Week 13

In Audio Arts this week Christian went through mixing in more detail to prepare us for the final assignments. This was useful even though I have been showed how to mix before. Mixing is really hard and it is good to hear techniques from different perspectives. [1]

In Creative Computing we talked about sound and techniques in Pro Tools. Christian went through side-chaining. This is when a plugin or effect is triggered by another track. I haven’t actually done this before but I know that it can be very useful in triggering off effects.
[2] For electronic music, which is primarily what I produce, it would be useful to have a low frequency triggering off at each kick drum. This would add that pumping feeling that people enjoy in nightclubs. [3]

In Forum we listened to 5 songs. The first was Steve Reich’s Electric Counterpoint. I actually really liked this piece a lot.
[4] It was a simple piece but very effective. I thought it was nice to the scenes, if that makes sense. The guitarist for this piece was Pat Methany.

The second piece was Tristram Carey’s Soft Walls (1980). This piece was very synthesised and I would consider it as sound design. [5] It sounded ok but not much of a composition. I could hear some LFOs controlling pitch, filters and resonance. The instrument used was the synclavier.

The third piece was Pink Floyd’s Interstellar Overdrive (1966). This piece was very strange sounding and not like many of the Pink Floyd songs I’ve heard before (except in forum of course). The main sound was the guitar, and in fact I could hear many guitars. There were drums but no vocals. The structure of the piece was unusual and I could hear a lot of chromaticism. The key of the piece was very hard to pick and the cadences were different too. Overall this piece was ok.

The fourth piece was Steve Reich’s Different Trains (1988). This piece had a very nice sound to it. It was progressive, which I like in music. There were some nice violin sounds, with a build up of some nice background bass. This piece had an anticipation element to it, which was great.

The fifth piece was Tristram Carey’s Steam Music (1978). This piece consisted of train sounds, steam and thunder. It had an ambient sounding ending which was interesting. I liked the position of the sounds. [6]


[1] Christian Haines. "Audio Arts Lecture - Studio 2, Dead Room, EMU Space". Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, 6th June 2006.

[2] Pro Tools screen shot, Audio Lab, University of Adelaide, 11th May 2006. http://www3.hddweb.com/69631/Pro_Tools_screenshot.jpg

[3] Christian Haines. "Creative Computing Lecture - Audio Lab". Lecture presented at the Audio Lab, University of Adelaide, 8th June 2006.

[4] ‘Steve Reich’, Wikipedia. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6a/Steve_reich.jpg (Accessed 20th August 2006)

[5] ‘Interstellar Overdrive;, Wikipedia. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f3/PinkFloyd-album-piperatthegatesofdawn.jpg/200px-PinkFloyd-album-piperatthegatesofdawn.jpg (Accessed 20th August 2006)

[6] David Harris. 'Music Technology Forum Presentation - EMU Space'. Lecture presented in the EMU Space, Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, 8th June 2006.