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