CC2 Week 5

A lot more pennies started falling into place with this assignment. For example, a gate was used to link the pitch control with the delay (labelled ‘p delay’) but the switch only outputs 0 or 1. I needed it to output a 1 and a 2 for the gate. The answer: put a + object with 1 as the argument. Doh! It is actually quite simple after things start clicking in the mind.
Part 1 of this assignment is in the object “p keyfilter” and controlled by the menu above that is currently on “no output.” This is a drop down menu that will contain the options ‘no output’, ‘all keys’, ‘white keys’ and ‘black keys.’

patch

Haines, Christian. 2008. “CC2 – Introduction to Max.” Seminar presented at the University of Adelaide, 20th March.

1990-2005 Cycling 74/IRCAM

AA2 week 5 Brass

I took my son in the studio and recording him playing his saxaphone. I got him to play it while walking around so I could hear it in different places. I decided to go with an omni mic as he moved around a bit while playing. This reveals a lot of room sound but that is cool.

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with U87

with 414

Grice, David. 2008. “AA54 – Recording Brass.” Seminar presented at the University of Adelaide. 1st April.

Forum Week 4 - Student Presentations 2

I rambled through another Forum gathering in one piece. I just need to stay on topic and not jump around too much in explanations. Ben Probert’s Granular Synthesis plugin was very cool. It was actually intimidating to think that is what is expected from us this year.

It was also refreshing to hear someones honest opinion on commercial music. Matthew's ambition to make money from his music should be encouraged. If anyone says they do not want to make money from their music, then they are a liar. Full stop. On a side note, I have noticed that commercial music seems to be a taboo subject at university. In the conservatorium there seems to be only two styles of music that has ever existed: classical and jazz. What's worse it is often white jazz that gets all the appreciation, but that is another story. On a side side note, I congratulate Mark Carrol for his attempt at educating 'the elite' after I commented about this observation to him with a lecture on the Blues, slavery and early black Jazz artists late last year that he presented. This went down like a lead balloon with various negative comments about the Blues floating about after class. So it seems at university, at least from a majority of students, there is not only two styles of music, but unfortunately there is still two types of music: elitist and non-elitist. This is madness as music of the present is directly influenced by music of the past. For a history in Jazz module there was a hell of a lot of history being left out. So again, I congratulate Matthew for being honest in a learning environment that is critical of people that have commercial success and wish him well with his music. He looked uncomfortable when the question was asked of him whether he wanted commercial success but I say damn the critics and he should do what he loves. If they want to criticise you Matthew for having success, then they are only jealous of it. All music, although it does not necessarily have to be liked from a personal taste, should at least be appreciated and respected for what it is whether it makes money or not.

Whittington, Steven. 2008. “Forum – Student presentations 2.” Seminar presented at the University of Adelaide, 27th March.

CC2 Week 4

The first thing that kept confusing me was the Modulation object. I kept thinking of it as an AM/FM modulator and kept applying that logic but eventually realised that the second slider was only a different way of showing the level not a modulator. I played around with the && and == and have a general understanding of it, but since I don’t really see how it can be applied I am still a little lost with it. I am just happy that I have an understanding of the basic objects now.

patch

Haines, Christian. 2008. “CC2 – Introduction to Max.” Seminar presented at the University of Adelaide, 27th March.

1990-2005 Cycling 74/IRCAM

AA2 Week 4 - Percussion

Yes, I used Studio 1 this week. Yes, I found out the sequence to put the console into Vegas mode (which annoyed Edward as each time he’d turn around he would see the desk blinking away like a Christmas Tree). Meh, what can I say. Boys and their toys. Anyway, we got Vinny to come in and play some percussion instruments ranging from bells and shakers to gongs. We set the instruments up in a kind of tree hanging them off a stand. A pair of Neumann’s (U87 and U89) were set up as an MS pair about 3ft away and pointing slightly down. A pair of RODE NT5’s were also set up as a spaced pair about 5ft apart and placed overhead. After some fine adjustments placing the mics we hit record. The spaced pair at first seemed too spacious. Bringing the mics closer together made the stereo field more stable.

MS
Spaced Pair

Next I suggested we use a spaced pair setup at waist height so Vinny could walk around, behind and in between them while playing an instrument. This was an experiment in creating a 3D atmosphere. After reading about HAAS and Inter Aural Time delays I expected to get a sense of actually hearing someone walk behind you with this technique while wearing headphones. Of course the 3D effect doesn’t work in stereo monitors although it is still a good stereo technique. Instead of panning a sound after it is recorded, simply place it in a stereo field to begin with.

Walking around

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Grice, David. 2008. “AA4 – Recording Percussion.” Seminar presented at the University of Adelaide 25th March.

Forum Week 3 - Student Presentations 1

Since I missed forum I don’t really know what to say. After reading other student blogs it seems it was more of the same. Presentations from last years work seems to be the norm. It is good seeing the previous years work from previous years students and gives an insight into what is in store for us. From that standpoint it is a shame I missed it.

Whittington, Steven. 2008. “Forum – Student presentations 1.” Seminar presented at the University of Adelaide, 20th March.

CC2 Week 3 - Program Structuring

I think I am getting there. I had issues with the ubumenu though. I kept thinking “where does the info go?” but Seb told me to think of it as meta data. Meta data that is simply telling the patch which setting to use. There is no MIDI data going through it. This was a confusing issue for me as I look at all the connections as signal flow. The modulo is very straight forward as explained by Christian. The octave range is too very simple. It is just the note number divided by twelve but with the remainder ignored. By using ‘select’ from a previous tutorial I could use the remainder to choose the note name. Instead of having a whole bunch of cords and boxes everywhere, Seb told me about ‘prepend.’ Prepend adds to the front whatever it’s argument is so one can set what is displayed in a message box. I think I am getting there.
I also found the ‘build collective/application/plugin” option so I figured I’d see what happens. It didn't work out of interest.

Patch updated with all functions from the readings.

Haines, Christian. 2008. “CC2 – Introduction to Max.” Seminar presented at the University of Adelaide, 20th March.

1990-2005 Cycling 74/IRCAM