Week 5 Forum - More Collaborations

Our presenters this week were Luke Digance, Daniel Murtagh, Darren Slynn and Alfred Essemyr.

Luke's presentation was on the idea of collaborating music and dance. The choreographer he was talking about was Merce Cunningham. The collaboration also consisted of Sigur ros and Radiohead. It was hard to visualise how this would work because Luke wasn't able to get some audio. Still the idea was interesting. [1]
[2]
[3] Ouch!
[4] Merce doing his morning stretch.


Daniel’s presentation was on Mike Patton. I am not familiar with Patton’s music but it sounds like he has collaborated with a ton of musicians and bands. From the samples that Daniel played, it showed the versatility of Patton. Patton has performed music ranging from metal to opera. That was the most impressive part of his music to me. [5] [6]
[7]


Darren Slynn was next to present. He chose the collaboration of Steely Dan, Frank Zappa and Weather Report. I had never heard of The Weather Report. They are a Jazz Fusion band from the 70s. I thought the idea of these artists collaborating was interesting and seeing as I like jazz this kind of music would be something I would want to look at. [8]
[9]

[10] THE WEATHERMAN! ! !

(this came up in google images)

Finally Alfred presented us with an idea on DJ collaborating. I don’t fully understand how what he presented was strictly collaboration. Then again, I don’t really mind because it was interesting. Being an avid lover of the dance music scene it was great to hear some drum ‘n’ bass. I think Alfred was saying that by DJs mixing other DJs music and perhaps combining different sub-genres of dance music that was a collaboration. I hadn’t really thought of DJing this way and really it could quite well be a collaboration.

He also mentioned the possibility of music being downloaded off the Internet and artists using that music in their own (i.e. ripping off samples). I suppose this is a collaboration and a lot of DJs do this. So, it could be considered a compositional collaboration. The only problem, is that in most cases the artists ripping off the sample doesn’t want anyone to know so he/she doesn’t get done for copyright.

Alfred said that a DJ may copy just a snare hit or anything small. I am about 99% sure (if I am wrong please correct me) that legally you cannot copy anything at all. A one second sample may not be noticeable but it is still illegal. The law is nothing can be copied. . . I think [11]

[12] Armin van Buuren, one of my heros. . .


[1] Luke Digance.
'Music Technology Forum Collaboration Presentation - EMU Space'.
Lecture presented in the EMU Space, Electronic Music Unit, University
of Adelaide, 29th March 2007

[2] 'Theatre Archives at MSU'. Department of Theatre. http://theatre.msu.edu/images/ta/Cunningham_Merce-001.jpg (Accessed 30/3/7)

[3] 'Merce Cunningham - Legendary 20th
Century Choreographer'. Scottish Arts Council.
http://www.scottisharts.org.uk/1/artsinscotland/dance/projects/archive/curve.aspx
(Accessed 30/3/7)

[4] 'Clarice Smith Center'. Gallery.
http://www.claricesmithcenter.umd.edu/gallery/images/full/Merce%20Cunningham-couple.jpg
(Accessed 30/3/7)

[5] Daniel Murtagh. 'Music Technology Forum
Collaboration Presentation - EMU Space'. Lecture presented in the EMU
Space, Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, 29th March 2007

[6] 'Mike Patton'. Brooklyn Vegan. http://www.brooklynvegan.com/img/music/faithnomore.jpg (Accessed 30/3/7)

[7] 'vege.fu'. Morblog. http://morblog.morloi.org/wp-content/patton.jpg (Accesssed 30/3/7)

[8] Darren Slynn.
'Music Technology Forum Collaboration Presentation - EMU Space'.
Lecture presented in the EMU Space, Electronic Music Unit, University
of Adelaide, 29th March 2007

[9] 'Weather Report'. Weather Report. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_Report (Accessed 30/3/7)

[10] 'Weather Report'. Jojo X Series. http://www.jojoxserie.net/pics/illustrazioni/weather_report.jpg (Accessed 30/3/7)

[11] Alfred Essemyr.
'Music Technology Forum Collaboration Presentation - EMU Space'.
Lecture presented in the EMU Space, Electronic Music Unit, University
of Adelaide, 29th March 2007

[12] 'Labyrinth'. Damicon. http://www.damicon.fi/fri/photo/labyrinth-2001/dj-armin-van-buuren-2.JPG (Accessed 30/3/7)

AA2 Week 5 - Wind Instruments

This week our task was to record a wind instrument. I decided to record a flute. Not because we went through it in class, but because I had easy access to a flautist which was my sister.

When I was setting up the microphones, I had to continually adjust the positions since my flautist kept moving around. This was expected, but since I wasn't recording someone I hardly knew I was able to say "KEEP STILL!"

I used two Neumann U87 microphones, set to cardioid, to compensate for the movement. One was on top of the other with the top one upside-down. I have a picture below. I was going to suggest this set up in class, but there really isn't time in our lecture. I found that, because they were aligned, there weren't any phasing issues. I don't think there are but if you hear differently let me know!

I also placed a Neumann KM 84i in a similar position that Ben had suggested in our class. I found that in this position you minimised the sound of the keys and allowed for the body of the flute sound to be recorded well. I could still hear breathing but I don't think that can ever be entirely avoided.

Finally there was a room microphone, which again was another Neumann U87. As you've probably guessed I loved these microphones (as well as the Rodes NTV). I would have tried the Rhodes microphone but I was pressed for time. Also, it’s so annoying to set up. Still, its great sound makes up for that.

During our Audio Arts class this week, I asked David if you would ever compress a flute recording to tape. David said no, but I wanted to try it anyway to see how it sounds. I recorded the same song with compression and without compression. I think the uncompressed version sounds a lot better. So he was right. The problem with the flute is that some notes do jump out more than others and I felt compression would help to fix that problem. Instead the dynamics of the recording deteriorated. Therefore I don’t really know what you can do to fix the problem other than to record a flautist that can control their breaths. [1]

I have some pictures, screen-shots and samples below for you to look at.


Screenshots



No Compression






With Compression


Flute Playing






Mixer Window


Recordings

Preparation before I hit record [660KB]

Flute with compression [3.1MB]

Flute with no compresssion [2.6MB]

The Goat Song [5MB]


These are a couple of annoying error messages I encountered while recording. Pro Tools was having some anxiety attacks that day!




[1] David Grice. 'Audio Arts Lecture - EMU Space'. Lecture presented in the EMU Space, Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, 27th March 2007.