Week 10

This week in Audio Arts our focus was on vocal recording. Unfortunately we did not get to do any actual recording, as our vocalist could not make it. Maybe I should have gone in the dead room and belted out some tunes myself.We went through all the theory related to recording vocals. I have recorded vocals before but my vocalist was a professional (a jazz singer in the Elder Conservatorium) and so it was actually quite easy. Also I only recorded about 20 seconds. In my experience, the ease of the recording session is highly dependant on the vocalist’s skills. If they know how to control their voice well and if they are experienced with microphones, then it should not be too hard. The difficulty arises when you are recording inexperienced musicians in general.

[1]
There are still lots of other factors, which we discussed. These included: spill, proximity effect, the distance from the mic and the performers’ experience. We talked about recording vocals with the band compared to recording overdubs, and also the types of microphones used. Usually a condenser mic would be used to record vocals, but I suppose you could experiment with any microphone to get different sounds. I don’t know if I will have to time to experiment for my assignments but I wouldn’t mind trying out a range of microphones to compare the different sounds at some point. [2]

We didn’t have a class for Creative Computing this week. The notes for this week were on Pro Tools. The main focus was on effects (inserts & sends), automation, regions and selections, mixing and mixdown. I think Pro Tools has a really user-friendly interface when it comes to applying these concepts. The automation is really easy to use and the different tools allows for some creative output (like the triangle, square, random line). The only problem is when you are using a plug-in with a large amount of controls; I find it hard to find the exact parameter you want to automate. [3]

In forum this week we listened to three pieces. Mr Bungle, Stockhausen and My Bloody Valentine. The piece by Mr Bungle (1991) had two parts: 1. Love is a Fist and 2. Dead Goon. Both these songs had a strange variation in mood changes. The song would play and build up to a point and then I felt a sudden change put the listener into another frame of mind. It was good in a way but it wouldn’t be good to listen to if you wanted to relax.

The piece by Stockhausen was called Hymen. This was made up of radio sounds combined with vocal samples.
[4] This piece could be considered music concrete. I didn’t like it much at all.

The piece by My Bloody Valentine was called To Here Knows When. I liked this piece because it had a nice melodic sound to it. The vocals were lost in the mix and way too soft but because it was so obvious I assume the artist did that on purpose. Towards the end, there were some nice pad chord sounds. [5]

Our guest speaker this week came to talk to us about copyright. This session was quite interesting and answered some questions of mine which I did not know prior.

[1] Hosa Tech, ‘Microphones’. http://www.hosatech.com/hosa/images/image_cmk_in_microphone.gif (Accessed 22/05/2006)

[2] Christian Haines. "Audio Arts Lecture - EMU Space". Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, 16th May 2006.

[3] Digidesign. 2005. “Pro Tools Reference Guide”. Daly City CA

[4] ‘Karlheinz Stockhausen’ Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karlheinz_Stockhausen (Accessed 22/05/2006)

[5] David Harris. "Music Technology Forum Lecture - EMU Space". Lecture presented in the EMU Space, Electroninc Music Unit, University of Adelaide, 18th May 2006.

[6] Robert Chalmers. 'Music Technology Forum Lecture on “Copyright” - EMU Space'. Lecture presented in the EMU Space, Electroninc Music Unit, University of Adelaide, 18th May 2006.