Sound Media 2 – Week 12

Process

Moving toward the final sound piece for this project was a case of refining what was already present and intertwining it within the performers’ movements. The bulk of the composition actually changed very little since Week 06, mainly because we needed to continue working with a set structure for the dance.

The resulting interaction was a combination of: performers triggering composed events; performers responding to the composition; and the performers creating the composition themselves.

The areas of performer control within Ableton Live.

What I’m showing in the image above is where and when the dancers could control the sound (this is just a section of the Ableton set, not the entire piece). The Scenes (horizontal rows) marked in yellow would not trigger until a predefined movement by the performers was completed. The Clips (individual cells) marked in red could only be triggered by the performers, and only within a certain period of time – marked by the red arrows. This mixture of effect and response seemed to work quite well. When I set out with this project, I didn’t want the technology to be the focus, but instead a supporting element to the performance itself.

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Sound Media 2 – Week 08

Process

This was around the time that the performance project began to become intensely reliant on technology. Of course, this was always going to be a process of seeing where I could take the instruments I was already familiar with, but these computer-based elements were supposed to be secondary to the performance. After this week, I realised that involving so many interlocking technologies made this work like a house of cards.

Whilst I was interested in the output of the Wii remote and nunchuk for my Multimedia subject, I was also focused on how to restrict input to certain parts of the sound timeline in Ableton Live. I had already begun playing with the idea of toggling parameters on and off in OSCulator (thanks to the excellent suggestion from OSCulator developer, Camille Troillard). This would mean that data would only be sent when I wanted it to have an effect. For instance, if one of the performers raises their arm at the beginning of the piece it may trigger a sound, but anytime after that I don’t want an arm raise to repeat that same sound.

The way I achieved this was to use the IAC Driver which is built into OS X to route MIDI messages back from Ableton Live to OSCulator, creating a communication loop.

Ableton Live > IAC Driver > OSCulator > Ableton Live

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Sound Media 2 – Week 06

Classwork

This week marks the halfway point for the semester. It’s a mildly frightening prospect to know that there’s only a couple of months before I need to produce a finished piece.

Presenting where my project is at was a little difficult, because unlike most of the other works being shown in class, mine will not necessarily be linear. Until I start working with dancers, I’m still unsure how much of my composition will be structured and how much will be triggered by the movement of the performers. And so, the sound piece I played the class had a fairly arbitrary structure to it – simply for the sake of presentation.

It builds on the loop I had made earlier, and each segment of the piece is triggered by movement of the Wii remote (and hence, it’s a little jumpy)…

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Once again, for the trainspotters: rain, drumstick hits and the crumple of the accordion bellows join the previous recorded sounds in this project.

Bouncing all the sounds into usable loops in Ableton was a process that became far more time consuming than I imagined. Because my working project consists of Rewiring Pro Tools and Ableton, and spreading effects between both programs, I had to: record each element to disk in Pro Tools; bounce it down and; then prepare it as a loop in Ableton. At least this experience has made me wary of keeping some extra time up my sleeve before the project due date.

Research

My biggest worry for this project looks like it is now sorted: the dancers. I was fortunate enough to be introduced to a working dance instructor and had a meeting with him this week. I’ll go into more detail about his work in the future, but for now, he sounds very interested in my geeky world of bringing together dance and technology and will be arranging for a few dancers to begin collaborating with me next week. I can’t express how much of a relief this is – now I can really get moving on the business end of the project.

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Sound Media 2 – Week 04

Classwork

We were split into smaller groups for more intimate consultations this week. This was a good opportunity to ask questions specific to our concepts and have something as close to one-on-one teaching as you’re likely to get at uni.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to make the most out of my consultation. Quite literally no-one responded to the (roughly one dozen) emails I sent out, asking for dancers/performers and so my project is still currently just a ‘proof of concept’.

This is actually a really big problem – I need to begin collaborating with performers, because this is where ideas for direction of sound and music will come from. Not to mention having the chance to deal with unforeseen problems, especially around the interaction with sound and visuals.

No Work No Eat, by Blanding Sloan. Thankfully, I'm not faced with the same problems.

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Uni Journal – Week 03

My post-rate over the past week or so resembles the Global Financial Crisis

Life (work + uni + Concrete) has killed my Uni Journal for Week 3. Which is a shame, because it was looking like I could really overachieve well into Week 5, or even Week 6.

So instead of trying to cover everything from a week or so back, I’m posting an apology by way of a hastily downloaded image and a promise that I’ll get back on track in the next few days, with some Week 4 madness. Prepare yourselves, because it’s all unbelievably amazing stuff.

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Sound Media 2 – Week 02

Classwork

I’ve never actually seen a Pro Tools HD rig in the flesh until this week. I’ve heard the stories – the wonder and awe with which people gaze at this amazing piece of machinery. It’s something that we commoners can only dream of: being able to spend enough money that Digidesign actually gives a damn about us.

Only a Pro Tools HD owner can look this smug.

So for the next few months at least, I will be living that dream. At COFA, we have two dedicated rooms for Pro Tools rigs: one with a 003 mixer and the other being the aforementioned HD (God) room. These spaces are quite literally under lock and key until you hit Sound Media 2, so it was a bit of thrill to be taken on the tour.

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Sound Media 2 – Week 01

Classwork

Although I’ve had Pro Tools 8 installed on my computer since K.Rudd sent me the stimulus cheque in March, I haven’t really used it much. In fact, aside from poking around at the new plugins, it’s been doing little more than taking up space on my hard drive. I’m much more comfortable playing with Ableton when sketching out a quick sound or two – it’s simply a more enjoyable experience. However, when I was forced into the linearity of the Pro Tools sequencer in class, I must say that PT8 seems to have raised the bar with it’s latest update. Aside from having a Logic-esque facelift (which has also just received a facelift of its own: a “Pro Tools killer” according to my Apple-employed friend. With their decision not to support PPC Macs anymore, it screams “Apple: business as usual” to me), there are a few workflow related enhancements in PT8, which should go a long way to making this semester a smoother one.

Controllers appreciate a nice view too, apparently.

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