CCwk7

Here is the text file for this weeks Creative Computing exercise.

CCWk7

Audio Arts week 7

I think as a group we went all out experimenting with different mic positions and combinations this week. The Piano tuner showed up when we were due to start, but at least this ensured that the piano was sounding its best for the recording.

Although the piano sounded good in most spots around the room, I found that in the centre of the room with the lid open, facing towards the studio window gave the best result. It had enough space to spread out and not be boxed in, and had a pleasant but not overpowering room reverb. I felt that too much space yielded too much 'air' and I didn't enjoy it as much.

With the Mid Side technique, we were amazed to discover that when both the original and inverted wave forms of the figure 8 mic were panned centre, the two cancelled each other out. This made phasing issues quite evident and made us feel we had used good mic placement to have had this happen.

The first, and also my favorite recording utilised the Mid-Side technique with the AKG-C414 set to Omni and the Neuman U87 to figure 8. It didn't take us long to discover the best position to place the mic's although the space between the lid and the strings proved a small challenge.

We also utilised a stereo pair of Rode NT5's. We found that the best place for these was about a meter back from the piano, looking into the open lid, angled down from a higher position. One was facing the bass strings, while the other faced the treble strings. Obviously too far away resulted in too much ‘air’ and to close became too focused on specific frequencies. Although upon listening back we may have benefited from placing them slightly closer to the piano. I could have also experimented with some very minor EQ. to get rid of some of the higher frequencies and cutting a very small portion of 'air' in the mix.

MS 1 - AKG and Nueman only

MS 1 With the NT5's also

The second Mide Side recording was my idea. I thought that the AKG would give a better result as a figure 8 and the Nueman set to Omni. Although it sounded good. I think that John's original Mid Side idea actually had better results. MS 1 had more body, although MS 2 was not without its charm.

MS 2 just the AKG and Neuman

MS 2 With the NT5's

Next we approached the spaced pair technique using the Rode NTV and the Neuman U87. We would have liked to have used the NTV and Nueman for the Mid Side technique, but found we couldn't get them to fit. First we had the NTV angled close over the bass strings and the Nueman over the treble. The result was good, particularly in getting clarity from the bass strings, but overall did not sound as good as the Mid Side technique. Secondly we had the mic positions reversed. The sound was quite flat and dull in comparison. It would be worthwhile to experiment with the Rode NTV set up as it was in the first spaced pair recording but in conjunction with the first Mid Side recording set up.

Spaced Pair 1 -just the NTV and Neuman

Spaced Pair 1 - With NT5's

Spaced Pair 2 - Just NTV and Nueman

Spaced Pair 2 with NT5's

Finally we had the MD421 placed underneath the piano facing the soundboard. The sound we got from this was rather 'honky', but we agreed that this was actually a good thing, as it could be used in context. The 'honky' sound was reminiscent of an old Charlie Chaplin film and could be used in this manner. We got Dave to play a piece that was also reminiscent of this to prove the point. I was quite impressed.

Honky Charlie Chaplin using the MD421

A clean comparison of the same song

References

David Grice. “Audio Arts – Wk 6 – Recording the Piano.” Tutorial presented at EMU space and Studio 1, Level 5, Schultz building, University of Adelaide, 24th April, 2006.

Pic References

Unknown. May 17, 2004. Recording Piano, November 2003. http://mixguides.com/microphones/tips_and_techniques/audio_recording_piano_november/ (28 April 2007).

CCwk6

Here is my Patch.

The things I would still like to do to it are.

1. Improve the visual aesthetic
2. Extend the Black/White note feature to incorperate choosing different scales and modes.

But it's long overdue so here is what I have done.

CCwk6 zipped folder

Synth App

Synth in Max

Random Sequencer

Random Sequencer controll sliders

AAwk6

Special thanks to Anna on the cello

We decided on placing the cello in front of the window into studio 1 because we found it had the fullest sound.

We positioned the AKG BUL lower to the ground angled towards the left 'f' hole of the instrument to pick up the bulk of its tonal color. As something different we used the NT4 stereo mic angled down from above to get a nice stereo split sound of the cello. This worked really well. It picked up the range of the instrument and didn't loose much bottom end at all. Combined with the AKG it gave a nice 'warm' sound.

We spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out a good placement for the km-84. To begin with we started with it facing the fingerboard, but then after discussing how ... felt that she didn't like too much of the fingerboard in the mix, we moved it to the right and slightly behind her and faced it down the fingerboard more directed at the body of the cello. This worked well in my opinion. It picked up some of the upper frequencies to accentuate the sound a bit, without hollowing it out with to much 'air.'

We used both the U87 and the u89 for room mic's. Dave and I both preferred the U87 as we thought it had more body but Matt seemed to enjoy the sound of the U89 more. In the end we recorded with both to create a comparison. They worked well as a pair, but I think my favorite is still the U87. We had all the curtains closed to begin with and I thought this created a very intimate setting but the rest of the group seemed to prefer opening up the windows on one side of the room to add some reflections and increase the room noise. The first recording we did had the room mic's near the window which sounded a bit flat. Once The mic's were moved close to the cello I must admit it still retained a lot of intimacy and body but was actually improved from when the curtains were all shut as there was a bit more 'space' to the sound.

U87 & U89 near the window

U89 near the window

U87 near the window

U87 & U89 near to the cello

U89 near the cello

U87 near the cello

References

Grice, David. "AAwk6 Recording Strings." Lecture presented at University Adelaide 3 April 2007.

Forum Wk6

Sorry about the facts the pic's arn't embedded but I'm using new hostage and I'm still ironing out the kinks.

Luke Harrold

Luke Harrald pic

Working on the short film "The 9'13" gave Luke an interesting view into collaborations. He felt that the ego played an important part in his collaboration (a theme to follow in the following talks) In Luke’s opinion, as technology improves the lines between artistic mediums is beginning to blur. From this he feels that one would either naturally learn multiple disciplines or learn to collaborate. Although Luke feels that learning multiple disciplines is asking a bit much, I think it would be of great benefit, but I still look forward to collaborating with others in the future.

David Harris

David Harris Pic

Collaborating with a visual artists David felt the ego played a part in how himself and the other artist worked together. For the first collaborative piece they were able to come to a place where they created something together but did not actually interfere with what the other was doing. I also found it interesting that the second collaboration was just the visual artist deciding that she liked David's piece and could work something in with it. The pieces themselves were the same concepts David has already expressed, but intriguing none the less.

Poppi Doser and Betty Qian - 'Behind the Door'

Behind the door scene pic

This was easily the highlight of forum. Poppi's music was inspirational. I always loved her singing, but I feel she has expanded her capabilities a lot in this piece. The music was also incredibly well synced to the movie. Little nuances where the music would compliment the action on screen were extremely sophisticated. Of all the collaborations I think this one certainly spoke most to me through what it actually achieved.

Check out more on Poppi's blog

Stephen Whittington

Stephen Whittington pic

I think Stephen's statements of empathy and humility were a very apt way to round up the talks on collaborations. It is very important in my mind to be 'in-tune' with those you are working on, what you are working on and the mediums you are working with. Although it sounded a bit 'out there' I can understand the idea that the instrument you are using, even a computer has a level in which you need to relate to it in a certain way and be malleable to the way it works to produce the best results. I wouldn't take it as far as to feel you relate to it on an intelligent level though. I more so feel that (and a lot of great musicians would agree) when you get accustomed to a particular instrument, you can almost feel a bond with it as if it were a living entity. Maybe I'm just a weird hippy?

References

Luke Harrold. “Collaboration with Computers”. Presentation and discussion held at EMU, Level 5, Schultz Building, University of Adelaide. 5th April 2007.

David Harris. “Collaboration for Compossible”. Presentation and discussion held at EMU, Level 5, Schultz Building, University of Adelaide. 5th April 2007.

Poppi Doser and Betty Qian. “Behind the Door”. Presentation and discussion held at EMU, Level 5, Schultz Building, University of Adelaide. 5th April 2007.

Stephen Whittington. “Collaboration with the Dead”. Presentation and discussion held at EMU, Level 5, Schultz Building, University of Adelaide. 5th April 2007.

Pic References

Unknown. 14/03/2007. "Stephen Whittington" http://www.adelaide.edu.au/lifeimpactoncampus/tvc/stephen.html (6 April 2007).

Unknown. 15/03/2007. "David Harris." http://www.music.adelaide.edu.au/staff/composition/david_harris.html (6 April 2007).

Doser, Poppi. 20/11/2006 " AA (Wk.14) Major Project 'Behind the Door' By Betty Qian Music Composed by Poppi Doser" http://thenewpapyrus.blogspot.com/ (6 April 2007).

Gibson, Candy. 6 Apr 2007. "Overseas rewards for graduates." http://www.adelaide.edu.au/adelaidean/issues/13601/news13732.html (6 April 2007).

CCwk5

A quick note before I forget. A big thanks to John Delany for listing all of the different instruments in the Ubu menu. I've been meaning to say thanks to John since week 4.


Here's my patch. There are a couple bugs which occur which I need to iron out. Basically it works fine at home but as soon as I take it to uni and put it on a Mac, it starts causing me dramas. The bugs are that the keyboard controller works at home but not at uni. and at home the delay/feedback works fine where as here I get this weird extra sub note when I use the pitch bend/mod wheel.

I will hopefully have this sorted in the next couple of days.

The new place I'm storing my files doesn't want to upload any files at the moment so here is the text.

CCWK5 Max txt file

Synth App

Synth Max

Delay Inc/Dec

Feedback Inc/Dec

Keyboard Controller

White/black key selector