Week 8

In Audio Arts this week we spent most of our time learning about microphones and microphone techniques. [1] A lot of what we went through was stuff I have already learnt in my SAE course but it was good to hear it from a different perspective. We recorded an acoustic guitar in the dead room through to Studio 2 and into Pro Tools. The placement of the mic made a big difference to the recorded sound. I did feel the strings of the guitar were quite old as the sound was really dull and lacked warmth. I look forward to when we look at psychoacoustics in relation to microphone techniques. [2]

In Creative Computing we spent more time on Pro Tools. Again, this wasn’t anything new from last week as I am familiar with Pro Tools. It would be really good if you could save session files of Pro Tools as different version to make compatibility easier. I’m not sure if Pro Tools does this, I will have to check, but it would be good if you could save a Version 7 session file as a Version 6.4 so that we can swap between the Audio Lab and Studios 1 & 2 for example. We looked at short cuts, solo, mute, and polyphony. We also looked at automation both in drawing in non-real time and also writing data in real-time. All the automation modes, and automation in general, is something I have used a lot. I think that drawing automation is really the only efficient way to write automation data unless you are using a control surface.[3] One new feature which I thought was really useful was the [apple] + [option] + click, which sets the inputs for tracks 1-16. This would have saved me a lot of time in the past and I will definitely use that shortcut now. We finished briefly on plugin as inserts. Pro Tools has some useful plugins but in my experience the Waves Plugins are the best for Pro Tools. Logic Pro’s plugins are years ahead of Pro Tools also. [4]

In Forum we listened to some good music for a change. We listened to Led Zeppelin ‘Whole Lotta Love’, Pink Floyd ‘Bikes’, Pink Floyd ‘Breathe’, and Frank Zappa ‘Mr. Green Genes’. The last song was ‘Voile d’Orphae’. This song was weird but I actually didn’t mind it. One question that came to mind was “Why did I like these songs more?” Some still sounded weird and different but I wonder if my opinion changed purely because I have heard of the bands and appreciated them prior to the lecture. [5]

In the second hour of Forum we had two honors students speak to us about projects that they were undertaking for their thesis. They were Tim Swalling and Jasmine Ward. To be perfectly honest I didn’t really understand either of the projects.

I don’t know how their objectives related to music technology at all. Tim’s presentation was on artificial life with the relation to the creation of music. The talk was very technical and beyond my understanding of what music is meant to be. He talked about biological systems, genetic algorithms, cellular automata, and how to create an environment in which sound creation creates organisms to occupy the space. I had no idea. [6]

Jasmine’s talk was about industrial waste in Adelaide. This was also confusing to me because I didn’t see how this related to music either. I thought her objectives and views about this problem were interesting and valid but I was lost as to how this could be a topic for music technology. [7]




[1] Microphone. ‘Microphone’, Wikipedia. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4f/Oktava319.jpg/128px-Oktava319.jpg (Accessed 08/05/2006)

[2] Christian Haines. "Audio Arts Lecture - Studio 2, Dead Room, EMU Space". Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, 2nd May 2006.

[3] Plug-in Info. ‘D-Verb’, Digidesign. http://akmedia.digidesign.com/products/images/prd_enl_1039_8365.jpg (Accessed 08/05/2006).

[4] Christian Haines. "Creative Computing Lecture - Audio Lab". Lecture presented at the Audio Lab, University of Adelaide, 4th May 2006.

[5] David Harris. "Music Technology Forum Lecture - EMU Space". Lecture presented in the EMU Space, Electroninc Music Unit, University of Adelaide, 4th May 2006.

[6] Tim Swalling. 'Music Technology Forum Lecture - EMU Space'. Lecture presented in the EMU Space, Electroninc Music Unit, University of Adelaide, 4th May 2006.

[7] Jasmine Ward. 'Music Technology Forum Lecture - EMU Space'. Lecture presented in the EMU Space, Electroninc Music Unit, University of Adelaide, 4th May 2006.