Bertie Blog

I first used the AB microphone technique. I used two omni-directional AKG 414 mics. I spaced these 40cm apart and kept them a meter from the guitar/vibraphone. This techniques relies on the delay between the two microphones and also the volume difference.

Diagram:

I liked this technique alot. It seemed to offer a much larger stereo range than the others.

Next i used a Blumlein pair. This consisted of two figure of eight pattern AKG 414. These mics are positioned one on top of the other. The top mic is pointed down, the bottom one up. This mic is then twisted 90 degrees to achieve the stereo image. these are pointed so that the mic fronts are toward the instrument.

Diagram:

This technique seemed to have a lower signal/noise ratio. If i were to use it again i would spend longer on placement.

I then used an XY technique. This was two mics very close together and angled at 90 degrees with the point toward the source. The sound pressure differences between the mics creates the stereo image.

Diagram:

This was my favorite technique. It offered a great sound with very little noise.

Hello Laptop Musicians, i am posting here to give a final insight as to my pieces and upload graphic scores etc.

laptop-musicianship-comp-2

I made this piece by myself on IxiQuarks. (I chose this as i find it much quicker to use than super collider and, since I was by myself, I had a lot to do)

Aims:

My aim was to create a piece to show the listener a situation.

I have become very interested in music as a form of communication. I decided to test this by trying to explain a situation to the listener using my music. I chose to use the situation of a man that had gone insane burying a body in his garden. I achieved the feel of this by making each sound represent something.

The piece starts with a sample of me hitting a bullmers bottle with my necklace. This is put into the Soundscratcher through worms and put though the IxiReverb. The haunting sound that results represents the night.

Next is the same sample put through some distortion. This sound represents a spade digging in the dirt.

The baseline created on gridder represents what is going on in his head and, more specifically, his satisfaction in what he is doing.

The sound drops then enter. I made these to sound very disjointed and these represent his insanity.

The baseline then starts changing, each step represent him getting closer to his goal.

When the baseline finishes, a sample of a human voice screaming in a monkey like fashion is manipulated to sound like a siren. It is kept quiet to represent a police car in the distance.

I then Used the same sample but in the soundscratcher and put it through the CombVocoder. This allows me to improvise with the sample over the sound drop melody. This represents the man calling into the night.

A few examples of the unedited samples:

bulmers

monkey-2

Structure:

The structure doesn’t change very much as the situation is still roughly the same. For example; the sound drops continue throughout as the man is still insane. The structure is made of the things going on. The first section is the man digging and the second section is him calling into the night. There is also a brief introduction to set the scene (Just the sounds of the night).

Graphic Score:

The Piece starts with Soundscratcher Worms slowly moving over a sample. This is shown second from the top. It continues throughout the piece. When the worms hot something, there is a line. The size of the line is roughly proportionate to the pitch.

The sound of digging is represented by a line with rough stars on it (centre). It is shown like this because it is a continuous loop that runs throughout the piece.

The baseline created on gridder is shown, like in my last piece, by small circles positioned according to pitch. This shows that they are short bursts of sound, growing in pitch.

The Sound drops are represented in the centre by a simple line, separated according to how may times it repeats. This has less detail because I believe a sample or any tune could be used here and give roughly the same effect.

The siren noise is represented by a lot of bumps on a line. This is supposed to show the light on the top of a police car.

The sound scratcher scream is shown by a line at the top of the page to indicate the pitch of the scream.

Hello Laptop Musicians, i am posting here to give a final insight as to my pieces and upload graphic scores etc.

laptop-musicianship-comp-1

I made this piece with Jonas on IxiQuarks and Super Collider.

Aims:

We set out to create a piece that would contain a beat that would not become repetitive.

We achieved this by using BB Cut on super collider with a sample. This is excellent because, Although we have a beat which covers a large part of the first section, It is never a boring beat. BB Cut gives the effect of constant fills which makes the drum part much more interesting to listen to for extended periods of time.

We set out to communicate on our piece without the use of physical ques.

This was very important to us. We did not want to physically que each other since this is not how musicians communicate. One of the main aspects of music is the communication it offers and so it would seem silly to communicate with our hands. We achieved this by using a sample to change sections. Once we had started the Section, Jonas would bring in a sample that contained a build and then three beeps. We used three because it builds the expectation of a change (or ending) and then brakes it by not being after a traditional 4 count.

Splitting the parts:

For this piece, we decided that Jonas would use BB Cut and the Sample Granulator in super collider (he had the task of creating a backdrop for this section) and that i would use the gridder to add a baseline element to the first section and built suspense. In the second section, I had the task of creating the atmospheric Backdrop to Jonas’ Improvisation on the soundscratcher. I did this with some samples through the worm setting and the warp function.

My Parts:

Gridder – using the lower end of the spectrum to built tension and then slowly integration higher, more atmospheric tones.

Soundscratcher (Worms) – Zip Sample – I used this to create the feel of movement between the two sections.

Soundscratcher (Grain Circles) – Atmospheric Sample – I used this as a kind of warning that something bigger was coming and as a que for Jonas.

Soundscratcher (Warp) – Atmospheric Sample – I used this to create a full background sound for Jonas’ to improvise. I didn’t move the mouse by a lot until the very end of the piece but kept moving it slightly to keep the movement going.

Structure:

The Piece consists of two sections. The first is linked to our first aim in that it is based around using and experimenting with BB Cut. When the drums stop, there is a sudden feel of movement (achieved through the worms on a sample of a zip) to show that another section is coming. We then go into an ambient and full sounding section. I think this is a great contrast to the first section as everything sounds very together and unified; as opposed to several different sounding instruments.

Graphic Score:

Part 1:

The instruments are positioned on the paper according to their general pitch and when they enter the piece.

The first line on the page represents the sample granulator, with lips placed whenever a solid pronunciation is made. The dots in-between show that the instrument is still going but quietly. Long Lines show a loud, held note in the piece.

The next instrument to enter is the baseline Gridder. This is at the bottom of the page. I showed it with small circles to show that it is a small burst of sound. The positions of the circles showed the rough pitch of the notes being played.

The next instrument on this page is the BB Cut in super collider. This is shown very simply by an example of drum tab being cut by scissors. At first i felt that this would be to obvious to use but i feel that it is very useful in documenting what the musician is doing. The lines represent when to fade the Instrument in and out.

The last Item on the page is the sample entering. The build is shown by the line slowly enlarging. I did not detail this in any more depth since it is not crucial to the piece that the same sample is used, we just created this sample for communication purposes.

Part 2:

The sample and the BB Cut continue onto the beginning part of this page. The sample then Beeps and disappears. I used a similar way to show this as i did with the gridder notes i played.

The sound scratcher Worms come in next (second from the top). I have represented this by drawing a representation of a waveform and showing the worms moving through it.

Next is the Grain Circles (Center). I drew these in a way that i though would best represent the sound as it is not vital to the piece that the same instrument be used; only that a similar sound is achieved. I showed this with lots of strait lines (of varying lenth) placed very closely together.

The last new sound is the Sound scratcher Warp (bottom of the page). I represented this with  a thick line to show the full nature of the sound. The line is kept almost straight to show that there is not allot of change in the sound, but still movement.

When the sample finishes for the second time, we both mute our sounds and stop dead; not fade out is used.

I have completed my 2nd piece:

Composition 2

i have been experementing alot with the features ixi quarks has to offer and there is one that i felt that you should all know about. This is the Comb Vocoder. I have been using it on channels where i am playing the warp function in sound scratcher. It has a brilliant effect in that it locks the pitch. This allows you to very easily improvise using a sample over some sound drops or a poly machine that you have pre set up. I have used this in the ending section of my compostion with a sample of a scream to give a very spooky effect to the piece.

I would like to state for those who were interested in the quality of the recording on my blog that they are all done using the record functions in supercollider and ixi quarks and then arranged using Adobe Audition or Logic.

I have completed both of my graphics scores by hand and i will upload them here very soon.

hey all, i have just finished putting together a recording of the piece me and jonas played last week. i thought id upload it quickly.

comp-1

Another compostion and graphic scores will be uploaded soon.

Me and jonas have been working hard on our second compostion this week and last and are begginning to get somewhere with it. The lmitations of only having 2 people in the group has meant that we are mainly using ixi since it is alot quicker to switch instruments and conrol them than in super collider. we have a nice soft first section and we are currently working on a second with a bit more kick to it but we dont want to just repeat the first bit with distortion since this would get boring very quckly. We have alot of ideas at the moment but with everything together, it is begginning to sound cluttered so i think we need about half the amount of things going on.

My favourite sound in this piece is a recording of a zip that i have put into soundscratcher on ‘worms’. It then goes through some chorus. It sounds like a sped up drum loop and the beauty is that it is different every time ensuring that no two performances will be the same. I have written up a rough plan for the piece and will add the settings i am using at a later date.

Poly

Quanoon

poly

SoundScratcher

Gridder

on end of sound scratcher

Que Sample

Poly 2

Sound Scatcher Worms – Zip2.wav

Quanoon

Different poly

The peice starts with a poly machine and a 4 note ostinato on the quanoon, this is a musical que for jonas to come in (meaning that we dont have to physically signal each other). This is something we have spent allot of time looking into and we know have a selection of methods for musical ques. For the second half of the piece, we have a blank sound file with two timed hits at the end to que us to stop.

I feel that the only thing this piece is missing is a motif of some kind.

We have worked out many of the faults that we felt our first compostition had and takin into account the suggestions made in class. We decided the main things that need fixing were:

Human interaction:

we had a sample that played in the background of one of our sections and decided to change this since it was guiding us and conrolling the piece. We exchanged this for a very slow sound scratcher and it sounds great and allows us to choose how the section goes.

Signals:

we were signalling eachother with our hands which, allthough worked, we thought we could improve on. we now have discrete signals in the music we are making allowing us to communicate through our music and making us both really listen to eachother.

I wanted to upload some files of the samples i have been using and explain what i did to them but everytime i try i get an error:

"<div id="media-upload-error">File is empty. Please upload something more substantial.</div>"

can anyone help me with this?

Graphic scores:

I have been messing around with many ideas for the graphic scores and have some ideas. I was thinking of using the ixi design in a few parts just to show the instuments (if i had predators, i would draw one on the score) but i dismissed the idea since I feel this method may distract people from the music. After all, it is the sound we are interested in, not how it was made.

I will post the graphic scores on here once they are finished.

After struggleing for several weeks to create a piece on my own i have enlisted the help of Jonas. My propblems came in that, allthough i can run many samples/intruments at once, i cannot humanly interact with more than one at a time. Now there is two of us and it is sounding allot better. I have created a rough plan for the piece as a guidence and will be making a graphic score soon.

samples – fizz, bulmers
backing track
scale synth
sound scratched guitar- distort on/off
when backing track finishes do signal
Sound Circles
sound drops through distortion
Sound scratcher
Quanoon through reverb, top left
Signal – fade out distort
Fade Out
leave just bulmers

My parts are in black.

I have discovered that, by using channels that my sound card doesnt support, i can put effects on seperate instruments and then send them back to channel 0 & 1.

In my own time, i have been experementing with ixi alot and i feel alot more confident with it now.

Our piece is sounding awsome and i look fallward to sharing it with you all.

I recently started the laptop musicianship module and have been having very mixed feelings about super collider. Had blogging problems so this is my first post but i will fill you in on the story so far.

Week 1

we were introduced to different softwares and how to make a blog. This all seemed a little strang at the time as i didnt understand why we couldnt just write small essays. Had allot of trouble getting my blog to work in firefox but on my PC it works just fine. Watch many videos of the laptop orchestras but was not perticularly interested.

Week 2

Here we learned about signwaves and other tonal noises supercollider can make.  This immediatly grabbed my attention more than the atonal patterns and i began takin notes of the code. I leanred how to make a simple signwave and then how to make chords but i felt that my music theory was lacking as it was taking some time to figure out the notes. I logged onto www.musictheory.net and brushed up on some stuff that i hadnt been tought in a couple of years and alot came back to me.

Week 3

I spent much of my time in week 3 learning about Pbinds and Prands (which i coupletely did not understand). I managed to include a Prand in a line of code i allready understood to make a kind of ‘Melody generator’ and this helped me understand how the Prand works alot better. I had problems with my notes as i had low blood sugar in class and could not concentrate (im a diabetic) but i used my own time to fix the codes i had written and learn some more from www.musictheory.net.

Week 4

I missed the lesson, which was very annoying and i was not happy with the way the module was headed, i felt like i knew nothing about this program. I decided to go to hel 040 and mess around with super collider, i typed in a code for a very simple Rhythmic Pulse and started messing around with chords and different patterns by adding strange fractions. This is where i finally started to realise why someone would want to use supercollider. There is very little limitation in what you can create. I started to appritiate the program.

Week 5

I started working solo after leaving the group i had been working with and playing around with ideas for a compostion in ixiQuarks. The lectural then decided to put me with Jonus. I found it very usful to have someone to tell me what sounded good and what sounded terrible and with douple the person count, came double the ideas. we started experementing and really getting to know ixiQuarks firstly and then decided to compose a piece. We wrote a piece and it sounded nice but i understand why Julio wants us to learn to notate:

SS+noise
Scale synth
SS2 warp
Audio102 sample – Play with effects
SSwarp
SS1 Signal
Quanoon

my bits are in red.

This is the notes i took to remember the piece and now it makes very little sense to me. I watched a piece on Youtube of a score of Electronic music and am excited to discover a better way of documenting the piece.