Week8 - Audio Arts -Screen Script

I hope you all enjoy my attempt at creative writing for Ashley Klose's screenscript exercise.

There is a man sitting in a bedroom, holding a 20 cent coin. He sees the wardrobe door slowly opening. He walks/slides barefooted across to the door and peers inside and sees a flashing yellow light in the distance. He steps inside and there is a massive door slam (and not the slam of an ordinary wardrobe door).

• Music track of bass, drums, guitar, and possibly some spoken-word style vocals.
• Creaking of door.
• Sound of bare feet and rustling of the man.
• A buzzing sound from the yellow light.
• Step into wardrobe.
• Door slam.

The man finds himself in brilliant sunshine and in a corridor made from hedges. The ground is hard. Eerily there is no sound other than the man's steadily increasing breathing. The yellow light is still in the distance; the man runs. He reaches the object of the light. It is big and heavy. The man drops his coin and exclaims, "what the hell is going on?"

• Music track may include xylophone.
• Sound of breathing.
• Buzzing of the yellow light.
  
• Running steps on the hard ground.
• The sound of the coin hitting the ground.
• The dialogue.
  

Week8 - SuperCollider - FFT

Code coming soon...

One Term Remaining

This entry, I feel must begin with our improvisation guest Dr. Chandrakant Sardeshmukh in Forum. I walked in and seeing everyone on the ground, I sat down as well. From that point I knew there was going to be some pain during the two hours. Finding a comfortable position for at least 10 minutes was a challenging task. However, the improvisation party for the week probably had it a lot worse because it appeared that there was not much movement. Anyway, I listened to the doctor, but did not take a word in. Mostly because I did not understand him or even try to. The improvisation was reasonably impressive. I spent a fair amount of time trying to work out what each performer was doing, and I did like the high vocal work coming from Poppi's mouth. Eventually, I got tired of this, rolled onto my stomach and shut my eyes until the performance ended. The first week back will be my group's turn so like I have said previously, I need to get some more material coming from my computer.

It is time (possibly) to publish some thoughts relating to the first term of the second semester of my third year of a Bachelor of Music Studies degree at The University of Adelaide. I have found SuperCollider thoroughly challenging. In each class I have taken detailed notes, but have rarely produced a patch that works the way it is meant to and this sucks. I find it difficult to work out what is wrong after the commas, and semi-colons have been worked out. The help files make things seem worse. In second year, my problem-solving skills were useful in achieving results in Max/MSP, but they have not been attuned to code. Thus, trying to extend and develop the code that is presented in class seems to be unlikely at present. What does this mean for my assignment? 2 things: the first is that I get onto it straight away, and the second is that I take what works and what I think can work, and try to take them to a higher place.

I thought this semester of Audio Arts was going to be the big bang of my Music Technology classes, but at this stage I am feeling dubious. Good points are often discussed in class, but I feel that much of what is said is particularly useful if I was already working as a sound designer (at this point I am not). Basically, I think that there has been too much discussion and not enough practical work in class. Starting the project would be desirable, but not yet having a movie to think about makes this difficult.

I have kind of cruised through this first term, so hopefully I will find some purpose and resolve, and enter the last term of my undergraduate degree with all guns blazing.

One term remaining!

REFERENCES:
Klose, Ashley. 2006. Sound Design(6). Tutorial presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, 14 September.

Sardeshmukh, Dr. Chandrakant. 2006. Improvisation Workshop. Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, EMU Space, University of Adelaide, 14 September.

Albums that made this blog possible:
The Virgin Suicides by Air.

Week7 - SuperCollider - OSC & Network Control

This is my 41st post on my blog for the year and it contains more SuperCollider code. This time it actually works. My code sends the sound from my SynthDef to a target computer over the network. I have not yet worked out how it will control something (like a synth). Thus, the use of this patch may be a little futile. However, you could play a joke on someone else. When someone leaves their computer unattended, you could grab their IP address and boot SC, and then at your discretion remotely send sound to them.

Here's the code:

REMOTESYNTH
(
   //Variables
       var    netConnect,
           ipAddress    =    "129.127.196.21",
           portName    =    57110,
           newServer    =    "Blah";
     
   //Connect to Computer
       netConnect    =    NetAddr(
                           hostname:    ipAddress,
                           port:            portName
                           );
   //Create new Server
       ~serv    =    Server.new(
                           name:    newServer,
                           addr:    netConnect
                           );                          
 
   //SYNTHDEF    => SEND TO SERVER
 
   //Ambient Layer
   SynthDef(
   \ambient,
 
       {
       //Arguments
       arg     resFreq         =     500,
           crackleMul    =    0.15,
           dur            =    6,
           legato        =    4;
 
       //Variables
       var    ambient,
           osc,
           env;
 
 
       //Crackle
       ambient = Ringz.ar(    Crackle.ar(1.1, crackleMul),
                       resFreq,
                       1.2,
                       0.5
                       );
 
       //Envelope
       osc        =    ambient * EnvGen.kr(Env.perc(
                                       0,
                                       dur*legato),
                                   doneAction:2
                                   );      
       //Output
       Out.ar(0, [osc, osc]);
       }
           ).send(~serv);
)

(    //Synth Instance
       h    =    Synth(
               defName:    \ambient,
               target:    ~serv);
)

(    //Send Parameters
       h.set(\resFreq, 1000);
)                      

I think with most of my patches I probably only have a tiny little thing wrong with them that results in a patch that will not work. Repairing my patches will have to be added to my list of mid-semester break tasks.

REFERENCES:
Haines, Christian. 2006. Open Sound Control and Network Control. Tutorial presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, 7 September.

Week7 - Improvisation Project

This post will be slightly bigger this week as it will be post 1 of 2 concerning music technology in week 7. There was no Audio Arts class (allowing me a thursday morning sleep in) and SuperCollider will be documented in around 6 days (the time it took for God to create the world) time.

The 2 hour Forum was devoted to Derek Pascoe and his methods of improvisation, and his interactions/improvisations with what we can consider Improv Group 1. I liked the strategies he presented, and these may be worth some consideration. I think his 'Me and My Shadow' will be applicable to our Improv Group. It could be renamed to something like 'Shadows Evolve'.

It was useful to hear another Improv Group, and how they are constructing themselves as a group. I felt that for most of the period in which they were improvising, the guitar duo needed something more dynamic and be able to shepherd the improvisation in new directions.

Hopefully, each member of our group will have the ability and power to control the direction of the improvisation. I think that that will be a testament to our successful construction of improvisation.

REFERENCES:
Pascoe, Derek. 2006. Improvisation Workshop. Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, EMU Space, University of Adelaide, 7 September.

Albums that made this blog possible:
This is This... by The Mark of Cain.

Week6 - SuperCollider - HID

Setting up the HID (Human Interface Device) seemed fairly simple. I attached a fairly simple SynthDef to get my HID to do some controlling magic. The problem is that I return a nil value when I use the HID (I want to call it a HID device, but that's like calling an ATM an ATM machine). Thus, I get no sound. Anyway, here is a post of my code:

HUMAN INTERFACE DEVICE
(
HIDDeviceService.buildDeviceList(
    usagePage:     nil,
    usage:        nil);
)   
HIDDeviceService.devices;       
(
//Establish Device and Element List
HIDDeviceService.devices.do(
{    //Arguments
        arg    dev;
    //DeviceInfo
        ["DEVICE", dev.manufacturer,  dev.product,  dev.usage,  dev.vendorID, dev.productID, dev.locID].postln;   
//Loop & Output Elements
    dev.elements.do(
    {    //Arguments
            arg    ele;
        //Elements
            [ele.type, ele.usage, ele.cookie, ele.min, ele.max].postln;
    });
});       
)

//Queue Device & Assign an Action
HIDDeviceService.devices.at(0).queueDevice;

//SynthDef
(
SynthDef(
\ambient,

    {
    //Arguments
    arg     resFreq         =     500,
        crackleMul    =    0.15,
        dur            =    6,
        legato        =    4;

    //Variables
    var    ambient,
        env;


    //Crackle
    ambient = Ringz.ar(    Crackle.ar(1.1, crackleMul),
                    resFreq,
                    1.2,
                    0.5
                    );

    //Envelope
    env        =    ambient * EnvGen.kr(Env.perc(
                                    0,
                                    dur*legato),
                                doneAction:2
                                );   
    //Output
    Out.ar(0, [env, env]);
    }
        ).send(s);
)
//Create Instance of Synth
~hidSyn    =    Synth(\ambient);

//Action 1
(
HIDDeviceService.action_({
//Arguments
    arg    productID,
        vendorID,
        locID,
        cookie,
        resFreq,
        val;
   
//Parameter manipulation
    ~hidSyn.set(\resFreq, {val * 5});   
//Output
    [productID, vendorID, locID, cookie, val].postln;
                });
)
       
//Start the Event Loop
HIDDeviceService.runEventLoop;

//Stop the Event Loop
HIDDeviceService.stopEventLoop;  

REFERENCES:
Haines, Christian. 2006. Human Interface Device. Tutorial presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, 31 August.

Week6 - Improvisation Project

To begin this entry I must thank David Dowling for the fantastic effort of setting up. I got there early (in my perspective) and was able to start jamming with the three members of the group already present. The Fatar keyboard made some awesome sounds.

The best thing was that all seven members were involved together in improvising. Albert's MIDI clarinet is bizarre as it has so many different sounds that it takes awhile to actually work out that the sound he is creating comes from him.

My computer stuff still needs refining, but it will all come good.

I think that we managed to spend about 80% of the hour class in improvisatory practise. It was just when repairs, and some packing up was occurring that Stephen sat in and found us unproductive.

Songs that made this blog possible:
Song of the Wind and Mirage by Santana from The Ultimate Collection.

Grey Wallpaper is so Passe

As previously mentioned, I am a fan of the diverseness and variation that has been occurring in Forum this term (which is now halfway through). Tyrell's compositions suit computer games in my opinion and hopefully he can make a career out of it. I found the cycling through of the images slightly amusing, but it helped put the compositions in context. Although, I was not a fan of Poppi's wallpaper, experiencing some of her Audiovisual work was a highlight of the presentations. The name is fantastic, "The Autonomy Interviews". It reminds me of movie and book titles. E.g. "The Virgin Suicides", and "The Gemini Contenders". It has class. Josh's 'musique concrete' piece was one of the best presented so far by the first year students. The panning and the sounds used were impressive. Finally and possibly controversially Albert presented a jazz song that he recorded and produced. He played this piece because his hard drive 'cacked' itself (a familiar tale, hmmm) and subsequently could not play the intended work created as a part of the music tech course. I did like the bright electric guitar that emerged in the work.

Six weeks have passed, meaning I am into the last 12th of my Uni degree. I guess I'm kind of apprehensive about securing work relating to music technology, but I'm sure I'll probably write more about this later. Sound Design occurred on level 5 where 'shotgun mikes', Foley and ProTools were discussed. Some interesting points were raised relating to room size and rustle tracks. I don't know if anyone else shares this opinion, but while we were talking about footsteps and rustle tracks, I found it quite amusing to hear Ben Probert's squeaky shoes and jeans rustling as he intruded through our class. The discussion about our assessment, which I presume we will receive in the next couple of weeks has got me thinking. I definitely want to do the best I can, which will mean spending a lot of time on it, hopefully from the day I receive it.

Speaking of assessments, I was a little disappointed with my Audio Arts result. It is frustrating that we received one block of comments as opposed to separate comments for each song. I used separate techniques for my songs and don't know which song some of the comments apply to. Although, some of the comments reflect things that I already knew and needed more time prior to the deadline to sort out.

That is all for week 6. There will be more to come relating to SuperCollider.

REFERENCES:
Klose, Ashley. 2006. Sound Design(5). Tutorial presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, 31 August.

Whittington, Stephen. 2006. Forum Presentations. Presentations presented at the Electronic Music Unit, EMU Space, University of Adelaide, 31 August.

Albums that made this blog possible:
Sewed Soles by The Greenhornes.