Month: December 2021

Rough Mix below, I like what I’ve got I just think it needs some compression and levelling and some slight more gain staging to control the dynamics and as much as possible whilst not being too squashed and compressed after being whacked by an L2 limiter at the end as well especially. I had a lot of fun with the Soundtoys plugins for this project which I didn’t necessarily expect. However using there echos, granular echos and delays are a real treat and some amazing sound design can definitely be done with their stuff.

https://soundcloud.com/jgbbeats/wata-rough-mix-44/s-t7eOeNuLUov?si=c99c59d7a73242abb8e064cbb088f5a3

Mixing – open back headphones lets the sound breathe – less boxy sound

Closed back – acoustic insulation from environment

When field recording you want to hear what the microphone is hearing so field recording use closed back headphones

Shotgun mic – hyper cardioid – focused directionally

Polar patterns {microphones} – translates vibrational energy to electronic energy

• Field of sensitivity/ direction of field 

figure of 8 pattern, in front and behind 

Omnidirectional (omnipattern) – circle, equal on each side

Cardioid – unidirectional – picks up sounds infront 

Dynamic mics – passive device

Hyper cardioid – much more focused directionally most infront slight behind, slight (less) each side 

Zoom recorders – x y stereo technique – left and right polar patterns having a crossover in the middle (the right of the left and left of the right polar patterns) {2 cardioid for L & r)

A B stereo – two omni for left & right instead of two cardioid 

Mid side pattern microphone – 1 microphone (in stereo) with field in front as well as to either side {sound devices mixer recorder – midside pattern shotgun mic)

Mid side pattern – stereo channel – split into 2 mono channels – 1 for mids (red pattern in diagram) and 1 for sides (blue pattern in diagram). Duplicate side channels to have one for left one for right (3 tracks total). Phase invert one of the side duplicates so that they don’t cancel each other out. Group side channels together to bring in together

Mono version of shotgun mic – just front cardioid polar pattern frontwards directional

Condenser mics (+48v phantom power) – more sensitive field (less latency) 

If a pickup is charged it is quicker response as its already charged, which is why condenser mics have less latency, dynamic mics are passive, no charge until electric signal is sent

Frequency response – non linearity to how different headphones/ monitors respond to frequencies (boosts dips) e.g. akg52 headphones – low end boost, hi-mid cut, 5-7k boost, vs Yamaha hs8 (much more flat response, cut very low freq, very high freq

Different microphones like looking at a certain thing through different glasses – the frequencies that are coming through at different amounts like light.

I love mics my go to is Shure SM7B or rode NT1 for music stuff, I love my zoom for field recs, I’ve began making field recordings for the WATA re score, lots of bubbles! I really want my piece to feel tactical and I really believe that is all about microphone choice and microphone placement.

Improvising from the POV of a sound artist is completely different to being a musician yet it’s completely the same. It’s contribution and communication within a shared space to create a shared feeling or emotion or product. However in the context of sound arts I found it quite liberating as the codes of merit are completely thrown out the window. At a Monday night jazz jam I’m applauded for chops , harmony riffs and soul, but in sound art im not applauded at all, it’s much more of an egoless conversation that applause isn’t actually necessary at all. I think one of the limitations with and within music is that its all about the star of the moment whereas I see sound art as more complimenting , observing or obliterating the moment. Me and shrug where on the most melodic instruments of all feeling most out of place it was hilarious, confided by the notes that once liberated us this unexpected betrayal of the very tools that made us who we are startled us. But it was really fun and it was good to see how everyone interpreted that moment in time.

Sound for screen

‘We gestate in sound and are born into sight. Cinema gestated into sight and was born into sound’

Audio Vision (Chion. M 1994 Columbia university press, ny)

How does sound affect image?

Develop understanding of film language

Use protools for foley and mix

“Emotion, story & rhythm – underline or emphasise or counterpoint the emotion you want to elicit from the audience. Choose the sounds that help people to feel the story of what you’re saying. Rhythm keeps pace of scene, sound is a temporal medium.”

How can I tell I miss you Eva tang 2020

Dziga vertov 1931 (pioneer of sound montage in documentary film)

Man with a movie camera

Cinema Verrato (cinema Rea;, real sounds, real people in factories)

Sculpting in time: reflections on the cinema (Tarkovskii, Andrei Arsen’evich;

Audio Vision: sound on screen chion Michel

Paul Davies you were never really here

The conversation 1974 Coppola

Apocalypse now – Coppola

Razorhead – David Lynch

We need to talk about Kevin

Hunger Steve McQueen

Selectivity vs multi layering – minimal vs complex 

Walter Murch 

Elements that make up a soundtrack

• Non sync/ sync sounds (match the action on screen {something breaks})
• Diegetic/ non-diegetic (off/ on screen) (non diegetic: score, narration) (diegetic: character voice, films universe sound)
• Dialogue sync: dialogue that’s in the camera shot or not (e.g. both sides of a phone call included)
• ADR: Automated dialogue replacement: re recording an actors dialogue in a quiet environment in post production)
• VoiceOver (narration
• Atmospheres (weather, general feelings, environment)
• Sound fx (gun shot, smash)
• Foley: creating/ performing everyday sounds in post production – in sync with what’s happening in the movie (footsteps, how their walking {brisk, nervous, springy, soft) {sync sound}
• Music: score, backing music, theme music, intro/ outro music
• Sound design 

‘Creating an illusion of space’

Blackboards

The nine muses

A man escaped Robert bresson

Been getting into mixing and mastering a lot lately, been using the fab filter pro c a lotttttt, this is how I understand compression

Attack: How fast the compressor ducks when the audio signal reaches the threshold.

Release: How quickly the compressor goes back to normal

threshold: what volume it will compress anything above

ratio: How aggressive the compression is

Attached is a song I’ve mixed and produced as of recent.

https://vimeo.com/489417053

This film really captivated me and I am going to score some of the opening scene for my specialisation project. I love the blur colours and the warm tones, for me this piece is a perfect display of Afro-Surrealist aesthetics. Afro surreallism is something which I delve into day to day with almost everything that I make. I believe that Afro-Diasporic is surreal by nature in a lot of ways as, as black people we have had forge our own spaces, our own ways of thinking and our own ways of making art, away from the societal norms of the western world. In my piece I want to further this rhetoric and create a surreal world in which these characters live in. Fashion film is something I’m a big fan of as it is a marriage between fashion, film and sound which are three of my favourite things! Also, the Melo zed score on this is absolute insanity.

https://soundcloud.com/jgbbeats/jkarri-mariana-demo

I just made this beat in response to the film WATA which I think I’m going to re-score for my specialisation project. The chords and drums have the feeling I felt when I watched it, I can’t explain it just is what it is!. I think I will use parts of it for the indoor section of the scene I want to score.

I recently watched the film Zola, and was immediately entranced and amazed by the utterly incredible Mica Levi score, her use of minimal synth lines and out of this world sonics and also things that sound like they came out of an 80s video game is incredible, this score sounds DIY but in the best way possible, it’s expansive and rich at times and at times it is ludicrously bare, but to me this just adds to the great appeal of this score and this movie. This is really something I wish to indulge in in my specialisation piece for sure.

In todays session we did an exercise showed to us by Milo, that he learnt from berber culture in North Africa. This was immediately interesting to me as cultures from this part of the world intrigue me a lot, and this part of the world is somewhere I’d really love to travel one day. This analysis of the experience of hearing a sound like clapping in a spatial environment is very intriguing as it helps me learn and realise the way in which modulating a certain sounds amplitude, EQ or spectral balance can change how I as a human think and interpret and sound I hear at any given moment. This is especially intriguing for me as in project which is based around water I will have to find the nuances of filtering and how I can manifest emotion from the listener with changes in EQ.

Also It revealed to me how much was humans respond to the sound of the collision of skin as a sonic texture and also just how versatile our hands are as instruments,