Will It Click?

Audio Arts was a lesson in creative producing this week. A number of songs that David had recorded and produced in the past were presented. I was able to hear a mix of subtle and extreme techniques and mixing. These may be able to provide inspiration for my upcoming recording session. If something is not working, I need to be creative and come up with a possible solution to maximise the quality of the sound. My recording session will actually be occurring before this blog is posted. One technique that David mentioned in class is double-tracking. This has potential to enhance the recordings and the overall sound.

No listening experience in Forum, due to a non-appearance from David Harris. This did not bother me too much. I went and wrote some emails and checked out the Life Impact videos. If people are going to vote, vote for Stephen Whittington's video, which contains his Science of Music class. On the subject of Stephen Whittington, he was the presenter for the hour that is usually the second hour of Fourm. His topic was titled, "Ventures in Vocoding and Distributed Music Performance". I always find it fascinating to hear about the various projects that lecturers are involved in. Especially, when it comes from a creative lecturer who is not afraid to experiment. Vocoding is the "hardware or software implementation of speech-based compression algorithm." Stephen mentioned the use of a particular vocoder that is a part of all the old equipment currently being stored around the EMU. I believe that I actually used this vocoder in first year Music Technology. I'm not sure if I actually used a voice. I think I may have fed two separate signals to it, and discover some sort of sonic result. If I did do this, it may be lying about somewhere on a cassette tape. Distributed Music Performance is, "any musical performance in which the performers are not in close proximity to one another." Stephen is extending his focus in this area to VoIP (Voice-over Internet Protocol). Does this mean the use of a program like Skype?

I wanted to find an image of the vocoder that is located in the EMU, but I couldn't remember what model it was. However, I found a very interesting vocoder (Roland vp-330MkII) taken from .

After missing a week of Creative Computing, we hit routing, and creating a soundfile player. I am planning on completing my major project with SuperCollider. I think I am going to need the extra week. I really need to find much more SuperCollider time to constructively advance through the work. There will be a point where everything just clicks, which I believe is not too far off. More code coming soon:

(
    //Global Variables
~thisPath = (PathName.new(Document.current.path)).pathOnly;// ~ tilda means global variable
    
    //Buffer sounds
    b = Buffer.read(s,~thisPath++"glass_cymbal.wav");
)
(
    //Carrier
    SynthDef    (
    \carrierSynth,
    
        {
        //Arguments
        arg    bufid    = 0,
            bus        = 21,    
            dur        = 4,
            legato    = 1;
            
        //Variables
        var    soundFile,
            env;
            
        //PlaySound
        soundFile = PlayBuf.ar(
            1,
            bufid,
            BufRateScale.kr(bufid));
            
        //Envelope    
        env        = soundFile * EnvGen.kr(Env.perc(0, dur*legato), doneAction:2);

        //Output
        Out.ar(bus, soundFile);        //Soundfile is being sent out bus 21.
        }
            ).store;
        


    //Modulator
    SynthDef    (
    \modulatorSynth,
    
        {
        //Arguments
        arg    out            = 0,
            in            = 21,
            filterRq        = 0.4,        //Argument that can be sequenced
            modFreqStart    = 10000,        //Argument that can be sequenced
            bus            = 21;
        
        //Variables
        var    audio,
            modulator;
        
        //Input Bus
        audio    =    In.ar([in, in], 1);    //Filtering audio coming in bus 21.    
    
        //Modulator
        modulator    =    RLPF.ar(
        in:            audio,
        freq:        XLine.kr(
                        start:    modFreqStart,
                        end:        100,
                        dur:        7),
        rq:            filterRq
        );
    
        //Output
        Out.ar(bus, modulator);
        }
            ).store;    


    //Effect
    SynthDef    (
    \fxSynth,
    
        {
        //Arguments
        arg    out        = 0,
            in        = 22,
            bufnum    = 0,
            delayTime    = 3.5;    //Argument that can be sequenced
        
        //Variables
        var    audio,
            fx;
    
        //Input Bus
            audio    = In.ar([in, in], 1); //Audio coming in bus 22
    
        //Effect
            fx        = CombN.ar(audio, 
                        maxdelaytime:    5.0, 
                        delaytime:    delayTime, 
                        decaytime:    5, 
                        mul:            1, 
                        add:            audio);
    
        //Output    
        Out.ar(0, fx);
        }
            ).store;
)
(    
    e = Synth.after(1, "fxSynth");    
    d = Synth.after(1, "modulatorSynth");
)    
    //Pbind Sequencer
(    Pbind(
    \instrument,    "carrierSynth",
    \bufid,        b.bufnum,
    \delayTime,     Prand(#[3.5, 0.2, 2.5, 5], 16),
    \filterRq,         Pseq(#[0.4, 0.1, 0.9, 0.6], 4)    
    ).play;
)

Sounds something like this:


REFERENCES:
Grice, David. 2006. Mixing (2). Tutorial presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, 23 May.

Haines, Christian. 2006. SuperCollider (8). Tutorial presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, 25 May.

Whittington, Stephen. 2006. Ventures in Vocoding and Distributed Music Performance. Presentation presented at the Electronic Music Unit, EMU Space, University of Adelaide, 25 May.

Albums that made this blog possible:
A Good Tip For A Good Time by Cato Salsa Experience.