Rod Cooper's instruments
I'd forgotten how cool Rod's instruments sound. Saw him perform in Wagga a couple of times and have been meaning to hear his work on the Rogue soundtrack.
Rare Speak and Spell back cover
This Texas Instruments Speak & Spell possesses a rare component, one which anyone who has ever looked at secondhand Speak & Spell units would appreciate. This Speak & Spell unit has an intact battery cover.The device works but soon I hope to make it work in way not intended by Texas Instruments by creating some new connections.
Covered
These images were taken at The CAD Factory's night of short performances at Wagga Wagga Art Gallery last weekend for the Uncovered exhibition. I've begun editing my video footage and am thoroughly enjoying revisiting the event.
Fisher Price clock
Recently I treated myself to a Barcus-Berry piezo microphone and tried it out on this Fisher Price clock I've been meaning to record for a while. Listening back to it now I can hear there's too much compression, just listen to way the sound is slapped down after each tick.
Don't Look Bach
Here's my track for the Disquiet Junto group on Soundcloud this week.The instructions were:
Disquiet Junto Project 0036: Still Life
The painter Clyfford Still (1904-1980) was one of the great practitioners of abstract expressionism. The Clyfford Still Museum in Denver, Colorado, not only houses a wealth of his works, it also has on display artifacts from Still's daily life and practice, such as his smock, his old paint cans — and his record collection. These records, displayed behind glass, include pieces by Wagner, Mozart, Beethoven, and Bach, among others, and they're accompanied by a small note: "Clyfford Still was passionate about music, particularly classical music. Shown here are several samples from his record collection." In this week's project we're going to take that word "sample" literally.
There's an interesting question inherent here about matters of aesthetic influence: how it is that the man who painted such massive and graphically evocative works was, in fact, listening to music far more figurative than the art he himself produced? The goal of this week's Disquiet Junto project is to take a shared sample of the sort of music that Still loved — a 78rpm recording of J.S. Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 2, II. Andante — and turn it into something that might be deserving of the term "abstract expressionism."
So, the instructions for this week are as follows:
Step 1. Please select part of this MP3 of J.S. Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 2, II. Andante:
http://goo.gl/XqBvb
Step 2. Then transform that sample, through any methods you desire, into something that you feel meets the definition of "abstract expressionism" provided by the Clyfford Still Museum: "marked by abstract forms, expressive brushwork, and monumental scale."
You cannot add any sounds to the sample, but you can manipulate the sample in any way you see fit.
Deadline: Monday, September 10, at 11:59pm wherever you are.
Length: Your finished work should be between 2 and 10 minutes in length.
Information: Please when posting your track on SoundCloud, include a description of your process in planning, composing, and recording it. This description is an essential element of the communicative process inherent in the Disquiet Junto.
Milestones in recording technology
A little while ago I mentioned Perfecting Sound Forever and how it gave a great overview of the development of audio recording technology in the 20th Century. This remarkable video does a great job of demonstrating the technology.
DVD cover as instrument
For the DVD release of For 100 Years I'm making these handcrafted instruments. They sound pretty good, the kind of percussive tap sound you'd expect. I'll share a remix soon.
Soundtrack to sculpting
Hook was a collaborative performance between Vic McEwan and John Wood. Molten steel, furnaces, anvils, clarinets, guitars, contact microphones, underwater microphones and an iPad created this 40-minute collaboration between music and the blacksmith sculpting process.
It was held outside Wagga Wagga on Friday 13 July 2012. Afterward Vic joked you can see how many rehearsals they had in the number of hooks that you see hanging.
Great setting -- can't think of the last time I watched hot metal being sculpted!
Reasons to date a bass player
My partner adds that bass players also have "less strings attached"!
I'm resisting pointing out to her that we bassists know how to get into the pocket but she should know that if you want this sort of awesome then you're going to expect it'll cost you something.
Advice from Andrew Weatherall
This advice from Andrew Weatherall to take your sounds out of the digital realm or to include something that isn't a sample or VST makes a lot of sense.
Another interesting take on the difference between analogue and digital recording mediums comes from Mike Stavrou.
Vibrating String
Above is a recent image of one of 'the wires' built by Alan Lamb and Scott Baker outside Wagga Wagga, NSW.This large-scale aeolian harp has been an influence on my work in a wide variety of ways and I've written about it on this blog a number of times now.
In February 2010 I made a three-hour recording of some of my favourite recordings from 2004 to 2009 and also included ambiance, such as birdsong, cicadas, insects, bats and a lonely frog. There's a bit of me bowing early on and then the wind plays the rest!
For a couple of years I wasn't sure how to share this material but it's now up on Bandcamp to hear or download for free.
Nice theremin
Found this example of theremin through a "vocal formant filter" guitar pedal on the Electro Harmonix blog. Lovely!
Perfecting Sound Forever
Recently I finished reading Greg Milner's book Perfecting Sound Forever, which is a well-researched history of recording.
Starting with Edison's wax cylinders and covering the development of the rival Victrola, the introduction of magnetic tape after World War II, then Philips' compact disc and, finally, discussion of the loudness wars initiated by radio stations that have blighted popular music in recent years.
The explanations of the technology were easy enough for me to understand but the highlights seemed to be the people on the periphery who I'd never heard of before, like Leopold Stokowski and John Diamond. The latter has ignited a long-running debate about the effects of listening to digital recordings and there's an interesting quote from Rupert Neve on this topic on another blog of mine.
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