aa - week 6 - accoustic guitar recording

I went into the studio with Sanad (Khaled Sanadzadeh) and Alfred Essemyr to try out a few different microphone techniques on this weeks assignment, recording some accoustic guitar. [1]

We recorded everything with two microphones at once. Generally attempting a stereo sound, but some techniques were more about layering of the mics to give a more interesting sound.

We recorded 6 different sounds, myself playing the guitar (attempting to play similiar for comparison - but I did get distracted once).

Above is a picture of the mixing section after I went through and mixed each sound. Each take has been grouped to help differentiate (different colour buttons on each channel).

I used no EQ in production but think that it would have helped each sound to be more useable.

Unfortunately we have no photo's of the microphone arrangements so I'll explain each one.


The first technique was an X-Y stereo technique using two Neumann KM84's (track 1+2). One pointing at the top 3 strings, the other at the bottom 3 strings, about 15cm from the end of the fretboard near sound hole. Each hard panned opposite.
01_neumann_km84_xy_stereo.mp3



Second we used an AKG c414 (omnidirectional)(track 3) and a Neumann U87 (figure 8)(track 4) to create an M-S stereo pattern. Both placed again at the end of the fretboard about 30cm out. The U87 was copied onto another track (track 5), the copy phase inverted and then each hard panned.
02_akg_neumann_ms_stereo.mp3



Third was the Rode NT4 stereo microphone (track 6+7), postioned similiar to the first technique.
03_rode_nt4_stereo.mp3



Fourth was a technique sugged by Sanad, using the two KM84's (track 8+9) pointed at the front near the bridge (about 15cm out) and behind the guitar (didn't notice how far out this one was because i was looking the other way) pointed at roughly the same point (but through the body). I inverted one of the signals, softpanned each and just gave a bit of the rear signal, still very warm.
04_km84_front_and_back.mp3

The rear microphone picked up a surprising amount of attack.
http://www.hddweb.com/90573/04_back.mp3



Fifth using the two KM84's (track 10+11), one at the bridge and one at the end of the fretboard near the soundhole, both about 15cm out. Hard panned.
05_km84_end_of_neck_and_bridge.mp3



Sixth was similiar to the fifth (track 12+13) but one of the mics was shifted up to the nut. This one I used much more signal from the nut microphone.
06_km84_bridge_and_nut.mp3




[1] Fieldhouse, Steve. Recording an accoustic guitar. University of Adelaide, 3 april 2007.

f - week 5 - collaborations 2

This week another 4 presentations on the theme of collaborations [1].

1st up given by Luke Digance on the collaboration between choreographer Merce Cunningham and pop bands Sigur Rós & Radiohead.

Lots of nice slides.

Having composed a number of dance pieces I found this slightly interesting - the best part was that the dancers wore different coloured costumes for the seperate sections. I did some extra reading on this, and apparently there was a fair amount of chance in the actual performance, which piece went where, which band performed with which dancers.


2nd, Daniel Murtagh gave a brief on Mike Patton and his innumerable collaborations.

Having enjoyed the first Mr Bungle LP (mainly for the John Zorn aspect), this had some historical interest for me.

Apparently once a work is completed, Mr Patton shelves it and never listens to it again. Makes me wonder if that's why a lot of his work sounds the same.


3rd, Darren Slynn, was an ongoing exploration of collaborators, and there perhaps reason for being such was necessity - how else can you be band without getting someone else to join ?

What first piqued my interest was the sound effects guy from "Hey Hey its Saturday" (Murray ?). Mainly of interest because I have fond memories of Winky Dink - probably before Murray was involved.

Going through Frank Zappa, the Weather Report and I think ending up with Steely Dan. The whirlwind tour may have made some more stops on the way but these were the ones I remembered.


4th up was given by Alfred Essemyr, similiar theme to the 3rd with the idea of collaborations through necessity, but in this case not necessarily known or planned.

The DJ as a collaborator with a musical artist. One records the music, one plays the music. This reminds me of a Sesame Street skit [1]on co-operation highlightling the potentials in sharing efforts.

So once a track is released, anyone can collaborate with the initial artist. I myself have "collaborated" unofficially with John Farnham, Craig David, Milli Vanilli, Slayer, JS Bach, Richard Wagner, Bela Bartok.......oh, and John Cage :)




[1] Collaborations 2, Music Technology Forum. University of Adelaide, 29 March 2007.

[2] Two muppets, one with short arms, one with long unbendy arms.
One fruit tree. The fruit is too high for the short one, and once the other plucks the fruit it can't get them to its mouth.
Co-operation. The long armed muppet picks the fruit, the short armed feeds them both :)

A childhood memory from Sesame Street, Childrens Television Workshop.

CC - week 5 - more adventures in sequencing of a sort

For this exercise [1] I have used similiar rules to last weeks score to manifest this score.

Here is the score.

Horizontal folds represent repetitive percussive sounds.

Vertical folds represent staccato sounds.
Rips within the piece of paper represent abstract washy sounds.
Angular folds represent simple sounds with pitch variation.

Scrunching represents long scrunchy sounds.

Rips at the bottom represent tearing sounds.

Here is the rendered score. The grease_at_the_end_of_time.mp3

With this piece showing deliberate manipulation of spatial information (pan/volume), I have torn the piece in half to simplistically portray stereo information.

One interesting technique with this I found, was joining the two pieces asymmetrically and applying folds or crinkles etc. This had the effect of major stereo misalignment.

Below is a screen shot of the ProTools track window. [2]
Nothing too exciting going on, a bit of panning, a small volume envelope. For this track i quite enjoyed hard panning, with repeated and slightly offset files to create the stereo misalignment.



Below is a picture of the ProTools mixer window. [2]
A bit of fader adjustment and the panning is more evident.




[1] Haines, Christian. Creative Computing week 5 lecture. University of Adelaide, 29 march 2007.

[2] Digidesign ProTools 7

aa week 4 - mic techniques

The aim of this weeks exercise was to try out various microphone techniques for recording a consistent sound source. [1]

I set up a small radio broadcasting a tuning whistle, around this I set up an array of 6 microphones. (as above)

1. AKG C414 - condenser mic set to OMNI DIRECTIONAL pickup pattern

2. AKG C414 – set to SUPER CARDIOID

3. Shure SM 58 – dynamic mic, CARDIOID pattern

4. Shure BETA 52A – dynamic mic, CARDIOID pattern

5. Sennheiser MD -421 – dynamic mic, CARDIOID pattern

6. Sennheiser MD -421 – dyanmic mic, CARDIOID pattern

With this setup I could explore

• proximity effect using the MD-421's. Both of these mics were pointed at the same point of the sound source, with one being approx 8 cm and the other 60cm distant.

• differing polar patterns using the C414's. These mics were placed at similar distance and along the same axis.

• differing microphones using the SM 58 and the BETA 52A. These were also place at similar distance and along the same axis.

Here are the six sound samples (these have been normalised)

01.mp3 02.mp3 03.mp3 04.mp3 05.mp3 06.mp3

There are noticeable differences in all samples.

The two MD-421 samples exhibit the tendencies of the proximity effect quite nicely.

There is a marked difference in sound with the more distant mic having a much thinner sound, and a much reduced volume (obviously the normalised samples do not :).

The two C414's sound qualities are again quite different, below are frequency analysis of them.[2]

The omni-directional (top) having more of a distinct peak at about 670 hz and the hyper-cardioid (bottom) having more balanced frequency distribution.

The two Shure microphones also show major differences in sound quality.

The SM58 having a broader sound.

Of the sounds recorded, the C414's surprised me the most - the difference is quite disctinct.
Whether this was caused solely by the differing polar patterns or the setup [3] could only be revealed through having two recordings from the same postion (this thought occuring to me several days after the recording session).

[1] Fieldhouse, Steve. Tutorial on Microphones. University of Adelaide, 27 march 2007.

[2] Steinberg Wavelab5 3D analysis.

[3] Using a mono signal coming through two seperate speakers (the AM whistle through a stereo cassette radio), introduces all sorts of phase issues when comparing two microphones in different locations. The two mono signals would interact and effect the sound depending on location.

cc - week 4 - sequencing of a sort

This week was to create a "sequence" of our paper sounds using a multitrack interface (rather than a sample sequencer).

Here is a photo of the score.

Horizontal folds represent repetitive percussive sounds. eg dodgy beat.mp3
Vertical folds represent staccato sounds. eg stuttering car.mp3
Rips within the piece of paper represent abstract washy sounds. eg vacuum organ.mp3
Angular folds represent simple sounds with pitch variation. eg

whirry biscuits.mp3
Scrunching represents long scrunchy sounds. eg crunkling orama.mp3
Rips at the bottom represent tearing sounds. eg stereo tearing.mp3


Here is the finished product, Davader the prequel.mp3.



I decided not to use the grid editing, but aligned files sequentially using their own lengths as a general guide. Hence the repetitive features are occasionally not quite regular.

I kept any computer style processing to a minimum by using pan, volume and pitch modulations for effects.
I also used some compression on the finished mix for better signal strength.

I used a bit of layering sounds simultaneously (or close to) with these variations.

A sort of time stretching was achieved by cutting the file into multiple parts with overlapping sections, and then playing them sequentially.

F - week 4 - collaborations 1

This week was student presentations. Four seperate ones on the theme of "collaboration"

I didn't gain much out these particular presentations. Only perhaps a glimpse into the psyche of each presenter.

First up, given by David Dowling (edit: oops, changed the name to correct one) focused on the collaboration of Metallica with Michael Kamen and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. A reasonably presented foray into the difficulties of dynamics.

The most interesting thing was the idea of space in the music of Metallica - between the simple chords used (a lot of 5ths), and the general rhythmic simplicity/repetition.

Second, given by Vinny Bhagat focused on the work of Trilok Gurtu and his ongoing collaborations with a startling variety or musicians of many bents.

Not very coherently presented.

Thirdly briefly discussed the production of software (Exact Authoring Tool) specifically designed to make collaboration easier between groups of people with little face to face communication. As referenced to game design and a 3 layered sound design situation (music, incidental sounds, fx).

Fourth, given by Khaled Sanadzadeh featured a general discussion on the concept of "world music". A reasonably mayhemic descent into opinions and general assumptions on the music industry.

A variety of content made for a wide view, opening the concept of collaboration beyond the expectations I went in with.

AA - week 4 - recording a band more info

This post to further explain the recordings of the band used in week 2, with diagrams.

The actual recording positions of each person and instruments used depend on the song (and who turns up – extra brass for example).

The band consists of

Jared ; Laptop – beats, melody, rhythm and probably more.

Melodica.

Euan ; Tabla, Djembe, Guitar, Bass, Vocals.

Liam ; Guitar, Bass, Vocals

Andy ; Saxophone, other windy things.

I’ll just pretend I know the actual instruments for a song, and call it song 1.

Jared will play both laptop and melodica, Euan will play tabla, Liam guitar and Andy saxophone.

Because the bass will be coming from the laptop we can use the deadroom for the guitar amp patched into the live room for guitar input, and then monitor through headphones. In the live room their will be three accoustic instruments, melodica, saxophone and tabla. Using low baffles to minimise cross information with face to face communication still available.

Make up another song with different instrumentation, song 2.

Jared will play the same, Euan guitar, Liam bass and Andy clarinet.

Because there is both bass and guitar – the bass will go in the deadroom, and depending on who’s using the rest of the space there may well be somewhere else to hide the guitar amp outside the recording area – failing that we’ll just baffle it.

More baffles to minimise sound and promote face to face communication.

MUSICIAN ARRANGED IN THE LIVE ROOM

GENERAL SIGNAL FLOW

There will be different number of mics used depending on song, most in the live room being patched through the wall bay into the studio, one (or just a DI out of the bass amp depending on sounds) in the deadroom patched into the studio. The Laptop outputs can be run straight into the patchbay into the studio also, I’m thinking that these can be patched straight into the line in of the desk in the studio.

From the studio the signals will go into the desk then into the DAC then into the computer into ProTools. Whatever is in the deadroom will be sent through the headphones back to the live room, also any other signal necessary…