Week 6 - Forum - Youtube Biopsy

In this forum session, we watched a video David Harris made called "Youtube Biopsy" which is a collection of videos taken from youtube.

There were a lot of different videos and it was mixed all over the place. From the launching of space shuttles, to disasters, to impossible Mario game scenarios.

According to David, he had this piece performed before accompanied by a piano piece he wrote, but during Forum, the music of Vicki Bennett from People Like Us. Their music is really interesting as it recycles many other music and it mixes them around. Some of the mix sound horrible but most of the mixing sound really amazing. As it's very interesting, it also generated some arguments amongst teachers and students in the Forum (and it was the first time I said something in the discussion!).

I personally think that this has quite a high value despite the fact that it doesn't originally make music but recycles music. One of my arguments is that people regard highly of the motets of the medieval period (where they mix 1 plainchant with 2 secular songs). If the people of the medieval period did that and it is regarded as valuable, isn't People Like Us' music based on the exact same idea with differrent type of music?

Week 6 - CC1 - Sequencing 3

Sequenced and mixed the whole thing. I added panning, and altered the volumes.

Here's the file.

Week 6 - AA1 - Amplifier Recording

Jamie, Jacob, Josh and I did the amplifier recording last Friday and it was awesome. We used 6 mics and recorded two different styles of music: funk and rock.

The 6 mics we used was:
1. U87 as a room mic (set on cardoid)
2. B-Uls straight ahead close to the amps in the middle
3. SM57 straight ahead a bit towards the right of the amps
4. SM57 sideways from right side
5. SM58 sideways from left side
6. SM57 Beta, out of phase mic placed at the rear side of the amps.

Here is the recording.

Week 5 - Forum - Pierre Henry

We watched the video about Pierre Henry, a man who was involved with the genesis of music concrete. It was amazing to see this man in the video, walking around the city with his stereo mics and was just recording what we would normally consider noise. To him it's all music! Even though I don't really like music concrete and noise, I do understand his passion for it. It made me respect music based on noise more.

Some of his works are truly not understandable but they are at least to him and many others who love music concrete. But despite that, there are moments when it unfolds really beautifully.

Another aspect of music concrete and the type of music Henry is associated with is the fact that we as people who have good hearings might take our good hearing for granted. Henry's music encourage us to listen to the beauty and blessings of hearing. The presentation ended with Stephen showing us some of his works.

Week5 - CC1 - Sequencing

This assignment has been a bit confusing and it's pretty hard for me to do. At my first few tries, I couldn't do anything at all. I couldn't even make a kick bass sound. So I was frustrated and gave up.

Then after asking for help from a few people (mainly Jacob), I finally tried to do it again. It's not much of a work but at least it's better than nothing.

Here's the file. But be warned, this would be the worst thing you have heard yet.

Week5 - AA1 - Vocal Recording Mic Techniques

Jamie, Jacob and I did an hour and a half of voice recording in Studio 1 last Friday. We used U87, SM57 and the Bulls (although I am not using that particular recording). We used the pop filter as well as the compressor for all the recordings.

U87 Cardoid 3 Inches
This recording has quite a bassy feel for it. Due to its distance from the sound source, the middle and bass is more prominently heard. On top of that, it picks up unwanted sounds like breathing or swallowing sounds.

U87 Cardoid 80 cm
Although the bass is pretty rich on this one, the treble is clearer and hence it gives a better overall sound. The sound quality is also brighter.

U87 Omni 3 Inches
Personally, I think this is the best setup for this recording session. It's got less bass and more of the higher register, but the bass isn't terribly low. Perhaps due to its close proximity to the sound source, some unwanted noise is also picked up.

SM57 Cardoid 3 Inches
This setup also has a richer higher registers which results in a brighter sound. Dictions can be heard very clearly. As with all of the other closely placed mics, there are a lot of unwanted sounds.

After we finished recording all the needed recordings for the blog, we recorded some "fun" recording. But, I am not going to post it here, due to its weirdness.