Space: The Final Frontier (minor update)

Plot of frequency modes in my studio showing strong peaks every 60 hz or so.

Click for larger image.

Well I found my “sonic laser tape” measuring thingy. Really makes taking room measurements a breeze. Anyway, the room is a little better than my original plot. There are still issues obviously, but the modes don’t seem as bunched up and reinforcing as I feared. (I’ve posted the actual plot to the left.) Hopefully this will make it easier to deal with.

I’m still amazed at how costly it is to deal with this stuff properly. I am skeptical of most of the cheap glue/foam products you can find at places like Guitar Center. They may work fine as diffusors but, according to articles in publications like Sound on Sound, you need something with more density to act as absorbers, particularly at the low frequencies that are at the center of my issues.

View entire post…

VN:F [1.9.3_1094]
Please Rate This...
Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)
Share and Enjoy:
  • Print
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google Bookmarks
  • email
  • MySpace
  • StumbleUpon
  • Twitter

Space: The final frontier (part 2)

Just a quick note.

There is a nice blog over at Trash Audio that is focused on home studio workspaces of “working” musicians. There’s also nice discussion of their work environments and approaches.

Really interesting to see the “real world” workspaces of others. It’s striking how much is done by folks with largely in the box production tools. The days of the grand studio are indeed over.

View entire post…

VN:F [1.9.3_1094]
Please Rate This...
Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)
Share and Enjoy:
  • Print
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google Bookmarks
  • email
  • MySpace
  • StumbleUpon
  • Twitter

Space: The final frontier…

Almost exactly one year ago I wrote a short blog entry on “dream studio spaces“. We were closing on a house then and I lamented the fact that I didn’t have a dedicated studio space in it. Well turns out that I commandeered/negotiated for/was-taken-pity-on-and-ended-up-with a small, small, small (essentially 9′ x 9′ x 9′ for a total of 768 cubic feet) bedroom to use. The physical form factor is not ideal for a music studio as it is almost a perfect cube…and did I mention it is small?

Acoustically this is about the worst configuration you can have, so much so that one acoustic treatment retailer has this on their site:

The worst type of room shape is a perfect cube – say, ten feet long, ten feet wide, and ten feet high – because all three dimensions are the same and all three dimensions resonate at the same frequency. A 10 foot cube shaped room will have a strong inherent resonance near 55 Hz, which is the open A string on a bass. So when that low A is played it will sound much louder than other notes. Such a room also has a longer natural decay time at that pitch, so A notes will sustain longer and conflict with other bass notes that follow.

Oh goody. Here is a graphic plot of the frequencies. (You can get the tool I used – PC only I’m afraid – and a lot of great information over at RealTraps.) It’s approximate because I’m pulling the room dimensions from memory.

graphic depicting modes in my studio with big ones at 60hz, 120hz, 180, etc.

It's amazing I can hear anything at all.....

Basically there is a very strong mode at 60hz and at subsequent multiples of 60hz. Recall the information above. So this means notes at or around those frequencies will be over emphasized and I will make incorrect mixing decisions at those frequencies. Now this isn’t as bad as it seems. Though this space’s fundamental flaws will never be completely eradicated from what I’ve read so far, acoustic treatment will help. I also do an inordinate amount of work in my headphones (a pair of AKG K240DF). So I think I will invest in an even better pair soon. Anyway, I’m in the process of upgrading major portions of the studio set up to improve the ergonomics and will try to address some of this as $$ allow. I’ll post some pictures as soon as I can. Any suggestions (on acoustic treatment or headphones) are very welcome.

Cheers.

View entire post…

VN:F [1.9.3_1094]
Please Rate This...
Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)
Share and Enjoy:
  • Print
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google Bookmarks
  • email
  • MySpace
  • StumbleUpon
  • Twitter

The Power of Less

This quote comes up often in a discussion with a good friend of mine, and I am remiss to not remember the power of its truth.

“What you need are fewer possibilities that are more interesting…It’s not more options you want; it’s more useful options…

Brian Eno, Imaginary Landscapes

Recently while on a short trip, I took my travel rig (consisting of a Macbook, some cheap external speakers, Reason 4, a Korg nanokey, and a few refills). I had a few hours to myself in my hotel room so I decided to putz about and work on a new piece. Because I had a limited set of tools on hand, when I “heard” in my head what was needed for the piece, I couldn’t launch into this mad search for a “close” preset from one of the thousands in my library and flit about to god knows how many VSTs and VIs. Nor could I delve into the vagaries of some little used plugin in both the hope of and search for “the answer”. I had to work with and focus on a limited palette (relative to the home studio space).

What I distinctly remember is being forced to “stop and think” about what the hell I was trying to do. The experience was very revealing: Over time (and unconsciously) the way I work has been influenced by the proliferation of my studio options and the contraction of available time. The result is that I no longer take the time to really understand most of my tools. Don’t get me wrong: I’m quite proficient with the operational aspects of most of the tools I own. I have a grasp of how to use them, how to navigate them, how to modify them to accomplish a given task; but that is not the same as having a deep understanding of them or being proficient in their use. (Proficient: [adj] skilled, skillful, expert, experienced, accomplished, competent, masterly, adept, adroit, deft, dexterous, able, professional, consummate, complete, master)

Lack of time and the proliferation of choices works against developing this sort of deep understanding and for me has fostered a “grazing mentality” wherein I search presets or soundfiles for something close to what I want (which is fine), but then I often fail to take it the next step and begin really working what I find into something unique. Instead, I move on because maybe I’ll find something “even closer” to use as a starting point. Problem is, I run out of time so the end result is that I have simply “grazed” and the piece is left with far too many IGB2I placeholders (I‘ll Get Back 2 It).

Grazing has perhaps become an end onto itself…

View entire post…

VN:F [1.9.3_1094]
Please Rate This...
Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)
Share and Enjoy:
  • Print
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google Bookmarks
  • email
  • MySpace
  • StumbleUpon
  • Twitter

Quick Props: Documentaries on Brian Eno

Picture of Brian Eno

There are two documentaries on Brian Eno that I am aware of and both are outstanding. One is from 1989 and is called Imaginary Landscapes. This is a fantastic look at Eno of nearly 20 years ago. As far as I know, it’s out of print (though a quick search will yield much info). The shots of him in his 1989 workspace alone are worth it, particularly when contrasted with contemporary scenes of his workspace from a very recent BBC4 documentary on Eno entitled Another Green World. (Hint: Everybody is moving “into the box” these days.) For different reasons, the latter documentary is not available for viewing “across the pond” in the US, but info can be found here. Both of these documentaries make for fascinating and highly recommended viewing.

Below is the VHS sleeve for Imaginary Landscape. I can’t figure out why they have not re-released this on DVD…

VHS Jacket front cover photo

Front Cover

VHS Rear Cover photo

Rear Cover

View entire post…

VN:F [1.9.3_1094]
Please Rate This...
Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)
Share and Enjoy:
  • Print
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google Bookmarks
  • email
  • MySpace
  • StumbleUpon
  • Twitter

I am beginning to think Diego Stucco may be brilliant….

Diego Stucco is a sound designer and composer, who creates new sound experiences in unusual ways…to say the least. The latest really cool “created instrument” is below.

embedded by Embedded Video

I first learned about Diego from a video by Spectrasonics released during the Omnisphere unveiling. Diego is the crazy guy who created an Omnisphere instrument based on samples taken of a burning piano. The video below is a melange of images taken from that effort I believe with a soundtrack provided by the resultant set of samples.

embedded by Embedded Video

A bit more informative is this video from 2 years ago where Diego and Eric Persing talk a bit about the sampling techniques used in developing Omnisphere.

embedded by Embedded Video

Click to continue reading
View entire post…

VN:F [1.9.3_1094]
Please Rate This...
Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)
Share and Enjoy:
  • Print
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Google Bookmarks
  • email
  • MySpace
  • StumbleUpon
  • Twitter
 
WordPress Loves AJAX