Prepared

If we could return to the past, the dramas of being unprepared may not have occurred. It pays to be prepared. Unfortunately, the recording device in the field kit had no memory card, and the DAT had no phantom power. Still we managed to make a short, but not high quality recording of a string quartet with one microphone. Whilst the musicians played and our recording dramas went on, a good opportunity to listen was provided. Bishop Hall appears to be a decent location for a field recording. Finding the richest and fullest sound, whilst trying to emulate the space was our task. However, if the quartet plays on our home turf (the space) next week, a better result may be achieved.

Prior to the artist talk, more listening went on with a selection of Cage's work broadcast. I preferred 'William's Mix' (1952) over 'Music for Carillon' (1954) due to the Schaefferian and Musique Concrete nature of the piece. I do prefer my tape piece from 2004 over William's Mix. The use of chance and aleatoric methods in Cage's pieces do not capture me.

Chris Williams, who is a producer, director and engineer had the potential to inspire via his unique position within the music, radio and television industries. However, he was not captivating. He quickly discussed the processes involved in the radio drama and played some sequencing and production examples. Further, Williams discussed sound design and his changing relationships with composers. I found that his talk was a little unprepared, and had a lack of focus.

Taking the time to prepare code in SuperCollider is essential. The aesthetics involved in code formatting, commenting, layout, structure, and naming are important. A top-down approach may work better than a left to right leaving a lot of white space. Commenting is code that is non-executable, and useful for documenting. There are two ways to represent this code: 1. //, 2. /* */. A comma creates a division between parameters, whilst a semi-colon acts like a full-stop by creating a division between parameter types. The readability of code will be important as I continue to explore the program. Many types of brackets are encountered. Round are used for Synth Definitions (SD), and UGen Arguments. Curly brackets are for functions and the core code for SD's, whilst square are mostly used for data. Thus, the key word for Week 5 is 'prepared'.

REFERENCES
Haines, Christian. 2006. SuperCollider (2). Tutorial presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, 30 March.

Harris, David. 2006. 'Early Cage'. Workshop presented at the Electronic Music Unit, EMU Space, University of Adelaide, 30 March.

Williams, Chris. 2006. Artist Talk. Presentation presented at the Electronic Music Unit, EMU Space, University of Adelaide, 30 March.