Eclectic I

AA3B Major Assignment

2008-11-19T19:44:00.000-08:00

My approach to this film was use Sound FX not only for Foley, but as thematic material. Emulating ideas such as the liet-motif for particular characters and places, linking scenes and emotions together. I feel it was a huge success.

You Tube Video

CC3B Major Assignment

2008-11-19T19:31:00.000-08:00

I think this is SC patch is a massive step up from my attempts at creating a improvisational virtual sampler last year in MaxMsp. To me Super Collider is definitely the programing language of choice. I quite like the piece I created with this code, although I have a lot of additions I desire to make to add further improvisational possibilities.

12 Backwards on a Platter.mp3

Code

PIMT Research Project

2008-11-12T10:13:00.001-08:00

I have created a 6 channel Panning software and outlined its use with a hardware touch screen control interface.

There are two codeing examples. The one labeled 'Panning Code Finised' is a working patch, the one labeled 'Panning Example 3' is an attempt at the process from a different angle which I feel is relevant to include.

PIMT write up

Panning Ode Finished

Panning Example 3

MTF3B Wk12

2008-10-29T20:47:00.000-07:00

Pleasure vs Form

Today's forum was an open discussion of the nature of this degree. It basically revolved around what people want to get out of the course and how things are limited by the need to ensure there will still be enough students to fund the course. It seemed as though people wanted more freedom to follow their individual interests and less rigidity to adhering to specific styles and prescribed learning.

Stephen emphasised the importance of understanding the aesthetic and artistic understanding being as important as the Practical learning, yet it seems that the aesthetic is too heavily dictated and therefore the creative freedom suffers.

David's point about needing a compositional focus was the pinnacle of the discussion. 1 to 1 mentoring is definitely required but he University doesn't like funding where they don't get a return.

MTF3B Wk11

2008-10-22T21:16:00.000-07:00

AI and cyborg inspired animations and short films was the focus of today's Forum. Of particular focus was the idea of technology getting out of hand. The music suited the films quite well. Overall it was quite reflective of ideas an concepts presented in the Stelarc workshop I attended last semester. The use of electronic composition as part of these films was an obvious deliberate choice in suiting with the themes of the film.

MTF3B Wk10

2008-10-16T20:54:00.000-07:00

Poppi presented the animated works created by Betty (Yisheng Qian) for which she did the sound and music for. It was wonderful to see progressive works from what was presented in last years forum. The animations were really enjoyable and in conjunction with the music and sound is quite emotive and personally invokes child like innocence. This could be because as Betty stated (not an exact quote) "It is dream like in its nature" and the gentle attributes of the sound and images remind me of a child's daydream or story book. Interestingly enough the final film was related to child hood memories.

http://year-of-the-yoghurt-frog.blogspot.com/2007/12/moonhare-2007.html

Although technically brilliant, artistically Martins internet data as control Data didn't grab me. I think the link between internet data and sound is too arbitrary.

AA3B Wk10

2008-10-16T10:45:00.000-07:00

http://www.craigerscinemacorner.com/Reviews/dark_city_the_directors_cut.htm

If you read this article the picture makes sense.

This film project demonstrates the ability to use foley as the source of tension and horror for a film sound track. The non-diegetic sounds have been chosen for there harsh and disturbing qualities, but have also been tied to the film.

Some are more direct such as the screams and whimpers which have been placed to heighten the tension and to mark out particularly frightening moments in the film. I have also attempted to use sounds in a similar vein as a liet-motif. The drips of water are placed as part of the castles ambience, yet when nosfuratu is on screen they go in reverse, to create an association of unnaturalness to his character. The screams are also part of the castle's ambience, as to create an association of torture and pain with the place.

The 'demonic' like screams are used to denote the internal workings of the womans mind as she is pulled under the power of nosferatu and uncontrollably sleepwalks. On the scene where nosfuratu almost looks at the woman, I intend to have a blend of both the natural screams and the 'demonic' screams to tie the two places together.

The use of the grinding sound is the most 'musical' of all the sound. It has no relevance to the film other than emotional intensity. It serves to put the audience on edge due to its harsh sonic qualities.

Overall this film draws upon inspiration from David Lynch and Mike Patton in the “I am Legend” Film. It is an attempt to avoid typical film score clichés that are especially prevalent in horror films and try a semi unique approach to music and sound.

MTF3B Wk9

2008-10-09T21:28:00.000-07:00

Ben Probert's improvisational interface was really cool. I think if the data was sent to an actual MIDI piano it would have been quite amazing, although I don't think it could match the nuances and sophistication of an actual pianist.

David Downling's improvisational Super Collider work was not as sonically interesting as I think it could have been. It was very intelligent and well thought out though.

Will Revill's graphical interface was very clever and inspired, it is a pity we didn't get to hear it used with a sound source worthy of it such as Atmosphere.

Finally Jake's add was well done even if it was a rip off add.

Reference:

Whittington Stephen. “Forum – Week 9 – Semester 2, 2008: Student Presentations.” Workshop presented at EMU space, level 5 Schultz building, University of Adelaide, 9th of October 2008.

AA3A wk9

2008-10-09T09:50:00.000-07:00

Popular music, beginning with jazz, began to proliferate and indeed dominate the film score from the early 50's. In the 60's this soon progressed to the popular rock music of the time. This was largely due to the marketing possibilities of selling the sound tracks as records to a increasingly younger audience.

Many have argued that pop music took away from the film, as they were void of such devices as the 'liet motif' which enhanced the on screen action in a subtle and sophisticated way. It's use can be completely non-diegetic in nature.

Furthering the part from classical musical in films was the advent of synthesised sound, which could quite often replace acoustic instruments altogether. However composers such as John Williams brought the “classical film score to its position of pre-eminence. He very sophistically used the music to create mood and emotion which tied to the narrative content of the film. His use of the liet-motif as an attribute of characters within a film is possibly his greatest classical scoring tool.

The article “John Williams and 'The Empire' Strike Back” by Kathryn Kalinak details quite succinctly all the classical compositional tools he uses to create great orchestral film works in the same operatic style of such composers as Wagner.

CC3B wk9

2008-10-09T06:27:00.000-07:00

I used an extension of my patch from Wk7 for this weeks exercise. The constant triggering of the karplus synth from wk 6 lent itself well too being panned around a space. It would be really cool to be able to save panning automation data into a buffer which you could then play back on the fly, so you could set different panning paths for each sound which repeat over and over as part of a live performance. I don't think I'll get a chance to do it this semester, but I'll probably implement something like that over the summer break to use in the Fringe.

CC3B Wk9.rtf

CC3B Wk9.mp3s

http://www.all4mp3.com/tools/sw_fhg_demo.html

MTF3B Wk8

2008-09-17T19:42:00.000-07:00

David Harris's favourite film is David Lynch's 'Eraser head.' It was bound to confuse and frustrate people in forum as its a very cult film which you need to be in the right mind frame to see.

The visuals and sound design in the film are brilliant. Because the film is so highly symbolic it gave a lot of freedom for sound exploration beyond basic foley and immediate story telling, but audio links to psychological states.

I think the film explores various psychological states of mind with highly subtle (and not so subtle) references and symbols. Ultimately I think Lynch is alluding to the drudgery of lower working class life being a torture of the 'soul.' This film for me highlights the need for people to live beyond a mundane existence. "When people are subjected to the force and expectations of a culture whose influence is so strong that they can never entirely be sure of what's going on, and can never do anything but let things happen to them until they break.1" They never get a chance to actually understand themselves let alone the environment they are in. The lady in the radiator's song is mirroring the hope of peace and joy in the afterlife as a respite from mundane existence. It also gives an active example of someone who is following there desires and is free from expectations.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RctPKy25LBU

1. Sidler Faolan "Foalans opinion" 18/9/08.

CC3B Wk8

2008-09-17T08:52:00.000-07:00

This week I decided to use the PV_Freeze object. I mainly chose this because I remember the cool spectral freeze stuff Ben Probert did with Max/Msp last year. The use of this object was really strait forward as was the GUI implementation. I really like the sonic results I achieved. Some of the frozen harmonics of the string recording sounding really rich and full.

CC3B wk8.rtf

CC3B wk8.mp3

MTF3B wk7

2008-09-10T23:59:00.000-07:00

Second and Third Year presentations

Sanad graced us with a pulsing dance track. It had a good drive and mix and it made me want to grab my fire poi and have a spin. Sanad was very critical towards the piece, but I have heard him create other works which are far better (no discredit to this piece) but I think Sanad is just aware of his capabilities and thus knew he could do better.

Edward had a max patch based on creating interesting visuals which control the sound. It was evident that the visuals were of greater importance than the sound, although I appreciate the link he has created between the two.

John has created some really cool industrial ambiance using Super Collider. I think it's a great demonstration of the sonic possibilities of synthesis Super Collider.

Matt had some interesting sounds but it I think John was a hard act to follow.

Freddie added some humour to the presentations with the visual feedback to the tempo.

And to finish up the use of probability to determine evolving chord progressions. It could be really cool if used with the right sound base. It could also be extended to create melodies and chord inversions etc but time constraints prevented him from doing so. It makes me lament to Ben's max patch last year which did exactly this, but stopped working at the last minute and thus he failed. It was a really cool improvisation generator.

Reference:

Whittington, Stephen. “Forum – Week 7 – Semester 2, 2008: 2nd and 3rd year presentations.” Workshop presented at EMU space, level 5, Schultz building, University of Adelaide, 4th of September, 2008.

CC3B Wk7

2008-09-10T05:45:00.000-07:00

This week I created a software panning synth using the paraspace object. At the moment it only pans one input around 6 Speakers, but I'm hoping to extend this to have a variable input amount and hopefully vary the output also. I will also add a label to each node to make it easier I think.

CC3B Wk7.rtf
http://www.box.net/shared/87leg5ogqo#CC3B_Wk7

AA3B Wk7

2008-09-10T05:02:00.000-07:00

Reading Randy Thom's article on sound design reaffirmed the importance of sound design in film. However I couldn't help but feel I was reading an article which would have been better suited for budding directors (or possibly seasoned directors too). It does highlight the need for those looking to do sound design too affirm there role in the movie making process from the onset and to try to not have sound be a last minute consideration. However as evident this is often the case and thus why this article needs to be given to directors.

Reference:

Harrald, Luke. “Audio Arts – Week 7 – Semester 2, 2008: Designing a Movie for Sound.” Lecture presented at EMU space, level 5, Schultz building, University of Adelaide, 9th of September, 2008.

AA3B Wk8

2008-09-07T18:51:00.000-07:00

My Audio Arts movie hasn't actually developed as much as I would like in terms of filling the overall film with sound, but I have spent a great deal of time on the subtle foley effects. I have aimed to really blend the foley sounds together as to work effectively with the ambient atmospheric sounds. I think the water drips are an excellent extra touch. Particularly when they go in reverse for the shots of Nusfuratu, acting as a pseudo liet-motif sound fx.

AA3B movie thus far.mov

MTF3B Wk6

2008-09-05T06:43:00.000-07:00

The question I was left wondering after today's Forum experiment was whether our understanding of the emotions evoked by sound was due to cliche stereotypes, or whether the songs and sounds which we all immediately associated with the typical emotions are simply the most effect representations of those emotions and they have only become cliche through over use.

Freddie's baby sounds and Sanad's Persian were the most interesting approaches to the exercises and also the areas I did worst in. This exercise also made me think of how Christian told me that U2 has been seen as using a certain frequency which is meant to induce euphoric states consistently in the vast majority of there songs.

Reference:

Whittington, Stephen. “Forum – Week 6 – Semester 2, 2008: Emo Presentations.” Workshop presented at EMU space, level 5, Schultz building, University of Adelaide, 4th of September, 2008.

CC3B Wk6

2008-09-05T01:42:00.000-07:00

I didn't spend a great deal of time on this weeks project as I'm trying to catch up on all the work I need to do. But I do feel the ease in which I was able to implement the GUI demonstrates that I am becoming more confident with it and have overcome the initial hurdle I have been facing. Although that said, I think it is much easier to implement GUI on Synthesised sounds rather than when using audio buffers. I would also still like to know how to integrate GUI with Pbind triggering systems. I may have to look back over last semesters work to recall how I implemented functions in combination with MIDI to trigger sequences to achieve an integration of sequencing and GUI.

SC Code.rtf
mp3 recording

AA3B Wk6

2008-09-04T06:32:00.000-07:00

AA3B Wk6 – Student Presentations

It was interesting to see how everyone else was approaching this project, particularly because most people have chosen the same clip to work on as me.

Jake is approaching his project like doing the sound for a video clip. I think that it will be hard for him to include foley without it taking away from the music, but Jake seems to be aware of this.

John's Foley work was quite good. I'd like to hear the music with some descent sounds and not just general MIDI as it sounds like it could have potential but it is always hard to tell with MIDI.

Dave's foley was really good. Particularly the bell sound for the clock.

Ben's ideas hold a lot of potential, the pieces he played on piano as an idea of what he wants to do work really well. I look forward to hearing the music he composes.

It was hard to have an opinion on Matts work as its still in development.

Reference:

Harrald, Luke. “Audio Arts – Week 6 – Semester 2, 2008: Foley and Music Presentations.” Workshop presented at EMU space, level 5 Schultz building, University of Adelaide, 2nd of September 2008.

CC3B Wk5

2008-09-02T08:12:00.000-07:00

This week was an incredible struggle for me, but I got there after many hours of attempting things from multiple angles. Success came through two areas.

1. looking through the IXI tuorial which is downloadable form there website. http://www.ixi-software.net/content/software.html

2. Insuring I had the reference to the buffer placed before the argument I wanted the GUI to control.

Zip File with .rtf and sample

Reference:

Haines, Christian. “Creative Computing – Week 5 – Semester 2, 2008: FFT (1).” Lecture presented at tutorial room 408, level 4 Schultz building, University of Adelaide, 28th of August 2008.

MTF3B Wk5

2008-08-27T22:51:00.000-07:00

In forum today the group Negative Land became the vehicle of the an exploration into ideas of copyright and artistic freedom. This group uses satirical music, and video mash ups to challenge mass media, corporate advertising, and in the process offend many who object to their ideas.

I think it is important to acknowledge the power music/art has to influence and challenge peoples ideas. It has proven to be a highly effective revolutionary tool, The ultimate question is whether you actually agree with the idea presented within the art. Satire is powerful in this sense, because it doesn't attempt to dictate how to feel, but exposes potential flaws and misconceptions.

Reference:

Whittington, Stephen. “Forum – Week 5 – Semester 2, 2008: My Favorite Things (II).” Workshop presented in room 1004, level 10 Schultz building, University of Adelaide, 28th of August 2008.

CC3B Wk4

2008-08-24T21:35:00.000-07:00

This week was a major struggle to integrate the GUI. I think I came pretty close but as with my first attempts at integrating GUI with my Granular synthesis, I probably was approaching it from too complex and angle and need to simplify it. Hopefully I can overcome this hurdle as being able to integrate GUI simply and easily will be very helpful for my various projects.

Here is the links to the code. I couldn't get sound when implementing the GUI.

Wk4 rtf

Reference:

Haines, Christian. “Creative Computing – Week 4 – Semester 2, 2008: Splice and Dice.” Lecture presented at tutorial room 408, level 4 Schultz building, University of Adelaide, 21st of August 2008.

MTF3B Wk4

2008-08-20T21:45:00.000-07:00

This week quickly engaged us in the emotive use of sounds and various examples of this. Firstly we looked at a psychologist who studied how sounds can be interpreted to induce emotional states in people. The initial sounds used were chosen based on his intuitive sense of each sound pertaining to the essence of that sounds emotions. Through statistical testing on Sydney students he found he had significant results in proving the emotive characteristics of these sounds.

However, this idea has also been present in the Ancient Indian theory of Nava pure emotional Rava's. From there we also extended the discussion to look at the 4 Temperaments which I am already familiar with.

The idea's presented to us and the related assignment was devised to bring us back to what we are communicating. So that the emotional level of communication is re connected to the technical expertise we have.

I feel that we are on a majority pursuing this anyway in our work, but must first reach a point in our expertise before we can use the tools and skills we develope to successfully achieve this.

hasya (happiness/joy/comic)

Laughing monkeys

adbhuta (wonder/reverence)

Indian Vedic Chant

veera (courage/heroic)

beating rhythmic drums (like a march)

karuna (compassion/love/erotic)

Mass of harmony and sweet melody

krodha (anger/furious),

Distorted Sounds – Particularly Screams

bhibasta (disgust/loathing),

dischordant sounds with no rhythmic pattern, contrast between high treble and a downward sweeping low bassy sound. Maybe a shepard tone?

bhayanaka (fear/terror),

some sort of loud, drawn out scream that turns into a whimper.

shoka (sorrow)

Sounds that emulate sighing. Breath noises. Barely audible crying.

Reference:

Whittington, Stephen. “Forum – Week 4 – Semester 2, 2008: Composition Workshop.” Workshop presented at EMU Space, level 5 Schultz building, University of Adelaide, 21st of August 2008.

AA3B Wk4

2008-08-20T19:09:00.000-07:00

I have begun integrating sounds with the Nusfuratu film. I have mostly been focusing on the first half of the film and there is still much more I want to do with it. One element which is missing that I shall record over the next week is the sounds of dripping to act as a 'sound motif' for the castle. This I feel will add an extra layer of ambiance and suspense.

I also have a working plan for the parts of the film revolving around the sleep walking woman. By bringing in some more 'musical' elements and then combining her motif with that of Hutter and the castle at the end it shall bring in a nice climax I feel.

AA3B wk4.mov

Reference:

Harrald, Luke. “Audio Arts – Week 4 – Semester 2, 2008: Foley Part 2.” Lecture presented at EMU space and Studio 1, level 5 Schultz building, University of Adelaide, 19th of August 2008.

CC3B Wk3

2008-08-19T08:31:00.000-07:00

I found I made some serious progress this week. I tried to over complicate things last week so when I stripped it back I was able to integrate the granular synthesis element very successfully and I now look forward to extending and working on the GUI as well as the functionality of the synth. I would like to incorporate it into a pbind so I can sequence the notes in an interesting way whilst granulating it.

rtf code

Reference:

Haines, Christian. “Creative Computing – Week 3 – Semester 2, 2008: Granular Synthesis (1).” Lecture presented at tutorial room 408, level 4 Schultz building, University of Adelaide, 14th of August, 2008.

AA3B Wk3

2008-08-17T18:59:00.000-07:00

There are two sounds which I could record in the studio as Foley for the classic black and white silent film Nusfuratu. They are Diegetic and Non Diegetic in nature.

The first is quite obvious. It is Diegetic in nature and the sound directly corresponds to the the on screen action. When the character Hutter opens the book I could record the sound of pages flipping.

The second is a non Diegetic sound to add an eerie ambiance to the castle. Using the grand piano, holding down the keys of dissonant chords (with out actually playing them) and then pressing the sustain pedal the ambiance would create and eerie mood which could act as a 'motif' like sound for the castle.

Reference:

Harrald, Luke. “Audio Arts – Week 3 – Semester 2, 2008: Foley Creation Part 1.” Lecture presented at EMU space, level 5 Schultz building, University of Adelaide,
12th of August 2008.

MTF3B Wk3

2008-08-13T21:57:00.000-07:00

It is evident that some 1st years took little creative interest in their projects, but the ones that took some interest stood out. I really enjoyed Mile's piece. He created some complex and interesting textures whilst also incorporating the use of rhythm in elements to add some accessibility. Stephens piece had some cool use of texture and panning with some asymmetric rhythms which fell in and out of sync, which were obviously quite accidental but cool.

The Animated film, the game project piece and The two Audio arts projects were also enjoyable and I am glad that they presented works which they were actually interested in rather than what they felt obliged to do. The game and animation pieces clearly showed once more the level of compromise and frustration people encounter when trying to get started in this field.

Reference:

Whittington, Stephen. “Forum – Week 3 – Semester 2, 2008: 1st Year Presentations.” Workshop presented at EMU space, Level 5 Schultz building, University of Adelaide, 14th of August 2008.

CC3B wk2

2008-08-11T19:11:00.000-07:00

This week proved quite the unexpected challenge. No matter what I did I couldn't seem to integrate my GUI with my synth. Once more my GUI is fairly basic, but this was due to the time spent trying to integrate it. I am hoping I can discover where I went wrong in the next class.

Sound mp3
Code rtf

Reference:

Haines, Christian. “Creative Computing IIIB – Week 2 – Semester 2, 2008: Graphical User Interfaces (2).” Lecture presented at tutorial room 408, level 4 Schultz building, University of Adelaide, 7th of August 2008.

AA3B Wk2

2008-08-07T00:57:00.000-07:00

Matrix Lobby Scene Brief Sound analysis

Due to the Large extent of sound elements in this scene I will not analyse it in a linear fashion, but focus on some of the major aspects of the sound to keep my word count down.

Foley
Firstly They are moslty 'hyper real' elements. Such as the footseps and the placing of the bag on the carousel coming up loud against the intense 'jackhammer sound. And of course the sound of Neo opening his coat. This naturally follows on to Neo Punching the security guard. The loud in your face character of the foley for these actions emphasise the action and thus make it 'hyper real' and more entertaining.

Sound FX
The most prominent of these is the swooshing sound when 'Neo' flips. This extends the hyper real element created by the foley.

Music
The music is very loud and in your face for the majority of the piece. Although at certain elements the natural drop back of the music allows space for certain foley sound such as when Neo picks up the gun and certain sound effects such as when Neo flips to be especially prominent to the ears and thus much more powerful. The music also accents the on screen action, such as the drum roll over the movement of the guards feet and the end of the song coinciding with 'Neo' landing from his final jump/kick.

Reference:

Harrald, Luke. “Audio Arts IIIB – Week 2 – Sonic Analysis of Matrix Lobby Scene.” Lecture presented at EMU Space, Level 5 Schultz building, University of Adelaide, 5th of August 2008.

MTF3B wk2

2008-08-06T21:53:00.000-07:00

David Harris presented us with his piece "Terra Rapta." As stated in the program note, the piece as written as a recognition of Terra Nallius proclamation of Australia and the resulting taking of the land from the Aboriginal inhabitants. Although I didn't really enjoy the style of the piece, I enjoyed the use of rhythm in areas such as section F. I also liked the use of sliding portamento in the violin parts. It was quite evident that David was expression an emotional idea rather than exploring a structural idea which he has quite often done in other works he has played us. I appreciated this as I get bored when structure is paramount to emotion in music.

The Schubert quartet was brilliant. The constant change between major and minor was very clever and emotionally invoking. Special thanks to Ben for closing the book.

Reference:

Whittington, Stephen. "Forum – Week 2 – Semester 2, 2008: My Favourite Things I.” Workshop presented in room 1107, level 11 Schultz building, University of Adelaide, 7th of August 2008.

CC3B wk1

2008-08-05T08:29:00.000-07:00

This week I have learnt a lot about GUI. My overall outcome is rather simplistic, but I feel this is due to lack of time rather than understanding. I am confident I can improve on the graphical element of my GUI and have a much more visually appealing interface. I am also confident I could do the same amount with less code by going over a certain area of the help files. But this is what I have achieved thus far.

Code rtf file

Reference:

Haines, Christian. "Creative Computing - Week 1 - Semester 2, 2008: Graphical User Interface (1)." Lecture presented at Tutorial room 408, level 4, Schultz building, University of Adelaide, 31st of July 2008.

AA3A wk1

2008-08-05T08:19:00.000-07:00

Although not the most challenging of tasks, dividing up the Nusforatu clip into segments and annalysing Foley and brain storming music ideas is a necessary element to sound design in a movie. I am glad we are able to get started on this strait away.

My Analysis (word doc)

Reference:

Harrald, Luke. “Audio Arts – Week 1 – Semester 2, 2008.” Lecture presented at the Audio Lab, Level 4, Schultz building, University of Adelaide, 29th of July 2008.

MTF3B wk1

2008-07-30T21:53:00.000-07:00

Issues in Contemporary Music Technology
How we listen to music - 'listening culture'

Portable music has changed the way we listened. It creates a soundtrack to life. Yet is it isolating us from our surrounding environment, or is it a way of combating the isolation of urban life? People are turning their walkmans ever louder. Does this enhance the listening or is it desensitizing us and making us oblivious to subtle/soft dynamics? The amount of listening has increased through the portablility of music, yet has this meant that the quality of listening has gone down?

Has the ability of making music becoming cheaper and easier democrasized music? Or has it simply meant that there is more music of lesser quality? At the end of the day the generic sound seems to proliferate our environment and it comes down to 'fishing' for the music which truly interests you through things like Radio Adelaide and Last FM and internet Radio sations.

Peoples attention has been diverted by multiple things and thus they aren't actively listening. A lot of us enjoy just submersing us in the music, which shows just how much we really appreciate the act of listening. However multimedia shows how much the general population enjoy multiple sensory stimulation.

Reference:

Whittington, Stephen. “Forum – Week 1 – Semester 2, 2008: Listening in the Age of Technology.” Workshop presented at EMU Space, Level 5, Schultz building, University of Adelaide, 31st of July 2008.

AA3A Major Project

2008-06-26T19:04:00.000-07:00

As always my mixes are progressively improving. It was great fun to explore the use of overdub's instead of a live mix for Entactogen. It was also interesting placing each instrumentalist of Seeing Orbo in a different room. Ideally the individual rooms would have been better acoustically, but I still liked the sound this achieved.

Documentation
Documentation pdf

Entactogen mp3's
Nusrat mp3

Rugged F mp3

Seeing Orbo mp3
She Knows mp3

CC3A Major Project

2008-06-26T17:55:00.000-07:00

Two Screens of code. NERD!!!

I am proud of what I achieved with this code. The piece of music is also interesting, I do however feel that more layering and experimenting with sounds could add to it, but was not possible due to time constraints. I plan to be working on this piece over the holidays, so keep your eyes on my blog at the start of next semester if you want to see what I do with it.

Documentation:

Pre Production pdf

Program Note pdf

Score Instructions pdf
Score

Analysis pdf

Code:

SuperCollider Code -zip folder rtf

Music:

Final Piece mp3

MTF3A wk11

2008-05-29T19:54:00.000-07:00

Philosophy and ethics within the use of technology was a welcome discussion topic this Forum. Focusing on the impact industrialisation and the consumerist society which has resulted. This began as looking into various philosophers on the matter. “Technology eliminates/subordinates the natural world.” - Jacques Ellut.

This then spilled out into an open debate with two teams. 'Why bother' team argued that one persons individual actions is insignificant on the whole. The 'pro active' team were looking at changing social ideals in a larger scale so that industry reacted to make environmentally friendly products which met consumer demand.

Ultimately I feel its about changing the legal and social system to create safe guards against immoral industry ethics. People feel that there individual choice will make no difference, but its because they are one less person trying.

Ideas for 'Greening' Uni

Put the lights in the entire Shultz building on a timing system which turns off the lights during the day when they aren't needed.
Make it a compulsory thing to turn off lights when you are the last person leaving a room – put up signs to remind people of this on the doors of each room/passage.
Having the computers shut off at night is also a good thing. - I think we already have that going in the mac lab and Studio's thanks to Pete.
We have recycling bins outside the level 5 door on the West side. It would be good if this spread through the entire building.

Reference:

Whittington, Steven. “Forum – Week 11 – The Philosophy of Technology.” Workshop presented at EMU space, level 5, Schultz building, University of Adelaide, 29th of May 2008.

Harris, David. “Forum – Week 11 – The Philosophy of Technology.” Workshop presented at EMU space, level 5, Schultz building, University of Adelaide, 29th of May 2008.

CC3a wk10

2008-05-28T05:46:00.000-07:00

- Modular Synthesis... back in the day

I have come a long way this week. I have a brand new synth def which loops infinitely till stopped through the use of events and Pbind. It was good to go through and create a synth Def from scratch to cement my understanding. I also reworked my wk9 patch and included it in this week. I have achieved triggering sequences of notes relative to the pitch of a MIDI note played. You can combine the two as well. Basically I feel I am well on the way to my major project. I love it when things start to fall into place.

CC3A wk10 rtf
CC3A wk10 mp3

Reference:

Haines, Christian. “Creative Computing – Week 10 – Streams (3).” Lecture presented at tutorial room 408, level 4, Schultz building, University of Adelaide, 22nd of May 2008.

MTF3A wk10

2008-05-22T05:04:00.000-07:00

MTF3A wk10

Today in forum we watched a DVD on the history of scratching within the hip hop culture of America. It evolved from multiple sources, and it was and essential element to a competent DJ. What was primarily presented in the DVD was that it was part of the culture of the time.

I can appreciate how one of the people interviewed said that is was a means to expand the break beats of the time. The drum rhythms material on the records are the source of the improvisational rhythms which then expanded out to all elements of the musical material on the music.

I think Stephen was right in recognising that the approach of turntablist shows as great an understanding of musical knowledge. I find it inspiring how that they really saw the turntable as an instrument and through there dedication gave it recognition as such. I think of the computer in the same vain. At the moment it is still primarily viewed as a recording and compositional tool, but I think it is only a matter of time before it will come through as an instrument in it's own right as more intuitive approaches to its use and software develop.

My favourite part of the DVD would have to have been the DJ Shadow part. It shows the ultimate respect for making music. He recognised that all musicians no matter what there instrument or style could be forgotten, its about making music for the love of it.

I also really liked the marrying of art forms within the hip hop culture. There is a lot for the people I am collaborating with and myself to learn in terms of merging art forms in an all inclusive media.

“All good ideas happen by accident.”

We ended a session with this youtube video. I'm glad someone has made such an informative video claiming what I think a lot of people already knew and believed.

Reference:

Whittington, Stephen. “Forum – Week 10 – Scratch.” Workshop presented at EMU space, level 5, Schultz building, University of Adelaide, 22nd of May 2008.

CC3A wk9

2008-05-21T05:40:00.000-07:00

I have struggled a bit with this week. Although I have had fun experimenting, discovered some cool sounds and learnt a bit, I still do not grasp the idea of 'events.' I have attempted to expand the idea of using MIDI to trigger a sequence. I really wanted to create a basic arpeggiation which was relevant to the note played. However all I can see to do is create some interesting effects and note sequences whilst the note played has no bearing to the pitch produced. I hope I can figure out where I'm going wrong in the upcoming weeks.

wk9 rtf file

Reference:

Haines, Christian. "Creative Computing - Week 4 - Streams (2)." Lecture presented at tutorial room 408, level 4, Schultz building, University of Adelaide, Thursday 15th of May 2008.

MTF3A wk 9

2008-05-19T07:04:00.000-07:00

As always it was great to hear about what Seb Tomzcak has been up to. Some of the things he presented I was already aware of, but there have been some new things which I found highly fascinating.

The bitwise Rhythm Genrator's use with live in the 'Automaton' pieces was awesome. The way he can do so much with such minute limitations is highly inspirational. I think its really cool for the first and second years to see what is possible through the use of Max/msp.

I hope to one day partake in a milkcrate session. I always seem to have something on when one is happening.

The other concepts and works presented by Seb were also fascinating, as was Darren Curtis's work with beat frequencies and resonance. Although some of what he is saying may say a little 'out there' I think that it was all well founded and just based on observation and exploring ideas.

Reference:

Tomczak, Sebastian. “Masters Student Presentation.” Workshop presented at EMU space, level 5, Schultz building, University of Adelaide, 15th of May 2008.

Curtis, Darren. “Masters Student Presentation.” Workshop presented at EMU space, level 5, Schultz building, University of Adelaide, 15th of May 2008.

AA3A wk 8/9

2008-05-19T07:01:00.000-07:00

1)

Live recording is about documenting an event. However a good live recording is more than just being able to hear what happened. its about trying to best represent what it was like to be there. It is just as important to have a good set up for the live recording as for studio, to give the 'hyper real' sense, so someone who was there could almost relive it and those who weren't can feel as though they were.

To achieve this its important to capture the environment sound as much as it is to get a descent instrument sound. A room mic can serve to add an element of air and space to a studio recording. In a live recording it is even more essential. The way the room sounds is half the essence of the performance.

Taking in the room sound is a of course the next element of a live recording. This is where the 'hyper real' element of a recording is evolved. The room could actually have a less than desirable sound. It could be a rather tinny sound. But by placing the mic's in the ideal spot in the room can reduce the high end, and then some clever EQ can accentuate the good elements of the room whilst diminishing the bad. The people at the concert surrounded by thousands of bodies will get a much more flattened sound were the recording can get a much clearer sound via optimal mic placement.

Other than capturing the 'sound' of a live show, there is also the actual elements of a performance which can be documented. If a band gives and exceptional performance, to have that documented is a proof of that bands talent beyond what a studio could ever convey. For people to then be able to relive the experience or get an idea of what it was like to be there portrays the importance of having that live recording.

The disadvantages is the lack of control that is offered in a studio enviroment but a live recording definitely has it's benefits.

2)

Acoustic properties are paramount to getting a good sound. Millions of dollars are spent on acoustics in many different ways. Studio recording is always evolving to shape the sound in a very controlled manner, and it is getting to the point that live recording has become just as focused.

Studios are designed to get the best possible sound. The emu recording space had engineers change the room to allow for a better sound, yet ideally a studio is built purposefully to have incredible acoustics. Venues also take acoustics into account. Where as a studio will have a lot more empty space, venues need to allow for the sound absorption of a mass of bodies. It also has to take into account of audibility of the band from all area's of the venue.

The speakers out to the audience at Immanuel were specifically placed to distribute the sound equally to all areas of the room. There was also a high end EQ used to accent the best possible sound in the room. The studio being built at Immanuel is similar to EMU as it is a room being converted into a studio. At EMU panels have been suspended from the ceiling to absorb, reflect and distribute sound, where David is having the roof come down on and angle to avoid standing waves, he is also angling one of the walls. The sound proofing foam between the hollow walls is also a necessary measure. One major advantage that the Immanuel studio has over the EMU studio, is that the monitoring room is also being designed to have good sound qualities, were at EMU it is square and flat and creates standing waves whilst monitoring.

The ARC and Ergo Systems are expanding the possibility of getting a good sound of a room. They pinpoint which frequencies are enhanced or lacking in a space and attenuate the input to give a flat response, so you can get the best sound to work with.

The possibilities of people with a modest home studio set up such as myself is being expanded beyond trying to manufacture a space in the real world. Convolution reverbs allow the characteristics of a space to be mapped and controlled virtually, which allows for DI recording at home which is then shaped virtually.

References:

Grice, David. “Audio Arts - Week 8/9 – Live Sound and Acoustics.” Lecture presented at Immanuel College Concert Room and Recording Studio, Novar Gardens, SA, 16th of May 2008.

"KRK Systems Releases Ergo, Powerful Room Audio Correction System". 2008.

Multimedia, IK. "Advanced Room Correction System - Chapter 1 - Arc Overview". 2008.

Stavrou, Michael Paul. "Stav's Word: Recording a Live Gig." Audio Technology.45: 64 - 66.

CC3A wk8

2008-05-19T00:23:00.000-07:00

I have made even further efforts to really delve into the SC language this week and I am feeling more and more confident. I approached this week a little differently then was asked, but I hope thats ok. I embedded a pattern within the MIDI triggering section of the code, which triggers sequential notes based on the note you play on the synth. My base UG sound is a bit average, but all the delay type effects I have placed over it prove that you can polish a turd, even if you can still see (or hear in this case) the turd through the polish.

Folder with rtf file and mp3

Reference:

Haines, Christian. "Creative Computing - Week 8 - Streams(1)." Lecture presented at tutorial room 408, level 4, Schultz building, University of Adelaide, 8th of May 2008.

Forum wk8

2008-05-14T05:56:00.000-07:00

Once more I was not at Forum as I was attending a Stelarc session.

What has occurred over these sessions is an interesting focus look on technology, the human body, and the body of various other creatures, particularly insects. From looking at a diverse range of art. One man coats dead bodies in a type of plastic and then dissects them into sections to create 'art'. We also looked at various types of robotics, ranging from android type devices, to insects which were forced to fly via electrodes placed on there bodies.

We also discussed ethics in relation to all of these concepts and even delved into philosophy. I really appreciated taking a different and broader perspective on art and creativity and I have gained a lot from this experience.

Reference

Stelarc. "Stelarc Sessions." Flinders University. 5th- 9th of May 2008.

AA3A wk 7

2008-05-05T11:45:00.000-07:00

Thanks to the Piano playing skills of Ben Bamford, we were able to record a piano outside of the context of the studio where we were familiar. Sadly the DAT introduced a lot of undesired hiss to the recording, but that ignored the recording turned out fairly well.

The Traditional spaced pair produced a nice stereo effect. It doesn't actually differ to greatly from a studio produced sound.

Traditional Spaced pair

Moving the mics up high worked really well. The full sound was incredible and unnexpected in the heartly space. I would of of expected it to be more dead in that space. There isn't a heap of reverb, but the sound carried quite amazingly.

For some annoying reason this file refuses to upload so please refer to Jake or Matt's blog for an example.

Pointing the mic up at the ceiling whilst up high captured too thin a sound in my opinion. But it was at an interesting experiment.

Spaced pair at ceiling

Then came a series of interesting experiments mostly implemented by Jake. We attempted to use the other piano's resonant frequencies. Although not brilliant, it did come up pretty well.

resonant frequencies

I thought Jake was being a bit extreme when he decided to point a mic outside the door and then only leave one on the piano. It does create a nice effect though. It could be used in the right context. Although I would be more inclined to layer a recording of ambient noise over a descent piano sound than to record them together in this fashion.

One Mic in One Out

Reference:

Grice, David. “Location Recording.” Lecture presented at Elder Hall, University of Adelaide, 29th of April 2008.

Forum wk 7

2008-05-05T05:58:00.000-07:00

I was given permission from Stephen to blog my experience of Stelarc this week as I was attending his workshop instead of attending forum this week.

Stelarc is a installation artist highly interested in the human body and mechanics. His pieces have ranged from being suspended naked via hooks through his skin as he was lifted over New York city with a crane, to writing the word evolution simultaneously with his two natural arms and a third prosthetic mechanical arm.

The session I attended on Thursday was a 'meet and greet.' after getting lost trying to find my way around Flinders Uni and subsequently being 20 minutes late, I discovered that everyone was asked to introduce themselves, but not just give a general description, but actually relate more personal elements of themselves to the group. Basically I arrived to hear 1 person talk about the alchoholic past and then had to reveal my past to all these people I had never met.

After which Stelarc explained that we will be putting on a 1 minute performance on Friday at Napier. He set guidlines that it must include technology and should be focused around the body. Although 1 minute, it is still quite a challenging thought and I hope I can come up with something entertaining.

Reference

Stelarc. "Stelarc meet and greet." Flinders University. 1st of May 2008.

CC3A wk7

2008-05-05T00:11:00.000-07:00

I have spent a lot of time going over things this week and I'm feeling more competent with my understanding of the SuperCollider language now. This isn't the most amazing sound, but I'm more impressed that I'm really getting a grasp of what I'm doing, because I feel I can now do better things.

Wk7 zip folder of rtf files and mp3 recording

Reference:

Haines, Christian. “Creative Computing – Week 7 – Synthesiser Definitions (2).” Lecture presented at tutorial room 408, level 4, Schultz building, University of Adelaide, 1st of May 2008.

CC3A wk6

2008-04-15T06:33:00.000-07:00

This weeks CC was quite rushed due to work commitments and people getting sick. I have done the exercise, but not to the level I would like due to these constraints on my time. I hope in the following weeks to go over things in more detail to gain a better understanding.

http://www.box.net/shared/nkb3bvrqck

Reference:

Haines, Christian. “Creative Computing – Week 6 – Synthesiser Definitions.” Lecture presented at Tutorial Room 408, Level 4, Schultz Building, University of Adelaide, 10th of April 2008.

AA3A wk 6

2008-04-12T00:37:00.000-07:00

I was happy we covered side chaining this week as I couldn't remember how to go about it. I took two approaches to this exercise. One I was creative with what I could achieve using gates and side chains the other I practiced the standard use of a gate with a side chain.

Example 1.

I used a duplicate of the kick drum bussed to the key input of a gate on a ambient synthesiser track. I pitch shifted the Left and Right channels to higher and lower frequencies. I really liked the effect this created. I also used compression on the drum to get a tighter sound.

Example 1

Example 2.

I synced the bass with the kick drum sample using the gate with they key input bused from a duplicate of the kick drum track. I also used compression on the drum to get a tighter sound.

Example 2

Example 3.

I tried experiment further with the use of gating and eq and compression. Sadly I just ended up repeating my original experimentation but to a poorer extent.

Example 3

Music Tech Forum wk6

2008-04-12T00:36:00.001-07:00

Music Tech Forum wk6

As we entered forum this week we were greeted by the sounds of a mash up by the group “people like us” Vicki Bennet. Various songs overlaid and flowed into one another. Artists such as Marilyn Manson sung over the top of hall of the mountain king. Various humorous versions of 'Teen Spirit' seemed to be the order of the day. Including the Stephen Hawking vocals over a techno version.

It was when David presented us with his piece 'YouTube' biopsy which I became more enthralled. The visuals were spectacular. Ranging from the absurd Mario bros game, to the incredible view underneath the train and tornado sequences. The music gave the feel of an eclectic video clip which strove to express multiple feelings within each song mashed under common visual themes. Particularly the tornado part of the piece which extended for quite some time. I really enjoyed the underlay of 'the pixie's' “where is my mind” under the soulful gospel like piece. I think the piece should have ended around the time Mario made it to the end of the first level.

CC3A wk5

2008-04-08T07:59:00.000-07:00

I am slowly slipping behind with my Super Collider. I'm understanding what is being presented to us, but I am not reaching the point were I am applying it to a standard I am happy with. I am just going to push myself in the break and hopefully catch up.

rtf file

example 1

example 2

example 3

example 4

example 5



( 

// Example 1 
 
 {
 // Carrier
 a = Saw.ar(MouseY.kr(40, 10000, 1), 0.25);
 
 // Modifier Parameter
 b = MouseX.kr(40, 10000);
 
 c = Resonz.ar(
  in: a,
  freq: b,
  rq: 0.5
    );
 }.play;
)

( 

// Example 2 
 
 {
 // Carrier
 a = Saw.ar(MouseY.kr(40, 10000, 1), 0.25);
 
 // Modifier Parameter
 b = MouseX.kr(40, 10000);
 
 c = Resonz.ar(
  in: a,
  freq: b,
  rq: 0.5
    );
 
 d = DelayN.ar(
  in: c,
  maxdelaytime: 0.2,
  delaytime: 0.2
    );
  }.play;
)

( 

// Example 3 
 
 {
 // Carrier
 a = Saw.ar(120, 0.25);
 
 // Modifier Parameter
 b = MouseX.kr(40, 10000);
 
 c = MouseY.kr(0, 0.9);
 
 d = XLine.kr(start: 8000, end: 400, dur: 5.0);
 
 e = Resonz.ar(
  in: a,
  freq: b,
  rq: 0.5
    );
 
 f = DelayC.ar(
  in: e,
  maxdelaytime: 0.9,
  delaytime: c
    );
    
 g = RLPF.ar(
  in: f,
  freq: d,
  rq: 0.05
    ); 
  }.play;
)

( 

// Example 4 
 
 {
 // Carrier
 a = Saw.ar(120, 0.25);
 
 // Modifier Parameter
 b = MouseX.kr(40, 10000);
 
 c = MouseY.kr(0, 0.9);
 
 d = XLine.kr(start: 8000, end: 400, dur: 5.0);
 
 e = Resonz.ar(
  in: a,
  freq: b,
  rq: 0.5
    );
 
 f = DelayC.ar(
  in: e,
  maxdelaytime: 0.9,
  delaytime: c
    );
    
 g = RLPF.ar(
  in: f,
  freq: d,
  rq: 0.05
    );
    
 h  =  FSinOsc.kr(freq: 2);
 
 i =     Pan2.ar(
  in: g, 
  pos: h, 
  level: 0.25); 
  }.play;
)
Example 5
(
 //Variables
 var car, env, mod1, mod2, pan, num = 15, dur = 5;
 
 //Multiple UGs
 {
  Mix.fill(
   num, {
   
   //carrier
   
   car = Saw.ar(freq: 100, mul: 0.50/num);
   
   //Envelope
   env = MouseY.kr(8000, 40, 1);
   
   //Modifier (Fiter
   mod1 = RHPF.ar(
    in: car,
    freq: env,
    rq: 0.05
      );
      
   // Modifier (Delay)
   mod2 = CombN.ar(
    in: mod1,
    maxdelaytime: 0.4,
    delaytime: 0.4,
    decaytime: 1
       );
    
 };
 )}.scope.play;
)

My New Toys :)

2008-04-06T06:59:00.000-07:00

I'm happy :)

Music Tech Forum 3A wk5

2008-04-03T05:03:00.000-07:00

Pierre Henry

The documentary on Pierre Henry exhibited some interesting ideas. His fascination with sound in and of itself was obvious. Some aspects of his pieces I found highly engaging whilst other parts were obviously a personal exploration. His use of multitudes of speakers and his fanaticism over there placement made me wish I could have been at those concerts to gain an insight on how best to pan sounds when approaching my next 6 channel sound installation.

Overall I appreciate his exploration into sound, but wouldn't want to explore the same territory as him. He has a really good ear for sound but his arrangement of them and his finl product isn't very engaging. Its the sounds themselves which are his expertise.

By the time the dvd ended, I was ready for a break. Having to try and concentrate on more music was a challenge. To me it is a stye, which I can appreciate but is hard to listen to over long periods of time. I was over immersed in sound. Ironically, I did really enjoy the piece 'sleeping'. Perhaps because of its minimalism.

Reference:

Whittington, Stephen. “Forum – Week 5 – “Pierre Henry.” Workshop presented at EMU space, Level 5, Schultz building, University of Adelaide, 3rd of April 2008.

AA3A wk 5

2008-04-02T05:45:00.000-07:00

Auto Tune

Sadly I forgot to copy the screen shot of what we were doing with Auto Tune... So heres a pic from the net.

This is a pretty cool plugin. I can see how it can be applied not only in a standard fashion to put things in tune, but also its creative applications to add interesting elements to a sound.

Each example has the clean version, followed by the Auto Tune version directly after.

The First example is an example of Auto Tune being used creatively. Auto Tune has forced Ben's vocals into a minor scale. Then we used Amplitube and Rcompression for extra coloring.

electric guitar vocals

The second is Forcing bens vocals into a major scale. Its used so heavily that the 'Cher' effect is quite evident.

The 'Cher' effect

The final example demonstrates a conservative use of Auto tune on a plucked cello. Listen carefully to the second note in each recording to hear the difference Auto Tune has made.

Auto Tune Cello

Reference:

Grice, David. “Outside the square” Pt 2. Lecture presented at Studio One, Level 5, Schultz Building, University of Adelaide, 1st of April 2008.

CC3A wk4

2008-03-31T10:07:00.001-07:00

Synthesis and Envelopes

I'm pretty disappointed with what I came up with this week. It is a failed attempt at granular synthesis. I thought that the Dust object would work differently than it it. I didn't realise that because the the pulses in amplitude were random you cannot reconstruct the waveform with a higher density, but loose shape to the waveform altogether.

CC3A wk4 rtf



(
 {


 f = 440;
 
 [  SinOsc.ar( // object to create sine wave 
    f*1, // multplies the frequency (f) relative to harmonic series
    phase: 0, // phase is 0
    mul: Dust.ar(MouseX.kr(100, 1000000), 1), /* Dust creates a granulation of the amplitude.             The granulation size is controlled by the mouse.             Range from 1000 - 10 000. 
            Final number relates to amplitude.
            */
    add: 0), // I can't figure out what this does
 
  SinOsc.ar( // object to create sine wave 
    f*2, // multplies the frequency (f) relative to harmonic series
    phase: 0, // phase is 0
    mul: Dust.ar(MouseX.kr(100, 1000000), 1/2), /* Dust creates a granulation of the amplitude.             The granulation size is controlled by the mouse.             Range from 1000 - 10 000. 
            Final number relates to amplitude.
            */
    add: 0), // I can't figure out what this does
    
  SinOsc.ar( // object to create sine wave 
    f*3, // multplies the frequency (f) relative to harmonic series
    phase: 0, // phase is 0
    mul: Dust.ar(MouseX.kr(100, 1000000), 1/3), /* Dust creates a granulation of the amplitude.             The granulation size is controlled by the mouse.             Range from 1000 - 10 000. 
            Final number relates to amplitude.
            */
    add: 0), // I can't figure out what this does
    
  SinOsc.ar( // object to create sine wave 
    f*4, // multplies the frequency (f) relative to harmonic series
    phase: 0, // phase is 0
    mul: Dust.ar(MouseX.kr(100, 1000000), 1/4), /* Dust creates a granulation of the amplitude.             The granulation size is controlled by the mouse.             Range from 1000 - 10 000. 
            Final number relates to amplitude.
            */
    add: 0), // I can't figure out what this does
    
  SinOsc.ar( // object to create sine wave 
    f*5, // multplies the frequency (f) relative to harmonic series
    phase: 0, // phase is 0
    mul: Dust.ar(MouseX.kr(100, 1000000), 1/5), /* Dust creates a granulation of the amplitude.             The granulation size is controlled by the mouse.             Range from 1000 - 10 000. 
            Final number relates to amplitude.
            */
    add: 0), // I can't figure out what this does
    
  SinOsc.ar( // object to create sine wave 
    f*6, // multplies the frequency (f) relative to harmonic series
    phase: 0, // phase is 0
    mul: Dust.ar(MouseX.kr(100, 1000000), 1/6), /* Dust creates a granulation of the amplitude.             The granulation size is controlled by the mouse.             Range from 1000 - 10 000. 
            Final number relates to amplitude.
            */
    add: 0), // I can't figure out what this does
    
  SinOsc.ar( // object to create sine wave 
    f*7, // multplies the frequency (f) relative to harmonic series
    phase: 0, // phase is 0
    mul: Dust.ar(MouseX.kr(100, 1000000), 1/7), /* Dust creates a granulation of the amplitude.             The granulation size is controlled by the mouse.             Range from 1000 - 10 000. 
            Final number relates to amplitude.
            */
    add: 0), // I can't figure out what this does
    
  SinOsc.ar( // object to create sine wave 
    f*8, // multplies the frequency (f) relative to harmonic series
    phase: 0, // phase is 0
    mul: Dust.ar(MouseX.kr(100, 1000000), 1/8), /* Dust creates a granulation of the amplitude.             The granulation size is controlled by the mouse.             Range from 1000 - 10 000. 
            Final number relates to amplitude.
            */
    add: 0), // I can't figure out what this does
    
  SinOsc.ar( // object to create sine wave 
    f*9, // multplies the frequency (f) relative to harmonic series
    phase: 0, // phase is 0
    mul: Dust.ar(MouseX.kr(100, 1000000), 1/9), /* Dust creates a granulation of the amplitude.             The granulation size is controlled by the mouse.             Range from 1000 - 10 000. 
            Final number relates to amplitude.
            */
    add: 0), // I can't figure out what this does
    
  SinOsc.ar( // object to create sine wave 
    f*10, // multplies the frequency (f) relative to harmonic series
    phase: 0, // phase is 0
    mul: Dust.ar(MouseX.kr(100, 1000000), 1/10), /* Dust creates a granulation of the             amplitude.             The granulation size is controlled by the mouse.             Range from 1000 - 10 000. 
            Final number relates to amplitude.
            */
    add: 0), // I can't figure out what this does
    
  SinOsc.ar( // object to create sine wave 
    f*11, // multplies the frequency (f) relative to harmonic series
    phase: 0, // phase is 0
    mul: Dust.ar(MouseX.kr(100, 1000000), 1/11), /* Dust creates a granulation of the             amplitude.             The granulation size is controlled by the mouse.             Range from 1000 - 10 000. 
            Final number relates to amplitude.
            */
    add: 0), // I can't figure out what this does
    
  SinOsc.ar( // object to create sine wave 
    f*12, // multplies the frequency (f) relative to harmonic series
    phase: 0, // phase is 0
    mul: Dust.ar(MouseX.kr(100, 1000000), 1/12), /* Dust creates a granulation of the             amplitude.             The granulation size is controlled by the mouse.             Range from 1000 - 10 000. 
            Final number relates to amplitude.
            */
    add: 0), // I can't figure out what this does
 ]
 }.scope(12);

)

Reference:

Haines, Christian. "Creative Computing - Week 4 - Sound Generation." Lecture presented at Tutorial Room 408, Level 4, Schultz Building, University of Adelaide, 27th of March 2008.

Tech Forum 3A wk4

2008-03-28T18:09:00.000-07:00

Student Presentations 2

I had better photo's but my phone was being stupid.

Ben Probert

Ben's Granular synthesis program was a great example of the fun that can be had creating your own program in Max/Msp. It was entertaining to listen to him play with his creation and see what interesting sounds he could come up with.

Luke Digance

I am unsure what people thought of my presentation. Hopefully people got something out of it.

Matt Mazzone

Matt openly admitted that he aiming for commercial success and so will "give the public what they want." I think there is market for artists who desire originality and don't cater for the generic public. I would rather not make money from my music, and create something I was happy with, then make money creating music I hated. I think Matt is talented, but the type of music he has chosen to create doesn't inspire me.

Freddy May and Douglas Loudon

I enjoyed both approaches to their use of plogue and Live. Although Doug's piece had more 'accessible' elements to it, I liked the sounds and direction Freddy was going in more. He may not of thought that a band was something he was interested in, but I think more musical elements would have filled the piece out and given it more.

Reference:

Whittington, Stephen. “Forum – Week 4 – Student Presentations Pt 2”. Workshop presented at EMU Space, Level 5, Schultz Building, University of Adelaide, 27th of March 2008.

CC3A wk 3

2008-03-25T06:00:00.000-07:00

Triggering MIDI via OSC

I enjoyed working as a group on this project. We each seemed to contribute to a certain aspect of the exercise, although to me it is apparent that Jake and Dave have a much better grasp of the language than I. Although what they did made sense to me, I don't think I could have discovered how to go about doing it as quickly as they did.

Rather then look at the code sprawled across the screen, feel free to download them as a compact zip file. :)

All of the rtf files







/*

COMPUTER 1.

(1a)  Takes MIDI note data and converts it to frequency

*/



//MIDI initialise

MIDIClient.init;



//connect to Remote SL (novation)

MIDIIn.connectByUID(

		inport: 0,

		uid: MIDIClient.sources.at(0).uid

		);





//so notes will come up on the post whatsit

(



	MIDIIn.noteOn = {

	

		arg	uid,

			chan,

			num,

			vel

			;

		

		//["UID", uid, "Channel", chan, "Note", num, "Velocity", vel].postln;

		x = num.midicps.postln; //post the freq (x) to yourself

		

			{ //send x to the network (n)

								

					n.sendMsg(

					"treeTits",

					x.postln;

								);

		

			}.value



					};

				

)



/*

COMPUTER 1.

(1b)  Sends the frequency (variable x) via OSC to computer 2

*/





//initialise Network



(



	n = NetAddr(

		hostname: "129.127.196.19",

		port: 57120

		);

		

)

Computer 2




(

	// Open Sound Control Responder

	r = OSCresponder

	(

		addr:			nil,			// Nil respond to messages from anywhere

		cmdName:	"treeTits",		// An OSC command (same name as messge sent)

		action: {					// Action to perform

		

			// Arguments - default

			arg time,	// OSC time

			resp, 		// Responder name

			msg,		// Message

			addr		// Address

			;

			

			// Feedback

			// [time, resp, msg, addr].postln;

			x = {msg.at(1).cpsmidi}.value.postln;

						

				{	

					// Send a message to that computer - in this case the converted MIDI value

					n.sendMsg(

						"treeTits",	// Command Name (Same as OSCResponder Command Name)

						//MIDIIn.noteOn								// Argument Value

						x.postln

					);

				}.value.postln;

				

				{

					// Send MIDI Note Value

					m.noteOn(

							chan:	1,		// MIDI Channel

							note:	x, 	// Note Number

							veloc:	90	 	// Velocity

					);

					m.noteOff(

							chan:	1,		// MIDI Channel

							note:	x, 	// Note Number

							veloc:	90	 	// Velocity

					);

				}.value



		}

	).add;	// Add method - adds OSC responder to server

)

// Open Sound Controller Sender



// Connect by Device Index Address

	MIDIIn.connectByUID(

		inport:	0,

		uid: 	MIDIClient.sources.at(4).uid

	);	





(

	// Setup MIDIIn Controller

	MIDIIn.noteOn =

	{

	

		// Arguments

		arg		uid,	// Device ID

				chan, 	// MIDI Channel

				num, 	// Note Number

				vel		// Velocity

				;

			

		// Feedback

		//["UID", uid, "Channel", chan, "Note", num, "Velocity", vel].postln;

		

		~noteToFreq = num.midicps.postln;

		

				{	

					// Send a message to that computer

					n.sendMsg(

						"treeTits",	// Command Name (Same as OSCResponder Command Name)

						//MIDIIn.noteOn								// Argument Value

						~noteToFreq.postln

					);

				}.value



		

	};

)

Computer 3 - playing the simple synth - MIDI out


(

	// Setup MIDIOut

	m = MIDIOut(

		port:	0,

		uid:	MIDIClient.destinations.at(8).uid

	);

)



(

	// Open Sound Control Responder

	r = OSCresponder

	(

		addr:			nil,			// Nil respond to messages from anywhere

		cmdName:	"treeTits",		// An OSC command (same name as messge sent)

		action: {					// Action to perform

		

			// Arguments - default

			arg time,	// OSC time

			resp, 		// Responder name

			msg,		// Message

			addr		// Address

			;

			

			// Feedback

			// [time, resp, msg, addr].postln;

			x = {msg.at(1)}.value.postln;

							

				{

					// Send MIDI Note Value

					m.noteOn(

							chan:	1,		// MIDI Channel

							note:	x, 	// Note Number

							veloc:	90	 	// Velocity

					);

					m.noteOff(

							chan:	1,		// MIDI Channel

							note:	x, 	// Note Number

							veloc:	90	 	// Velocity

					);

				}.value



		}

	).add;	// Add method - adds OSC responder to server

)

Forum 3A wk 3

2008-03-24T20:54:00.000-07:00

Jake Morris

Jake gave an overview of his piece "Cathode Ray Tube Suite" I really like this piece. my only criticism is that I would have like the second movement to have gone for longer.

Khaled Senad

Senad's use of rhythmic triggers in his piece was brilliant. I particularly liked the use found sounds. The other element I really liked was the use of an open source piece of software to trigger these sounds. It reminds me of what we did as an assignment in second year with the program "Live" but with open source software that is much better (in my opinion.)

John Delany and David Dowling

Both Dave and John demonstrated what Max/Msp is capable of. However I think that perhaps the first years who are more orientated to music of a more accessible nature may have been a little daunted by the focus Dave had on his programing capabilities. Although I think it had a great aesthetic, I can understand how it would be hard for people grasp. John's talk on his pieces contrasted this. With the focus clearly being on aesthetic, and not diverging much of his programming prowess. Both pieces were quite enjoyable.

Reference:

Whittington, Stephen. “Presentations, Round One”. Forum presented at EMU Space, Level 5, Schultz Building, University of Adelaide, 20th of March 2008.

AA3A wk3

2008-03-18T22:55:00.000-07:00

Thinking outside the box

To get myself thinking outside the square in terms of recording, I decided to record an instrument I was unfamiliar with. I managed to get my hands on my friends baby harp. I was very pleased with what we came up with.

After deciding that the harp sounded best with a large space behind it and half the curtains shut, we then experimented with where to place mic's. The harp produced sound from a resonant chamber at the back, which had two holes. After listening to the sound from the holes, we found that the bottom hole produced the most bass and the top the treble. We then decided on a couple of u89's (the sound did not have enough bass to warrant a larger diaphragm) at the optimum position (chasing the flame) from each hole and set them to cardioid. We were then able to pan these left and right and get a great stereo spread.

u89 stereo spread

From here we just added mics to experiment with capturing different attributes of the instrument.

First a U87 set to omni as a room mic. This added a bit more presence to the sound, but is a bit airy in the mix. Perhaps should of tried moving the harp to have something behind it.

U89 stereo spread plus U87 room

Next an NT5 on the strings to get more plucking sounds. Although it adds realism, its not what the audience would hear and so I don't like it.

U89 stereo spread plus NT5 strings

Finally we tried putting a mic inside the bottom hole to get the sound of the resonant space. It sounds very full and I like it. But I'm not sure I would actually use it.

U89 stereo spread plus NT5 hole

CC3A wk 2

2008-03-17T00:46:00.000-07:00

It is proving to be quite the challenge getting my head around this language, but I think I'm slowly getting there. I can scour the examples in the help files till I find the appropriate sections of code which relate to the questions set for us, but I don't wholly understand it on a low level bases. To combat this I am trying to do each question in a series of basic steps, so I know exactly how each bit works. It's helping, but I'm still worried that as things get more complex I am going to get left behind. I guess its a matter of wait and see.

I was having trouble getting the code to format (it kept putting it all on the one line) so heres a link to the rtf file.

CCAwk2 rtf file

Music Tech Forum3A wk2

2008-03-13T17:02:00.000-07:00

To blog, or not to blog?

Does blogging serve as an adequate means of academic evaluation? Ethic, etiquette and cultural impact were three major areas of blogging raised by Stephen Whittington. Although he did not directly say this, I assume he was trying to apply that from adhering to these guidelines, that blog's can maintain academic credibility.

When discussing what Ethic, etiquette and cultural impact implied in terms of blogging, I felt that the obvious was being stated. However I think if you are going to use blogging as a means of academic assessment it is import to have guidelines which are clear and precise, even to the point of being self evident and obvious.

Finally I found it interesting when I brought up the usefulness of observing your peers weekly exercises to help you with your own work. The immediate assumption that this was cheating was quite unjust in my opinion. Quite often you can look at what somebody else has done and learn from it, but still put in the effort yourself and do it a completely different way, but it was from seeing how someone else has gone about it that helped you reach that point.

References

Stephen Whittington. "Music Technology Forum - Blogs, Assessment & Student Discussion." Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, South Australia, 13/03/2008.

Pic Reference
Annon. "Knowing Your Audience is Key for Real Estate Bloggers" October 9, 2007 4:24 pm. (15/3/08).
http://base10blog.wordpress.com/2007/10/09/knowing-your-audience-is-key-for-real-estate-bloggers/

AA3 wk2

2008-03-12T04:14:00.000-07:00

Surround Micing techniques.

The main technique presented to us was the decatree (pictured above.) We set this up with the neuman as the centre mic. We positioned the mics so that the piano was evenly spread across the front left, centre and front right mic.

decaTree

I was much happier with the result when we tried my idea of spreading the mics out to match the positions a surround speaker set up and turned the mics inwards. It really gives a feel for someone moving around within a space. I think it would be cool to use this set up for a sound installation. Feed the mic signals to 5 corrosponding speakers in a seperate room, so people can hear people moving around that they can't see.

superSpacing

Tech Forum 3 semester 1 wk1

2008-03-11T02:39:00.000-07:00

Music Tech Forum - Week 1 - Synergy Project

The Synergy project was a group of artists discussing collaboration. Some focussed on the idea of collaboration in more detail, whilst most discussed various works they have collaborated on and how the have grown and developed as artists from these collaborations.

In terms of music, only one of the speakers really stood out. Ross Benicia. His program Audio Mulch was a very ingenuitive approach to the ever pressing difficulties of having improvisatory collaborations with 'traditional' instruments.

The reac-table is of course a brilliant extension of this idea. Creating a tactile interface which offers a hands on approach to creating electronic music in the same vague vain as learning a 'traditional' instrument. The fact that he collaborated with others to contribute to the production of the latest incarnations of the reac-table was very fitting.

Reference:

Bencina, Ross. "The Synergy Project." Forum presented at University of SA – City West Campus, Sir Hans Heysen Building, Level 3, Lecture Theatre HH308, Friday 7th of March.

Gardiner, Matthew. "The Synergy Project." Forum presented at University of SA – City West Campus, Sir Hans Heysen Building, Level 3, Lecture Theatre HH308, Friday 7th of March.

Polson, Deb. "The Synergy Project." Forum presented at University of SA – City West Campus, Sir Hans Heysen Building, Level 3, Lecture Theatre HH308, Friday 7th of March.

Plumley, Fee. "The Synergy Project." Forum presented at University of SA – City West Campus, Sir Hans Heysen Building, Level 3, Lecture Theatre HH308, Friday 7th of March.

Rackham, Melinda. "The Synergy Project." Forum presented at University of SA – City West Campus, Sir Hans Heysen Building, Level 3, Lecture Theatre HH308, Friday 7th of March.

Wilde, Danielle. "The Synergy Project." Forum presented at University of SA – City West Campus, Sir Hans Heysen Building, Level 3, Lecture Theatre HH308, Friday 7th of March.

AA3 wk 1

2008-03-10T21:18:00.000-07:00

Stereo mic'ing

My general approach to panning is to get as much of an isolated instrument as possible and then pan it within a stereo image. Yet there are times when using stereo mic'ing can be the best approach.

Mid Side Technique - U87s one set to Omni, the other set to Figure 8:

The Mid Side approach is always brilliant on a piano. It just gives it such a full rich sound

Mid Side

XY Configuration - U87's - Set to Cardiod:

The Nueman XY didn't work so well. I think it was partially because they weren't placed correctly, as the levels differ slightly. I also thing you are better of doing Mid side to get the same feel, or use the Rode NT5's.

Neuman XY

XY-NT4 Stereo Mic:

The Rode NT5's worked fairly well in the XY. I think I rather use them as a spaced pair though.

Rode NT XY

Close Stereo Pair - U87's - Set to Cardiod:

The spaced pair worked quite well.

Spaced Pair

U87's front and back - Set to Cardiod:

Stereo front and back worked better that I expected. I think it isolated the difference between the low and the high strings well. Although possible lost a bit of the mid range.

stereo front back

Reference:

Grice, David. "Audio Arts, Week 1 - Multi Micing Techniques". Lecture presented at EMU space, Level 5, Schultz building, University of Adelaide, 4th March, 2008.

CC3 semester 1 wk1

2008-03-10T17:09:00.002-07:00

This weeks Super Collider excercise was a bit of a push to get through. Mainly because I had Womad all weekend and had little time to get it done. But I got it in the end. The readings weren't as strait forward as they could be but I think I deciphered it in the end. I had to look onto John Deleny's blog to discover how to post multiple times.

CC3A wk1 rtf file


// CC3 week 1 SC

(
"hmm".postln;
)

// Now it is time for some Maths

(

 a = 2;
 b = 2;
 (a + b).postln;
)
(
 // Words and Numbers Global ( tilda ~)
 ~time = 100;
 ~code = "Dead Ants";
 (~time + ~code).postln;
)
(
  // Words and Numbers Local
  var whoSays, youCantHaveItAll;
  whoSays = 100;
  youCantHaveItAll = "Dead Ants";
  (whoSays + youCantHaveItAll).postln;
)
(
// Function 1

 f = {
  arg a,b;
  var frozenInTime = 9;
  
  (a + b - frozenInTime).postln
 };
 
 f.value(5, 4);
 
)
(
// Function 2

 f = {
  arg a,b;
  var whoSays, youCantHaveItAll;
   whoSays = 100;
   youCantHaveItAll = "Dead Ants";   
   (a + b - whoSays + youCantHaveItAll).postln
  };
 
  f.value (101, 99);
 
)
(
// Funtion 3
 f = {
  arg a,b;
  var mooMoo, cow;
  mooMoo = 9;
  cow = 2;
  (a * b - mooMoo / cow).postln
 };
 
 f.value (4, 7);
 
)
(
// Function 4
 f = {
  var luke, is, a, vegetarian, hippy, dude;
  luke = "Lets";
  is = "go";
  a = "on";
  vegetarian = "a";
  hippy = "killing";
  dude = "spree!";
  (luke + is + a + vegetarian + hippy + dude).postln
 };
 
 f.value
)
(
// Function 5
 f = {
  arg a, b, c, d, e, f; a - b * c + d / e
 };
 
 f.value (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6).postln;
)
(   
// Function 6
 f = {
  arg a, b, c, d, e;
  a + b + c + d + e
 } ;
 
 f.value("Luke", "is", "a vegetarian", "hippy", "dude.");
)
(
/* Function 7 - Printing multiple times.
I have looked at John Delany's blog to figure this one out as I couldn't find out how to do this from the readings.
*/
10.do({ arg item; {"100 Dead Ants".postln; "Frozen in time".postln }.value});
)
(
// Function 8
y = 12;
q = 57;
r = 9;
v = "100 Dead Ants Floating in Time";

(y * q - r + v).postln;

)

(
// Function 9
y = { arg a, b, c, d, r, t; a + b * c - d / r * t; };
y.value(9, 3, 11, 5, 2, 6);
)
(
//Function 10
~thisIs = 5;
~myLast = 5;
~function = "Functions complete";

(~thisIs + ~myLast + ~function).postln
)

[1] Christian Haines. "Creative Computing 3: Semester 1, Week 1. Introduction to SuperCollider." Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, South Australia, 6/03/2008.

3rd Year!

2008-03-10T17:09:00.001-07:00

It has begun!

That is all :)

My instrumet shits all over this! ..........

2007-12-10T00:26:00.000-08:00

Or maybe its the other way round..

CHECK IT OUT!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JISVw7xiR5w

AA Major Semester 2 year 2

2007-11-15T15:00:00.000-08:00

This was a really cool project. I might do some further work on this over my break for fun. I replaced most of the sound effects in this game with my own. I also created a music and ambiance track, but were unable to implement them in either the windows or mac mod.

pre production pdf

Process pdf

Assets pdf

music

ambiance weather

Creative Computing

2007-11-15T14:49:00.000-08:00

I am the most proud of my program than all the work I have done since I started uni. It sucks that the load sample folder function went wrong when turned into an application, but I still think that its a really cool virtual sampler and its user-interface rocks and is very user friendly. The song I created is cool, but could be slightly more percussive. I'm looking forward to extending this program for use in a fringe show entitled "ILLUstratingaSTORY" in which there will be a 6 speaker set up with the ambiance moving around the room dependent on where people are in the room.

Anyways here is a pic, the documentation and the app. and a piece of ambient music I created with the app.

project plan pdf

Research pdf

analysis pdf

Score1 pdf

score2 pdf

App

Music EclecticEye

Forum wk12

2007-10-26T22:03:00.000-07:00

And then the magic happens! This week took a whole new turn and I was really quite happy with the outcome. I think that the success (in my opinion) can be summed up quite simply. There were the use of real instruments and greater attention was placed on harmony and melody. Sonic texture and timbre still played an important role but there was freedom it it to achieve pleasing sound. Ben was awesome on his instrument and for a great part of it played a lead role, holding the group together. Matt's use of the grand piano also worked well in the same way, giving something for people to follow and add too.

I was only upset at the fact that my instrument didn't have as much volume as I would have liked and I was quite bored with what it is able to achieve, I want more options. I'm thinking for the concert I might bring my Marshall amp to add volume and more area's for control as it has reverb and built in distortion.

Heres some videos I have acquired from John Delaney's blog (as with the pics for the last few forum posts of mine.)

Video Reference:

Delaney, John. "Music Tech Forum wk 12 Improvisation 2." John Delaney's blog. http://johndelany.blogspot.com/2007/10/music-tech-forum-week-12-improvisation.html (October 25 2007).

Reference:

Whittington, Stephen. “Forum – Week 11 – Improvisation 2.” Workshop presented at EMU space, Level 5, Schultz Building, University of Adelaide, 25th of October, 2007.

Harris, David. “Forum – Week 11 – Improvisation 2.” Workshop presented at EMU space, Level 5, Schultz Building, University of Adelaide, 25th of October, 2007.

Forum wk11

2007-10-19T21:28:00.000-07:00

Theres nothing quite like a wash of noise at deafening volume, its really quite a wonderful experience. Yes that is sarcasm, and I think its important to look back at my week 10 forum post for more info, BUT there was some good elements to our first group improvisation session.

People did try and introduce some interesting sonic ideas from their instruments which I quite enjoyed hearing, but they were quickly drowned out by the mass collective. The idea of playing as soft as possible was a failure do to the fact that no one was willing to take the lead and put themselves out there with a musical idea from their instrument.

What was highly successful in the session however, was Stephen's idea of Beat frequencies. The sonic texture, the layering of a collective sound was magnificent. The interplay between different instruments as the came into 'tune' and then drifted slightly out again was awesome. This would not however hold out as a lasting piece as it would still get monotonous after a small amount of time. But as a layering to exist under some interesting rhythms would be awesome.

Pic Reference:

Delany, John. "Music Tech Forum week 11 improvisation 1" John Delany's Blog.
http://johndelany.blogspot.com/2007/10/music-tech-forum-week-11-improvisation.html (October 18 2007).

Reference:

Whittington, Stephen. “Forum – Week 11 – Improvisation 1.” Workshop presented at EMU space, Level 5, Schultz Building, University of Adelaide, 18th of October, 2007.rnre

CC wk11

2007-10-19T05:24:00.000-07:00

I took a while to really try and iron out some bugs in my patch while developing this panner. I am happy with the result. I am yet to test the 4 speaker pan, but the stereo pan definitely works. I was going to try the 5.1 pan as well, but I have decided if I can't completely understand it, then I shouldn't use it until I do. (By understand I mean, how every element in the example patch works)

ccwk11 mp3

Zip Max Patch ccwk11

Reference:

Haines, Christian. “Creative Computing – Week 11 - Processing – Spatialisation.” Lecture presented at Tutorial Room 408, Level 4, Schultz Building, University of Adelaide, 18th of October, 2007.

AA wk11

2007-10-19T05:13:00.000-07:00

This week was slightly time consuming due to it being hard to force creativity. Although I knew I wanted to create music that reflected the futuristic setting of the game and that would give the war like element, I was unsure of how to go about doing this. I also wanted to ensure that the music was a background element to the game as the sounds occurring in the game are very dominant.

I am happy with what I achieved. I created a slight variation on my wind patch from plogue and got an eerie ambiance which sounds mechanical and (in my mind) fits the futuristic criteria. Then I used a sample to create a war like drum beat which progressively increases in tempo and then decreases again. This keeps a constant tension to backdrop the game. I kept the levels of everything very low and used a reverb in Cubase to give a distant feel to it. as though its a far off army drumming their war march.

Any ways here it is.

Music.ogg

Reference:

Haines, Christian. “Audio Arts – Week 11 - Game Audio Design (3) – Soundtracks.” Lecture presented at Tutorial Room 408, Level 4, Schultz Building, University of Adelaide, 16th of October, 2007.

Forum wk10

2007-10-12T21:07:00.000-07:00

So the day finally came, and everyones instruments were presented. I was quite worried after seeing David's instrument over the break that I would be outdone by everyone. However I think there was quite an equal level of achievement accros the board, even if the majority of people decided to oscillate a square wave.

I was really impressed with Ben's instrument. It was disappointing that he was limited in his bending due to so many digital components, but I like the fact that it still maintains a large proportion of standard musical functionality having a keyboard controller etc. The effects he did manage to achieve were really cool. The distorted bass tones would work really well in an Aphex Twin (my hero for those who haven't guessed yet) style track.

I was also disapointed that Freddy's instrument was on the fritz as it looked really cool, and what he described of it sounded very promising. I hope that he can get it up and running for future forums.

And heres the video of my instrument again just as something to look at :)

Reference:

Whittington, Stephen. “Forum – Week 10 – Instrument Presentation.” Workshop presented at EMU Space, Level 5, Schultz Building, University of Adelaide, 11th of October, 2007.

Harris, David. “Forum – Week 10 – Instrument Presentation.” Workshop presented at EMU Space, Level 5, Schultz Building, University of Adelaide, 11th of October, 2007.

AA wk10

2007-10-12T06:24:00.000-07:00

The Ambience I have created is a bit stark, but the sounds in the game are more focused upon the factories and vechiles with the environment being very plain.

That said I used Plogue Bidule to create the sound of a strong wind blowing through the cavernous land scape for one of my Ambiences. I modulated white noise with a sine tone and sent it through a filter to achieve this result.

The second Ambience I edit some recordings I had done to get the sounds of birds chirping. I kept the chirps stark and random and then added a slight reverb to the track for extra colour. I didn't want to add too much reverb as it is an outdoor setting.

So in essence I have to different weather situations created with the ambience. A windy day, and a still day.

Wind.ogg

Birds.ogg

Reference:

Haines, Christian. “Audio Arts – Week 10 – .“ Lecture presented at Tutorial room 408, Level 4, Schultz Building, University of Adelaide, 9th October, 2007.

CC wk10

2007-10-12T03:45:00.000-07:00

I was able to directly implement the delay I created with the beginnings of my major project (sampler) this week. I am quite pleased with the results. I am also happy I was able to make a poly version of the delay to save on CPU. :)

Delay Recording

Patch

Reference:

Haines, Christian. “Creative Computing – Week 10 - Processing – Delay.” Lecture presented at Tutorial room 408, Level 4, Schultz building, University of Adelaide, 10th October, 2007.

Forum wk9

2007-10-05T20:25:00.000-07:00

The Bent Leather Band graced our presence this week. I have contrasting feelings about this session. I highly admire and appreciate there instruments. They are works of art and incredible skill. The various different control elements they are able to employ through the use of their instruments is astounding. Then there is the well thought out designs for easy use, not to mention the visual aesthetic!

Were I came upon challenges was their desire to use these incredible instruments in a strictly atonal manner. Stuart demonstrated a beautiful and moving use of the 'light harp' to generate an Indian Raga. Yet this was purely for example purpose. To demonstrate that it was a matter of having the right max patch to create whatever sounds you desired. Instead they preferred to improvise music which his melodically and harmonically void.

I am completely in favor of experimenting with timbre and texture of sounds. But sharp stabs of noise random strums of notes are not the ideal way to achieve this. Its unnecessary to stick to rules of harmony, but ridiculous to replace them with even more confining rules limiting the music to complex tones and washes of noise with no sense of the interrelating tones.

There was a reason the ideas of Schoenberg haven't taken off. He took the ideas of harmony to the farthest reaches, and it was necessary to understand this. But its time to return to the ideas of Debussy. Music is for pleasure, not the autocratic following of theoretical dogma!

Reference:

Stuart Favilla and Joanne Cannon. “Forum – Week 9 – ‘The Bent Leather Band’.” Workshop presented at Space, Level 5, Schultz Building, University of Adelaide, 4th of October 2007.

Haines Christian. “Forum – Week 9 – ‘The Bent Leather Band’.” Workshop presented at Space, Level 5, Schultz Building, University of Adelaide, 4th of October 2007.

Sebastian Tomczak. “Forum – Week 9 – ‘The Bent Leather Band’.” Workshop presented at EMU Space, Level 5, Schultz Building, University of Adelaide, 4th of October 2007.

Pic References

Delany, John. "Music Tech Forum week 9 bent leather band." John Delany's Blogspot. http://johndelany.blogspot.com/2007/10/music-tech-forum-bent-leather-band.html (October 9 2007).

AA wk9

2007-10-05T17:21:00.000-07:00

This week a began to create some of the Assets needed for the game Warzone.

To create the sound of a power generator I created a patch within Plogue and then added the sound of an welder sparking in Cubase. This sound will be used for the building in warzone which is the 'power generator' with the Plogue sound being the generic hum and the welder arch representing the electricity which sparks from the tower on top of the building.

The Steam sound was used for the factory in warzone. It is the sound of my voice manipulated in Audacity and Cubase.

The sound the the trucks make when they are building a building was created by manipulating a sound I have had in my sound library from c4. I got it from the DAT recordings made by previous students. I used Audacity and Cubase for this.

The menu sound was also from the same sample but manipulated further.

The sound of the truck moving was an open source sound of a truck driving around in a factory edited to suit the environment with Audacity and Cubase.

Here is a folder of my assets for the major project thus far. They are for the game Warzone2100.

AAwk9

Reference:

Haines, Christian. “Audio Arts - Week 9 - Game Audio Design (1) – Assets.” Lecture presented at Tutorial room 408, Level 4, Schultz building, University of Adelaide, 2nd October, 2007.

CC wk9

2007-10-05T03:00:00.000-07:00

It took me a bit of effort to understand Fast Furior Transform again from last year but I think it makes sense to me now. The only part that still has me stumped is the Phase Vocoder, in particular what the bin is?

FFT Xover filter

Folder with patches

Reference:

Haines Christian. “Creative Computing - Week 9 - Processing – PFFT.” Lecture presented at Tutorial Room 408, level 4, Schultz Building, University of Adelaide, 4th of October 2007.

Creative Computing Major Proposal

2007-09-30T18:24:00.000-07:00

Project Plan

Research

Audio Arts Major Proposal

2007-09-30T06:21:00.000-07:00

Assets

Pre Production

MTF Completed Instrument

2007-09-17T05:33:00.000-07:00

I am quite happy with the instrument I have created. It took a bit of playing around to be able to include 3 of the requirements set but it does. I can see myself using it to create some instrument textures of sound which I can record and layer to make a piece of 'music'.

Reference:

Christian Haines. "Music Technology Forum - Completed Instrument." Music Technology Forum - Instrument Project. Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, South Australia, September 2007.

Forum wk8

2007-09-14T19:00:00.000-07:00

Here is the video of Dave and I triggering multiple oscillators on a chip. We are using Cubase's MIDI sequencing capabilities to trigger the oscillators via a max patch of Seb's creation.

Reference:

Haines Christian. “Forum – Week 8” Level 4, Schultz Building, University of Adelaide, 14th of September 2007.

Sebastian Tomczak. “Forum – Week 8” Level 4, Schultz Building, University of Adelaide, 14th of September 2007.

CC wk8

2007-09-14T18:18:00.000-07:00

Here is a quick use of MIDI DATA controlling MSP functions within my granulator patch

CCwk8zip

Reference:

Haines Christian. “Creative Computing – Week 8 – “MIDI and MSP.”” Lecture presented at tutorial room 408, Level 4, Schultz building, University of Adelaide, Thursday the 13th of September, 2007.

Forum wk7

2007-09-10T05:38:00.000-07:00

This week is basically explained in each of the videos which is really quite handy.

Making a speaker pop via a Pot and a circuit being powered by the arduino

creating a victorian synth and controlling the rate in which the speaker is being moved via pot and LDR

controlling victorian synth via max patch

Triggering toy guitar via max patch

Triggering toy guitar via max patch with a a variance on the way the circuit board triggers the note

Changing pitch of toy guitar but patch not working (at least thats my conclusion as we are still able to use the circuit to control the pitch.) - I meant to email Seb and let him know but got swamped with work.

Reference:

Haines Christian. “Forum – Week 7 – Physical Computing (2).” Workshop presented at the Audio Lab, Level 4, Schultz Building, University of Adelaide, 6th of September 2007.

Sebastian Tomczak. “Forum – Week 7 – Physical Computing (2).” Workshop presented at the Audio Lab, Level 4, Schultz Building, University of Adelaide, 6th of September 2007.

CC wk7

2007-09-07T04:55:00.000-07:00

This week was pretty cool. Although you will have to excuse the sound dropping in and out because my sound is messing up at home, I think its my sound card. :(

sound recording

zip patch

Reference:

Haines, Christian. “Creative Computing – Week 7 – “Sampling (2).” Lecture presented at Tutorial Room 408, Level 4, Schultz building, University of Adelaide, 6th of September, 2007.

Forum wk6

2007-09-03T03:50:00.000-07:00

There was initial issues with the forum exercises this week. It was something to do with the serial port not corresponding with the windows version of the max patches. Christian tried to explain it to me but as I am quite sick I didn't really click onto what he was saying. However when we used the Mac's at uni everything ran fine on the OSX systems.

exercise 1.1

The light goes on when we push the button!

exercise 1.2

we can turn the square wave generator on/off via a max patch. I'm always going to associate the sound of the increasing frequency with an old school motorbike video game.

exercise 2.1

This was pretty cool in the sense I could create my own midi sequencer if I had enough components. But yeah basically I'm using a switch to turn a note on and off.

exercise 2.2

This was kind of cool, triggering the note with a square wave oscillator, but I preferred the control of just using a specific trigger such as a switch.

exercise 3.1

This exercise was slightly confusing as the pot which was sending control data didn't just control the value for a specific note, but actually altered all of them. I only had one pot so I was unable to test whether they would interfere with each other if there was a pot per not or not.

exercise 3.2

This was basically the same as exercise 3.1 but with a LDR in series with the pot. I realise now that I could have used the LDR to control a separate note value to the pot to test whether the two would interfere with each other or not, but I'm sick so thats my excuse and I'm sticking with it.

Reference:

Haines Christian. “Forum – Week 6 – Physical Computing.” Workshop presented at the Audio Lab, Level 4, Schultz Building, University of Adelaide, 30th of August 2007.

Sebastian Tomczak. “Forum – Week 6 – Physical Computing.” Workshop presented at the Audio Lab, Level 4, Schultz Building, University of Adelaide, 30th of August 2007.

CC wk6

2007-09-02T01:52:00.000-07:00

I spent way too long on this week. I put it down to poly~ once more. That object is the bane of my existence. But after hours of struggle I have conquered the beast (one can only hope that it is permanent victory.)

The only thing that I wish I could figure out would be to have individual samples for each voice if desired.

CCwk6 Audio Example

CCwk6 zip folder\

Reference:

Haines, Christian. “Creative Computing – Week 6 – “Sampling” Lecture presented at Tutorial Room 408, Level 4, Schultz building, University of Adelaide, 30th of August 2007.

AA wk6

2007-08-28T05:19:00.000-07:00

This week proved much smoother as I feel I'm getting the hang of the program now. Although I had a bit of messing around getting my files in order, as the program doesn't seem to have a way of re-linking files when you move them around like Pro-Tools and Cubase do which is REALLY F***ing annoying to say the least. If I'm wrong and someone knows about how to do it in FMod I would be extremely great full to be shown/told how.

Having done the Engine part during class really helped me move through this part of the exercise quite quickly. Although as stated there was file location issues.

Engine Event

The Cycle part of the exercise was quite strait forward but I used some footstep sounds to create a sound event which might be able to be used in the game. Again the file location thing became an issue when I wanted to re-organise my folders.

Footstep Cycle Event

Reference:

Haines, Christian. “Audio Arts - Week 6 - Sound Asset Design.” Lecture presented at Tutorial Room 408, Level 4, Schultz building, University of Adelaide, 28th of August 2007.

Forum wk5

2007-08-28T02:24:00.000-07:00

The hard wiring exercise this week was quite strait foward. Although I struggled with the concept of scratching away parts of the circuit board and hard wiring things to the exposed metal underneath. I wasn't sure what parts I should try scratching away or not.

It was fun however, soldering the pot to either side of the transistor so we could modulate the pitch/play back speed. In fact I think thats one of my favourite parts of circuit bending. :)

We also hard wired the pot to control the volume.

Hardwired Volume

Hardwired Pitch

Reference:

Haines, Christian. “Forum – Week 5 – Circuit Bending II.” Workshop presented at the Department of Engineering, Intermediate Practical Laboratory, University of Adelaide, 23rd of August 2007.

Tomczak, Sebastian. “Forum – Week 5 – Circuit Bending II.” Workshop presented at the Department of Engineering, Intermediate Practical Laboratory, University of Adelaide, 23rd of August 2007.

AA wk5

2007-08-26T23:08:00.000-07:00

It took a bit of playing around with my computer once the power went back on but I got it all running smoothly again and so here is my AA Stuff.

Heres a Zip of the folder with the session file and samples used.
AAwk5

I think it was a pretty steep learning curve with this weeks exercise as being a brand new program there was this automatic need to figure everything out. Although we weren't expected to do that much, I think it kind of comes with the nature of learning a new program to get absorbed in it and thus spend more time than you should be on it.

I'm happy with the water sounds, which move between having crickets or no crickets. I can see how that would work with just a continuous loop until it is told to slowly move to the next sample which has an even fade between the two.

Water fading between with/without crickets

The footstep sounds are quite simple, as they are just single triggers with a slight pitch variation on each. Although I was annoyed at the fact that the pitch variation changes the playback speed and thus a sample that is meant to sound slower becomes to fast.

Footsteps

The Birds sounds is where I had problems. I wanted to layer the bird sounds so that they are played randomly with ocassions of overlapping sounds etc. I wasn't sure whether I was supposed to be able to do that in FMod or whether that is something that is programed into the game?

Birds tweeting

Least we forget, the humble Potato

Reference:

Haines, Christian. “Audio Arts – Week 5 - Audio Engines Analysis.” Lecture presented at Tutorial Room 408, Level 4, Schultz building, University of Adelaide, 21st of August 2007.

CC wk5

2007-08-24T06:47:00.000-07:00

I was slightly rushed trying to get this weeks exercise completed. So I did quite a rushed job and thus created something much the same as last week, but using FM synthesis instead of Additive Synthesis. I hope to make time to do something much more creative with these concepts so that I can learn more, but alas time is always an issue. Sometimes I wish I was doing a course specifically on Max so I could completely dedicate my time to it. (yes I am a nerd)

The Sound of FM Sythesis

Project folder

Reference:

Haines, Christian. “Creative Computing – Week 5 – “Synthesis (2) - Vibrato, FM and Waveshaping.” Lecture presented at Tutorial Room 408, Level 4, Schultz building, University of Adelaide, 23rd of August 2007.

Forum wk4

2007-08-20T04:12:00.000-07:00

I was slightly disappointed with the results of this week, as not matter how much I searched I could not find an area of any of the circuts which would change the playback speed/pitch of the samples. I was only able to experiment with creating loops. In this way I found the simpler 'light force' toy we 'hacked' in class much more rewarding. I would have like to experiment more, but ran out of time (considering all the other work I have to do.)

Sorry about the delay, but bloggers server was down yesterday. here are the you tube videos!

An Explanation of the Toy before being 'hacked.'

Circuit bending with cool results but sucky sound.

Cicuit bending with better visuals and sound, but not as good as the first (in my opinion).

Reference:

Haines, Christian. “Forum – Week 4 – Circuit Bending.” Workshop presented at the Department of Engineering, Intermediate Practical Laboratory, University of Adelaide, 16th of August 2007.

Tomczak, Sebastian. “Forum – Week 4 – Circuit Bending.” Workshop presented at the Department of Engineering, Intermediate Practical Laboratory, University of Adelaide, 16th of August 2007.

CC wk4

2007-08-20T03:42:00.001-07:00

This week added the same issue as last week. POLY! After much messing around I did to get it to work in the end. I have come to the realisation that you can't feed any signal into the poly object, and thus need to have all cycle etc objects inside it. It seems rather silly as there are specific in~ objects so you would assume you could use these?

I do feel I have made project though. I hope that we get a chance to expand our patches to include the 2 other things covered in the readings (AM and FM). Because I always understand things better when getting to do something practical with them.

CCwk4 folder

Audio Example

Reference:

Haines, Christian. “Creative Computing – Week 4 – “Synthesis (1) - Additive, Tremolo, RM and AM.” Lecture presented at Tutorial Room 408, Level 4, Schultz building, University of Adelaide, 16th of August 2007.

AA wk4

2007-08-14T05:11:00.000-07:00

When I went to find information on Fable I discoveredthat Lionhead studios are very secretive and found it virtually impossible to get information on their Audio/Development Engines. These are links to the little information I did find.

http://wiki.xiph.org/index.php/Games_that_use_Vorbis

http://wiki.xiph.org/index.php/Vorbis

http://www.vorbis.com/

http://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/f/fable/behindthegame3.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Fel64/Fable_2#Technology

So instead I've done my Audio/Development Engine research on the game Shadowrun. I choose this game as it was quite simple to find information on the Audio and Development Engine, and as I spent 3 hours or so looking for information on Fable, I felt this was justifiable.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadowrun_%282007_video_game%29

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wwise

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audiokinetic

Shadowrun uses the Sound Engine Wwise, which was developed by the Company Audiokinetic. It is a middleware product designed to interface with any game engine. From the information I sorted through, Wwise comes accross as a Audio made easy for games.

http://www.audiokinetic.com/4105/wwise-introduction.asp

The basic selling point of the product is that it is designed as with an intuitive interface so that Sound Designers and programmers can readily test and implement sounds. It also claims to leave itself open to programmers creating custom plugins to extend the functionality of the engine.

From looking through the website information, it reminds me greatly of 'ProTools' or 'Cubase.' These are both great programs, but are obviously constantly being upgraded as technology and features improve. I can't help but wonder whether Wwise will become similar. Obviously any Sound Engine will dictate the way in which creative ideas are realised and implemented, but would game developers prefer to maintain a higher level of control and avoid a program which seems to make features generic by packaging them?

http://www.audiokinetic.com/4105/wwise-introduction.asp

http://www.audiokinetic.com/4105/file.asp?file_id=400.

There is very little information on the Development engine that was used, but I did discover that the engine was modeled closely after the "source" engine used in Halo2.

http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/2006/11/02/Multi_core_in_the_Source_Engin/1

I also discovered that they had to build the game engine from scrap to interface Xbox and Windows Vista

http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/tech/shadowrun.html

http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/2006/11/02/Multi_core_in_the_Source_Engin/1

Reference:

Haines, Christian. “Audio Arts – Week 4 – Game Engine Overview.” Lecture presented at Tutorial Room 408, Level 4, Schultz building, University of Adelaide, 14th of August 2007.

Forum wk3

2007-08-13T05:32:00.001-07:00

Tyrell and I worked through all of the bread board tasks this week, but when it came to recreating the piezzo driver that we did at the start of the forum class his laptop (which we were using to record with) ran out of battery and we concluded that as we did it in class, and that task c of the bread board exercises was similar, it wasn't of great importance.

Task A we improvised with a bit and used our fingers to complete the circut and thus were able to use our bodies like a pot and alter the ristance via the pressure of our hands on the resistor in the bread board.

Exercise A

Task B we also improvised with as we found we got more significant timbral results when we connected the Light Sensitive Resistor in series with the pot rather than how the sheet specified.

Exercise B

Task C we did how was described. it was quite interesting modulating the source sound with a square wave and was by far the highlight of the tasks this week.

Exercise C

Reference:

Haines, Christian. “Forum - Week 3 – Bread boarding.” Workshop presented at the Department of Engineering, Intermediate Practical Laboratory, University of Adelaide, 9th August 2007.

Tomczak, Sebastian. “Forum - Week 3 – Bread boarding.” Workshop presented at the Department of Engineering, Intermediate Practical Laboratory, University of Adelaide, 9th August 2007.

CC wk3

2007-08-13T05:20:00.000-07:00

This week proved to be quite a challenge for me. I had to completely restructure my patch for it to work properly with the poly object, moving a lot of features inside the poly object and adding extra inputs so it would work. That stated, it still won't agree with the ramped mute bpatcher. I decided that I allready was starting to spend too much time on it and so have left that feature un-connected.

Patch Zip

Reference:

Haines, Christian. “Creative Computing – Week 3 – Polyphony and Instancing.” Lecture presented at Tutorial Room 408, Level 4, Schultz Building, Thursday the 9th of August, 2007.

AA - wk3 - Fable Sounds Assets list

2007-08-09T07:31:00.000-07:00

I chose Fable to do a sounds assets list for as I heard it had a good variety of sounds. I was amazed at the amount of detail put into sounds. There are multiple versions of each sound, a vast variety of ambient sounds and a huge amount of character and creature sounds. I played the game for about 5 minute and found I had an abundance of sounds listed and so left it at that.

I'm kind of glad I didn't have to play it for that long as I probably would of gotten sucked in and forgotten all about uni work.

Here is my assets list plus a link to a You Tube Video of Fable. I couldn't find a video which included that first part of the game, except for one where the sound quality was very average. I didn't think it worth posting a link. But I'm sure you can gather an idea for this video.

Assets List
Fable You Tube Video

Reference:

Haines, Christian. “Audio Arts – Week 3 – Process and Planning.” Lecture presented at Tutorial room 408, Level 4, Schultz Building, University of Adelaide, 7th of August 2007.

Creative Computing Wk2

2007-08-06T17:47:00.000-07:00

I found this week that I needed to break down the task into little 45min - hour blocks rather than doing it in one sitting. This helped me approach it fresh each time and move forward and not get to bogged down by little things which usually hold me up.

I'm not totally sure if what I have been doing is what it required of us but I like the way that I turned the into patch into a help file so it is easy to understand and you can just copy and paste a bpatcher of each segment as required in future use.

Thanks to Ben Probert for showing me how to have mute disabled when the sound is turned off.

Creative Computing Zip Folder

Reference:

Haines, Christian. ‘Creative Computing – Week 2 - Signal Switching and Routing:’ Lecture presented in Tutorial Room 408, Level 4 Schultz building, University of Adelaide. 2nd July, 2007.

Forum wk 2

2007-08-06T05:07:00.000-07:00

I think I mastered my soldiering abilities this week. I had some fairly average soldiering attempts when making my necklace, but by the time it came to creating the piezo mic's I was a pro.

When it came to actually experimenting with the piezo mic's I teamed up with Tyrell. I was really keen to try getting the sounds of underwater, so we put a condom around the piezo to make it water proof, plugged it into a mini amp and put in a bucket of water. This didn't create any sound whatsoever.Moving the water around didn't do much either.

Then I remembered that my next door neighbors had a water feature which used a pump to blow bubbles up in a pot of water and shells. So we tried that.

Originally we tried simply submersing the mic once more, but the movement of the water seemed to minimal to have any audio results. Then I moved the mic next to the actual point where the water was bubbling and bingo, an interesting sound came through. Tyrell suggested putting a shell between the mic and the water bubbles (resting the mic on the back of the shell.) This added an interesting texture to the sound. To finish up with the water feature I also placed the mic on the water pump which sounded similar to some sort of an engine to me.

Other sounds recorded was Tyrell typing on his keyboard and my friend Faolan plucking a tennis racket. I would like to use some of the tennis racket samples in a composition.

Water Bubbles

Water with Shell

Bubble Generator

Typing

Playing the Tennis Racket

Reference:

Collins, Nicolas. “Handmade Electronic Music: The Art of Hardware Hacking.” TF-ROUTL, 2006.

Haines, Christian. “Forum - Week 2 – Input and output.” Workshop presented at the Department of Engineering, Intermediate Practical Laboratory, University of Adelaide, 2nd August 2007.

Audio Arts Wk2 'Morrowind'

2007-07-31T05:38:00.000-07:00

Watch Elder Scrolls Morowing on YouTube.

The Audio in Elder Scroll's Morrowind is an extremely detailed. I will give a brief overview of the sounds used within the game. All sounds and music in the game would appear to be a mix of real audio and synthesised sounds. I have taken an educated guess as to which I think is which.

Music

It is orchestral music which utilizes real instruments and synthesised sounds.

The game begins with a very grand introductory piece which fades out at a particular point. Then at another point in the game a new ambient a calm piece is introduced which is based on a particular theme, yet as you move between certain area's and points within the game different elements of the music is taken away and added to change the mood of the game.

At key points within the game, the music will fade out and introduce more dramatic music to suit what is occurring in the game. After which the music will fade out and revert back to normal.

Because the music utilises a very ambient feel it is very good at sitting in the background and adding effect without being highly noticeable.

NPC

Voice actors are used for all of the NPC's in the game. It is quite obvious that the people used are professionals.

Each type of character (race) has a distinct type of voice as well as age portrayed and emotion portrayed.

Environment

The environmental sounds are highly detailed and layered.

Rain - different degrees of heaviness. -synthesised
Water noises from a river. synthesised
Sounds of moving in water. (walking across a river) - synthesised
Wind noises - varying degrees of strength. synthesised
Caverns etc have reverb added to movement noises. - reverb

Object Sounds

There are sounds for that of different doors opening. - audio
Chests opening. - audio
Objects being picked up - synthesised

Character Sounds (NPC sounds included)

Footsteps and clothing noises can be heard wherever the main character walks. The characteristics of these steps change depending on what the character is wearing and surface walking on/through . eg. armor boots on pavement. bare feet on dirt.

NPC also utilise the same type of footsteps and clothing noises and detail has been placed on varying volume levels of them getting closer or further away.

There are sounds of someone throwing a punch and missing (hitting air) and sounds of them connecting (hitting an NPC/Main Character) synthesised?

Grunts etc when a character is hurt/hit. - sample of voice

There are individual weapon sounds. - sample

Specific Sounds for when magic or a magical item is used. - sythesised

Sounds of fireball through air. - synthesised - possibly pink noise.

UI

Clicking sounds - synthesiesd
Consuming Sounds - Eg. drinking a potion selected in UI will result in swallowing noise and bubbling noise. - Synthesised
A piece of paper selected will result in the sound of paper rustling - audio
Weapons and armor being equipped or unequipped have specific sounds also - synthesised

Reference:

Haines, Christian. ‘Audio Arts - Wk 2 – Game Audio Analysis.’ Lecture presented in Tutorial Room 408, Level 4 Schultz building, University of Adelaide. 31st July, 2007.