Learning Barbados

Online English Tuition coming soon

noreply@blogger.com (humphreyswill) — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 16:27:00 +0000

After a long hiatus, this blog is becoming active again. I am presently starting work on offering English language tuition online. I plan to offer a set of services, including free and paid online sessions, both individually (on Skype for example) and in small groups, using conference software. Finally I will also be editing and proof-reading text, for projects, reports, essays, dissertations etc. This will be a paid service, though I may do small-scale consultation, follow-ups and advice for free.

If you catch this post and are interested, please post a comment here and I will get back in touch with you.

More very soon.

Moving and Melding

noreply@blogger.com (humphreyswill) — Fri, 29 May 2009 19:07:00 +0000

In an effort to simplify my life and maybe to help me blog more constructively I am consolidating my efforts over on my WordPress blog 'Nautiloid Burblings'. I have transferred all previous entries from this music site to, and will continue over, there.

Hope to see you again, oh mythical readers.

New Track - Textura

noreply@blogger.com (humphreyswill) — Fri, 29 May 2009 11:26:00 +0000

This track was built from loops in Garageband using some of its piano loops run through the Kore Player using FM8 and Absynth presets. Then I added a simple drum pattern plus my own bassline, plus some basic effects like a track echo automated on the drums.

I did a quick mix and master in Logic (on headphones). The tune was made as a backing for a video of my daughter and our new puppy so it has a kind of twee plinkiness, but there are some ideas in there I want to adapt and work on.

The slideshow is a set of texture shots I've taken in Barbados over the last year or so.

Mastering in Logic and ES2 Tutorials

noreply@blogger.com (humphreyswill) — Fri, 29 May 2009 00:53:00 +0000

Steve Horelick has done a masterful (ha ha) job with both these tutorials. The one on mastering has only just come out and it is superb. He takes a subject that has the reputation of being pretty intimidating and esoteric and makes it very clear and easy to understand and apply, without any dumbing down. The tutorial is a model of screencasting really, particularly the way visuals and metaphors are used, corny jokes and all.

The ES2 tutorial has been around for longer but I only just got round to buying it. It is something else though. All of Steve H's courses have been good but this one I just love - I can't quite work out why. When I first tried to use the ES2 I found the presets disappointing and the faceplate confusing so I ignored it for ages. Then I started experimenting and getting some interesting results. However, now I've been watching this tutorial I'm really beginning to get it, and not just the ES2, but the principles of synthesis and sound-design more generally. This is probably the best thing I've used from MacProVideo and I can't recommend it highly enough.

Below is a great YouTube video introducing the ES2 by SFLogic Ninja. His stuff is also well worth checking out.

Echoexist

noreply@blogger.com (humphreyswill) — Wed, 13 May 2009 15:49:00 +0000

Aptly monikered sound-designer Jeremiah Savage created the amazing Kore Soundpack 'Acoustic Refractions' for Absynth.

The video was created by Torley on his review site and gives a wonderfully enthusiastic overview. Some of the sounds are just superb.

Add it to my wishlist.

Winter Tides: Second Mix

noreply@blogger.com (humphreyswill) — Sat, 02 May 2009 16:32:00 +0000

This is the second mix of a track I'm working on, named after the book by James Blaylock. I've been choosing song titles from books I've been reading lately. It seems as a good a method as any.

I want to work some more on the arrangement as it is perhaps a little monotonous. It's getting there though. I particularly like the skittering, slithy drum noises, courtesy of Ultrabeat.

But I'm not happy with the bassline and the overall balance of sound. Part of the problem is that it is pretty much impossible for me to monitor the mix accurately as I don't have decent speakers, only cheap headphones and my nephew's bass amp. Also, the mix posted here is heavily compressed which doesn't help either (excuses, excuses...).

The video is just there to frame the music so I can blog it and is a random comp of footage from Slovakia and Somerset.

Berklee Music Blogs

noreply@blogger.com (humphreyswill) — Sat, 02 May 2009 15:51:00 +0000

Berklee Music is probably the best regarded online music training school. I registered there a while back but simply haven't been able to afford to do any of their amazing-looking courses (yet - I'm working on it). However the site is still extremely useful with lots of free resources.

For example, they have several excellent blogs with advice on music production, theory etc. I have embedded an example from Erik Hawkins' blog, which focuses on using Reason and Pro-Tools (click this post's title for the link).

Last Straw

noreply@blogger.com (humphreyswill) — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 20:06:00 +0000

Last FM have decided to start charging users outside the civilized (i.e. ad-funded) world.

I won't delete my account just yet, but the thought of a '30-song countdown and then you have to pay' makes me feel a little ill. It stops me wanting to play anything on the site.

So Last FM is to join the Kindle, BBC iPlayer and countless other tasty treats in the out-of-reach section for those of us living in the 'developing' world.

The irony is I was considering getting a paid account but not if I'm forced to.

Diego Stocco on Vimeo

noreply@blogger.com (humphreyswill) — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 18:17:00 +0000

Diego Stocco - Luminosonic from Diego Stocco on Vimeo.

The brilliant sound-designer Diego Stocco has a page on Vimeo where he has uploaded various clips of himself making music with a range of unlikely everyday objects and substances. For example, the sounds on the video shown here were all sampled from lightbulbs and their filaments. The results remind me somewhat of the quality of sound that Cliff Martinez achieves on his score for the re-make of Solaris.

I was pointed to this page before by a comment on another blog (thanks Erika), but it has taken me a while to follow it up.

Inspiring stuff.

PS - Make sure you check out the burning piano video.

Mind Mapping Online

noreply@blogger.com (humphreyswill) — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 13:34:00 +0000

I am doing some research into online mind-mapping, as I am tired of having all my notes on different machines and memory drives.

So far I have found an application called MindMeister, that lets you have a basic account for free. You can create, share, collaborate on and embed your mind maps with this site.

Then there is Freemind Share, a site (currently in Beta) for uploading and sharing the mind maps you create using Freemind. I have become a fan of Freemind, despite having paid for and used NovaMind a lot. As much as I love NovaMind I just don't want to keep paying for upgrades. Freemind does most of what I need it to do, but I haven't got my head around its text export options yet - particularly for Open Office.

It would be great if Google could integrate a Mind-Map program into Google Docs with text export capability. I also would love to see an outliner faeture in Goolge Docs, a la Omni Outliner (which, along with Scrivener is one of my all-time favourite programs). In the meantime there is Text 2 Mind Map a rather nifty free site that converts outlined text into a mind-map style diagram.

Finally, there are several blogs on the subject. This is a site that seems to cover different products rather than being affiliated with just one:

The Mind-Mapping Software Blog

Synplant

noreply@blogger.com (humphreyswill) — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 02:15:00 +0000

More botanically referenced genius with this amazing synth. This is top of my list of plug-ins to get.

Aphex Twin Live

noreply@blogger.com (humphreyswill) — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 18:42:00 +0000

From a couple of years ago. Found this whilst surfing around and thought I'd post it as a reminder to self.

Forester

noreply@blogger.com (humphreyswill) — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 19:08:00 +0000

Following my previous post I've been using Forester over the last couple of days after downloading it from Leafcutter John's website. It is a phenomenal piece of software and highly addictive. I've messed around loading a variety of sample folders into it. It extracts 6 randomly and then proceeds to mangle the sounds into weird and wonderful soundscapes as you drag the cursor around the 'trees' that it generates.

A lot of the resulting sound mixtures are a total mess but with a bit of careful surgery you can get stupendously strange but highly usable chunks that really sound like nothing else and would be near impossible to make without the algorithmic random structure that the program provides.

So far I seem to be having some success by laying cut up sections over a house beat and bassline. The somewhat inane and predictable stucture this provides contrasts well with the ludicrous vocal and synth mashup chaos created on Forester. I hope to post an MP3 of the completed song soon.

I cannot recommend this highly enough (if you're a Mac user that is - but there's plenty out there for PC users). It is donationware, so it's 'free', but you can contribute funds to the artist as and when. I'm considering buying his latest album now - I bought an The Housebound Spirit a few years ago on Bleep (which seems to be down at the moment) - it's a haunting and beautiful collection.

Thanks Leafcutter John!

Leafcutter John Remix Competition

noreply@blogger.com (humphreyswill) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 20:17:00 +0000

I'll get working on one right away then...

Steve H Interview

noreply@blogger.com (humphreyswill) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 02:03:00 +0000

I am rapidly becoming an aficionado of Steve H, a musician and Logic guru, who produces excellent tutorials for macprovideo.

You can catch an interview with him here, courtesy of Electronic Musician's podcasts. There is some fascinating stuff about Logic's environment and algorithmic programming.

Hope he's done (or will do) a tutorial on using the environment.

Ainu Loops from Discovery at Loopmasters

noreply@blogger.com (humphreyswill) — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 18:09:00 +0000

Discovery Sound brought out this collection of Ainu loops, songs and samples a while back and when I first heard mention of it in Computer Music Magazine I really couldn't believe it. Ainu music is not the best known in the world and I wasn't expecting anyone to bring out a loop collection. But happily they did and now that it's on Loopmasters a lot more people may get to hear about it.

The Following comes from the site description:

This library comprises sounds from essential Ainu instruments and there (are) religious songs which have been passed down from generation to generation.

Hokkaido, the northern part of Japan is the settlement of the Ainu people. Opinion is divided on the time they settled and the details remain a mystery to this day.

The natural sounds produced in Hokkaido are rich, warm, and delicate, but they can evoke power and strength when combined. This new library contains the beautiful music and voices of Ms. Umeko Ando, an acclaimed Mukkuri (Jews harp) player among Ainu musicians. It consists of her slow and meditative Upopo (songs), plus the evocative sounds of the Ainu traditional stringed instrument Tonkori.

I've been interested in the Ainu ever since I first heard about them and it is a fine thing for elements of their musical tradition to be available like this. All too often the Ainu have been overlooked, unheard of and generally consigned to oblivion (often being labelled as 'dying' or 'vanishing'), but they haven't gone away and they are gradually getting the recognition and respect that their culture and people deserve.

I like Loopmasters. So far I've actually paid for one download collection: Nu-Tone and then I chose the KJ Sawka DVD when I won a runner-up prize in a customer questionnaire competition. At first I thought Nu-Tone felt a little sparse in terms of the number of loops but then when I realised that you get the sampled instruments and drum hits it started to seem better value. The quality is excellent, though, and I'm pretty happy overall.

If you sign up on the Loopmasters site, you can download a huge, superb and free collection of demo samples (including a set of the Ainu ones). So it's quite possible to get a decent library to play around with without spending anything.

Thanks to the musicians, producers and to Discovery Sound and Loopmasters for making these sounds more widely available.

Now I'm saving up for the Ainu collection...

Kore & NI Plugins Microsite

noreply@blogger.com (humphreyswill) — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 17:44:00 +0000

Just discovered this haven for tips and tricks and fabulous creations based on Native Instruments products.

Here's a short Massive video tutorial as an example of what's on offer:

Sequenced NI Massive patches in Kore 2 from Create Digital Media on Vimeo.

Inspiring stuff.

Blipping Marvellous

noreply@blogger.com (humphreyswill) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 13:49:00 +0000

Blip is a Twitter-like music radio application that lets you share music, link up with people etc. As soon as I joined it I was discovering new sounds.

At first I didn't realise that all your 'Blips' are turned into 'Tweets', so when I was writing somewhat inane comments to the songs I was choosing, they were all being posted on Twitter.

Online Music Production

noreply@blogger.com (humphreyswill) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 12:46:00 +0000

Splice is an application that allows you to load and mix sounds into songs using its online sequencer.

I've registered on the site and I'm planning to get started on some online projects asap.

Welcome

noreply@blogger.com (humphreyswill) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 12:33:00 +0000

This blog will focus on music production techniques, works in progress and music technology. It is primarily for myself to organise tips, ideas an project records, but if it is useful to anyone else, please join, share ideas or drop me a note.

Collage

noreply@blogger.com (humphreyswill) — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 13:53:00 +0000

Been messing around with Picasa 3 (Beta on the Mac - at long last!) You can put a collage like this together in minutes. Lovely.

Learning Projects

noreply@blogger.com (humphreyswill) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 01:13:00 +0000

Wikiversity offers the possibility of setting up your own learning projects, perhaps centred around a class or learning group. I hadn't fully appreciated this aspect of the site and it is both intriguing and exciting.

Here is a quote from the site:

Possible question: I've read all this stuff so far, and it seems I can just jump in here and use Wikiversity to set up some pages to organise and teach my own class. Surely this is hardly in the interest of a global project like Wikiversity? Surely there must be some kind of limitation on my exploitation of Wikiversity's resources?
Answer: of course you can jump in and do your own class stuff here!
The reason why this helps the world at large is a piece of deep, subtle and somewhat speculative wiki-wisdom, however. The theory of wiki-dom looks at the very long-term effects and fate of the learning resources you create. At first, a new resource may be so specific and particular in terms of time, place and people, that it is of absolutely no use to the wider world whatsoever. Your resource may only be used by you for a few weeks (time); its content pretty well limits it to your own lesson planning and classroom events (place); and the people involved may not extend outside your class (people). However, unlike a non-wiki webpage, others can come after you and find the resources you have left behind. Rather than reinventing the wheel, they may re-purpose your resources to save themselves time. During the process of repurposing, it is likely that the universality (wider usefulness) of the resource may increase by a small, perhaps almost insignificant amount. The universality will tend to increase, because the resource has now been used on two occasions in different times, places and by different people. Of course, each time the repurposing occurs, the universality may not increase much, or may even sometimes decrease. But in the long run, the resource will incrementally become more valuable and of more universal appeal. This is something which is scarcely visible at the beginning, or not at all visible. But it is the theory of the wiki.

Hmm. Looks like something I might be interested in pursuing.

Checklist for course writers

noreply@blogger.com (humphreyswill) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 18:52:00 +0000

Fraida Dubin and Elite Olshtain provide a useful overview of course design principles in their 1986 book on the subject.

Concept: has it already been done well? Is it needed?
Definition: what will be included?
Objectives: what are the actual needs and goals of the target audience?
Congruence: will the course plan fit with a given syllabus or curriculum?
Voice: whose voices will be in the text and whom will they address?
Teachers: who will have the most control and how much scope will there be for improvisation?
Learners: how much responsibility will learners have and will the course match their cultural expectations and learning styles? How much freedom and risk will be encouraged?
Point of view: how neutral or universal should the text, language and material be (e.g. in terms of age, sex, class etc.)?
Inventiveness: what will be the balance netween internal structure/progression and adaptability/selection?
Skills: how will language skills be integrated with structures, themes, situations, functions etc.?

Principles for task creation

noreply@blogger.com (humphreyswill) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 18:44:00 +0000

Janice Yalden notes the following principles in designing tasks for language learning/teaching:

Tasks should:

Be realistic;
Have some kind of information gap;
Be unpredictable and free in terms of language and meaning in order to encourage risk-taking, Independence and true language development;
As far as possible meet the learners' style, needs, expectations and interests.

Based on Yalden (1987) P.152

A template for situation-based language course frameworks

noreply@blogger.com (humphreyswill) — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 18:21:00 +0000

I've been doing some research on course design and will be summarising some of the key principles here from the literature. Our centre library is not as up-to-date as it could be but this is not really much of a disadvantage as it pays to look back at older material. Indeed, I have only just discovered the amazing work of Wilga Rivers, who is a real inspiration and I hope to make further similar valuable discoveries.

Janice Yalden gives a template for designing situation-based language courses. Her approach is very useful in that she deliberately keeps the outlines as universal as possible so they may be applied to any language.

The steps can be summarised as follows:

Decide on the situation.
List communicative goals: those things a person would typically need to be able to do in this situation in the target culture.
List the types of transaction that would be needed to fulfil the communicative goals.
List the language content: those words and expressions needed for each transaction.
List the language objectives: e.g. specific grammar, lexis and phonological features.
Prepare suitable teaching materials to meet the language objectives. Locate realia, pictures and objects relating to the situation.
Find/create listening activities, dialogues and video extracts. Script and record if necessary.
Find or create further activities to reinforce content: reading, writing, tasks, games etc.
Devise summative tests and evaluative component.
Review and revise material.

Based on Yalden (1987) P.148f.