Category: vague musing

I’m not going to write much in this post but I would like to point you to some sites you may find useful in developing your art.

The first is this facebook group. It’s a closed site but it’s something to join if you are keen on your sound art.  Its got all sorts of links to some great work which you can listen to as well as seeing the comments of other artists.

 

 

 

 

 

I particularly like this piece called The Womb by Santiago Fradejas which is featured.

Lincoln is the location for the bi-annual Frequency Festival which starts soon. You may have had information about it already. There is a lot of art to interact with and artists to speak to. Some of them will certainly be interested in collaborations and if you are keen on soundscape its something to think about for Frequency 2017! What a 3rd year project that would make!

 

 

 

 

 

This is a work from a 3rd year student Alex O’Brien. She graduated, in 2014. This was one of her final year works. It a Lincoln soundscape much as Sound.ogg but without the musical element.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lastly for now this which was a short project between Dylan Roys and Dave McSherry from the LSFM at the university of Lincoln recreating an historic outside broadcast. This compared with much on this site leans towards “the natural” but as you you will hear from the broadcast there was still much scope for interpretation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One thing about composition is that it’s a craft but it’s also a intellectual experience on the part of the producer. For example the painter takes pride in their paint and brushes but its more than that. Talking to visual artist Tim Shelbourne (mentioned in a previous post) who works with a digital pallet; he sees the exploration of that pallet as a way to improve the impact of his art and is as a key aspect of the process. Indeed there is much debate in the visual community about the validity of digital over the “real”. This debate causes some anguish but it’s an important one to have as  it’s through that debate that the art and credibility of that artistic technique is established. Tim is not lazy or using a computer to do the work for him, he is pioneering a new paradigm. He is not a traitor to the mystical world of the traditional artist, no one owns the art!

Why do I mention this? Because it’s a debate which is quite strange to the audio artist. I don’t pick up much snobbery with the use of analog methods in audio over the digital platform. OK when I used tape it was harder but that didn’t make the art better. You will occasionally find me in a room with other “Old hands” reminiscing about razor blades and yellow leader, trying to recover lost edits from the mass of discarded recordings on the floor. “They don’t know they are born now!” but really we are not dismissing the new techniques we are envious and wish we had the artistic opportunities  back in the 19……. err it was a while ago in the last century.

But, and this is the rub, we haven’t moved totally away from our past in more ways than you think. I have posted a number of pictures of Steve’s Cubase Desktop.. this is a reminder. Its a computer representation of an analog world! Its got knobs and buttons to press. The reason for this I will let you ponder on. Is it because Steve it old! (sorry mate) or is their something about this kind of layout which we just find easy to understand and work with?

From my point of view some of these GUIs just look great. I love the lights and the layout. I love exploring the buttons and combinations and I can do it all without a lot of messy wire! I invite debate about that point. If I have a physical wire and I plug it into a physical hole I know what’s going on. If that’s virtual and it doesn’t work  there could be all sorts of computer stuff going on in the background which I don’t understand. If Tim the painter gets a “poor” result in the physical process he only has himself to blaim. If this happens in the digital there are magical things happening  which he doesn’t understand! Almost the view of the ancients where an artist would be partially in the hands of a mystical force.

Lets go back to what things look like…. this just looks good. It’s a GUI but it’s also a physical artifact.

This exists in the digital and analog environments, you can use this as a piece of kit which you can hold and also its been recreated as a digital mirror. Some things are just designed “right.

 

 

 

Speaking to broadcaster Dave Bussey about the design of audio desks we both agreed we prefered the analog meter to the digital.

Why? Perhaps because we have been brought up with the analog but it could be a inherent design issue.

 

Finally, if we get to the root of this and think about the way in which the artist takes joy in the production and the tools of the trade have a look at this site

which has some interesting material  about the technical use of compression but also about the place of the producer within the creative process and the post production equipment being as much a part of the process as the original instrument.

It’s been a hard week for Steve the sound artist! What you may not know is that he has a broken leg which is restricting his movement but that’s not been the real problem. After listening to all the soundscape submissions he then had to find inspiration to begin work. He says that is probably the hardest part, seeing if there are any trends or themes he can pick up on and working out his strategy for composition.

This afternoon I received this email rejoicing  that inspiration had been found!

 

 

 

 

 

There is more to this than a plea to for me to go and see him. For us looking at the process its important to consider some of the influences he mentions so I have picked out some of those as links.

“Hi Dylan,

Right, the penny finally dropped with the sound ogg, and I got inspired. 90 bars in the bag – and getting the start is the most important part (and difficult) as this sets the theme and mood. Ask Craig… he was always banging onto me about how hard it is to get started… and I agree.

Over all the feel is distant but close, close but distant, mellow, haunting, rainy day (this will change as the piece progresses I’m sure). I have used a ‘tuned’ atmos (group 5) to provide a bed and pulsing rhythm, added a lush chordal pad (Kontakt software running in Cubase) and a sort of choir sound which is made out of a guitar note! Also from group 5 there are incidental sounds from the shopping centre and ‘grass noises’ (I think). What at first sound like clunks and clatters have been morphed into subtle punctuation.

The piece feels as though it is leading towards some bells, so I will be working on those next.

Overall for want of genre, it sounds a bit ‘lounge’ / chill / ambient, but I intend to go through some significant changes in pace and vibe as it develops.

Inspiration wise, Eno’s “My Life in a Bush of Ghosts” springs to mind (and this will be built upon once I introduce precision) along with a sort of Hawkwind stutter effect (I gated the atmos to create a straight 1/8th pulse).

Hope this helps with the blog 🙂

Best, Steve aka hop-a-long Cassidy”

I just had to go to the studio to listen to what he had. Grabbing those initial scribblings are so important in understanding the creative process. Seeing the end product is meaningless academically if you don’t get the begining.

We sat down, opened a bottle of Rum and he fired up the equipment. The speakers warmed up (I didn’t know they had to do that!) and lights flashed. After some debate over whether he would let me record our conversation I positioned the Ipad in a way I thought I would get what was said and also perhaps the music. In the end its got the quality of a secret recording and the music’s subtleties are lost in the distant mono but this is what was said. Well worth a listen at it gives an insight into how composition takes place.

To be honest its far too early to make any meaningful artistic critique but I do get a hint of melancholy post industrial soundscape. Perhaps you could think about what parts of this “composition in progress” make that meaning!

As promised this is Steve’s impression of the  environmental sound pollution which surrounds us all. Some of it we can hear but much is in the “subsonic” What effect does this have on us and the way in which our brains work? I am posting this now but want to try and interview Steve about how and why he made this piece. I hope to have a transcript of this interview soon.

A place you may like to look for more about the way sound changes out “view of the world is TED talks. Julian Treasure has some interesting points. However a search of TED under sound throws us a raft of good stuff to listen to. However I particularly recommend you listen/watch this by The sound researcher Don Hill.