I used to use RSS feeds to follow other blogs, and that was working out OK until I realized that I hate using RSS feeds.There were just too many, and I was really only checking a few of them regularly anyway.…Not to mention, life generally provides constant distractions, so before you know it, you’ve missed a lot of stuff that’s been posted.
So now’s your chance!Instead of just waiting around until you happen to remember to look through your RSS feeds, simply enter your email address in the sidebar on the right and click “Subscribe.”Now you can be as lazy as I am and just wait for the information to just flow your way!
Trust me it really is the best way to follow…
Besides, I know you wouldn’t want to miss out on any of the fascinating posts on Music Tech Talk.
People seem to have a lot of preconceptions about taking classes online. I was no different.
First of all, how can anyone get a “real” degree by attending class online?
Isn’t that tantamount to finding a miniature diploma in a Cracker Jack box? So, I waited and waited and searched and searched and found nothing worth considering. …At least nothing related to music. I wrote a couple of Universities and asked if they wouldn’t consider a distance program for music composition. After all, the music is always written down and can be reproduced on the other end. In many ways, it seemed like a better fit for a class at a distance than most other degrees. During my endless process of searching, I realized that unless I was an education major, I was not going to have many options available. It is limiting enough when searching for an online degree with the word “music” in the title.
It wasn’t just a degree I was looking for; it was a real education and educational experience.
I wanted to make the experience as much like being in a physical classroom as possible. I would have attended in residence, had that option been available. Fortunately, I ran across the Master of Science in Music Technology degree at Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). After researching the option for a while, I determined that it was the best chance for me to get a real education in a music-related (non-ed) subject. In 2009, Forbes ranked IUPUI in the top ten universities in the midwest. The more I looked into it, the more I realized that putting music and technology together would be a perfect fit for my interests.
I love music. I love technology. Perfect.
…But this post is about the online classroom experience. So, no matter what program you choose or which school you attend, your primary concern is going to be the experience. Recently, I completed a survey from the Purdue half of IUPUI asking about some of my experiences. Overall, I rated IUPUI very high. One of the things the survey touched on was the difference in an education that offers close peer relationships and one that does not. There were a lot of questions on the subject. I suppose the best part of my undergraduate degree was the peer interaction, which is sort of expected as a music major. Now, however, I was not expecting to be performing in a bunch of ensembles, so the peer interaction was not as much of a requirement. Additionally,
taking the course online perfectly complements the concept of music, education and technology working in concert.
As a graduate student, my goals are a little different than they used to be. My primary focus is to squeeze every little bit out of this degree as possible. I want an education, and I am prepared to go to great lengths to get it. I think such an approach will take you far in any graduate program, but can prove especially beneficial when taking a course at a distance. Of the courses I have taken so far, here are a few commonalities:
1. AN ADJUSTMENT PERIOD – Initially, there is a bit of a learning curve for students and faculty. Each instructor seems to prefer a different interface for the class. Thus, students have to iron out the bugs with audio, chat and the live video stream. All of this sounds fairly complicated, but surprisingly, it’s not really. Most of it involves knowing what link to click on, what the course number is, and how to turn on your speakers. I do recommend a fast internet connection, a decent computer and at least the willingness to deal with technology. Usually, that’s not such a big issue for Music Tech students. That’s kinda why they are there in the first place.
2. VIRTUAL ATTENDANCE – The next adjustment is getting the class (and the professor) used to the idea that there are students attending class virtually. It’s a cool concept, if you think about it… People from across the country and the world attending the same class at the same time with live video & audio feeds. Naturally, the first class or two, you feel a little ignored. The professor forgets to look at the chat window and students forget to talk loud enough for the online people to hear. …BUT ENOUGH TYPING IN ALL CAPS and statements like: “HELP! THE ONLINE STUDENTS HAVE A QUESTION! SOMEONE IN CLASS PLEASE TELL THE PROFESSOR” go a long way. In no time, not only do the online students begin to integrate into the classroom environment, we begin to fully participate in discussions. On several occasions, I have been able to make the entire class laugh or introduce a new topic for discussion by just typing. Eventually, the class begins to expect full interaction from online students and someone will usually designate themselves as online liaison, monitoring our chat when other screens are up and presenting our questions if we are temporarily not being “heard.”
3. MULTI-TASKING – Once the ball is rolling, the online experience is very cool. I can fully participate in class while drinking tea in my pajamas and bunny slippers, if I wish. I can also Google anything that comes up in lecture, provide links to information, work on homework and even compose music during class. It becomes the multi-tasker’s dream. Often, I would work on a string quartet while constantly chatting in class and listening to the lecture. The thing is, you can pick up nearly 100% of the class by just listening. Visually, only 20-25% of any class requires that I look at the live stream. It is an exercise in extreme efficiency, and I love efficiency. Not to mention the fact that every class is archived. Miss a class? No problem. Just watch it at your convenience… With that being said…
CAUTION: I do NOT recommend just skipping class and watching the archived versions. Class interaction is KEY.
4. PARTICIPATION – It really is a live, interactive environment. Missing the live class is not recommended, because it is a lot harder to get your questions answered after the fact when they are out-of-context. Plus, you can get left out of a lot of decision making and planning. For example, for my last class we planned, produced and performed a graduate recital. Not being on campus, I very much wanted to participate and wished that I could have been on stage for the performance. That is an obvious downside to online classes. However, I was determined to be a part of the show and the process, so I was extra persistent and managed to get one of my pieces on the recital (Haven’t posted that recording to Bandcamp yet, but I’ll get around to it). Not only that, I arranged to have a live performer play along with the recorded part. I attempted to also have a live performer on this end stream their performance, but that part fell through. Besides recitals, I have given several live presentations in class via streaming video and a telephone. It actually works quite well. In some ways, I feel like I participate more in the classes at IUPUI than I ever did actually sitting in them at UNO.
5. HOMEWORK – Homework is always an important part of class, and there is no shortage of that. I think I have already written a short novel’s worth of papers in addition to several scores, recordings and mini-productions. I have an insatiable appetite for A+ performance and put my absolute best into every assignment. This is a polarity switch from my approach to a lot of my undergraduate degree (not counting the music-related classes), which was to get by with as little effort or attendance as possible. …But that’s because the degree deals with only what I am interested in learning. Graduate school just eliminates all those classes that I would have skipped anyway. The bottom line is, they say you get out of your degree what you put into it, and I have very high expectations for IUPUI.
I recommend setting your preconceptions about online degrees aside and just concentrate on looking for a good school. The school and the effort you are willing to put into your education will be the most important factors in determining the success or failure of your academic pursuits.
It thought about re-titling this post “Why it is Dangerous to Play with DAWs” or “Knowing Just Enough to be Dangerous” or “Don’t Try This at Home”or “How to Ruin a Perfectly Good Brass Quartet,”but since I couldn’t decide between them, I stuck with the original title.After all, this is a re-post of the very first article I wrote for Music Tech Talk, at which time, no one even knew this blog existed.Now that a few more people have run across my ramblings on various musical and technological subjects and I can post to multiple platforms all at once using (you guessed it) Posterous, I will re-introduce the first couple of articles.Besides, I doubt too many people really have time to go back and look at every article on someone’s blog archives.I know I don’t. Read more »
WHAT: Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis Music Technology Graduate Recital
WHEN: 30 Nov 2009, 7:30pm
WHERE: Live at IUPUI -or- Streamed Live (streaming link to be posted just before concert) -or- Archived Video Stream (posted on recital web site by 7 Dec 09)
THEME: “Colors”
LINK to Recital Website (URL may change due to coursework requirements, but will be updated here):
Keyboard performance by Michael Douce to be premiered
Note: The recording of “Colors” on Bandcamp is not of the recital performance and does not include the talents of Michael Douce. It was the initial recording of the music with beat and instrumentals by D. M. Gardner and Vocals by B. AnonYmouS.
In case you missed it, the archived performance will be available 7 Dec 2009 at this location.
Part of what this blog is about is exploring music technology or music or just technology. I had an assignment in my Foundations of Music Production class that required I find web sites I thought were models for good design. It seemed like it would be useful/interesting to post it here too.
6. Big fan of the graphic representation of the stories… It’s a lot like ordering in a restaurant. Often, the meal with the picture is the one that you end up ordering: http://www.wired.com
5. Love this site. Right to the point. The featured content is right in front of you, along with several of the recent features. I also like how they make it easy to embed the shot of the day on your site (http://www.earthshots.org/webmasters/ ): http://www.earthshots.org/
4. Believe it or not, I actually like the layout and functioning of makemusic.com (Finale). What I find so appealing about this design is the gradual steps you take to reveal more detailed information about the product you’re interested in. Once you get to the detailed stuff, it breaks it down very logically. Finale definitely had the consumer in mind when they had their site built. With that being said, I still haven’t upgraded to Finale 2010! http://makemusic.com/
3. This might be one of my all-time favorite web designs. It’s so easy to use, even a caveman could do it… Not to mention it is so visually appealing, you just want to hang out there for a while: http://www.digitalartmuseum.com/
2. Very topic appropriate. Visually stimulating. Lots of fun and interesting information. Lots of info, but fairly easy to navigate: http://www.space.com
1. OK, before you start thinking that I am just trying to do a bunch of self-advertising, realize that my example here is to demonstrate how customizable Bandcamp is for the user. I have used few sites that are so user friendly when it comes to large uploads, layout customization and ease of text upload. It’s clean, fast and offers the end-user the ability to listen to very high-res audio without bogging down the computer. I tested this out by uploading a 96kHz, 64bit sample. No problem. That’s about as “lossless” as it gets. Bandcamp also allows you to “share” or embed your audio files with several layout options and a brilliant flash background that functions while the selection plays. It really does a lot to make your audio examples shine with a sharp look (including title, artist, album cover, and progress bar).
- Here’s an example of the audio embedding (work in progress — note how much better it is to use than downloading the other kind of audio examples or using an onboard player like Window’s Media Player):http://dmgardnermusic.com/complete_list_of_scores.htm
- Here’s an example of how well I was able to match Bandcamp to the new look of my site:
The final bonus with Bandcamp seems to be a pretty good web ranking for search queries. I am planning to upload even my audio excerpts for scores because of the increased ranking I get for searches.
In summary, this is definitely one of my favorite sites overall. If you are a musician, I highly recommend that you check it out.
My class is giving a graduate recital Nov 30th that will be streamed live on the internet. To further compliment the concept of music used with technology, a few of us are trying to work out combined performances from remote locations. At least one of the students is planning on using Internet2. Here is an official definition:
Internet2 is a collaborative project by over 120 U.S. research universities, working with partners in industry and government, to develop a new family of advanced applications to meet emerging academic requirements in research, teaching, and learning. This collaboration is addressing the major challenges facing the next generation of university networks by:
• First and most importantly, creating and sustaining a leading edge network capability for the national research community,
• Second, directing network development efforts to enable a new generation of applications to fully exploit the capabilities of broadband networks, and
• Third, working to rapidly transfer new network services and applications to all levels of educational use and to the broader Internet community, both nationally and internationally.
Here’s what it really means: It’s really fast. As much as 6.63 gigabits per second (Gbps)!
That’s equivalent to transferring a full-length DVD movie in four seconds.
Why do we need these kinds of speeds? The Tim the Toolman Taylor theory would simply be, “We need more Power!” And really, that’s not too far from the truth. Scientists and Universities are ecstatic, because it takes that kind of computing power to come up with crazy quantum equations and to stream live video and audio from around the world with near zero latency (delay).
For example, scientists keep building fun things like $10 billion particle accelerators, such as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). This bad boy will produce 15 petabytes of data per year for scientists to analyze. Here’s how the math works (to simplify things a bit [ha,ha] I am using an extra fast 10Mbps home download speed for my example):
First, you should know that 8 bits = 1 byte.
A megabit (data transfer) is a mere 1,000,000 bits.
A petabit (data transfer) is 1,000,000,000,000,000 bits (1Pb = 10^15 bits). That’s 1 Quadrillion folks (I.e. million, billion, trillion, quadrillion…).In other words, a petabit is 1 billion times greater than a megabit!1Pb/1Mb = 1,000,000,000 bits. A petabyte (data transfer) is 1Pb/8 = 125,000,000,000,000 Bytes (1PB = 125^12 Bytes). So, 1Pb x 1/8 = 1PB.
The LHC is supposed to create 15 petabytes of info a year!
“For comparison, every word spoken worldwide in one year, converted into text, would amount to 2–3 petabytes of data.”
With those kinds of mammoth numbers in mind, it is easy to see why there is an endless need for speed. A fairly fast home internet connection (cable modem) will offer about 8 megabits per second (Mbps) or 8,000,000 bits per second download speed. I’ll be honest, I tried to do all the detailed math on this and was never 100% sure I had the right numbers… There quite a few digits to deal with here, and one slight miscalculation throws the whole thing way off. …But it looked like to me it would takes hundreds of years to transmit the same amount of data the LHC can produce versus only several months at about 10Gbps. Lets just say, I wouldn’t hold up any other plans waiting for it to download right now. If anyone out there is a math geek, feel free to drop me some real calculations… I just do music.
On a sort-of-related topic, this gargantuan amount of information that will be produced by the LHC will be delayed at the very least. While I was researching the LHC, I discovered that while it came online in September 2008, it had to be shut down due to a problem with two superconducting bending magnets. It is scheduled to come online again in November. But here’s the weird part… Though no connection has been made or suggested, a researcher and his brother working on the project were just arrested on charges of terr*rism. They are suspected of passing information to al-Q*eda. It kinda makes you wonder, doesn’t it?
I am always a little puzzled as to why so many people out there don’t seem to like classical music. It is the basis from which pretty much all of the music today is formed. We wouldn’t enjoy most of the movies we can think of without it… Taking a greater interest in the foundation of western music can only serve to enhance one’s musical endeavors.
Recently, I received an email from my kid’s teacher asking for help motivating the students to go to the symphony on a field trip, as they all seemed to think it would be boring. Even I will admit that symphonic concerts are often way over-programmed, but the music is beautiful, exciting and intellectually stimulating none-the-less. Leave at intermission, if you must. I’ve talked to many people who seem to have nothing good to say about classical music, but I wonder how many of them would tell me they actually hated listening to Dvorak’s New World Symphony or Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto. I think people secretly like a lot of classical music (or would if they heard the right selections), they just don’t know or realize it. Maybe no one has the patience for it in this fast-paced society in which we live. It would be a very interesting experiment to take a random group of people and subject them to a selection of great classical music to find out what they really think of it.
Some artists have, of course, already successfully merged various style of music, including classical. Miri Ben-Ari comes to mind as an obvious example of success in this arena. Her classical/jazzy violin style do a lot to add to the texture and enhance the quality of music she is performing. Here’s what Wynton Marsalis has to say about her work:
“Miri’s playing is wonderful, beautiful, exquisite, unpredictable, original and spontaneous. Her creative energy can set a band on fire and it does!” -Wynton Marsalis
Visiting her website, you will no doubt get the impression that she leans a little more toward Hip-hop than classical, at least in wardrobe… One thing for sure in the world of pop music in general is that image is everything. Perhaps the greatest obstacle faced in my case is that I am definitely not the popular image of anyone associated with this kind of music. I’m am certain I could never pull that off. Is there a category of Hip-hop for nerds?
With all that in mind, I embarked on a collaboration with a fellow artist known as Phoenix Jay. He is a Hip-hop artist, and I am obviously a classically trained musician and composer. I wanted to see how much I could manage to fuse his art with mine and still make it work. As mentioned in previous posts, this was a much more difficult task than I had supposed it would be. At first, the two mediums seemed incompatible, but once I learned the standard forms used by the Hip-hop artist, the kinds of sounds and orchestration they require, and what a “beat” is in Hip-hop terminology, I was good to go. I rather enjoyed the challenge and will likely try to compose some more beats in the future. Hopefully, this sort of collaboration will not only yield a fresh, new sound, it will also give those out there with a low opinion of classical music a better perspective on it’s usefulness and validity.
OK, so I went through my little period of writer’s block, and now it seems I have more inspiration than I can handle. Classes have started, and I am enjoying my studies right now. We are putting together an online graduate recital. It will be interesting to see how that turns out, particularly since a large portion of the class attends online… A rather important impact technology has had on education. Online students, such as myself, attend virtually. We see and hear the class via streaming video, participate live via chat and/or calling in. I have given several presentations and it really seems very similar to actually attending class in a lot of ways. Sometimes we can get ignored for a few minutes in chat, but then I start typing in all caps and that seems to get everyone’s attention.
You may have heard this before, but taking these courses online can actually be much more difficult than physically being in class. For example, I can’t just turn in a big final project on a disk, like a 2GB audio and video presentation, I have to figure how to convert it to the proper format, preserve the quality, reduce the size and upload it to a finicky server. All this can add quite a bit of time to the project. Of course, communicating with the professor via email can cause a few delays in info exchange, but there is always the telephone. The two things I miss about actual class are hanging out with the other students and playing with any trinkets (like the Theremin) they might bring in. I suppose I wouldn’t mind hanging out in the technology labs either, but at least I have some equipment here. I actually think overcoming these sorts of obstacles is a very valuable experience, giving me a much greater understanding of education through technology. After all, that’s kind of the point of this degree anyway…
Not only have classes inspired me, but so have my friends. This year I have concentrated on writing music for people that have helped me in my musical endeavors in the past. I just finished a string quartet and have already moved on to a new choral piece for another friend. Not to mention, I’ve been working one other adventure/experiment in the world of hip-hop for a friend. I am attempting to fuse his world and mine in one cohesive piece of music, know to him as a “beat”. He is writing the lyrics and performing/recording it, so you don’t have to worry about that part of it. Ironically, of all the work I have been doing, this has by far been the greatest challenge for me. …For two reasons: One, I am way out of my element, so there is a huge learning curve… And two, Sonar 8 has been driving me insane with synth glitches!
Finally, I have been planning out my projects for the next year or two. As soon as I finish the projects I mentioned previously, I will dive into finishing the long-time-coming organ reduction of my Chorus of Psalms. I will have the privilege of working with a very fine organist, Evan Becker, in order to yield the best results possible. While I have written pieces for organ before, the size and significance of this work (to me anyway) demanded that I step it up. I don’t want to lose too much of the essence of the piece in transcription. Post transcription, I will be working on a set of SA choral pieces for a friend in Boston.
One more thing… I realize getting people to read your blog is difficult when I decide to suddenly take a month or more off, but I needed some time to refocus. One of the items on the list for next year’s planning is a blogging schedule. With so much to fit on my plate, I need to first organize the menu. Besides, the last thing I want to do is sacrifice actually creating and performing music just so I can write about it!
My final project was way too much fun to make, but turned out to be way too much work to fit into 1 week. Unfortunately, this meant that I had to sacrifice a little in the video department and leave out some details. There are one or two pauses that I would have liked to eliminate… A few more tricks that I could have pulled with PowerPoint… For that matter, I really wanted to do the traditional Star Wars scrolling introduction, but knew I would waste a bunch of time searching for the right program to do it. Overall, I am happy with the final product though.
Like the previous project, I started out by writing a little Star Wars themed story, but decided to change it up a little with new character names and settings. I also composed new Star Wars-like theme music and changed the title to play upon a short scene where “Duke” tries to stare down “Lord Fader” using the “Farce.” Why did I change all these little details? Well, a couple of reasons.
First, I wanted to be as original as possible creating my little parody… Not just one of those 50/50 deals where 1/2 of it is new and the other is a recording of John Williams’ soundtrack. Or the other way around… You know what I mean.
Second, I do like to avoid as many issues with copyright as possible, even in an educational setting where I am teaching other students how I made this project. I believe in Fair Use, not over use.
THE ANIMATION
So, with those things in mind, I decided to go as far as creating the minifig-like characters from scratch in paint and Gimp (an awesome free Photoshop-like program that I highly recommend). I wanted a sort of 2-D/South Park animation feel and knew this would work particularly well for my PowerPoint-imation idea. Originally, I made a Paint head for Darth Fader, but thought it looked too hokey. This gave me the idea to just go ahead and use photos of real minifigs and “animate” them in Gimp… Which turned out to be an excellent way to make the star ships as well.
TIP: One thing awesome about Gimp is that is is very easy to use. It allowed me to create an “alpha” channel, deleting the background of any image I needed. This means I was able to paste all of my images into PowerPoint with a CLEAR background. Without this ability and Gimp’s ease-of-use in creating this effect, Stare Wars would never have been a possibility.
One of the first responses I receive from people who view this project for the first time is, “you did this with PowerPoint!?”
Well, yes, I did… And you can too! It’s really not that hard, just extremely time consuming. Specifically, I used PPnt 2007. In fact, there a lot of other effects that I could have created with PPnt, but I just didn’t have the time. Here’s how I did it:
1) I cut off all of the appendages from my characters… Sounds cruel, but this allowed me to move each appendage separately.
2) I used each slide as a frame. By advancing each frame, I created a very simplistic version of stop-motion animation. Obviously, this could have gone on for months, creating a much more fluid motion with 1,000s of slides. But what fun would that be?
3) More spectacular effects were accomplished by assigning various PPnt effects to an object, such as spin, fade-in/out or fly-in. For example, the light sabers retract and extent using entrance effects set at a slow timing. Shaking effects were created using scribbled motion paths.
See, not so hard. Once all the Hollywood CG effects were added, I had to make a couple of Lego-like backgrounds. It turns out that Gimp has this handy little fill texture that happens to look like the surface of a Lego. Very convenient and convincing. Varying transparency allowed me to create various shades of gray. The other elements, such as signs and control pads were actually made in PowerPoint with the shape and text tools. When that wasn’t possible, I went back to Gimp again. NASA is kind enough to provide the American public with lots of photos or concepts of space, so that was handy for this project. And believe it or not, that clip-art feature in PPnt will help you find a lot of graphics that can be used as backgrounds too… Like monkeys, for example.
Due to lessons learned from the previous project, I knew that making a better quality product would require me to complete the video portion of the project first, then match up the audio. Essentially, this would allow me to do voice-overs. But before I was able to record any voices, I had to first turn my PowerPoint slides into a video. How was this accomplished, you ask?
1) REHEARSED TIMINGS – I used a feature in PPnt that allows one to “rehearse timings.” I read the script and advanced the slides manually. Once the rehearsal was complete, I saved the timing. Next time the show was played back, it played automatically for me.
2) RECORD TO VIDEO CAM – The best way to make the PPnt show into video, still preserving the timings, was to use the S-video out on my laptop to the camcorder. S-video feeds analog video and audio out. This is important, because I don’t know of a way to send ieee 1394 (Firewire) out unless the source is already a video.
3) VIDEO CAM BACK TO THE PC – Now all I had to do was play the video camera back into the PC, this time via the Firewire, preserving the full resolution of the recording.
4) IMPORT VIDEO INTO SONAR – Importing the video into Sonar really became the starting point for creating the audio portion of my project.
See the PowerPoint show below for more info on the final video conversion process. It was a huge headache and ate up a lot of time. Had I not attempted to integrate video into my previous project, I am sure that I would have never finished this one on time.
THE AUDIO
Just explaining this whole process takes a while, so you can imagine how much effort it took to create the final product. We’ll look at this portion of the project in 4 phases: Voices, Score, Sound Effects and Post-Editing/Down-Mixing.
Voices:
Again, due to limited resources, I was forced to do most of the voices, but did get a lot of help from my son and daughter. The script was already typed-out, so I just read along with my newly imported video. I used my trusty C01U Studio Condenser Mic for all audio recordings. Like the Star Wars series itself, I made a lot of different characters by simply changing my accent or voice inflection. Some voices required extra creativity, such as Lord Fader. For him I had to speak into a large plastic pickle jar and lower my voice. When I just wanted some more variety, I called in the kids. My son “read” the part of Don Solo, and did a fantastic job, I might say. He also lent his voice for one of the pilots in the space battle scene. My daughter did a couple of lines for Princess Faya, but soon tired of the harsh demands of voice acting… I thought she did a great job with the character though. All other voices were acted by me, some more successfully than others. Believe it or not, I even did an overlay for “Shewy’s” voice.
Score:
The musical score was composed and synced with the action, so-to-speak, as was the case with the opening title and its fade to the background. The instrumentation for the score was entirely from my keyboard. I thought the high quality of sound from the PSR-3000 and the fact that this was a farce made midi and acceptable choice. Not to mention that I don’t have free access to studio musicians… I didn’t write anything out, just sort of winged the score, largely because I had no time to spare. Overall, I was very happy with the way the score turned out, even though I spent dramatically less time on this element than any other in the project.
Sound Effects:
Star Wars (or Stare Wars) just isn’t Star Wars without certain obligatory sound effects. Unlike the previous project, I felt that creating all the effects from scratch would destroy the feel of the piece and opted for the cliched light saber, laser and battle sounds. Some were sampled from live game play (I.e. recorded with a mic as I played an N64 version of Star Wars or my SW Battlefront II). I discovered, however, that there are tons of free Star Wars sound effect downloads out there and found just about everything I needed online.
Post-Editing/Down-Mixing
Suffice it to say, to do any project of this sort, many hours will be spent making the smallest audio edits. I applied everything I had learned up to this point and tried to be as conservative as possible. I can’t emphasize enough the importance of trial and error in this process. Not just for the effects, but for the balance and export of the overall project. If you haven’t tried it a hundred different ways, then you are already an expert or you are not going to get the final product that you really want. For me, it was a time constraint. The hardest part of the whole process was balancing all the different tracks. Each track has a different volume and characteristic, demanding the most meticulous attention to detail when integrating each into the overall sonic environment. To make matters worse, the product you thought you had may not be the same when it is finally exported and burned to a CD. I don’t own monitor speakers, but I hear they are key to eliminating a lot of these sorts of problems. The PowerPoint presentation below will describe a lot more about the little details associated with audio and video editing in general.
Below is a PowerPoint presentation that describes the process of creating this project in Sonar 8 as a whole. It has been converted to video. Each slide is 7 seconds long, so fast-forward or pause as needed.
NOTE: You can play back the actual presentation at the same time as the PowerPoint show to give you a better feel for what the PPnt is talking about.
Project number three was really a test run for project number 4. You see, video was not required, but I wanted to see just how difficult it would be to incorporate it into my final project. It proved to be even more difficult than I had imagined, as I ran into just about every problem you can think of. In fact, I almost didn’t get the project turned in on time.
The first thing I did was finish the audio portion of my project. Since the assignment was audio-related, not video, I felt it would be wise to finish the part I would be graded on first. I decided to really put Sonar to the test and do a project that would allow me to use as many features as possible without ruining my work. That’s where the video game promo idea came in. Now I could make a bunch of sound effects, do voice-overs, and combine midi and live instruments to create Half-Life 2 game environments.
I began with a storyline only loosely based on HL2, adding a few characters and not really making an attempt to integrate the plot into existing HL2 games. In fact, I couldn’t seem to remember everyone’s names correctly and mixed them up a little. Given how little time I had, I didn’t feel it was necessary to fix. My intention was to create a game-based environment and storyline. HL2 was just sort of a model.
Once a story was developed, I recorded the voices and began to manipulate them as needed to simulate alien or foreign characters. I believe the PowerPoint that I will attach describes the kinds of effects that were used to create these characters. Essentially, I experimented with all kinds of reverb and started messing with effects like time/pitch stretch, amps, modulators, and distortions. Time/pitch stretch is particularly effective when trying to change the character of one’s voice. When I just needed something completely different, I brought in the kids to do a little voice acting. For this project, I ended-up only using a very brief portion where my daughter’s voice is made to sound sort of haunting and distant.
While I didn’t use much of the kids’ voice acting for this one, I did use a surprisingly large amount of instrumental and sound effects that they helped create. My daughter played a toy lap harp and a triangle, while my son played the tambourine and the sleigh bells. I played the recorder separately. To my delight, Sonar allowed me to completely manipulate the instrument sounds into train sound effects. Almost all the effects you hear throughout the piece are created in this fashion. Only a few, such as weapons fire and the train-track sound, were generated from my keyboard.
The effect that I am most proud of is the steam-release effect during the train station scene at the beginning. This effect was created by making a recording of my daughter over-blowing a plastic recorder. The clip was then subjected to tons of reverb, but not before time/pitch stretch was applied, raising one layer of the sound up a couple of octaves. Once layered, I added a very long decay to the sound. Finally, I had to add a track “envelope” that allowed me to very precisely change the volume and pan of the sound. Specifically, the initial attack of the over-blown recorder was enough to make your ears bleed. Using the envelope, I was able to even that part out with the rest of the clip, then add a pre-defined decrescendo.
Another reason I chose the video game concept was my determination to find ways that midi generated sounds would actually sound appropriate for the work. I used a distortion guitar from my Yamaha PSR-3000 keyboard and another cool completely digital sound (called Fargo) underneath. Putting the two together seemed like a perfect match for the game, so composing a Euro distortion guitar theme to end the project was effortless. Using my keyboard sequencer again, I added a beat that worked very well with the feel of the piece. Strangely, it was a Salsa…
After the voices, effects and music were all put together, I moved on to the video. Well, a series of slides that were turned into a video using a Creative Labs program called MuveeNow 2.0. It offered some nice transition effects and definitely made the slides more interesting. However, it nearly melted down my PC during the video conversion process. This seemed to be a problem unique to this program, as my other video processing products don’t cause the same problem.
Once my PC cooled down for a bit, I imported the video into Sonar and made sure it was approximately the right length. Sonar does not allow any video editing, so I exported the whole project as a video file, then imported into WinDVD (because that’s what I had on my computer and I couldn’t get Windows Movie Maker to work at the time). Here I was able to crop and match up the video to the audio (just enough to kinda follow the storyline). I imported a few of the stills used to make the original slide show and inserted them where I needed to extend scenes or wanted a high resolution still. Lastly, I added a title and date to the beginning.
Now it was time for a final product. I spent hours and hours perfecting the balance between voices, effects and music, then normalizing and compressing them for extraction.
TIP: If you recorded something at a low level, normalizing will bring all the highs and lows into a normal range, making it a lot easier to hear and work with.
I made several versions of the audio portion, extracting them in sequence (initial bounce, normalized, compressed, normalized and compressed) so I could hear all the different versions. Once I was happy with the version I was going to use, I imported the final audio and video into a freeware program called VideoPad. You can find all kinds of great free software from NCH via this link: http://www.nchsoftware.com/software/index.html
DEFINITION: Bounce – This is a track that is a composite of other tracks. For example, I used over 25 different tracks to create Black Mesa, but you only want one for the final product. The bounced track is the one track made from the 25 original tracks.
TIP: If you have the time, bounce from real-time audio, not a “fast” bounce. This will sometimes yield better results. Also, make sure you have all the tracks that you want bounced selected and that the appropriate tracks are soloed or muted as desired.
Until I discovered VideoPad, I was at a loss concerning the conversion of my video to a .mov format. People in an educational setting love to use Macs, so I was required to make it work for Quicktime. To make it even more complicated, Sonar refused to properly import any .mov videos, though it is supposed to be able to do this. It would not export to .mov either. I recommend exporting in a basic format from Sonar and using another program to convert to the format you really want. VideoPad works very well for this and it does it quickly without over-heating your PC. I also used it to convert videos to an iPod format. Don’t forget, you convert video for other reasons too, like the size of the file. Original raw AVI files can get easily into the GB range. By down-converting, I was able to get a clean 720×480 version at 29.97 FPS that was only 19.7 MB compared to its original 887 MB.
NOTE: Use VideoPad NOT Prism, as Prism only converts the video portion. If you are not careful, you will suddenly discover that your video no longer has audio!
Below is the PowerPoint show that describes the process I used to create this project in Sonar 8. Each slide is 9 seconds long and the original audio portion of the project plays in the background. If you wish to just read the slides, mute the audio and pause/fast-forward as necessary.
Ok, Now that you’ve learned a little about what not to do and just how hard it can be to learn new software in a week, let’s talk about applying those lessons learned to our next project. Honestly, I was so disappointed with project 1, that I felt a recovery was in order. I don’t know if it was the obvious humor the class found in the quality of synth generated brass, or the confused look on the professor’s face in regard to my addition of a hip-hop beat to a brass quartet. In either case, I learned that the creative process involves many failures in order to achieve success. To look at it in a more positive light, I will qoute Thomas Edison (probably somewhat inaccurately):
“I have not failed 10,000 times. I have successfully found 10,000 ways that will not work.”
I quickly tried to replace as many of those things that didn’t work, with ones that would. First, I decided to play live as much of the music as I could. That includes vocals, right and left hand of the piano (separately), bass, and trumpet. The piano was actually my Yamaha PSR-3000 keyboard. Its awesome 96KHz sampling offers a very realistic piano sound. The bass and drum set are also from the keyboard. The drum set was the only instrument not played live, but I was able to pre-record a sequence using the sequencer built into the keyboard. The variations offered were actually quite nice, and the professor, a percussionist, actually had to ask me if the drums were real! That’s a pretty convincing argument for the quality of Yamaha’s voice sampling.
I broke down and purchased a Samson CO1U USB Studio Condenser Mic, coincidentally, made to work with Sonar products. It cost me around $90 and was well worth the expense. As the recording will reveal, the mic does a great job of capturing vocals, as well as instruments (although using different methods/distances). The following is a PowerPoint slide show that has been converted to a video format. It better explains the overall process and familiarizes you with the Sonar 8 interface. Each slide is 7 seconds, so pause or fast forward as needed. There is no audio.
This will be my first post, so I felt an introduction might be in order. The purpose of this blog will be to discuss various applications of music technology and provide examples of personal and study-related projects. I will include details on the processes used to create each project in addition to tips, tricks or obstacles I have encountered along the way. Initially, I may be spending more time on learning how to blog than posting anything useful. I may go ahead and post the completed projects and add explanation as time permits.
Currently, I am working with Sonar 8 Studio Edition and have found it to be more powerful than any tools I have used to date, yet limiting and frustrating at the same time. As my posts progress, they will describe not only the projects created in Sonar, but the process of learning how to use the program as well. The learning curve will be apparent from my first projects to the last.
I will present various other projects and/or compositions that may be useful to discuss and hope to talk about the work other people are doing too. I want to learn as much as I can and share what I have already learned with others that might be interested.
My work is published through D. M. Gardner Music in an effort to distribute it in a more personal manner. Any music purchased directly supports the creation of new music.
I enjoy collaborating with ensembles to tailor music to their specific needs, a very rewarding experience for both composer and performer. While I sometimes find myself doing arrangements at special request, I prefer to compose completely original music. Occasionally, I will also compose original texts. I enjoy writing for many different types of ensembles and am always looking for ways to expand my horizons.
If you have questions about my work or are interested in collaborating on a new composition, please contact me directly at composer@dmgardnermusic.com. I look forward to working with you and your ensemble.
The Music of Jeff Harrington
Music that is tonal and intensely contrapuntal inspired by New Orleans and classical music traditions.
Think Denk
(the glamorous life and thoughts of a classical pianist)
Torley Lives
Excellent resource for information on music technology, software/hardware reviews and creative thinking.
My Little Disclaimer
The links on my blog exist because, at one time or another, I found them useful or interesting in some way. My linking to theses sites does not necessarily mean that I endorse their subject matter or content, and I do not want to limit my exploration of the creative aspects of music.
Other Sites & Links
Lorelle on Wordpress
Want to know something about how Wordpress works? Try looking here.
The Lost Book
This is a great find… A collectively written (and scored) story!
Blogging, Composition, D. M. Gardner, D. M. Gardner Music, Graduate Recitals and Performances, Graduate Studies, Hardware, IUPUI, Misc, Music Technology, Music-Related, Musical Injuries Series, New Music, Online Utilities, Posted by Email, Reviews, Software, TIPS, Technology, Uncategorized, Utilities, Web Surfing, Websites, Wordpress, from+the+archives, internet | Music Tech Talk | 
April 7, 2010 | 
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