soundart
Just another myblog.arts site

Category: First Year

Categories
First Year Thinking & Doing Sound Visiting Practitioners Visiting Practitioners

Sampling:

Throughout my work, I decided to use sampling. This is a new skill that I have adopted and although it reaches a more contemporary audience I found the concept intriguing and it provoked a lot of wider moral reflection in me. Since it was coined in the late 1970’s it has become more and more popular among several genres of art. Vicky Bennet is a widely known Sound Artist who famously uses sampling to her advantage in order of creating art. Her piece ‘The Sound Of Ehe End Of Music- People Like Us’ portrays Oscar Hammerstein II and Richard Rodger’s pieces being distorted and played to her contrasting artwork and 60’s rock music shaped onto graphic images of Vietnam war footage. Despite its highly juxtaposing ideas and aesthetics, it works in unison to create its perfect artistic harmony.

Many could argue that sampling is classed as a form of copying; Stealing other people’s work. However, art is produced to be shared and shown off and in order of taking someone’s work, it only plays to its purpose. I almost see it myself as a compliment. To have the desire to involve someone else’s artistic practice within your work speaks to me as if you admire their artistic creativity and would want to use it to enhance your work in places you couldn’t. 

As an artist myself I could see the negative effects of this and the annoyance of someone taking credit for something they didn’t 100% do. However, as long as the artist mentions who and what they have sampled and does this in only a complimentary way then I do believe that this is ok. Finally, I believe that the sampled work must go alongside the artist’s artistic touch and should not be the prime characteristic.

Despite the questions about sampling I will continue to use this but ensure that I am certainly sticking to my own set of rules and guidelines to keep this morally correct.

Categories
First Year

Daphne Oram

Daphne Oram is a British composer who broke social, musical, and creative boundaries. She found the sound technical term “Oramics” which involved drawing 35mm film strips to control sound. Her innovation to cross sonic boundaries and strive away from classical instruments has inspired me. She designed this before any electronic instrument or sonic computer work. I hope to expand my experiences using synthesisers and other sonic/electronic instruments within my latest work. I believe that this can create a bigger effect than just normal instruments alone and paint a wider more experimental picture for the audience. Sonic sounds grasp aesthetics that other instruments can’t. Finally, the way she crosses mediums using film to create sound proves to me that any medium can be crossed to create sound or music.

Categories
First Year

Graphic Scoring

Graphic Scoring:

Graphic scoring is an interesting concept to which I found myself drawn. Originating from “eye music” this became a more popular concept within the mid-twentieth century around 1950. I found that graphic scoring allowed the composer no limits. When designing your graphic score, you as the composer make all rules. You’re no longer bound to the laws of theoretical westernised classical music. IT fascinated me and pushed me to realise that not following classical conventions doesn’t mean my music is “wrong”. Constantly ad musicians you are forced and told to follow the laws of music and scoring. When not following this it (as a musician myself) makes you feel like a delinquent.

In the future I will continue to create new work with a new profound confidence knowing what I do is “right”. There is no “wrong” with composing; I hope this allows me to become more creative with my boundaries and limits.

Categories
Visiting Practitioners

Pamala Z – Visiting Practitioner

Within Pamala Z’s lecture, many things stood out to me. In particular, her confidence and ideas of using the human voice within composition spoke to me. I loved this section as it inspired me to think about using vocals as the main source in the future. 

Within her piece ‘Breathing’, she uses just her own voice to create the entire piece by manipulating and mixing her voice through a 21 channel self-made sound installation. How she used the breathe throughout stuck with me. It became extremely emotional and peeled back the human voice to its rarest form. Her instincts to include breath provoked such emotion that certain instruments can not. I have used voice in the past within my work however I have never manipulated and layered it to create a solo piece in the way Pamala did. I hope to do this in the future and isolate only vocals to create an entire sound piece.

Within another performance, Pamala used a score of different vocals to create different sounds melodies and harmonies. By isolating just the voice as the main instrument; the lines between art and reality became blurred. It was as if human instincts and nature were manipulated into music and sound. I found this beautiful as it supported the concept of art and reality being not so far apart after all. The way the voices intertwined with one another sounded to me like water in the brain. 

One of the sounds reminded me greatly of the song “The Great Gig In The Sky” by pink Floyd. Where the voice is used as the soul of the song and the main instrument throughout. Despite cultural changes and traditions; the human voice stands as the most universal instrument we as a society can share. Sounds can be used as a multilingual language and can provoke emotions that speak universally.

Categories
First Year Thinking & Doing Sound

Are Cliches Good Or Bad?

When discussing the origin of the word cliches it is a French-derived word that originally states that it is a piece of artwork that has become ‘overused to the point of losing its meaning’. Cliches have the potential to ruin the effect of your work and provoke emotions or feelings that were not originally aimed to provoke. As a creator, this is a problem as when I produce my art I make it intending to create certain effects and moods. Theirs washed down meanings can paint your work with a cheap tacky effect stopping it from becoming meaningful art.

Due to cliches overuse; humans are trained to respond and recognise the aesthetics of what they are trying to capture. For example, a creaking door and crows squawking instantly make people think of horror and a haunted atmosphere. Despite it not being original; people naturally think about the connotations that come with it. When making sound pieces such as soundscapes; it is important to create clarity so the listener is aware of what is going on. I wanted to produce realism within my piece so the narrative that went alongside the soundscape was effective and believable. When creating soundscapes for both a beach and a city proved difficult. Due to the sound being my only medium; I was limited on what I could use to make the environment of the story obvious. Cliches were the one thing that served true clarity to my work. They serve instant and realisable effects that universally people will understand.

Overall Cliches are not entirely a bad thing to use within your work and it truly depends on the context and aim of your piece. If you strive for originality and abstract meaning – cliches are not your friend. However finally if you want clarity and instant clear directed feeling then cliches will provide this to your work.

Categories
First Year Sound Artists Thinking & Doing Sound

Soundscaping:

Soundscaping is an acoustic environment made by sound to imitate an environment for humans. This was first coined by the Canadian composer Murray Schafer in the 1960s. Schafer was a naturalist composer who centred his work around realism. I took inspiration from Schafer’s work; he quoted “A soundscape is any collection of sounds like a painting is a collection of visual actions”. This can be fascinating, I believe it’s possible to portray any type of environment even better than a composed piece of music can. By capturing a sense of reality soundscaping serves me as the composer an opportunity to immerse the listener into my work. Playing with realism makes the listener believe they are the main character immersed by the feelings the composer is trying to create. When creating my audio podcast I chose to use soundscaping throughout the entire piece. I aimed to create the most realistic performance possible. Adding narrative audio on top will make the story clear and effective, almost as if the listener can paint the story inside their heads. As I continued this creative process I found that the more immersive the piece – the more it affected it became to the listener.

Categories
First Year Sound Artists Thinking & Doing Sound Visiting Practitioners

The advancement of technology and how it has affected creative performance:

Christina Wheelers lecture made me reflect on her views on creative performance. Christina talked about the endless opportunities in which performance and sound art can be presented. She asked questions such as, where and how should the audience be positioned? Where should the performance be shown? How should they hear the sound, and where would the sound be played. In my previous blog posts, I have talked about the importance and effects spatiality can have upon sound; how the room in which sound is played is an additional instrument in itself. In a study by ‘Yueying Li’, she claims “an increasing number of theories and studies addressing spatial topics have argued that these two fields are closely linked and one would not be complete without the other”. Without exploring speciality your sound would have no uniqueness and space within the audio. I truly believe that this area has only been able to be truly explored due to the rise in technology. Before the 1900’s sound was limited and concert halls stood as the heart for live performance. This generic positioning of audience and performer has been able to outlive itself thanks to new realms of technological advancements. With arrays of speakers and microphones; sound can be heard from different directions meaning that the audience themselves can also change direction. The advancements in a film it has allowed a parallel for sound and can create artistic performances in any format or area.

Thanks to these advancements it has not only allowed space to affect the initial audio and recording it has also allowed effect to take place during performance. Experimenting with your surroundings can change the way in which the audience portrays your piece. I find this interesting as I believe it can add another layer to my work and create a more immersive experience. Vicky Bennet showed us a clear example with her exhibition performance ‘Gone, Gone Beyond 360’ where she incorporated the visuals of a 360-degree screen. After all, the way your listener views your piece is the most important aim of creating it in the first place. I hope to use this in future performances to capture a true aesthetic and mood in line with my artwork. It will help me go to that extra length of expanding the listeners mind and opening areas for them to feel my work rather than listen.

In conclusion advancements within technology have allowed room for us to break the barrier between audience and performer and create harmony for everyone to experience art at its fullest capability. The advancement of technology and how it has affected creative performance:

Categories
First Year Pro Tools

Pro Tools – Lesson 6

1.) What audio file formats can be imported to Pro Tools without requiring conversion?

  • WAV and AIFF do not require conversion

2.) What condition would cause a file in one of Pro Tools’s native format to require conversion on import?

  • Any files that have a different sample rate from the session, regardless of format, must be converted.

3.) Name some common audio file formats that Pro Tools can convert on import.

  • MP3,
  • Windows Media Audio (WMA),
  • Sound Designer (SDII), 
  • Audio Interchange File Compressed (AIFC)
  • Waveform Audio File (WAV)
  • Audio Interchange File Format (AIFF)

4.) What are some video file formats that can be imported by Pro Tools? 

  • MP3, BWF, SD I/II, MXF, AIFL, MWA, MOV, AAC, M4A, REX, ACID

5.) What is the difference between split stereo and interleaved stereo? Which is/are supported for importing into ProTools?

  • split stereo is 2 or more separate mono files for left, right, etc. channels. interleaved is 1 file that contains right/left stereo information.
  • ?

6.) What is the difference between the Add button in the Import Audio dialogue box and the Copy button? Which button will force-copy the files into your session’s Audio Files folder?

  • The Add/Add All button will add compatible files or clips to the Clip List without copying them to the Audio Files folder. The Copy/Copy All button will add the compatible files or clips the Clip List but will copy them the Audio Files folder.
  • ?

7.) What happens when you use the Workspace browser to import audio that is not compatible with your session’s parameters (in other words, audio that requires conversion)? What happens when you import audio that does not require conversion? 

  • it converts automatically
  • Non-compatible audio is converted (and copied) when imported from Workspace browser.

8.)What steps are required to conduct a search for an audio file using the workspace browser?

  • 1. Window menu > New workspace > Default
  • 2. Select Advanced Search (Magnifying glass icon)
  • 3. Choose the folder that you want to search by selecting it in the Locations pane on the right side of the window (in this case, choose “Audio” folder).
  • 4. Click “Kind” and “File type” on the Search Column.

How would you go about importing a QuickTime movie file to Pro Tools while simultaneously importing the audio embedded in the file?

  • (Make sure that the Video Engine is enabled in the Playback Engine option)
  • 1. File menu > Import > Video
  • 2. Select “Import Audio from File” option in the Video Import Options dialog box

How many video files can be associated with a standard Pro Tools session at once?

  • Only One

Categories
First Year Thinking & Doing Sound

A Reflection Upon My Finally Art Piece & My Artistic Process

Corruption On Childhood Innoncence:

My piece is a reflection upon the corruption of childhood innocence. It mirrors a short journey through life; showing how adulthood and added stimuli from the outside world can destroy innocence. I hoped to portray the negative effect it can have upon life. In this piece, I will be writing about my journey and the reasons behind my creative process.

Originally I wanted to represent how childhood innocence blinds people from the class divide and how your economical status is inevitable due to where and who you are born to. My idea was to take a field recording of private school children playing and state school children playing. However, this created some moral barriers and was not entirely ethically correct. From this, I decided to reflect the piece on something a little more personal – my experiences entering adulthood and my perception of life as a whole. 

The piece begins with very little sound and noise. A piano key and low pitched thudding in a rhythmic pattern. To me, this highlights the sound of a heartbeat showing connotations of new life. A heartbeat is what every human share. No matter who you are! This represents a human stripped down to its bare; naked from any outside influence or complexities. The sound is pure with no added other noise. I have played the piano from the age of 4 and chose to include this instrument to represent the heartbeat as it is a personal view of my life. As the piece develops and the beating continues extra noise is added including an increased raw which slowly takes dominance of the piece. This is the corruption from the outside world creeping in and taking over your purity.

As the piece moves on to the next part, I include a field recording taken from an old childhood video from my dad’s recording camera. These videos are something entirely personal to me and my life as it is a true representative of my life growing up. I decided to include a recording from one of my childhood assemblies. This recording involves many young voices, talking, and general chatter while we all play with each other. I liked this recording as I thought it fit the brief of my piece perfectly. The children (including me) are unaware of the camera recording them meaning their conversations are natural and pure. In their eyes, there is no outside influence on their conversation which represents to me how childhood innocence is dependant upon outside corruption. I added reverb and delay along with tampering the volume to go up and down throughout the recording. I used this to create a wave effect and intentionally show how slowly over time certain parts of your life take away that childhood innocence. Adulthood creeps up on your life and I truly believe from my experiences it has not been sudden. By creating a waved effect upon the sound by editing the recording it highlights slow corruption and the process of puberty. Silent parts of the piece demonstrate how I began to feel lost and out of place through my teenage years. Despite the fact, the pieces still going on the silence is lonely and creates a feeling of isolation – mirroring my emotions undergoing my journey into adulthood. 

As a sufferer from anxiety and paranoia, I often refer to my head as a “wasps nest”. Throughout the end part of the piece, I wanted to present this and the disarray that life has upon your mental state. The piece then begins to build in intensity through volume and added sounds. I started to include rhythmic beats and percussion as it shows a representation of adult working life and the routines in which we bind ourselves. It begins to get chaotic with several different noises and sound effects ranging from many different synthesisers, midi inputs and field recordings. Banging sounds taken from field recordings are used to add to this disordered sound, highlighting how problems and stress in adulthood life shatter your innocence. The noise ranges in pitch volume and type of recording which I hoped would portray severals paths of influence on the brain and the disordered stimulus it can create. Adults face multiple types of stress which is what I hoped it would indicate. 

Finally, the childhood recordings begin to come back into play and build up in sound as the chaos begins to die down. As a result, despite everything, your childhood will always be implemented in your life. It becomes your route for identity and carries on with you mentally throughout your entire existence. To end the piece I chose the heartbeats from the beginning sequence to start playing back again. I believe despite your influences and your positionality in life, everyone shares this process. By repeating the beginning I wanted to show a full circled effect – mirroring the circle of life. It shows me how everyone follows this process through and the heartbeats are leading onto someone else’s life. 

Everyone is born innocent and it is your life and society’s choices that destroy this. The frustrations, stress, and business of adult life take away your innocence bit by bit. Everyone shares this process and it is just a cycle waiting to happen. My goal was to produce this within my piece and I hope these visions come across when listening.

Categories
First Year Pro Tools

Pro Tools – Lesson 4

1.) What are some actions that can be initiated from The Dashboard?

  • Create a new blank session on local storage. Create a new blank project, with or without cloud backup. Create a new session or project from a template. Open a session or project from a list of recently opened Pro Tools documents. Open a project that you created or are a collaborator on. Open a session from a connected storage location on your system.

2.) What is the difference between a session and a project in Pro Tools? 

  • A session file is saved to local storage. A project is stored remotely (on the cloud)

3.) What is required to create a project document? What are some reasons you might want to create a project instead of a session? 

  • An Avid account, and Internet connection. The reasons to use a project include the following: a.to protect your Pro Tools work against loss in the event of Drive failure or other computer mishap. b.To be able to access your projects from anywhere with an Internet connection. c.You can collaborate with other Pro Tools users anywhere in the world.

4.) What are some available options for parameter settings in the dashboard? 

  • Create from Template, Audio file type, Sample Rate, Bit Depth, I/O settings, Interleaved, Prompt for Location, Show on Start-up

5.) What audio file types are supported in Pro Tools? What is the default file type? 

  •  (WAV or AIFF) 

6.) What is the maximum sample rate supported in Pro Tools? What is the maximum bit depth? 

  • 192Khz. 32-bit

7.) What menu command lets you add tracks to your session? What keyboard shortcut can you use to access this command?

  • Track. cmd+shift+N

8.) How many tracks can you add to a session at one time?  

  • you can simultaneously add as many tracks with as many different configurations as your session will allow.

9.) Describe some primary track types that are available in Pro Tools. Describe the two types of folder tracks.

  • Primary Track Types: Audio, MIDI, Instrument, Video, Auxiliary, VCA, Master Fader. Basic Folders: purely for organisational purposes, essentially just containers for visually grouping sets of related tracks together into a collapsible view. Basic folder tracks do not have any signals rooted through them. Aside from solo and mute functionality that propagates to their constituent tracks, basic folder tracks have no mixing controls. Routing Folders: have all of the signal routing functionality of an Auxiliary input track (audio input an output selectors, insert points and send routing), along with mixing controls (Pan and Volume) and all associated automation controls in the Mix and Edit windows. Routing folders are designed primarily for sub mixing and stem mixing workflows combining key features of Auxiliary inputs and VCA master tracks with folder behaviour for organising and managing sets of tracks.)

10.) Which timebase do Audio tracks use by default? Which timebase do MIDI and Instrument tracks use by default?

  • Audio tracks are Sample-based by default, while MIDI and Instrument Tracks are tick-based.

11.) What happens to the Audio and MIDI data on a track when the track gets deleted from your session? Can the Track > Delete command be undone?

  • When you delete tracks, your audio or MIDI clip data will remain in the Clip list, but your arrangement of clips on the deleted track (the tracks playlist) will be lost.

12.) Name the two types of cursors available in the Edit window. What is the difference between them?

  • 1. Playback cursor 2. Edit cursor. The Playback cursor is a solid, non-blinking line that moves across the screen during playback and indicates where the current playback point is. The Edit cursor is a blinking line that appears on a track playlist when you click with the selector tool in a track .

13.) Which tool can be used to set the playback point by clicking directly on a track?

  • Selector Tool

14.) What is the Playback Cursor Locator used for? Where will the Playback Cursor Locator appear (in what Ruler)? 

  •  To help locate the playback cursor when it might have moved off screen after reaching the edge of the Edit window. It appears in the Main Timebase Ruler.

15.) What is the purpose of the Save As command? Which session will be opened after completing the Save As command – the original or the renamed copy

  • It’s useful for saving a copy of a session under a different name or in a different drive location. The Save As command leaves the original session unchanged and allows you to continue working on the renamed copy. And such, it is particularly useful when experimenting, to save alternate versions of your work. This command is also useful for saving stages of your work under different names. By working in this way you can always retrace your steps if you ever need to go back to an earlier stage of the project. It is the renamed copy that will remain open to continue working on.

16.) What is the purpose of the Save As New Version command? What type of Pro Tools document does this command apply to?

  •  It provides similar benefits to the Save As command, but is available only when working on project documents

17.) How can you open a session after locating it in a workspace browser?

– Double-click