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MSP Files

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Haines, Christian. 2008. “CC2 – Creative Computing Semester 2.” Seminars presented at the University of Adelaide.

1990-2005 Cycling 74/IRCAM

Grosse, Darwin. 2006, The Poly Papers (part 1), 2007, http://www.cycling74.com/story/2005/5/3/135756/4001

Forum Week 3

It seems that the double booking or lack of booking has overshadowed this weeks forum somewhat. I’m not so disapointed with the booking hiccup, what annoys me is the unfortunate disruption of chatter that occured by the classical students. Did they think they were walking into the canteen? The kick in the teeth continued when a lecturer even interupted proceedings by barking instructions over a students presentation. Of course we, and even Stephen, litererally had to grin and bear it. Anyway, as much as everyone loves to hear my opinions on such matters we’ll move along. Josh’s work on the animated film Toothbrush Moustache was a highlight for me. It was very well mixed and completely added to the vision. The other piece, and sorry I don’t know his name, was the last one where I think a soccer table game was recorded. The stereo track was separated and one side moved along. This is truly in the essence of musique concrete. Time and time again it seems out of necessity we hear editing, cutting pasting and effects added to create the finished track. The editing tends to guide the finished track too much and this kind of approach is no different really than editing a ‘normal’ song. Simply misaligning one side of a stereo track creates the unexpected sonic surprises and quirkiness of musique concrete without actually being heavily digitally edited. Brilliantly simple. I wish I’d thought of it for my project last year.

Whittington, Steven. 2008. “Forum: 1st Year Presentations” Seminar presented at the University of Adelaide, 14th August.

CC2 Week 2 Signal Switching & Routing

I was not entirely sure on what to do with the phasor and cycle objects, so I just experimented a bit. I ended up with a cheesy, but very cool, old school science fiction sound generator. At the risk of losing marks, I did include a pic of a UFO for the nostalgia effect. I do believe this is a relevant choice however. I also made the patch completely stand alone with the dac included, which again I was unsure about. It would be quite simple to alter it later if need be. In hindsight, it would probably have been simpler and more convenient if I had only made a mono fader for now instead of trying to get fancy with a pair of stereo linked faders.
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MSP files
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Haines, Christian. 2008. “CC2 – Creative Computing Semester 2.” Seminars presented at the University of Adelaide.

1990-2005 Cycling 74/IRCAM

Forum Week 2

Program notes: The for and against.

As stated in my earlier blog, the composer often invites the recollection of memories and imagery to influence our mindset for the enjoyment of a piece. Often such a piece is ambiguous with its lyrics or has none at all thus allowing the listener to interpret the story their own way. Sometimes the composer would prefer the program notes be a ‘guide’ to the setting and influence the memories recalled so as to directly place them inside that particular environment. This is often true where the composer has a distinct story to tell and would prefer the listener directly understand the composers meaning of the song. The composers story is told and understood, but at the same time memory recall is still in effect, but now the memories are guided and placed into the composers environment.

This was particularly true for me while listening to David Harris’ composition “Terra Rapta.” Memories of my visit to the Pitjantjatjara lands back in 2005 came back to me. For example, Section I reminded me of a thunderstorm that came rolling through the area, which in turn reminded me of the good humour and joking of the situation in the camp. Section L and Section Q reminded me of bird sounds, which in turn reminded me of wandering around a huge dry river bed with a condenser recording gallahs on my tape recorder. The whole song placed me back in the Pitjantjatjara lands, an environment where my mind could make a connection of what Australia used to be like. A memory of a thunderstorm rolling over me or a recording of bird sounds could be recalled from anywhere, but these particular memories from Fregon and Ernabella were directly recalled by influence of David Harris’ program notes, thus he was directly influencing my memory recall while I listened to the piece.

Harris, David. 2008. “Forum: My favourite things” Seminar presented at the University of Adelaide, 7th August.

AA2 Game Sound week 2 - Game Audio Analysis

TOMB RAIDER
Core Design 1996
Sony Playstation

Analysis of game in sequence.

SFX
Two differently pitched footstep sounds randomly alternating when walking. Always the same no matter the surface. Landing from a jump has a deeper sound, similar to dropping a large coat. Animal noises use volume changes to give a sense of distance. Levers sliding and doors opening use a grinding sound although utilising different pitches for each.

MUSIC
There are two distinct soundtracks. One comprised of ambient sounds using wind, synth tones, a reverberant gong and percussive noises creating an atmosphere of space and emptiness.
When opening a door or entering a secret area, brief string music starts giving the signal one is on the right track. Orchestrated music also starts when in danger or nearing the end of the level. These are the only times music is used. All other times the spacious, ambient track is used.

VO
Lara makes different grunting noises when hurt, climbing or jumping, although not made every time she jumps. There is also a vo of “aha” when she finds a secret area or item.

What was significant about 1993 in regards to video games? The arrival of the First Person Shooter and the dawn of multiplayer on-line gaming: Doom.

MP3

Haines, Christian. 2008. “AA2 – Game Audio Analysis.” Seminars presented at the University of Adelaide.

“Tomb Raider Lvl 1.” You Tube. Accessed 8th August, 2008. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-cr_1UlW10&feature=related

“DOOM” You Tube. Accessed 6th August, 2008. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yr-lQZzevwA

Forum Sem2 Week 1

The 'art' of listening. Is the listener the artist? Does the listener become the canvas, the final masterpiece, and musicians are merely the paintbrush? So who then is really creating the art?

Is the listener, based on their own life experiences, translating what they hear into something completely different than the artist intended? Is this form of subconscious reconstruction of elements similar if not the same as an artist making a piece of work from various sources to create something new? Is this then not art?

Musical genres that come across as ‘loud’ seem to suggest the musician does not want the song to be misinterpreted or retranslated, not only leaving the ear fatigued from volume bombardment, but leaves no room for the listeners mind to wander thus preventing memories gained from other senses to impair the musicians message. It would then appear that more ‘softer’ music allows, perhaps even invites, the listener to utilise other memories collected from the other senses. The listeners mind can then add the final pieces of the work to create the final masterpiece.

If the listener is the art, why then would so many musicians ignore this final element?

Whittington, Steven. 2008. “Forum: Listening” Seminar presented at the University of Adelaide, 31st August.

“Types of Listening” AIR University. Accessed 1st August 2008. http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/kline-listen/b10ch4.htm

“Attentitive and Critical Listening: Description.” 1999, Strategic Communication. Accessed 1st August 2008. http://www.chass.ncsu.edu/ccstm/SCMH/morelisten.html

CC2 week 1 Introduction to MSP

I had problems understanding the “volume changer” part of the assignment. I was still in the mindset that if a sample rate is faster than control rate, then the control rate should not be an issue as it can’t keep up. It dawned on me later that my thinking on this was back to front. The control rate is indeed too slow to keep up with the sample rate therefore we must alter the audio wave to compensate. I was also thinking the ramp time for volume changes would be constant, ie it should ‘duck to zero’ whether I make an adjustment from 45 to 46 or 2 to 96. Once I realised that the ramp was only noticable over large volume changes and could only work like this anyway due to smaller steps being too subtle did I feel comfortable with my understanding of the task.
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MSP files

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Haines, Christian. 2008. “CC2 – Creative Computing Semester 2.” Seminars presented at the University of Adelaide.

1990-2005 Cycling 74/IRCAM