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Weeks 1 & 2 – Pro Tools recording & editing sessions

Posted by: richardlobianco | October 5, 2009 | No Comment |

New introduction to pro tools, at least for me. Being a Logic person, I have to admit, I’ve been comparing quite a bit. Or at least I was the first few days. I am now getting the basics of what we’ve been working. I am not a complete expert on Logic either, but I find myself now comparing both ways and trying to find things from Logic on Pro Tools, and things I learned from Pro Tools in Logic.

First week went by, everything looked very promising. I didn’t get around to book studio time until the second week. I spent all of my time remembering the proper connections, cables, and settings and got around to record a guitar player / singer from the music pathway.

The editing sessions on the “Bombat” track, I did most of in the computer rooms. At first I started doing the tempo mapping without having read the pdf help file posted by Gareth. I got to bar 33 and couldn’t remember if it was that one that had the meter change to 7/8 or if it was bar 34… I tried to figure it out and it sounded to me like it was in fact bar 34. I checked the pdf file and saw it was bar 33, so I carried on with the session. I don’t think it would have made much difference since both bars are mainly ‘glitchy’ sounds without a specific groove to them.

I look forward to see what the next step is and what we’ll do with the files we have ‘chopped up’

under: Production & Recording for Musicians

Summary Task 2

Posted by: richardlobianco | December 12, 2008 | 1 Comment |

Laptop Musicianship Task 2 Summary:

The following summarizes the work done for Task 2 including a graphic score, a few additional graphics to indicate certain settings on Ixi Quarks and a set of instructions for preparation and performance of my part of the piece.

General Aspects:

After having a few chats about the experience of working Task 1, and considering for a couple of weeks the idea of working in a different setting, we decided to get together in the same group for Task 2. The piece starts with some sounds we called “Popcorn” as an introduction on Ixi Quarks with a combination of different noise-sounds. A drone is later introduced to mark section 2 of the piece, which always spins around an F minor dorian mode.By using elements such as the Scale Synth on Ixi Quarks, and recordings of guitar chords, and arpeggios, we are able to keep the modal sound and add some pulses and other sounds, including improvisational sections to keep the mood of the piece going.

Graphic Score:

Preparing and Performing my Part:

My part of Task 2 focused solely on Ixi, using fewer sounds whilst exploring them in further depth. For preparation and performance of my part of the piece, its necessary to load the following on Ixi Quarks.

On Ixi Quarks:

Open a BufferPool and load the following samples into it:

- f whistle.aif

- a whistle.aif

- c whistle.aid

- fm7 chord.aif

- fm7 arp.aif

- rhythm.aif

Open two SoundSratchers and load“chord.aif” into one of them setup to Warp and “rhythm.aif” into the other one setup to GrainCircles

Open Polymachine and load samples “f whistle.aif”, “a whistle.aif”, “c whistle.aif” and “fm7 chord.aif” and setup as shown in the following image “Whistle Settings”

Open ixireverb2×2 and configure inbus, outbus, and parameters as shown in the following image

Click the View button on the BufferPool for “fm7 chord.aif” and “fm7 arp.aif” and set them both to outbus ‘2,3′ so that they are sent through the “ixireverb 2×2″

Performance:

Begin the piece by drawing three grain circles on the SoundScratcher with “rhythm.aif” as shown in the “Popcorn Settings” image below
Click on the Scramble button to randomize the sound every 5-10 seconds for about 30 seconds.

Start the polymachine and allow whistle pattern to play once every 10 seconds

When the audio cue comes in (F Drone sound) fade both sounds out

Loop the unaltered “fm7 arp” from the BufferPool fading in and out by manually controlling the volume level for about 30 seconds

Play “fm7 chord” from the BufferPool

Continue to alternate “fm7 arp” fading in and out, and “fm7 chord” playing for about 60 seconds

Play “fm7 chord” with rhythm cues every 8 beats of the pulse made by another group member while improvisational section starts

Continue to alternate “fm7 arp” fading in and out, and “fm7 chord” playing for about 60 seconds, end on visual cue.
under: CMT

Summary Task 1

Posted by: richardlobianco | December 11, 2008 | No Comment |

Laptop Musicianship Task 1 Summary:

The following summarizes the work done for Task 1 including a graphic score, a few additional graphics to indicate certain settings on different software and a set of instructions for preparation and performance of my part of the piece.

General Aspects:

For this piece I worked in a group with my fellow classmates Michael Sands, Justinas Ramanauskas & Simon Scott. The piece starts with an introduction based mainly on Ixi Quarks, and then evolves into a group of noise-sounds achieved through the use of coded synthesizers on SuperCollider. We attempt to establish some communication between the different elements of the piece that have similar qualities and where sounds behave in a similar way. The piece is comprised of three sections, an introduction marked by an environment sound and a mild chatter in the background, the middle section that builds up using steady pulses and mouse-controlled pitches, and the ending characterized by a low frequency rumbling. The movement from one section to the next is marked by a audio cue audible to every member of the group to indicate the transition to the next part. These cues also indicate the audience that something is about to happen.

Graphic Score:

Preparing and Performing my Part:

For preparation and performance of my part of the piece, I came up with the following set of instruction in recipe form:

Ingredients:
On Ixi Quarks: 1 sample of voice recorded saying “è nel momento in cui dubiti di volare che perdi per sempre la facoltà di farlo” ( see sound file “e nel momento.aif” )
On SuperCollider: Open the file “Laptop Piece.rtf” and evaluate entire code in large parenthesis above the dotted line
Pre-performance Preparation:
-    Open the recorded sample “e nel momento.aif” onto the BufferPool and click “View” to see the wave sample.
-    Open SoundScratcher and load sample from BufferPool into it and setup settings to match image “SS Settings” as shown on the following image


-    Open GrainBox, load sample from BufferPool into it, and setup settings to match attached image “GB Presets.png” as shown on the following image


Performance

Part 1 – Ixi quarks
After Mike has introduced his ambience noises in the background:
•    Begin chatter by starting the GrainBox. Begin to improvise moving the Orange Boxes.
•    Sporadically play the unaltered sample from the BufferPool
•    Start the “Worm” in the SoundScratcher
Continue this process and cue Part 2 going on SC, to the file “Laptop Piece.rtf” and evaluate “~sig.play”. Fade out Part I.


Part 2 – SuperCollider (See “Task1.rtf”)
After evaluating “~sig.play”
•    After aprox. 10 seconds, evaluate “~sig2.play” with the Mouse a few centimetres from the left of the screen creating a phasing between the two pulses
•    Improvise with the Mouse by moving it from left to right and back for aprox. 20 seconds
•    Evaluate “~sig3.play” and continue with previous step

Continue this process until Mike cues glissando, evaluate “~sig.stop”, “~sig2.stop” and “~sig3.stop” and move onto to Part 3
Part 3 – Super Collider (Rumbling)
•    Evaluate “n”followed by  “Pdef”, and “~sig4.play” above dotted line
•    On glissando cue, evaluate “n.stop” and “Pdef” below dotted line and fade chords out slowly.

Task1.rtf:

(
s.boot;
p= ProxySpace.push;
~sig = { Pulse.ar ([2,2], mul:0.2) };
~sig.fadeTime = 3;
~sig2 = { Pulse.ar ([36.midicps,36.midicps]*~mo, mul:0.2) };
~sig2.fadeTime = 3;
~mo = { MouseX.kr (0.0 , 1.0) };
~sig2.fadeTime = 4;
~sig3 = { SinOsc.ar ([84.midicps,1041],mul:1*~mo2) };
~sig3.fadeTime = 6;
~mo2 = {MouseX.kr (0.1 , 0.2) };
~mo3 = { MouseX.kr (0.0 , 1.0) };
~sig4 = { Impulse.ar ([02,05],mul:0.8) };
)
——————————————————–
// PART 2
~sig.play
~sig2.play
~sig3.play

// On Cue
~sig.stop (5)
~sig2.stop (5)
~sig3.stop (3)

// On Cue

n= Pdef( \rumble, Pbind(\dur,Pseq([2,1,1/2],inf),          \midinote,Pseq([[20,22],[15,17],[21,18]],inf),\amp, 0.5) ).play

Pdef( \chillido, Pbind(\dur,Pseq([2,1,1/2],inf),          \midinote,Pseq([[20,22],[15,17],[108]],inf)) ).play

~sig4.play
—————————————————————–
n.stop
~sig4.stop(5)

//FADE OUT

under: CMT

Finishing up the last few details…

Posted by: richardlobianco | December 8, 2008 | No Comment |

I’ve been working very hard at everything that will be due soon. Especially in laptop musicianship, building up the portfolio of assigments, scoring up the recorded pieces and finalizing last minute details.

Shortly enough I expect to post up summaries for pieces 1 & 2 that I hope will include a thorough analisis of the work done from me and from the group to make them happen, accompanied by a finalized graphic score and maybe the audio files to be able to fully appreciate them.

For now… I’ll keep working at it.

Rich

under: CMT

Recording Pieces

Posted by: richardlobianco | November 28, 2008 | 1 Comment |

Success!

We met yesterday to record our final versions of the pieces and they turned out very nice. After carefully thinking about strategies to record involving everything from a single mic in the middle of the speakers all the way to separate recordings of each part.

Te ideas were all good but we were deciding between better quality vs. better group communication (which was very important due to all the cues). The best idea was used which was using two hard disk mp3 recordings (one for each pair of band members). The mics picked up a stereo recording of the two laptops assigned to each recorder and we were then able to mix 4 channels, controlling levels, while still be able to perform in a live setting

.

under: CMT

Group Piece 2 – Score idea

Posted by: richardlobianco | November 23, 2008 | 2 Comments |

So I’ve made a draft of what the score for the second piece might be. Tomorrow we’ll discuss final details to complete the piece in order to move on to recording and finalizing scoring. I think it’s still possible to introduce some “organized randomness” to the piece, even if it brings an element of comedy. It should be enjoyable.

The Dice idea was brought up by Simon, and it evolved during group talks to being an element of surprise to involve the audience in our piece. It hasn’t formally been included in our piece, but it’s still very much alive. The way it works is before the piece, we have someone from the audience roll the dice, and depending on the results, the piece would slightly change. To achieve this without complete chaos we decided to have an improvisational section in which the members of the group would improvise making physical sounds with objects or our voices as opposed to with the computers while a background steadily plays. The dice will determine one of six possible sounds that the group would have to improvise with.

We came un with 6 ideas for sounds including, rattling keys, booing, hissing, scrunching paper, laughing, and counting out loud. The idea of the score was to simply turn in a Die cube with specifications, but that would have made the rest of what was going on difficult to show. So I came up with the following draft of a score that can show what the piece might look like on paper. After de Dice section there would be some things going on for the ending but since I am not too clear yet on the times, I left as a work in progress.

under: CMT

SLOrk in the news…

Posted by: richardlobianco | November 18, 2008 | No Comment |

The Stanford Laptop Orchestra is in the news again with their latest performance this year. Apple has updated them into their news section and it all looks absolutely great. You can click here to newly created profile on the SLOrk in the apple website.

under: CMT

Dice Surprise… thinking outside of the cube

Posted by: richardlobianco | November 17, 2008 | 2 Comments |

Interesting group meeting today looking to solve some communication issues in our piece bringing some new thinking into it. Bringing the best of two worlds in computer samples and thinking about live performance.. the ideas are fresh and new to be included into the laptop piece.

We came up with good ways to bring a random element into the piece as well as something other than computers that should fit in nicely. We’re starting to think about performance elements such as audience involvement and trying to get in their feet.

It all sounds a bit mysterious because I’m waiting for us to rehearse it some more and don’t want to spoil anything just yet. I’ll be dealing in later posts with scoring issues.

under: CMT

Adding effects, piece 2…

Posted by: richardlobianco | November 17, 2008 | 1 Comment |

Week 9 starting tomorrow now and everything does seem to be piling up for the last few weeks. Good thing is we have our second piece pretty much sorted out. Some new ideas to add on for communication considering the last comments on the work in progress.

The piece should be completed in time by this week, giving us week 10 & 11 to score them up and record them.

I’ve finally solved some feedback issues with the effects on ixi by controlling inbus and outbus. Overall I must conclude it’s very intuitive in the end to work with it… Looking forward to seeing how the last few weeks will come about.

under: CMT

Walking Bass

Posted by: richardlobianco | November 9, 2008 | No Comment |

I spent quite some time on ixi to use more sampled sounds for our group’s second piece and left the SuperCollider portion of it really simple. I was using a couple of Pbinds in sync playing randomly around F dorian creating 2-note harmonies between them when it occurred to me the idea of using lower to create the effect of a walking bass.

I wanted to bring a swing feel by giving that sense of swingin’ eighth notes (quavers) and take the role of bass player in the group. This is the Pbind using the Prand for low notes from F dorian with note durations of 1/4 (4 per second)

Pdef(\cuatro, Pbind(\dur,Pseq([1/4],inf),\midinote, Prand([41,44,48,41,44,48,50,51,53,29,36,32,29,36,32],inf)))

By adding to the duration a value of 1/6 and having it constantly switching from 1/4 to 1/6, it gives to feel of a walking bass

Pdef(\cuatro, Pbind(\dur,Pseq([1/4,1/6],inf),\midinote, Prand([41,44,48,41,44,48,50,51,53,29,36,32,29,36,32],inf)))

under: CMT

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