the auxperience

Evergreen Singers - Sing for Women's Rights

2010-03-20T17:29:00.001-07:00

:: Got a new recording up; actually, several new recordings. The Evergreen Singers wanted their performance pieces for the Winter quarter recorded, so I was more than happy to oblige. I wanted to try a few things I hadn't done in the past, so I tried three different mic'ing techniques.

First, for the full choir, I used a Decca tree configuration consisting of two U87's about eight feet apart pointing a few degrees foward (toward the choir) of perpendicular to the side walls and one AKG 414 about two feet in front of the other Neumanns. All three were in omni pattern and put about ten feet up. I feel that the success of this recording mainly came from that great height, allowing the voices to blend before they reached the mics. For the future, I would probably put the side mics in cardioid mode to enhance the stereo image even more; they caught a little too much of the entire room for my taste, but listen for yourself. The link is at the end of this post.

Second, I used our Avantone CK-40 for the small ensembles. This microphone is unique in that it has two separate diaphragms sending two discrete signals. Each diaphragm has an independent polar pattern selector switch; furthermore, the top diaphragm is rotatable up to 180º opposite the bottom diaphragm. I decided to put them both in bidirectional mode and rotate the top to 90º to achieve a Blumlein stereo configuration. I was pleased with the separation between the channels, but I'd like to get a little more of a center image from it. The performers were also pretty close to it, so if someone was louder than the others, it was very apparent. In the coming weeks, I'd like to play with some weird phase inversion, reverb, and other processing combinations to put those recordings in a 5.1 surround setting. Hear the Avantone on "Edmonds" and "March of the Women" after the jump.

Third, I mic'ed the piano with two KM84's in an XY pattern at the curve of the body. It's not as good as the sound I got in my recording of "Horsetown" by Centralia College, but I'll talk about that when I get around to uploading that song. As far as this particular piano goes though, I also had heard something about placing a pressure zone microphone underneath the piano to capture more of the bass frequencies. I probably didn't do it correctly because I ended up throwing out that track completely. Anyhow, to hear all nine songs, click the link below to visit the File Vault:

http://musicianator.web.officelive.com/default.aspx ::

DIY Video Magic!

2010-03-18T22:08:00.000-07:00

:: Found this page on making your own "steadicam" for shooting nice, smooth video. If you've already got the tools, the parts are easily acquired; pretty radtacular. The guy who designed this little piece of gear has some other amazing videos (he works for Microsoft, smart guy), including 3D work...with a Nintendo Wii! Check out his other videos, they're pretty rad ::

http://steadycam.org/

More Than I Bargained For?

2010-03-04T15:46:00.000-08:00

:: I've also acquired a few skills outside of my contract. My live production experience has shot up immensely; in fact, just three days ago we had to put together the audio for an important budget meeting with very little notice. Nine panelists, two Q&A mics, recording directly to CD, and terrible acoustics all had to be accounted for. I ended up drawing up the flow diagram for our setup as I gathered gear with Heidi (an EM student employee), and met with Giles and Jimmy (other EM student employees) at the lecture hall where the meeting was held. I actually managed to think of all the gear we needed and get it on the cart the first time, which had not happened before and was a really good feeling. Overall, the event went well enough that Les Purce commented on the setup after the event was over.

Another huge accomplishment was the annual Student Concert held in the Experimental Theater. This setup required several things: 5.1 surround sound for both live performance and playback pieces, video projection, direct-to-digital recording of up to sixteen tracks, and a stereo mixdown sent to the video feed. Let me break it down for you. On stage, we had a computer and audio interface for the performers to manipulate their digital sounds. We also had a few mics for them to sing or play into. Those two sources (digital and microphone) got mixed onstage by Kris Geffen. He then had to send his six channels of audio (there are six in 5.1 surround for those who don't know: left front, right front, center front, subwoofer, left rear, and right rear, in that order [usually] ) to my mix position at the front of house (FoH). Two performances did not need the computer or stage mixer, but they did need about fourteen mics for all eight or nine musicians on stage. The stage also had four monitors playing two different mixes for the artists to hear their own voices/instruments/effects/etc. My massive board, a Mackie 24-8, was receiving the stage mix from Kris. When the two large ensembles took the stage, I was receiving the fourteen mics they used. These signals were sent to me via a 24-channel snake on stage; the stage monitors used two of the return lines in the same snake. I was also getting two room mics that were hung from the ceiling (purely for the recording, not for the live sound). I also had to have six channels dedicated to surround playback from the computer next to us at FoH. Then for output, I was sending the two stage monitor mixes through two aux sends, routing a few vocal mics to a reverb unit through another aux send and return, sending the first sixteen channels via the direct outs to the digital recording, sending six sub outputs to the PA system in surround sound, and feeding the video the stereo mixdown of all of the above. An 8-channel snake then ran up to the second floor catwalk where we routed the signal to the amps for each of the six PA speakers.

As you can see, this was a complex setup. But not impossible!

Our schedule was where we faltered a little. We couldn't get started with the details of planning until Wednesday afternoon. Ben and I stayed late that night getting the main mix position ready, but still had questions about the most efficient way to set up. Thursday morning we came in to get everything else ready because the performers had to rehearse that day. We also hadn't really established a good leadership hierarchy beforehand, so Ben and I delegated jobs as we went. Friday was when we worked out the timing between acts as gear had to be moved on and off stage, and then the concert started that night. Except for a few minor problems, it actually went about 100 times better than I could have imagined. It was really due to a large group of people helping as much as they could; no one person could claim credit for that event's success. It was definitely stressful, but it was also majorly fun.

Live production aside, I also got some time in the studio to record a band for the album project. It's a catchy song, and the sessions went really smoothly, especially since the musicians were fairly well-rehearsed. I've finished tracking and need to start the editing and mixing process; unfortunately, I can't do any of this at home because I chose to record at 96kHz, which my home setup doesn't support. Being an intern does have its advantages though; I have keys to any studio I want to work in, as long as it's open and unreserved. I also have two more recording projects coming up. I'll be tracking the Evergreen Singers next Thursday and experimenting with some different mic'ing techiniques. In April, I'll be taking a weekend to record Marla Elliott's funk band. Those sessions should be pretty stressful since they have a large band and want to record several songs in just two days, but they should also be really really fun.

Next quarter, I plan on focusing more on my own work and less on jobs around campus for EM. Obviously I still work for EM, but this is the last chance I'll have to use these facilities. Graduation is coming up faster than expected, and it's a tiny bit scary, but it's mostly exciting. Time to get out of my comfort zone again...sweet ::

All New Reduced Stress!

2010-02-12T13:59:00.000-08:00

:: Much has happened at Evergreen since I got back from Spokane. I've had so much going on, and now that the end of the quarter is looming, my work load has actually gotten a little lighter. In fact, the biggest problem I'm facing right now is not getting enough sleep. I tend to be a night owl which doesn't really agree with my usual early morning schedule. My waking hours coupled with late hours getting home have resulted in a bit of a mess at my place; I basically clean and grocery shop a little on the weekends, and then let the dishes pile up during the week. Other than that, things are going great.

As far as my contract goes, I'm feeling pretty good about what I've done this quarter. The NBC gig already went over really well, and I've written previously about that, so I won't go into more detail. The next objective I had was administrative in nature. I continued to maintain the audio studios; this included cleaning equipment (during which I found a way to get at a big oxide buildup on the 16-track tape machine that is hard to get to during normal cleaning and was causing problems for students), repairing equipment (mostly problems with the computer), and helping students troubleshoot whenever I was around. I've also been processing reservation requests as usual; we actually ran out of forms again, so I took the opportunity to make some small changes and updates that hopefully will result in faster turnaround times from me and fewer denials for students.

I sat in on some MTC classes and at one point, when Peter had called in sick, took the opportunity to teach a few mixing skills to the students. I showed them how to apply the technique called "ducking the bass", in which the kick drum attack reduces the level of the bass so they sound tighter and more in sync. I also showed them how to use a gate with a side chain input to trigger other sounds like oscillator tones or white noise. Speaking of teaching, I've had the opportunity to hold a workshop with the other interns on the basics of sound theory. I had my material ready, but wasn't quite as prepared as I thought I was. It went fine, but I definitely think that I need to solidify the concepts I'm teaching beforehand and make sure I don't go off on too many tangents while speaking. It was a great learning experience about teaching (irony!), and I'm putting together another workshop on basic music theory for them this coming week.

One of my biggest goals was accomplished a few weeks ago as well. We finally got funding for our vinyl record project! The Student Activities budget committee gave us the green light, and that took a huge amount of stress off my chest. There's a lot of work to be done still, but we had to clear that hurdle before anything else could move forward. The students, unfortunately, are a little behind with their recording sessions, but hopefully most of them will be done by the end of week 10. I'd like to start pre-mastering during eval week and continue through spring break; we probably won't have all the final mixes from the students, but we can at least start work on a few of them. I'm really excited to hear what they've done in the past few weeks.

My last objective has been a tricky one. I wanted to learn about gaming audio, and I was directed towards two pieces of software: Wwise and Fmod. Wwise was the big one, and Fmod was something I wanted to compare it to, although I don't know anything about either of them. The problem was that Wwise is only made for Windows. Not such a big deal since I have an iMac with Boot Camp, so I can install Windows on a separate partition. I even had a Windows 7 installation disc! But then I found out that you had to upgrade to Mac OS X Snow Leopard to install Windows 7 on Boot Camp. So I had to order and wait for my upgrade disc. I installed Snow Leopard, then installed Windows, then downloaded and installed Wwise, and finally, after a little over a month, I got started on watching tutorial videos and learning my way around the interface. Basically, I haven't gotten to work as much as I wanted on this objective of my contract, but I've definitely learned some skills that I didn't intend on learning. I did some research on the Mac upgrade before I installed it because I had heard some horror stories, and I learned that the best way to install it was with a clean wipe of the hard drive first. This made me really nervous, but I had a backup, so I went ahead with it and haven't had any problems yet. I also had to do a lot of research to troubleshoot my Windows installation and found out that the ISO disc image I had downloaded from Microsoft was faulty, so I had to root around the Internets until I found a clean download that would install correctly. I'm still really looking forward to learning more about the two programs in the coming weeks.

That's pretty much it as far as my contract goes, but my next post will be about some of the things I've learned that weren't on paper ::

End.B.C.

2010-02-11T16:27:00.000-08:00

:: A lot has happened since I last wrote thee, o Blogger. I came away from my NBC gig feeling more experienced, more educated, more prepared for my job here at Evergreen. I know I said I was going to post some specs on their audio gear, but I really didn't get a chance to look at it in-depth; they use an Avalon board in the truck and mostly Sennheiser microphones (in fact, I don't remember seeing any other brands).

I mostly learned about the social dynamics of working on a high-pressure live production; even though 95% of the crew are freelancers doing many jobs for different networks and companies, they all tend to work together a lot and therefore have a lot of expectations of each other. Most of the tasks are accomplished without anyone being asked to do them; the only times setup is discussed is when there is a problem, or when two different crew units, like the video and the audio unit, have to collaborate on their setup.

Because of this immense pile of experience and knowledge, preparation is usually minimal in comparison to the size and complexity of an event like the U.S. Figure Skating Championship. Diagrams are usually drawn up from a week to as soon as a day before setup starts for the event. I personally feel that I would need a lot more preparation, but when I think about it, that's similar to the way I work here at Evergreen. The events and the crew might are smaller, but I feel comfortable enough in my element to work closer to my deadlines.

All in all, it was a great opportunity for me to learn about how a nationally televised production operates behind the scenes. I established a few new contacts, snapped a bunch of pictures, lost a couple hours of sleep, and had a lot of fun. As for my next blog post and the time it will inevitably take me to get around to writing it, I leave you with the most commonly-heard line from this event: "Stand by to stand by." ::

NBC Gear

2010-01-19T15:21:00.001-08:00

:: Here's a brief rundown on what kind of video gear NBC uses for a job like the U.S. Figure Skating Championships.

Sony Hi-Def Cameras:
* Four HDC-1000's (set locations, short and tall tripods)
* Eight HDC-1500's (mobile, handheld)
* One HDC-3300 (set at end of rink, super slo-mo)

Canon Lenses:
* Two 100 x 9.8
* Three 86 x 9.5
* Four 22 x 7.8
* Four 11 x 4.7

Connected via SMPTE optic fiber cables to Telecast SHED's for sending and receiving signal as well as power for the camera. Sent down a TAC-12 single-mode fiber snake to the video truck to the Sony CCU's for iris and color control. Off to the transmission truck and away it goes. I'll try to get some audio specs in the next couple days as well ::

Working for NBC

2010-01-13T21:37:00.000-08:00

:: I recently got an opportunity to work in a utility role at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Spokane, WA. Today was the first day of setup and turned out to be pretty chill. I expected the atmosphere to be somewhat frantic, but while it was definitely hard work, a lot of the time I was chatting and getting to know some of the people I'd be working with. Only a few of them are actually employed by NBC; these guys at the top hire out freelancers for the rest of the positions.

For setup today, I mostly unloaded gear and made sure it was organized as we got it into the loading area. In a production of this size, organization is a huge component; there are hundreds of boxes, thousands of feet of cable, and cameras everywhere. The cameras and cable were what took up the rest of the day. I was more involved with the cable running, which was a challenge since we had to make sure none of it was in the way or tangled with other gear. I learned about several different types like TAC cable, which is actually several tactical data fiber optic cables combined in a very thin snake. Each cable has a numbered suffix denoting how many individual fibers are in each snake (i.e. TAC-12 has twelve fibers, six for sending and six for receiving data). I also learned a lot of abbreviations the experienced techs use: "homerun" is when a device like a camera is connected directly to the booth without patching into a snake or other device, "genny" is a generator, and a "shed" is the box that the send from a camera plugs into, which then sends a fiber optic signal to the booth.

Tomorrow will be a long day; we have to report at 8am, then stay until everything is ready for filming on Friday, which will probably result in a 14-hour day. I don't know what's in store for me, but I'm really excited to keep going. So begins my brief two-week career with NBC! ::

Halfway Mark

2009-10-28T11:11:00.000-07:00

:: So the quarter is half done, and I'm just getting to my second blog post. This fact in itself should be evidence to how very very busy I've been, as all of Electronic Media seems to be. I've been going home around 5PM every day, sometimes feeling accomplished, sometimes frustrated, but always tired.

In the past few weeks, I've done a ton of work. In week two I setup and worked my first live show ever at the Harvest Festival. I also learned a bit about Adobe Illustrator and used it to draw the setup diagrams we used for the equipment. I'm a lot more familiar with Photoshop, but I would definitely like to learn more about Illustrator. That week I also started the process to create a student group for this year's CD project. I finally attended the last workshop (along with Ben, Kris, and Andrew Desmarais) required to register as a student group last week. Now we need to start setting up meetings and make some decisions about topics like advertising for artists, publication formats, and budget concerns.

In week three I learned how to give proficiency tests for the 8-track studios. A good chunk of my time since has been helping the newer students get familiar with the studios in "signal tracing" sessions. Next week, most of them will be taking their tests, which will hopefully free up some of my own time.

Speaking of lack of time, a lot of my weekends got filled up as well. In fact, I didn't get a Saturday all to myself until week four. Week one was the initial EM waffle breakfast, week two was the Harvest Festival I mentioned earlier, and week three was taken up by my second live production in which I did sound for the grand reopening of the Longhouse Center. This event was filmed, so I was required to control audio going to the house for the audience to hear as well as control the audio feed for the film crew's use. All in all, for all the complexities that that event presented, the whole team did a great job. Plus, our longer-than-expected 10-hour day was rewarded by pizza.

By week four, I was starting to feel a little burned out, and I guess it showed because Zena told me I needed to take a day off. So after a pretty normal three days, I took Thursday to rest up. Right after that, it was back into the frying pan. I got to go through training for the movable walls in the Longhouse, which basically meant that I got to volunteer for the wall moves that nobody else wanted to do. So this last Tuesday and Wednesday, I got to wake up two hours early to go push walls around. I wasn't happy about getting up early, but I decided to offset that by going home a little early on Wednesday.

My brain has been jam-packed with stuffing in the past month or so, and it's awesome. I've learned about live sound; I've learned about computer programs like iCal, FileMaker, and Illustrator; I've updated the work order system of reserving audio studio by writing documents for processing procedures, posting the studio calendar online for students to check from home, and even reformatted the work order form to be a little more logical; I've coordinated the creation of a student group that will eventually oversee the release of a full-length student album, as well as drawn up poster design for advertising; I've started learning with the other interns about the details of computer hardware and Mac OSX Leopard.

And after all that, I still have a whole page of topics that I want to learn about and projects I want to work on. I'd like to work on getting Foley props and a sound effects library into the new audio labs. Also, I'd like to check out the Wyse software used for game audio. A while ago, I was contacted about a director needing a sound crew for a zombie movie; I haven't heard back from him, but I think that'd be majorly fun to work on. Around the same time that came up, I was contacted by two students wanting to record a soundtrack for their own movie. Again, I haven't heard back, but I really want to find someone to take into the studio. Anyway, maybe I'll get to them all, maybe I won't. Either way, it's radtacular ::

Internship 2009

2009-09-26T14:37:00.000-07:00

:: After a summer long sabbatical from blogging, I'm finally happy to bring a few updates to the table. To start with, I got the audio studio internship at Evergreen! This is actually the main reason I've started posting again; my sponsor will be checking up on my progress every so often as I write about it. Hopefully, barring any humongous weekend projects that take all my time, I'll be updating this every Saturday or Sunday.

So, the internship itself. I'll be working under Zena, one of the Electronic Media department's technicians; I'll also be learning from Peter Randlette, head of Electronic Media. They'll both be giving me administrative tasks as well as teaching technical skills, which is what I plan to focus on this quarter. For the past two weeks I've been training for the daily operations of EM such as manning the front desk, setting up productions, and teaching workshops about audio spaces and equipment; learning about various documentation like signal flow diagrams, work order reservations, and "cheat sheets" to instruct other students on common procedures used in the studios; and establishing a fairly consistent schedule for the next ten weeks. Just in case I run into problems, or if I have an idea for a group project, I've also been meeting faculty, staff, and other interns to make valuable contacts.

UPDATE: The first week began before I could finish and post, and I didn't have time to get back to blogging, so I'm just going to include my first week experiences with my training weeks.

Now that I've been working at Evergreen for three weeks, I feel a lot more comfortable. I'm becoming familiar with the AV classrooms (rooms fitted with media equipment) and can troubleshoot fairly easily; I also feel a lot better about walking into a class full of strangers who all expect me to fix their technical issues. It's still a bit intimidating, but I definitely feel better equipped to do my job. I also got to do my first work order on Thursday. It was fairly simple and straightfoward; the faculty just wanted a wireless mic and a way to play a CD over a PA system. I worked with Zena and an EM student employee named Luke Hansen, and even though it was 7:30 in the morning, we still got along great and set up the equipment quickly enough to have time to hang out and shoot hoops before the class arrived.

I've still been learning a lot of administrative tasks. I was sick on Wednesday, so I missed some EM training, but I don't feel like I got set back too much from that. Zena went over how to process work orders with me; it's pretty simple as well, just time-consuming. One thing I think I'll have to work on is denying incorrectly filled reservations; I always want to help people, and I hate disappointing anyone. I'll just have to remind myself that I'm not doing anything wrong when someone doesn't follow the correct procedure to reserve things.

On an exciting note, a lot of my time in the coming week will be devoted to organizing the CD Project! I went with Ben English, Kris Geffen, and Luke Hansen to two the required three workshops to start the CD Project as a student organization, which will allow us to have a budget to purchase advertising supplies as well as cover CD pressing costs and any other expenses we'll have. This year, since the CD was typically distributed at Super Saturday, we are looking at alternative methods to get the album to students and other interested people. This should prove an interesting challenge for the whole group ::

Look and Feel

2009-04-26T03:16:00.000-07:00

:: There have been some obvious changes to those who have visited this site before. The new layout is a little less harsh on the eyes with a little more variety. This, in a way, reflects a bit of what I'm getting into with school and what I want to pursue in my studies of new media. I've realized that a variety of skills is a must in this world, and more areas of knowledge means more opportunity. Plus, the thought of learning about new fields of media like TV, video post-production, web, and others is really exciting. A lot of this is stemming from planning for certain internships next year; more on that later.

Another change you might have noticed is that all my audio material has been moved to my external site, aptly (and without originality) named the "File Vault". I will try to stay as up-to-date as possible with those, which I don't think will be a problem since it's a little more organized. A permanent link will be at the top of this page under the header, and I will include a link in every post that is about some project I've done and been able to upload for your listening pleasure. That link is below ::

http://musicianator.web.officelive.com/default.aspx

File Vault UPDATE: Intro to Audio

2009-04-23T01:12:00.000-07:00

:: The separate website I've decided to use to host all my audio files and projects has now been updated with my "Intro to Audio" catalog. Feel free to browse around if you haven't read my very early blog posts and heard my very early work at Evergreen. I did, and it was pretty trippy.

If you've forgotten the address or just can't find it on this page, it is http://musicianator.web.officelive.com/default.aspx ::

Jungle Boss - Final Mix (et al.)

2009-04-09T16:44:00.000-07:00

:: I hereby present the final mix of the song Clo-da-do' by Jungle Boss (the title is pronounced "CLOH-deh-DOH"). This is the unmastered version that will be tweaked and adjusted for the final CD, but this represents all the work I have done for it; after this, it's out of my hands. I had fun working with Jungle Boss and fully enjoyed engineering their song. Last I heard, they liked the final product, and I liked the final product, so that's a job well done in my book. As always, I would love to go back and fiddle with little bits and pieces here and there throughout the song, but I absolutely believe that this recording can hold its own without any more input. I hope Mr. Kevin Kent, audio intern and mastering engineer, agrees with me and finds this song easy to master.

On another note, the new quarter has arrived. My Music Composition class is sadly no more, but I took the opportunity to start down my own path for my education. For my first eight credits, I'll continue in Advanced Audio and finish out the year, and for the remaining eight, I have undertaken an independent learning contract which I have entitled "A Study of Film Sound". The title is self-explanatory: I'll be reading two books ("The Foley Grail" and "In the Blink of an Eye"), writing what I learned from them, and applying their discussed techniques and insight to my own projects. One such project is doing all the soundwork for an animation piece entitled "Moon Diary", the story of which is centered around the final seven days of the moon's life. It should be interesting and challenging since I have never done this sort of work before. If that gets finished in a reasonable amount of time (i.e. before the end of the spring quarter), then I will possibly be composing music and/or recording sounds for my own short piece.

Advanced Audio will be taking a lot of my time as well. We have three major project assignments this quarter: 1) The Drop-In - Take a familiar song and add a new instrument in such a way that it sounds like it was always there, or at least should have been; 2) Multitrack Mix 1 - record and mix a group in the allotted two weeks; 3) Multitrack Mix 2 - record and mix a group in the allotted four weeks. Also, in week seven, we'll be taking a field trip to Seattle to tour some professional studios.

Both these programs should be fun, but all in all, a very full quarter to round out the year ::

UPDATE: Due to some weirdness with Office Live, my .mp3 is not being uploaded correctly. I'll have the file working as soon as I can.

UPDATE: The uploading process has been fixed, so the music should play normally. Don't worry about what the player displays for the run time; it's actually over 6 1/2 minutes.

UPDATE: File is now only available at http://musicianator.web.officelive.com/default.aspx

Jungle Boss - Original Cut

2009-03-12T07:50:00.000-07:00

:: So here we have the raw session of Jungle Boss, the group I'm recording for the Evergreen CD Project. I wanted to put this up not to have people critique it and say, "Oh, at this part I would do this," but to have a control in this recording experiment, so someone can go back after hearing my final mix and say, "Hey, you did this and this and this and it sounds good," or even, "I didn't hear this, that could be changed."

That being said, I do hope this sounds decent as is. It's always easiest to start with good material and just polish it instead of having to clean up parts first. We did get some magic at the end with the outro jam; that part was totally uncoordinated and spontaneous, but sounds pretty sweet. This is Austin, Colin, and Kyle with "Jungle Boss" ::

UPDATE: File is now only available at http://musicianator.web.officelive.com/default.aspx

File Vault

2009-03-06T02:54:00.000-08:00

:: I'm now working on getting all my files consolidated in one easy-to-locate source. If you look at my links section in the right-hand column, you can see a new link titled File Vault. This links to another website of mine that hosts all my music and audio work in nice neat Flash players. It's a work in progress; I'll continue to post new work on here first along with my stories and descriptions about that work's creation.

Here is the link again, for redundancy's sake:
http://musicianator.Web.officelive.com/default.aspx ::

From last year

2009-02-20T14:58:00.000-08:00

:: Here's just another clip from a project last year in Intro to Audio. I recorded with Digital Performer and never got around to mixing or even bouncing any rough copies at all. So, here's a rough copy. I didn't do much to it, and I had to use some crappy earphones for monitoring, but at least it's not rotting away on my long lost hard drives and server folders and whatnot. Hopefully I'll soon be able to put up some clips of all my ORIGINAL sound files, just raw audio with no mixing or anything, so you can actually hear how I've changed them and mixed them to turn into the songs I've posted so far ::

UPDATE: File is now only available at http://musicianator.web.officelive.com/default.aspx

When engineers attack!

2009-02-13T21:25:00.000-08:00

:: This is a truly unfortunate recording right here. This was my tenth week project from fall quarter, and it's...well, it's not something of which I'm entirely proud. But hey, it's something I've done, and I feel a certain obligation to my few loyal readers to post it on here.

So basically the band that I was going to record didn't show up. No big deal, whatever. My partner Max and I were basically forced to record ourselves. The parts you hear are the only parts there are: me on drums, me on piano, me on vocals, and Max on bass. The drums were miked with the M/S setting on a Shure Viper overhead and a spot on the kick; the piano was miked by setting the Viper to stereo and adding in a cardioid to try a real M/S stereo miking position; the bass was done with a single large diaphragm in front of the amp; and the vocals were actually achieved by me strapping on a binaural headset (Dr. Normar) and walking around as I talked. Enjoy ::

UPDATE: File is now only available at http://musicianator.web.officelive.com/default.aspx

A Whole New World

2009-02-05T20:58:00.000-08:00

:: No, it's not about Disney (sorry all you Aladdin fans). It's the creation of a scene in an alien world using sound alone. This was our first project of the winter quarter for AAPW and focused on using our acquired skills creatively. The idea was to have a scene in mind first, then create that scene with any sound sources available to us. If you want to listen to the clip first and figure out what I envisioned, what I used to create the effects, or just want to create your own version of what this alien environment is like, then I suggest you click play and close your eyes right now, before I explain. I encourage you to NOT read on until you have listened.

The original scene I played out in my head and later on in the computer is probably fairly obvious: a conversation between two alien creatures. To get the alien language, I wrote out a simple (and fairly strange) conversation and translated it into Spanish. I don't speak Spanish, so I had to use an online tool (freetranslation.com, very handy) to do it for me, and since you have to pay for idiomatic translation, I had to stick with a really rough literal one. I then recorded myself speaking both sides of the conversation and used a pitch-shifting tool in Pro Tools to differentiate each side and thus create two separate characters. Although they already sounded nothing like me, they still sounded human, and definitely still sounded like really bad Spanish. To overcome this, I simply reversed each segment of speech to result in the sound you hear in the recording. If you play this backwards, you will actually hear the Spanish words (although the conversation itself with be spoken chronologically backwards).

As for the ambient sounds, those were recorded in a previous session for a totally different reason. Those sounds were part of a noise composition for a student in another class who agreed that in return for recording her piece, I could use the sound clips for my project. The setting I created with these sounds for the alien dialogue was, hopefully, a spaceport bar. The bubbling and occasionally squealing sound represents some sort of drink with fuzzy creatures in it which are eaten as the liquid is drunk (like a worm in a margarita I suppose). This was originally a Dremel drilled against a pop can; a plug-in turned it into a delicious beverage. Way in the background of the noise, there is a strange reverberated squawking that was my flight announcer for the spaceport; this was simply a synth loop with some EQ and reverb used to throw it far away acoustically from the listener. The most obvious of the sounds is the spaceships themselves, swooping overhead. This was achieved by recording a bass guitar through a distortion and a wah pedal and then using simple volume and panning automation to bring it in and out of the picture. I will hopefully add some pictures of my miking setup later on when it's not midnight; for now, you'll have to just envision it all as you listen to my acoustic scifi ::

UPDATE: File is now only available at http://musicianator.web.officelive.com/default.aspx

A Turn For the Strange

2009-01-29T17:02:00.000-08:00

:: After fall quarter, I decided to drop American Sign Language; it was a great experience, but not really what I wanted to go to school for. I needed a more focused direction for my education than that. So I talked to Terry and was lucky enough to slip into an open spot in his other program, Music Composition Intensive. Although there is plenty of music theory, this class takes more of a look at contemporary methods of composing music. Our first project was one for prepared piano (for examples, look up works by John Cage). The basic premise of this form is not to focus so much on making sound by striking the keys of the piano (although that can certainly be part of the piece) but by manipulating the strings and/or body of the piano to create weird tonality. Felt can be woven between strings, mallets can be used to strike them, small iron rods can be placed across them, whatever results in a sound that the composer likes. My first (and possibly only) prepared piano piece is entitled "Schrodinger's Cat"; if you know the term, then you may be able to figure out the meaning behind each of the four short "movements". I recorded this with a Marantz PMD660 in stereo using two EV RE15's, both about a foot away from the strings at a 20 degree angle to them, one pointing at the bass section nearer to the single-strung notes and one at the treble section by the curved indent in the body ::

UPDATE: File is now only available at http://musicianator.web.officelive.com/default.aspx

Advanced Audio Production Workshop

2008-12-16T08:56:00.000-08:00

:: My new class has already gone through a whole quarter. I've been so busy with it, I had no time to write anything about it. Terry Setter is my new teacher, and I've learned a lot from him so far. With two quarters to go, I'm sure I'll be ready for the audio internship next year, which I decided was my goal earlier this school year. I just have to get really familiar with the studios so that I can teach other students how to use them; that includes the 16-track studio that I've begun using this year (see below). I'll be able to put up some of my work later on when I can pull it off the school servers ::

Lolcatz

2008-06-18T11:46:00.000-07:00

:: I saw this picture, and I just had to share ::

Another One Bites the Dust

2008-06-09T11:27:00.000-07:00

:: This is another rough mix that I played in class from my second recording session for my final project. It's not very good, and should probably just be scrapped, but I figured I'd put it up anyway just because. I wish I had more time to go through all my projects; unfortunately, I don't think I'll be able to use the studios over the summer since I'm not enrolled in classes. I might be able to use the audio workstation in the computer center, so I plan on trying to get in there as much as possible to finish all the tracks I had recorded.

On the subject of this particular recording...I used the same setup on the drums as I had on the sample I posted just previously: AKG D112 on kick, Sennheiser 441 on snare, and Electrovoice RE16's on overheads. I did, however, turn the drums so they were facing the control booth and put them back one tier on the risers. I tried miking the bass amp with an RE20, but the mic kept popping and cracking, so eventually I just used a DI box. If that was unfortunate, it was nothing compared to the guitar and vocals. I had the guitar amp isolated in the "airlock" space between the recording space and the hallway outside, but the artist had it cranked so loud that it bled into his vocal microphone (a Shure SM7). Other than the bleed, the voice sounded very nice, but it's pretty bad with it. I might be able to do something about it in the mix, but it all comes down to bad technique to start out with; there's only so much tweaking you can do to original material. Anyway, have a listen. It's not my best work by far, but hey, I can only get better from here ::

UPDATE: File is now only available at http://musicianator.web.officelive.com/default.aspx

Final Project 2008 - Rough Cut

2008-05-30T13:00:00.000-07:00

:: This is a very early mix of a recording I did for my final Intro to Audio project. Due to gear issues, my microphone setup was pretty basic: the drum kit mic placement consisted of an AKG D112 on kick drum, Sennheiser 441 on snare, and two Electrovoice RE16's on overhead left and right. The RE16's were not my first choice for the overheads; I really wanted some condenser mikes to capture the transients and high frequencies of the cymbals. Fortunately, most of the good sound I got was due to the environment. I had the drums set up on the floor in the orchestra rehearsal room with all the curtains open, resulting in the wide open feel; I also oriented them lengthwise in the room to delay the reverberation even more. I really had no intention of getting this effect, but it worked really well anyway. I just wanted all the musicians to be able to see each other. Just goes to show that every recording has it's own special elements that make it unique and sometime unexpected.

As for the guitar and bass, the musicians didn't have amps, so I used a direct box to plug them straight into the board. I regret that any effects that I put on these instruments will be artificial, but hopefully I can get them to sound as natural as possible, especially the guitar. I realize that the bass is much too loud, and on headphones the spacing between the two instruments is a bit unnerving. More to come next week when I finish editing and mixing ::

UPDATE: There are two versions of this file now available at http://musicianator.web.officelive.com/default.aspx

Just A Little Something Extra

2008-05-23T09:00:00.000-07:00

:: This eerie snippet was from my very first quarter of Intro to Audio. I recorded some open chords on my guitar, and then simply reversed them. The resulting effect sounds creepily familiar.... If you want to use it for some project of your own, let me know and I'll send you a download link. Have a good Memorial Day weekend ::

UPDATE: File is now only available at http://musicianator.web.officelive.com/default.aspx

A Tribute to Grandma Fran

2008-05-19T09:00:00.000-07:00

:: For the midterm project in my spring quarter of Intro to Audio, we were assigned the task of recording a "radio drama". Simply put, we needed some dialogue, music, and perhaps sound effects. Many people did interviews, but I had no idea who to go to for something like that. I decided to go with a reading of my Grandma Fran's old children's poems in her memory. The poem "Who Will Play With Me?" seemed perfect; it was littered with animals (perfect for the sound effects) and ambiance (well suited for music).

I had my girlfriend Nadia Aikins read the poem for me since she has a much better voice than I do. It was recorded on the bed in our room with a simple Marantz PDM660 portable recorder and an AudioTechnica lavalier (lapel microphone). The music has guitar, played by myself, and piano played by my classmate Whitney Eden. I actually got the piano pieces by accident; I took a break from playing to get a bite to eat, an apparently I took too long because when I got back in the control room Whitney was in the rehearsal hall jamming away on the piano. I just sat back and listened for a while until it became clear that she was really good. I tried using the XY stereo miking technique to capture the high and low ends on the right and left respectively, but the placement was such that the effect wasn't as dramatic as I'd hoped. Still, I got some really good material to work with.

As for the editing and mixdown, we had just been introduced to the 5.1 surround sound mixing room, so I was really excited to get my hands dirty in there, especially since film sound is what I want to focus on. It was never booked, so I got a lot of time in there. I really needed it too; the room wasn't equipped with ProTools, so I had to learn Digital Performer instead. While I decided to forgo any surround mixing in favor of good old stereo, I learned a lot about this new software an discovered that while it had some flaws, it seemed a lot more intuitive than ProTools and will definitely be more useful as I become more involved in movie audio ::

UPDATE: File is now only available at http://musicianator.web.officelive.com/default.aspx

Full-Time Programs

2008-05-14T23:08:00.000-07:00

:: This coming fall I'll be getting to know the real Evergreen through it's famously strange 16-credit program system. Basically, instead of several different classes (like math, science, philosophy, etc.) all meeting on different days of the week at different times for four or five credits each, I'll simply enroll in one class for sixteen credits, which is how many hours a week it will be. I'll be with the same people every day at the same hours learning about various subjects instead of just one subject.

My first choice is called "Music, Math, and Motion". The title (as it so often does at Evergreen) describes pretty much what we'll be studying: the relationships between music, math, and motion. If this sounds open-ended or vague, then you're somewhat correct, and that's what they want it to be. It allows for creativity in creating an educational pathway, all done by the students. For instance, I could study the mathematical formulas underlying frequency, pitch, and rhythm and break music down into numbers. Or, I could emphasize the opposite and try to create musical ideas from my own equations...sort of an auditory fractal. If my area of interest was completely different, I could incorporate that as well. For example, if I wanted to be a marine biologist, I could study the mating songs of whales and analyze them for patterns. Basically, this class sounds right up my alley; I'm really good at math, but I've never been able to enjoy it. By combining it with music, I think I'd really be motivated to put my energy into it.

Choice number two is "Mediaworks". Well, actually it's "Mediaworks In Context: Sustainability and Justice", but nobody says the whole name. This quarter is focusing on the previously mentioned themes of sustainability and justice pertaining to the environment. Again, students are encouraged to interpret this however they want and be creative with their projects. I went to the academic fair to see the faculty for this class and be interviewed for it, and it sounds interesting. It's geared more towards film students, but I figured that it's better to be well-rounded with my knowledge, especially if sound design for film is what I want to do.

Third on the list is the "Advanced Audio Production Workshop". While it's the most focused and "normal" of all my choices, it's also only eight credits. This means that I'd have to take some other evening and weekend part-time classes to get my required sixteen credits. Basically, this class continues where I leave off in Intro to Audio. I'll be honing my studio skills, learning more about microphone and speaker design, and studying acoustics in depth. It would really be nice to take this class and have room to study other things too, but I've heard that taking sixteen credits by way of multiple part-time classes instead of one full-time program is intensely hard since the workloads don't really get reduced at all. Still, it's definitely a good choice as far as my future goes, and it's a good fall-back if I don't get into the other two classes ::