Semester 2 Blog

I have banished this blog to the depths of the world wide web, my new blog is at http://g0tmilk.blogspot.com/




By the way, my word count on this blog is 10,000! And only worth 20%!

Creative Computing

This is my Creative Computing minor project 2.5Mb
Take note this was made exclusively from sounds that came from my mouth.

Audio Arts

Drum mic setup. The song being played at the time of the photograph required only crash and ride, so the overheads were used specifically for these. The drummer preferred to play in the dark.





Microphone placement for flute, with mouth mic and 90 degree mic. This would have sounded great if the flautist could stand still for more than 15 seconds.




Microphone arrangment for violin. The AKG was left over from recording trumpet, but I still ended up using both microphone's recordings.




My pre-prepared microphone collection before the band arrived. I had all mics running into ProTools and recordable at this point.




My temporary deadroom, set up infront of Studio 1's window for the second recording session. It worked quite well, and proved to be slightly less live than the actual deadroom. Almost 'too dead', if that's possible.



This is my Audio Arts major project. 1.7Mb

Week 13 - Spiel, Pilfer and Cary Controversy

As the semester comes to a close, and assignments close in all around me, I stop to ponder the times I’ve had. Then I keep going with my assignments.

Dirty Harry was in fine form today- I am curious if these LP’s that he brings in are in fact his own. Steve Reich “Electric Counterpoint” (1987) was the first meal served, and was quite enjoyable. I have asked several people to explain counterpoint to me, and every answer is different, as is every piece of music that considers itself counterpoint. There is a ‘bubblegum punk’ band called “Fall Out Boy”, who supposedly use counterpoint in their songs. Their songs sound like crap. Anyway, Pat Methany played guitar for this piece. Good on him.

Next was Tristram Cary “Soft Walls” (1980), which was a vast sound scape of mediocre beeps. I’m sure in 1980 it was ‘radical’, but I wasn’t even born yet. “Ooh, but he’s a guy from our uni.” So what, I can’t have an opinion? I could do something like that today in 2 hours max. I know, 1980 etc., my point is if I composed a piece of music, I would want technology to move on, in affect making my work obsolete, and I wouldn’t expect any future person to find it relevant to their time. Very little of this ‘abstract electronica’ is timeless, as evolution is an integral part of the genre. Each piece is merely a stepping stone to the next, and while we can appreciatively look at the footprints left behind with a retrospective tear in our eye, it doesn’t change the fact that it rarely sounds good today. For those “But in 1980 is was really difficult” people: we need to keep a fresh mind, one capable of accepting and utilising new technologies, and not weighed down with “In MY day we had to use a blade and reel-to-reel tape, and we had to do it while walking barefoot on broken glass in -4C rain.” I’ll book your nursing home for you.

I haven't had much sleep…

Always a fan of Pink Floyd, “Interstellar Overdrive” (1966) was their first experimental song. This is quite noticeable, as the ‘experimental’ part, including an organ and various synthesisers, are huddled in amongst Floydian guitars, as if they are too scared to be in the song alone. To quote Dirty Harry: “They were the earliest band to go strange.” Steve Reich popped in for another visit, this time with “After the War” (1988). I have consistently enjoyed any piece played by the Kronos Quartet, and this was no exception. The strings mimicked voices that simulate a speaker on a train, and turned the everyday speech into a musical motif. With each new vocal excerpt or train sound, the strings would follow suit, with enjoyable consequences. Finally, we listened to Tristram Cary’s “Steam Music” (1978). Ironic that after my spiel about ‘ignoring the old days’, Tristram manages to rip off Pierre Schaeffer’s pioneering composition “Etude aux Chemins de Fer" (Railroad Study).

Audio Arts(2) revolved around psychophysical mixing. Some great tips were imparted, especially delay tricks using panning, and ‘windowing’, which I have already started applying to my project.

Creative computing (3) involved using a noise gate in ProTools and routing a signal through the side-chain input.(4) I’m sure this will be of great use to me in the future, perhaps when I do my creative computing major project, but for now I am content with remaining confused about it.

Spiel and pilfer are cool words, aren’t they?

1. David Harris. “Music Technology Workshop: Listening Session.” Lecture presented at Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, South Australia, 8/06/2006.

2. Christian Haines. “Audio Arts: Psychophysical Mixing.” Practical class presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, South Australia, 6/06/2006.

3. Christian Haines. “Creative Computing: ProTools Gates.” Practical class presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, South Australia, 8/06/2006.

4. John Delaney, “Music Technology Journal - Week 13” Intangent http://intangent.blogspot.com (accessed 8/6/06)

A final cheers to John “Kitchen Aid” Delaney. Your blogs throughout this semester have been a great source to pilfer references, as well as general reminders of what we did in CC and AA. Thanks everyone for your comments, except for you Bach, you old geezer.

Dear Blogger,

Thanks for nothing. You made blogging more difficult than licking your own elbow. I hope you've had fun letting me upload pictures then not giving me the html text.

Ben xxx

Week 12 - Drum kits and Chinese Opera

Get this- I was actually 'inspired' by one of the pieces that Dirty “Dirts” Harry presented us (1). See how far I have come? Nobukazu Takemura’s “Assembler Mix” sounded like an old movie soundtrack looping under other fragments of the same movie. It was very much rhythmically based, almost ‘groovy’ as they say, and towards the end some sine waves were introduced as the whole scene came crashing down into what could be described as mush. Something that Colonel John Delaney and I noticed was some barely audible sounds up in the high 17kHz range. On the subject of the Colonel, it is interesting that somebody else has noticed you can hear that a television is turned on when you aren’t actually in earshot. I thought I was able to hear electromagnetic waves, however it turns out I’m not that cool.

Umm… Oh yes. So I was inspired to see what I could do with some ‘old’ sounds I found in the audio lab samples folder, and this is what I cooked up. I am well aware that using loops is not ‘composition’, but I really don’t have the time to sit around with Sibelius. I think it has an old skool rap style about it, with a hint of ‘chill’, Massive Attack style. I think I’ll get a girl to rap over it. Girl rappers are the best.

Next up was “Snarling Wrath of Angry Gods” by Gutbucket from their album “Dry Humping the American Dream”. Despite the ultra-cool name, I didn’t get the “Snarling” at all. The odd key signature and mix of heavy guitar and brass instruments gave the impression that the Angry Gods have disparate musical tastes, however the saxophone solo was possibly the best saxophonophony* I have ever heard. Continuing the ‘comparative’ format of the most recent listening sessions, Dirts unleashed some Bach on us (HEY! That’s a great name for a dog! Bach! Ha ha ha!). The piece was a 6 voice improvisation that Bach created for a guy that had thrown together an abstract theme, on which the piece was based. The sound of a harpsichord certainly gets old quickly, and I would like to hear the piece played on a grand piano. Still, what doesn’t sound good on a grand piano? Well, Slipknot wouldn’t.I’m getting sidetracked again.The next piece was “Kyrie” by Toby Twining. The main feature of this piece was the vocal harmonics, of which Patrick and I can emulate to a lesser extent, and even though the piece built up to a rich collage of sound, it still felt like it didn’t go anywhere. Arnold Driblatt’s “Lapse” had a heavy emphasis on rhythm, and the overall sound had a “Chinese street-corner lute-band” feel to it. Varying tempos helped maintain interest, seeing as there seemed to be no structure to the melodic or harmonic progression. It turns out the song was based on the overtone series, which trying to explain would be both boring and word-consuming. Hardcore Chinese Opera” by Otomo Yoshihide won some fans with screaming being the focal point. Lastly Igor Stravinsky’s “Symphonies of Wind Instruments” fail to get a rise from me.

The Artist Talk this week was a free-for-all student presentation seminar, where Vinny Bhagat presented a song of unrequited musicianship, Patrick McCartney informed us of his ‘lunar’tic plan of astroterrestrial composition and Tyrell presented some sounds of people touching live instrument leads. I would have hired a stripper, but I guess I’ll have to wait until I’m teaching my own class.

For Audio Arts (2), Christian assisted us with drum microphone techniques. I have miced up numerous drum kits, three so far using the microphones available at EMU, so I like to think I am a micing maestro. I suppose it is just as well, considering this is the only Audio Arts that I have missed this semester. In any case, I would recommend using an AKG-C414 on the kick, and for the snare and hihat use the two Yamaha MZ-204’s. A Rode NT3 will pick up the floor tom nicely.

Creative computing (3) allowed Christian to pass the gall stone of digital tape editing techniques, which apparently I have passed already. I often used PCM editors during Music Technology in high school, so this was a nice reiteration class.

And here’s my awful Jodie remix, which I have named "DJ Opera in: The Bowels of Hell" I would say ‘Enjoy!’, but that would be expecting a bit much.



*Hello again. This word was more fun than serious. I like the four o’s. What, you wanted some incredible revelatory description? Shut up and enjoy these: Phantasmagoria; ignominiousness; antidisestablishmentarianism; mittelschmerz (look up this one).

1. David Harris. “Music Technology Workshop: Listening Session.” Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, South Australia, 1/06/2006.

2. Christian Haines. “Audio Arts: Drum kit microphones.” Practical class presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, South Australia, 29/05/2006.

3. Christian Haines. “Creative Computing: Gall Stones.” Practical class presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, South Australia, 1/06/2006

Week 11 - Whittington's Wit and Other Alliteration

David Harris was not available this week to contort our classically trained ears, so I just walked around Uni hitting things with a metal pole and pretended I was listening to Stockhausen. I may have hit a car.



Stephen Whittington presented an interesting array of research that he has conducted over the past couple years (1). Of particular appeal to me was the “globalisation of consciousness” idea, which essentially refers to the expansion of world-wide communication over the last 50 years and its affect on society. I had never given much though to times before telephony, and it was quite a revelation to me that the advanced forms of communication that we use every day are in fact creating a world with similar views, ethics and opinions. I am curious if this will somehow lead to a united world, however the results are more likely represented in this still from Futurama, a cartoon set in the year 3000.

There was no Creative Computing this week, so I had to be creative all on my own. I ended up performing some Albanian Monk style vocal sub-harmonics for fellow student and future Dictator of Earth John Delaney. I sounded quite convincing after some layering and stereo hall reverb, and I can’t wait to hear it after fellow ‘sub-harmonicist’ Patrick McCartney records his part.

Audio Arts was cut off at the head with Christian not being available, yet we somehow remained alive for the class, just like a chicken would. Much like a sound engineering headless chicken, we all ran around trying to record a classical vocalist singing part of an oratorio. To my dismay our group used 4:1 compression with an instrumental compressor, so I sat in the corner and sobbed quietly while the operatic dynamics were molested and unhealthy results were recorded. Thankfully, this class demonstrated an approach to vocal recording that I will not imitate in my Audio Arts project. I will now briefly brief you on my brief of this sound engineering experience*.

I have recorded a band called “Behold The Sun”, which I luckily contacted through Ailese Millington. I was hopeful that I would not have to record one of the “Alternative” Uni bands, with the clichéd rock instruments of drums, bass, guitar and vocals, so I was grateful to discover Behold The Sun consists of a drummer, singer/keyboardist, flautist, and violin/trumpet player. A genre of ‘difficult to describe’ was the icing in the cake, so I was very excited to record them. I extensively prepared the first recording session, with special attention on micing techniques for violin, trumpet and flute. I made a mic list with exact positioning for each instrument, and on the day I had all microphones plugged in and sending signals to a prepared ProTools session with all tracks named and microphone placement, type and polarity commented on. I will do this for every future recording session I organise, as it was only 45 minutes from when the musicians arrived to when I started the first recording with optimum signal levels. I imitated this procedure for the second recording session, however this time was all overdubbing. While I cannot relive my whole fantastic and horrific story within the confines of this blog, I will make it available on my backup blog, so read if you care. Note that by entering said site you have agreed to my emancipation from any repercussion or persecution I may be liable to as consequence of the actions or opinions transcribed within. This, my friends, is a Catch-22.

*Here we are again. Rather that making up crap, I have used an adverb, a verb transitive and a noun in a grammatically correct phrase. Here is the same sentence with synonyms: “I will now concisely inform you on my synopsis of this sound engineering experience.”

1. Stephen Whittington. “Music Technology Presentation: My Life As A Not-Dead Person” Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, South Australia, 25/05/2006.

All pictures were found the lazy way: Google Image Search www.google.com

Week 10 - Bungle and Lawyers

I have noticed in the recent listening sessions (1) of our Music Technology Workshop that David Harris has been introducing us to musical pieces which provide us with more of an entry point into the avant-garde genre. I am curious to know if I would enjoy any of the pieces from term 1, now that I have a basis for interpreting them. I also wonder if David Harris has ever been nicknamed “Dirty Harry”, what with the similar name and all.


Enter prog-circus (2). My first foray into Mr. Bungle was with the piece “Love Is A Fist”, which starts as though it is a heavy metal rock song, then playfully swings between jazz and rock, then back into heavy metal . I truly enjoyed this piece (Shock! Horror!) for what it was (Oh…), with obvious talent shown in the ease of transfer between different musical genres. I could not educe where I had heard the name “Mr Bungle” until I heard the introduction of “Dead Goon”. Much like a 1950’s educational video for children, a voiceover told the story of Mr. Bungle and his lack of hygiene in the lunchroom to which I recalled an actual video of this very sound sample, which used puppets to show distasteful lunchtime antics. Perhaps this was the video clip of “Dead Goon”? Anyway, the actual music was funk in a minor key crossed with acid jazz, which fell into the aforementioned circus music intermittently. With heavy metal style vocals over the top of a chromatic scale, I certainly didn’t fall asleep, or rather couldn’t fall asleep. I’m sure ‘fans’ in the room will rave about it, but I’m sure it was intentionally silly and controversial, not a piece to be perceived as serious musical composition. Like in the previous piece, it is obvious that Mr. Bungle are talented musicians, however the overall structure is organised in a disorderly fashion*. Stockhausen was a step down in interest, with the short wave radio recording “Hymnen” (1966-67). I have often created pieces just like this when searching around on the signal test radio in EMU, which gave me an epiphany of what Musique Concrete actually is. It is: Difficult to put into words. Another of ‘Stocks’’ pieces was played, however it was merely talking, which I have also done often. My Bloody Valentine gave us this week’s “wall of sound” song, with “To Here Knows When” involving normal female singing on top of was seems like 2 LP’s player simultaneously. It was difficult to discern any actual instruments, yet it was interestingly in tune.

The “artist” presentation (3) was from a lawyer who was as faceless as his view of the people he represents. Dry sense of humour and general boredom with life indicated a tertiary education choice of “Well I got into Law, so I may as well do it”. The copyright component of my music technology class in high school was enough for me to understand what I can and cannot do, so I can’t imagine what would possess someone to use their 98 T.E.R. to end up in copyright law. I suppose it is the very same reason anyone would choose law in the first place; great money and hatred of the world. I do enjoy Law and Order: Criminal Intent, but only the episodes that have Detective Goran, not that pretentious git from Sex and the City.

More microphones in this week’s Audio Arts, which has proven once again to be an invaluable asset to my recording project preparations.

No Creative Computing this week, as Christian needed a “ladies day” (or so I’m telling people- PLEASE DON‘T FAIL ME!). Here's my Hand That Feeds thing.



*There are intricate intricacies of the English language, hence the nonsensical sense of previously used language syntactics. Sometimes I also just misspel stuff. While writing this blog I inadvertently created a new word: Controvetian; someone who bases their life around controversialism, much like a controversialist, but cooler sounding.



1. David Harris. “Music Technology Workshop: Listening Session.” Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, South Australia, 18/05/2006.

2. John Delaney, “Music Technology Journal - Week 10.” www.intangent.blogspot.com (accessed 20/05/06)

3. Lionel Hutz “Music & Copyright Law.” Life story presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, South Australia, 18/05/2006.

4. Christian Haines. “Audio Arts: Microphones” Practical class presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, South Australia, 16/05/2006.

All pictures were found the lazy way: Google Image Search www.google.com

Week 9 - Vibroacoustics and Marclay Madness.

Cheers to David for some more comparative listening in this week’s workshop. Did you know there was an actor called David Harris in the 1979 film, “The Warriors”? There was also a David Harris put to death in Texas, but that must have been a different David.

Classical music remixed live isn’t exactly my forte, in fact I doubt it is anyone’s forte, yet with 6 billion people in the world there had to be someone who wanted to scratch up an orchestral LP. Christian Marclay woke up one morning and said, “Yeah, why the hell not”, and unfortunately I wasn’t there to say “Coz it’s stupid.” Although it would be questionable why I was there when he woke up anyway. We were informed in Thursday’s listening workshop (1) that this vinyl-rubbing prodigy can ‘command’ up to 8 turntables at once, which would also mean he could wash up and dry the dishes at the same time. Johann Strauss was injured in the making of the first piece (well, his artistic creation was), and not for any great reason, as the result was just a muddle of occasionally distinguishable chords and melody. While we’re spitting on history, Jimi Hendrix lost a few metaphorical limbs as Marclay scratched around on LP’s that now days would score you a couple hundred bucks at Cashies. The side comment of the piece “Play back at high volume” is a complete joke. Hendrix didn’t have that on his LP’s, he didn’t need to state it- you would WANT to crank it up! I’ll listen to music however I like, starting with turning this song down to zero.

Moving on, Pink Floyd was treated with dignity as part of “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” was played from their conceptual album “Wish You Were Here”. This piece screams Floyd, with emphasis on lustrous guitar solos and typical Floyd synthesisers.

Too much of a good thing I guess, as we head back to more Marclay madness. When you thought John Cage couldn’t get any more abstract, he gets scratched into oblivion. Although the Cage did keep me moderately interested, the next scratch-a-thon involved opera by Mariah Callas. Wow. Horrible. Occasional elongated high-pitched notes plagued this concoction like urine falling into an empty bucket.

Ahh… More Floyd. The second half of “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” was just that- the second half. With more singing this time around, and some organ chords in the background, it seemed more finished than the first half*.

More honours presentations this week, with Seb Tomczak and Darren Curtis showing off their wares. Seb (2) has been quietly producing an economically efficient and practically viable model for a physical to computer interactivity module. Much like IKEA, Seb has set the price of the module before building it. Now he can call it something really abstract, like BANG.

Darren Curtis (3) kept the crowd enthralled (me at least) with his research into frequency medicine, or “sound healing”. His work involves investigating the effect certain sounds have on the physiological processes of living systems, as well as studies of ultrasound, vibroacoustics and biocomputer waves. A subject that interested me greatly is the exploration of binaural beats, where two waves that would normally rhythmically cancel each other out are played individually into each ear, forcing the brain to cancel them out internally.

Comparing a dynamic microphone to a condenser was the soup du jour in this week’s…. soup eating contest (Audio Arts, (4)). We miked up a guitar and amplifier with both microphones in the dead room (from now on known as “A Room To Die In”) and recorded it into ProTools in Studio 2. Long story short, the condenser sounded better, yet playing the dynamic mic recording at the same time ironically made it sound more dynamic.

As the ProTools pond sucks us in, we realise it is in fact ‘consciousness quicksand’ (or a ‘sandbox’ to make a pun of it). Edit and mix groups were the focus in Creative Computing, which have proven to be very useful when spreading similar sound files over multiple tracks. We were also meant to make a couple more NIN remixes, which I will add this week sometime.

*Yes, yes. I know the second half is the end, so it IS more finished. Thanks for pointing out the joke.



1. David Harris. “Music Technology Workshop: Listening Workshop.” Presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, South Australia, 11/05/2006.

2. Seb Tomczak. “Music Technology Presentation: Cost-Effective Audio Interfaces.” Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, South Australia, 11/05/2006.

3. Darren Curtis. “Music Technology Presentation: Frequency Medicine and Sound Healing.” Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, South Australia, 11/05/2006.

4. Christian Haines. “Audio Arts: Microphone Comparison.” Practical class presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, South Australia, 09/05/2006.

5. Christian Haines. “Creative Computing: ProTools.” Practical class presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, South Australia, 11/05/2006

Week 8 - Nine Inch Nails and Honours

Audio arts (1) was an introduction into microphone choice and placement. Having done several ‘extracurricular’ recordings this year already, I have had a fair amount of experience with the microphones available. It seems to be the general consensus that the most expensive are always the best (“Just grab the Nygen”), but for me it has been experimenting with a variety to choose what is best for each specific sound source. If I’m recording a vocalist in the deadroom, I often set up 2 different microphones for the first take, and then (possibly) use the one that had an less desirable recording as a room mic. I like to think that I’m covering my bases, as if I only had one microphone and nothing to compare it to, I might be missing out on something better.

Continuing the treacherous swim through the ProTools mutagenic lake, Creative Computing (2) had us remixing the Nine Inch Nails song ‘Only’. After 4 hours of sampling loops and ambience from other NIN songs*, I used Luke’s hard drive to transfer the collection of files to an Audio Lab computer. Upon opening the ‘Only’ ProTools session from the drop box, I began deleting all the repeated files until I was left with just the ‘skin and bones’ of the song. I then imported all of my samples, giving each different song’s collection of samples its own track. Let the games begin! Roughly 6 hours of ‘time compression/expansion’ later, and I had this to show. Some of the timing is out, but it got to 11:30 on Sunday night and I had to run in the rain to catch my bus. Good times! I am aware I didn’t need to go to the extent of sampling, but once I got stuck into it I didn’t see any reason to stop. I conveniently waited until 20 minutes before my bus before realising that I had no way to save the session - I don’t have a portable hard drive. I managed to save all the files to a CD, but so far the session will not open up again.

David Harris went out on a limb for this week’s listening session (3), and played a diversity of electronic music. Looks like my prayers were answered, as we were able to compare abstract works such as music concrete "Voile d'Orphée" (1953) from Pierre Henry to modern(ish) songs like “Breathe” from Pink Floyd. I found some interesting “Breathe” folklore. We also heard a very early Pink Floyd song called “Bike”, which was shockingly bad. Here’s the lyrics if you want a good laugh. Much to my appreciation, Led Zeppelin’s excellent “Whole Lotta Love” was played, and there was also a Frank Zappa piece "Mr. Green Genes" which did little to inspire. Although this certainly inspired thought.

The student projects that were presented to us in the second half of the workshop put some perspective on what it takes to do honours in Music Technology. Tim Swalling explained his project on "A-Life: Artificial Life in the Creation of Music", (4) which is essentially explaining the natural and computational processes in music creation. Jasmin Ward’s (5) project centred around using music to heal the world or something - much like Michael Jackson. I trailed off after the 3rd seven-syllable word. I guess I need to read more books or something. Now I see why I didn’t get into that nuclear physics course I tried so hard for. It turns out Jasmin is also a 15 year old boxer and a gynaecologist.

* If you care, I sampled from: “The Wretch”; “The Day The World Went Away (Quiet )”; “We’re In This Together Now”; “Starfuckers Inc.”; “Ripe (With Decay)”; “Please (Never Leave)”; “The Marks Have Been Made”; “I'm Looking Forward To Joining You, Finally”; “The Frail”; “Where Is Everybody”; “Even Deeper”; “Complications Of The Flesh”.


1. Christian Haines. “Audio Arts: Microphones.” Practical class presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, South Australia, 02/05/2006.

2. Christian Haines. “Creative Computing: ProTools.” Practical class presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, South Australia, 04/05/2006

3. David Harris. “Music Technology Workshop: Listening Workshop.” Workshop presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, South Australia, 04/05/2006.

4. Tim Swalling. “Music Technology Presentation: Student Project.” Presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, South Australia, 04/05/2006.

5. Jasmin Ward. “Music Technology Presentation: Student Project.” Presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, South Australia, 04/05/2006.


Picture References
Microphone http://fr.wikipedia.org/
Led Zeppelin http://www.musicstack.com/
Pink Floyd http://www.lacosaweb.com/
Nine Inch Nails http://www.nineinchnails.net/

Week 7 - ProTools and Milkcrate

I was sick for the first week of holidays, thanks to nobody in particular *coughchristiancough*.

In out first week back, creative computing finally began its perilous descent into ProTools. Having not used it before this year, I certainly hope to gain some functional tips for use in my projects. It is interesting how we study a program in CC that is essential to our project in AA. Considering this crossover, I recall Stephen Whittington’s quotes from last week’s forum, namely Carola Boehm from the University of Glasgow; "To integrate an interdisciplinary field, such as Music Technology, into an academic discipline-segregated structure, such as that existing in our Universities, provides, in many ways, more challenges than opportunities: in research as well as teaching and administration”. (1) I feel our ProTools studies are a perfect example of how the ‘segregated disciplines’ of music technology are umbilically(2) connected through the application of technology itself.

Audio Arts fell on Anzac Day, so this class was nonexistent. I have had some more recording experience with honours student Tim Swalling, this session requiring us to connect a Casio MIDI keyboard into studio 1. The direct MIDI input on the back of the ProTools drive did not work, and I assume there was a setting on the keyboard itself that needed to be changed. Thanks to an anonymous tip, I ran some guitar leads straight from the L&R outputs of the keyboard into channels 3&4 ‘line in’ on the C|24 desk. While this did work, the signal level was fairly low when the keyboard was kept at a bearable volume, and was perfect when it was up full blast. To neutralise the deafening sound, I inserted a patch cable into the headphone jack on the keyboard, so the only sound audible was the signal running through C|24.

The David Harris portion of our workshop consisted of more ‘pushing the boundaries’ music. I read in someone else’s blog that they want some real perspective in the music we listen to at these sessions and I am definitely starting to agree with this view. Sure, Edgard Varese is important to the history of technologically created music, but the perspective would come from comparing Varese to say, Fatboy Slim. Drawing comparisons between history and the music it has inspired would undoubtedly get the interest levels high. In a future blog I may create my own comparisons, so watch this space. We first listened to “Voyage Des Unari Vers Androméde”, created by Iannis Xenakis (1922 - 2001) (above) in 1989.Considering this piece’s namesake of our nearest neighbouring galaxy Andromeda, there seems to be no actual reference to space itself. Made using graphs that were read by a computer, Androméde was a frightfully diverse collection of waves, with extreme high and low frequencies being reached, and possibly some ultra and subsonic sounds beyond the human ear’s perception. Next up was Garbrielle Manca’s piece, “In Flagranti” (1999). Using an acoustic guitar and a slide, Geoffrey Morris (right) played this difficult piece with ease, and I was surprised that such complexity could be composed, let alone played on a single guitar. The final piece was “Rubric” by Phil Glass (left). Created for his ‘band’, the instrumentation of this song was very much rhythmically inclined. Most of the instruments, real or synthesised, were playing the same melody in repetition, with changes in timing marking the only real progression of the song.



Seb Tomczak presented the history of Milkcrate. I have always been a fan of milk and milk products, so this interested me greatly. As you could imagine, I was disappointed to hear of the complete lack of dairy in the entire Milkcrate process. I may join in this project next year, mainly because I have this knife at home that makes a high-pitched ringing when flicked. I think I’ll bring milk, too.




(1) Carola Boehm. "Abstract.” Between Technology and Creativity,
Challenges and Opportunities for Music Technology in Higher Education. https://dspace.gla.ac.uk/bitstream/1905/82/1/BOEHM_Carola_edited3.PDF (Accessed 28/4/2006)

(2) I am well aware of this adjective not existing in the English language. Then again, how did you understand a word that doesn’t exist? Surely we only assume non-existence when we lack comprehension. Surely understanding a word ‘existifies’ it.

Seb Tomczak. “Forum Presentation: Milkcrate and Desklamps” Presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, South Australia, 27/04/2006.

Christian Haines. “Creative Computing: ProTools” Practical class presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, South Australia, 27/04/2006.

David Harris. “Music Technology Workshop: Pushing The Boundaries.” Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, South Australia, 27/04/2006.

Week 6 - SoundHack and Music Technology Panel

My left ear was blocked all this week, so forgive me if my blog is a little ‘one-sided’. In any case, this is my ‘monocracy‘.

Our creative computing class this past week involved an introduction to SoundHack, and more Spear exploration, including deleting and transposing entire harmonic sections and also using a PCM editor to layer a manipulated sound file over the top of the original. After learning the file editing capabilities of SoundHack, I plan to crack the 396kbps audio file that I mentioned last week. In our Audio Arts class we were taught how to send and receive signals between the dead room and studio 1. On Friday I assisted honours student Tim Swalling in setting up a mic and headphones in the dead room to connect to C|24 in studio 1. Apart from some sound level issues, we got it working in 5 minutes, talk back and all. We checked to see how much bleed (if any) occurs between the two rooms by recording silence on the mic while an audio track was being played through the headphones, however there was minimal discrepancies.

Our workshop began with ‘Ecuatorial’ (1932-34), by Edgar Varèse. It uses a very complex collection of instruments, originally including two theremins, which were later replaced by ondes martinots in the published version of the song (1). Large and intricate chords would swell up every now and then in the wind instruments, and sometimes in the strings. The percussion was mostly a mix of loud and quiet instrumentation, but still added shock value. A baritone voice seems to sit around in the quiet parts, and is quickly made superfluous by the roaring trumpets. [Camera Press Ltd, London / photo Walter Bursten/Queen]

Milton Babbit is the first person to use ‘total serialism’(2), as exemplified in “Ensembles for Synthesiser”. Listening to the piece, I had several interpretations of the sounds, including various ringing phones, and Atari 2600 music. There was no musical form, but there wasn’t meant to be. A thought occurs: without musical form, what can be done in 10 minutes that can’t be done in 5? The piece was way too long, and I found myself gazing out the window thinking “If we were meant to be monogamous, why aren’t we born already married?” [Camera Press Ltd, London / photo Vytas Valaitis]

Barry Truax‘s “Wings of Nike” (1987) consisted of wind sounds with a tinkling sound on top, rising and falling intermittently with some effects thrown in. Nothing incredible or thought inspiring.

The forum was an actual forum this time, with Stephen Whittington, Mark Carroll and Tristan Louth-Robbins, (eventually) asking the question “Is Music Technology a defined or segregated area of study?” While there were many views and opinions being thrown about, I feel that by the end, the question still remained. Fundamentally, it is difficult to officially define each field of music technology as possible stand alone subjects, as music technology studies have only just begun their integration into the education system. It is not fair to compare it with other well established areas of study that have sometimes had hundreds of years to grow into specialty fields, while music technology has only just become a specialty field itself (of music). Give it time, perhaps our offspring will have a choice? Although I'll need a girlfriend first...



(1) Paul Griffiths: ‘Varèse, Edgard’, Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy (Accessed 07/04/2006), http://www.grovemusic.com

(2) Quote: David Harris. Music Technology Workshop- “Milton Babbit, Ensembles for Synthesisers." Presented at the Electronic Music Unit, EMU space, University of Adelaide, 06/04/2006.

Stephen Whittington, Mark Carroll, Tristan Louth-Robbins. "What is Music Technology". Presented at Electronic Music Unit, EMU space, Adelaide University, 06/04/2006.

Christian Haines. "Audio Arts - Studio 1 and Dead Room." Practical class presented at Studio 1, Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, 04/04/2006.

Christian Haines. “Creative Computing - SoundHack and Spear.” Practical class presented at Audio Lab, Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, 06/04/2006

For a huge collaboration of pictures of synthesisers, amplifiers, mixers and customisations from around the world, check this out. Be careful though, as there is a TONNE of pictures, and they start downloading as soon as you open the page. I would only recommend viewing if you don’t have a download limit (like I do- 200Mb *sob*).

Week 5 - Peak, Spear and Chris Williams

How about that Peak 4 user guide. 268 pages? Try reading through that in one sitting. It seems as though if you’re relatively fluent with any PCM editor, the principal options are the same. All the usual fades, amplifiers, compressors, normalizers etcetera are always present, so my experience with programs such as CoolEdit have basically given me a rundown on the important tools available. I have used it to edit songs in my music library, taking out long, boring introductions and the long silence between a CD’s last track and a hidden track. Christian help us understand the basics of Spear and Peak, which is always a good place to start. Interestingly, I have a 396kbps sound file which I have been unable to load on any media program, including Audacity and Spear. Spear is the first spectral analysis program that I’ve ever used, and I am certainly amazed at how it works. As I have already had experience in Photoshop style programs, I find Spear to be easy to manipulate.

So far I haven’t done too well in Studio 1 - I can only do what I learnt in Studio 2. Christian gave us a run down of the area much the same as for Studio 2, stating the nuances of the thru patch bay and the mixing desk. The C|24 mixing desk is pretty intimidating, as well. I definitely need some practice.

The John Cage music that we heard on Thursday was a great example of how old the ‘showing off technology’ style of music is. The 1952 musique concrete piece “William’s Mix” had a fantastic sound, and was basically perfectly edited throughout, even though it was done with a razor blade 54 years ago. Nowadays, seamless sound editing can be done by a computer-literate 13 year old, but without a computer it would have been a very painstaking process. The ‘channel-changing’ result actually made me feel anxious, with a little déjà vu of that scene from The Ring where the girl crawls out of the television. It’s interesting that Schoenberg told Cage that he had “No sense of harmony” (1), considering that his piece “101” is essentially ad-libbed orchestral instrumentation. It’s as if he decided that seeing as he has no sense of harmony, he may as well compose something that doesn’t use harmony. His experiences of Zen Buddhism seem to have inspired his efforts for creating music without using musical talent, with an example being the use of coin flipping to decide when instrumental events occur (2).

Chris Williams from ABC Radio gave some great insight into the recording and publishing process in a professional media environment. The pieces he played were pretty confusing, but I assume they weren’t completely finished. One thing I noticed was the incredible quality of the vocal recordings, as they seemed virtually flawless. One part had MIDI composed rock music as a backup to the voices, and to be honest it sounded pretty lame. MIDI is a very versatile tool, but when it comes to guitar nothing can replicate the flow and personality of the real thing.

1. John Cage: ‘An Autobiographical Statement’, New Albion Records http://newalbion.com/artists/cagej/ (Accessed 01/04/2006)

2. Andrew Stiller: 'Cage, John (Milton, jr.)', Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy http://www.grovemusic.com (Accessed 01/04/2006)

Chris Williamson. "Artist Talk - Sound Production and Direction for Broadcast." Presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, 30/03/2006.

David Harris. "Music Technology Workshop - John Cage." Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, EMU space, University of Adelaide, 30/03/2006.

Christian Haines. "Audio Arts - Studio 1." Practical Class presented at Studio 1, EMU space, 5th floor, Schulz Building, University of Adelaide, 28/032006.

Christian Haines. "Creative Computing - Spear." Presented at the Audio Lab, Schulz Building, University of Adelaide, 30/03/2006.

Week 4 - Headphones and David Harris

Creative computing this week involved editing PCM files and the issues with zero crossing. I have covered most of these things through my music tech classes in high school, but it is good to get refreshed on things that I learnt four years ago. I didn’t know that PCM meant Pulse Code Modulation. The picture on the left is of a section of music that made a ‘pop’ sound. Zero crossing, where art thou? In Audio Arts we covered headphone monitoring and using the patch bay effectively. I am still a bit confused about how the headphone amplifier works, so I will have to delve into that in my spare time.

The following is the Lite description of the forum, as I had to shave off 200 words to make the limit. If you can be bothered with the Maxi version, it's right here.

When people were taking their seats for the Thursday workshop, there was a piece of music playing called “Sweet Air” by David Lang. It sounded familiar, and I deciphered that the melody and harmonies were looping, yet the rhythm that they were being played with was looping at a quicker rate. It turns out I have been paying attention in Introduction to Theory and Analysis, as this form of music is called isorhythm. The result was harmonically sound, yet intellectually stimulating due to the regular changing of the timing. A nice start to the lesson, but a false pretence for the following ‘song‘.

The next piece, “Surf Music II” by Jack Vees, was certainly a tangent to the planned structure of the ‘entrance’ music. There were some fantastic effects at the start that I’m sure took a long time to create, like some of the upper-harmonics that would beat against each other while seeming to pan around the room. As the song moaned on with the deep, dying elephant sound, the collaboration of effects seem to get less organised, conjuring images of audio mixing with a food processor. I've found a real cool Jack Vees piece-Strummage.

“Fog Tropes II” by Ingram Marshall ironically could have been called “Surf Music II”. With the Kronos string quartet playing ever-so-slightly modulating harmonies, the tranquil boat/whale-ish sounds added environmental depth to the emotion present in the music. As the piece moves on from the introduction, the tuned harmonies became more and more scarce, and anticipation for the next resolute chord increased, until the song reaches a violent climax of upper-partials and senselessness. If I must be critical, in the second half there were human voices and possibly a pan-flute quietly polluting the concept of solidarity created by the strings. Ingram Marshall has also done a similar piece called Dark Waters.

Now to my favourite, Michael Gordon’s “Trance IV”. Beginning with his trademark ‘Irrational Rhythms’(1), with seemingly just a saxophone and xylophone playing the exact same melody at the start, it becomes apparent that there are many more instruments playing. Gradually, a saxophone begins to break away from the main rhythm, playing just out of time. Enter a third sax, and two more xylophones all playing the same melody just after one another, and it’s only just getting started. In comes 3 trumpets and suddenly it becomes difficult to locate specific instruments. As complication increases, what needs to be added? How about asking BassSatan and OverdriveGuitarDemon to kick in with a head-bashing death metal riff, and while you’re there, molest a drum kit to get some palpitating psycho-rhythm.

Then Stop.




(1) Article by Michael Gordon’s Publisher for cantaloupemusic.com, “Michael Gordon” http://www.cantaloupemusic.com/artists.html#gordon (Accessed 24/03/2006)

David Harris. "Music Technology Workshop / Artist Talk – David Harris." Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, EMU space, University of Adelaide, 23 March 2006.

Christian Haines. "Audio Arts - Studio 2." Practical class presented at Studio 2, Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, 21/03/2006.

Christian Haines. “Creative Computing - PCM Files and Editing.” Practical class presented at Audio Lab, Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, 23/03/2006

Week 3 - Studio 2 & Gordon Monro

In Creative Computing we were shown the uses of meta-data and headers for audio files. My substantial music collection would be moot without them, so I already have an understanding of their importance. With the help of the normalised, half-normalised and thru patching tips I learnt in our Audio Arts session, I was able to dive right into Studio 2. In my first experiment, I introduced myself to the dead room (to which I got no answer*) and eventually hooked up a microphone through the 01v deck, into the DP/4 effects synthesiser and back out to the monitor speakers. Using the wonderful signal test radio, I was able to bastardise all the crap that comes out of SAFM with some fantastic flange and spatial effects (There’s a setting with a ‘Darth Vader’ effect, but the name eludes me).

My next visit involved a rush-job self introduction to ProTools, which wasn’t very successful as I had never used it before. I did manage to get some pre-recorded drum loops from the ‘Garage Band‘ library rolling, but any instrument sounds I found were not in sync. I settled for some rhythm-less ambient sounds, which made it seem like I’d actually made an informed effort even though I was flying blind. In my third visit I managed to record one signal onto 2 tracks, with the second track coming from the DP/4, like this : mic signal from ch.1 on the omni, default to ch.1 in ProTools, then bus the signal internally to ch.3 in ProTools, and patch (ProTools 3 out) > (DP/ 4 1 in) and (DP/4 1 out) > (ProTools 2 in). This way there was a clean microphone signal recorded in ProTools on Channel 1, and a ‘dirty’ signal from the DP/4 recorded onto channel 2.

The artist talk with Gordon Monro was quite interesting, as I hadn’t heard anything like a genetic algorithm attempting to resolve a harmonious chord. Other pieces that were presented were “Red Grains” and a piece that uses ‘sonification of brainwave data’. I found other examples of Gordon Monro’s work: dry rivers sample and voice phase 2 sample. I visited the Evochord display on Hindley at about 9pm, but was disappointed with three things: It was exactly what we saw in class, only slower; It was too quiet with the speakers shut inside a store; It was a lot smaller than I expected. I thought it was going to be projected onto the whole front of a building, but it was just the front window of an empty store. It didn’t help that while I was watching, a girl yelled out of her car window “LONER!”.

Gordon Monro’s work on ‘lagged embedding‘ to create pictures of sound using chaos theory


Gordon Monro. "Artist Talk - Generative Synthesis and Algorithmic Composition." Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, EMU Space, University of Adelaide, 16/03/2006.

Christian Haines. "Audio Arts - Studio 2." Practical class presented at Studio 2, Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, 14/03/2006.

Christian Haines. “Creative Computing - Meta-Data and Headers.” Practical class presented at Audio Lab, Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, 16/03/2006

*Because the dead room does not ‘reply’.

Week 2 and Week 1 - Warren Burt and Robin Minard

Week 2 - Warren Burt

The Mac OSX operating system was covered in this weeks creative computing class. I have had some experience with the Mac format, but I have been using Windows for so long it’s going to take me a while to slip back into Mac mode. Stupid one button mouse. It’s the same deal for the AMS, really, as I have had some experience with MIDI systems, but it still comes down to working with a Mac.

In Audio Arts we were shown the signal flow between the 01V deck, ProTools and the dead room in Studio 2. Using the signal test radio (on Fresh FM *shudder*), it was shown that a microphone plugged into ‘Studio 2 - 1’ went straight to channel 1 of the 01V deck, then was normalised through the patch bay into track one in ProTools. I plan to practice patch cabling a lot, so I don’t have to fumble around for 10 minutes every time I want to use studio 2.

Warren Burt has indisputably helped shape the digital music age we are in today. His optimistic view of any technological advancement and an obsession to create, understand and/or improve any new noise fabrication technology that has emerged throughout his career has been groundbreaking. His idea of creating a ‘new form of musical community’ is understandable when examining the position that the music culture is in today, with much less of an emphasis on live performance (1) and the explosion of MP3. He has produced many pioneering masterpieces, such as his work on the ‘Aardvarks IV’ composition machine he built, as well as various other pieces very suited to the modernist age.

In his talk for our forum, Warren presented a brief outline of his expansive career, and I was very impressed with the scope of sound research he has been involved in, such as micro tonality. Also included was a behind-the-scenes look at some of his performance work, such as a piece that he will be performing somewhere in Hindley Street. As an extra twist, he decided to use the sound of a church organ as the instrument performing the piece, as this would seem very out of place in the middle of the night on a real dodgy street. Using a mathematical algorithm, a seemingly random melody was played by a computer, with a visual representation being displayed through the projector. While this was interesting, I can’t imagine why it would need to be played all night long on a public street. I found it to be very dull after about 15 seconds, thanks to the lack of comprehensible melody or rhythm. See my other blog if you can be bothered reading my psycho-analysis of music and sound. I wanted to hear some of his other works, so I found this MIDI file that uses micro tonality. I’ll give you $10 if you can sit through the whole thing.


(1) Burt, Warren. “Experimental Music in 2005” World Literature Today Article and MP3s. May-August 2005. http://www.ou.edu/worldlit/onlinemagazine/ Accessed on 10/03/2006

Warren Burt, "Artist Talk – Composing with Technology." Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, EMU space, University of Adelaide, 09/03/2006.

Christian Haines, “Creative Computing - OSX and AMS” presented at the Audio Lab, Schulz Building, University of Adelaide, 09/03/2006.

Christian Haines, “Audio Arts - Studio 2 Signal Flow” Lecture presented in Studio 2, Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, 07/03/2006.



Week 1 - Robin Minard


Our first audio arts class was only an overview of the semester’s topics and such, which is what I’ve been doing for every other class so far. During the tour of the studios, I realised the extent at which the University of Adelaide has gone to support the field of Music Technology. Studio 2 seems like it has about $30 grand worth of recording and mixing equipment, and I was struggling not to drool at the sight of the C|24 mixing desk in Studio 1 with its motorised faders. I have used a relatively advanced recording studio throughout years 11 and 12 in high school, but the Uni setup is on a whole new professional level. I am a bit nervous about ProTools, as every other person I have spoken to has had experience with it, and I have never heard of it before. Perhaps I’ve lived a sheltered life?

Apart from some assigned readings on the EMU website, we mostly covered course outlines, rules and regulations etcetera during Creative Computing. I am still a little curious as to what this class actually involves, but I will probably find out when we start getting assignment topics.

Robin Minard was the guest speaker in our first forum. I didn’t know what to expect to happen in these forums, but I was definitely pleasantly surprised. Canadian born Minard studied composition in his home country as well as in Paris, and since the 1980’s his major focus has been sound installation art.(1) An installation that is of particular interest to me is “Silent Music” (1994-95). In museums throughout Germany, Minard created a sound installation, consisting of 100 to 500 high-frequency loudspeakers. This work is intended for use in quiet public places or galleries, with the sounds being emitted creating a ‘colour‘ for the environment. Minard arranged the speakers such that they appeared organic in the environment, even making them ’grow’ attracted to a light source in the room.(2)

Minard’s work is the first truly artistic collection of compositions that I have seen/heard, and his use of sound, structure and aesthetics to make a collage of visual and auditory mediums is quite inspiring. I would love to visit one of his exhibits while he is in town for the Fringe, and experience his work in person. While I normally conform to the mainstream views of what music is, regarding harmony, melody and rhythm, this forum has showed me a new perspective. I believe that Minard’s creations are leaning more towards art than music, but he still uses his musical experience and knowledge in the application of sounds used for spaces. I wish I had 500 speakers in my bedroom.


(1)Robin Minard, Lecture presented at Bauhaus Universität, Weimar, Germany: 'Between Sound Art and Acoustic Design' http://www.acc-weimar.de/ (Accessed 03/03/2006) Direct link to article

(2) Institut für Elektronische Musik und Akustik “Silent Music 1994-95” http://iem.at/ (Accessed 03/03/2006) Direct link to article

Robin Minard. "Artist Talk – Sound Installation Art." Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, EMU space, University of Adelaide, 2nd March 2006.