Audio Project 1- Edge Point

For Our Project Edge Point, Charlotte and I were happy with the results of what we had made, especially in terms of the audio work we have applied to our project. I personally felt like we had gone out of our comfort zone with the project, employing a range of recording techniques. The production process was also tedious for us as we wanted our sounds to be categorized and in exact spaces within the session according to the ‘scenes’ we had organised in them.

 

We used the software that we had intended to use, Logic Pro 9, on my Macbook laptop. We had a series of sessions using the Universities Audio edit suites in the MHT. We used elements of Komplete 10, such as the synthesiser “Absynth 5”. This was both used to create sounds from scratch aswell as manipulate sounds that were previously recorded. Within the session, all of our tracks were sent to different effects buses with distortions, reverbs, beat mashers etc.

 

We used inspiration, as we had intended, from researching the scientific elements such as near death experiences and the process of death and incorporated some of these ideas into the film sound. These ideas however, didn’t contribute fully to our full expression of the experience of death. We used other quite random sounds but we felt as though these were more relevant for their aesthetics as opposed to their actual meaning.

 

In terms of leaving the audience with an almost cathartic felling at the end, I feel we may be on the cusp of it. Charlotte and I trialled the media to a small group of people and they explained how they felt after they had watched it. They felt as though the had gone through all of the emotions through the video. Both of them had said this. For us, this was successful. Where we could improve our feedback method, if we were to present this work at an art gallery, we would ask the viewers to write a few words or draw a picture to explain how they felt and what they thought during the experience.

 

I felt as though I have achieved most of our learning outcomes, the main one being the notion of working in a group that is bigger than just myself when working on Logic pro. I felt for this style of project, having two people working on the system to create sound was useful because when I would get stuck for ideas, Charlotte would help out with giving inspiration and suggestions. This worked vice versa too.

 

With the visuals, I was happy with the outcome and the way we had used a combination of analog visuals and digital audio to send our interpretation of death to the viewer.

 

Jez Riley French is an experimental sound recordist. He is widely known for his array of atmospheres/sound and unique recording techniques for field recording. Jez has travelled the world with Contact microphones, Hydrophones and Ultrasound microphones. He records sounds from nature, as well as sounds with some human influences, such as long cables like that of Teleferica. Teleferica was created in the Dolomite mountains of Italy, by placing contact microphones on a long length cable running up the side of a mountain. He spoke in the lecture about how the locals used these cables to transport goods up and down the mountain from village to village. The sound demonstration from this recording was very inspiring and it reminded me of an effect in Absynth 5 (Native instruments Synthesiser) . His Recording “Dissolves” was also made in the Dolomites, recording Iron ore dissolving in a solution. This recording is very bitty, you can hear the individual bubbles that are coming out of the iron ore solution. Jez’s recordings sound extremely wide in headphones in my opinion. Jez emphasized his own creation of the microphones, as he would be too worried with spending too much on a hydro-microphone for example, which are sold for about £8K and above, with the risks of breaking them. This adds a certain element of danger to his recordings, and this element in my opinion is what makes Jez a truly inspiring sound recordist which surpasses the safe norms of sound recording in todays audio industry. Also, it’s an constituent of surprise that is apparent in the recordings, it takes away a certain level of predictability with the art of recording. Jez gave another example of using Ultrasound microphone, in a piece/ art that he names “ultra sonics’.

Jez Riley French’s Lecture gave my group member and I the inspiration to go out and use contact microphones. We got hold of one and used it in our prohject. This lecture definitely opened up my eyes to different ways of working with Audio and Location sound.

 

 

 

 

This blog will outline the key ideas that we have applied the project as well as an analysis as to why we did what we did. It will justify the thinking behind how we created the sounds and images in relation to the meanings, and of course, non-meaning (Random choice) to the piece of media.

 

For Charlotte and I, the concept of death was an interesting one to choose to convey in an Audio/Visual presentation. There are so many different theories and concepts surrounding the subject of death, but the vast majority of the ideas are concerning the “afterlife”. For example, all religious connotations about death talk about life after. Science only tells us how we die but doesn’t detail what actually happens from a first person perspective. We specifically did not want to focus on the afterlife, but instead on the actual process of dying through ones own senses & consciousness. Further information on the science behind death will be in my research section of the blog.

 

Method

 

Charlotte and I booked out a Zoom H4N microphone and went out and about in Lincoln, Nottingham and Skegness in which to get some recordings of various different everyday outdoor sounds. We had recorded passing trains, the atmospheres and sub-frequencies of being on board a train, conversations, industrial fans on the sides of buildings and many more noise producing elements. With these recordings, we used about 20 out of the 35 tracks that we had recorded, in the final pieces audio. Using inspiration from ‘Jez Riley French’ an experimental sound Recordist that came in to do one of our lectures, Charlotte and I managed to get hold of a contact microphone. With this, we carried on using the Zoom, and got some interesting different sounds, such as a water machine bottle, and a microwave oven. Our initial idea was to get as many sounds as possible, then organize them afterwards into categories. We could then dip into the folder and apply whichever sound we thought would be suitable for particular parts of the audio.

 

Different to most audio/visual film pieces, we decided to do the audio first, as this is what we are most concentrated on as audio students and practitioners.

 

To create the visuals, Charlotte and I had the idea of using analog 16mm tape, by punching holes into the tape itself throughout, and scratching parts of it. We then had help with the tape reel, projected it on to a white wall and video recorded it onto a camera. Then, we took the 2 movie files and imported them into an iMovie project.

 

 

An Explanation of the piece

 

We wanted to create a piece that would both give the audience our interpretation of death, but also give them the opportunity to have their own personal experience. These experiences will differ from person to person. This is what we both agreed on to be the affect that we wanted the media/art to produce. Charlotte and I were inspired by “Ear Films”, which was an audio film at the “frequency festival” in Lincoln lasting 80 minutes and was about a dystopian future. In the Q and A session after, they explained that everyone would have a different experience to one another and that no two experiences will be the same. This is much like ours and we believe that even listening to it twice or more, there will be a different experience each time.

 

In terms of the reasons for using and creating different sounds and atmospheres, this was more for their sonic aspect in relation to the basic structure that we had planned out for the soundscape. This structure is as follows:

 

>Completed audio reversed

>Confusion

>Panic

>Happy Positive memories

> Regrets

>DMT Trip (Inspired)

> Blissful Euphoria

> Flatline

 

In terms of the visuals, we wanted to use a type of media that was different to the average digital production/ animation, and so we decided to use the 16mm film tape.

 

Sources of inspiration

 

Lis Rhodes,

 

Walter Rutmann

 

The Death of Rave, (Including The Sprawl.)

 

Mumdance

 

Burial

 

Musical Concrete

 

 

 

Ken Blair (Jazz and Orchestral recording)

 

Ken Blair is a Recording Engineer / Producer that works for the Association of professional recording services in the UK and in the USA. Ken’s company is called the “BMP the sound recording company”. His main skills lay in Post Editing and recording Orchestras and Jazz bands. He records both on Locations at venues/concerts and in the studio.

Ken has taught “music production” at the University of Surrey for 4 years.

 

These are some key points from his experience of recording Orchestral Music:

 

>Classical music, the microphones are further away then in Jazz

 

>Recording takes place live because of the acoustical elements that are in the music.

 

>Mix is done before you start in the classical genre

 

>Get things rigged and sound good in broadcast industry is good

 

>Tweak mix before the end

 

>Classical, do a take one at a time, edit the good bits , and delete the mistakes

 

>Rig in advance when you have time to rig mics

 

>Film score; micing each one separately isn’t normal really, usually a stereo mic set up

 

 

 

These are some of Ken’s main points for recording Jazz bands:

 

>Head to venue 2 hours before, to set up

 

>Different places around the world

 

> Getting all the right spaces for recording,

 

> Cable length, walking around them can be dangerous, h&S to take into account (Applies to both Jazz and Orchestral recording)

 

>Focusrite interface, DAW, monitor station W/talkback key

 

>Producer, engineer, client usually sit in on the session listening on headphones, so they know what’s going on.

 

>South bank centre recordings, understand the health and safety

 

>Perseverance… keep going to where you are aiming for.

 

> Eric Clapton, boy George, black Sabbath etc etc he worked with

 

>Be helpful, ‘play mum’ doing cups of tea for the musicians etc as this builds up a good rapport with them and will help to make the session easier.

 

> Talk back mic manners. Saying the right things, in terms of with the styles of music they are making. For example if it is a sad piece of music, he will talk to them in a calm collective way, being careful not to make his tone of voice inappropriate, because this can throw the musicians off from what they are doing.

 

>Abbey road. This is one of the most difficult places to get work because of its reputation.

 

 

 

Ken highlights:

 

CVs: Its Not particularly important to talk about student jobs etc, it should be more of a skills based CV because this is what Audio Based employers will most be looking for, experience etc. I found this useful, as I probably would have just included everything in my CV for audio related jobs. Ken specified to keep it to a minimum, about one page.

 

MPG (music producers guild)

 

kenblair@bmp-recordings.co.uk