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’.