3rd February 2022
by Fikrat Kirkland
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– clichés work, they exist for a reason
– Once you use the idea of a cliché, you can either feed into it or deceive and go into a different direction
cliché
/ˈkliːʃeɪ/
noun
1.
a phrase or opinion that is overused and betrays a lack of original thought.
3rd February 2022
by Fikrat Kirkland
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For my sound piece I decided to talk about a certain dream I would have as a child, not quite a nightmare but unsettling nonetheless. I tried to use my skills in production and sound design to illustrate the feeling and vibe of my dream rather than putting the emphasis on my speech and on what I was saying. I used synth VSTs such as Serum, Hive and Xpand!2 throughout the piece, often using Valhalla Supermassive or EchoBoy by SoundToys in order to add interesting delays and effects to the sounds. I composed the melodies in the piece using my laptop keyboard and clicking the notes into the MIDI piano roll.
The loud thumping sound at the beginning comes from a field recording I made near the Thames River, next to the Hayward Gallery, where a construction worker was dropping a heavy object from 10-20 meters above. I used this in my piece because when I was a kid, I would hear this sound in my dreams, and I even had a phase of my childhood where I would hear it in my head during the day. I would just be playing with my toys or something and this loud, thundering sound would fill up my head slowly getting louder and more and more impactful. I still get hints of it sometimes, and I can remember what it felt like.
It doesn’t feel like this piece is quite finished, I think it needs cleaning up and needs to be stripped more to its core elements, but every time I attempted to do so I felt like I was just adding more instead.
The script felt like it ended up coming out a bit abstract, without any real tangible moments in the dream, like it’s all just a blur of events. But to be fair, that’s how dreams are. Many things in dreams do not seem to make sense and things that happen one after another can seem like they have no correlation whatsoever.
I don’t usually use my voice in my work so it was definitely a new experience for me to do this. It felt pretty uncomfortable because naturally I just don’t like the sound of my own voice, like most people. Once I read out the script and got all the lines right, I was relieved to have gotten that part over with! I had initially added effects to my voice to the point where it was nearly unrecognizable, but I felt I didn’t want to go down that route. Pitching my voice down the way I did simply seemed too cliché, reminding me of those interviews with criminals where they pitch their voices down to stay anonymous.
Originally my sound piece included an ending with drums, but upon further reflection I decided not to include it because certain sounds were taken from sample libraries. If you would like to hear that version, I have included a link at the bottom of this post. I think it’s good to mix the theme of sound arts with the type of art that I usually make, which is what I did here, but I ultimately decided that it was a bit too much.
My favorite part of the piece was probably the “screeching lasers”. I found a custom preset in Serum and decided to tweak it until I got what I wanted. I changed the wave forms and then also changed the effects in the Serum FX tab. Once I had my sound preset, I added Valhalla Supermassive – one of my favorite effect plugins at the moment. There are so many possibilities – so many cool things you can do, and the plugin is free as well. Basically it creates huge, swelling reverbs and delays. I ended up going with a reversed delay effect which I am definitely very happy with. I think it fits perfectly in the piece.
Overall, I found this experience to be very fun and I definitely feel like I went out of my comfort zone and made something that I wouldn’t usually make. If I were to do the same exercise again in the future, I might try to make it so my vocals are more on time with the sounds, as well as having the script be more poetic and less like narration. I feel like I had no real conscious influences whilst making this piece. Obviously as a creative we will always have influences from what we’ve heard or seen throughout our lives, but with this piece there’s no one specific artist or work of art that I can point to and say that it inspired me to make this.
Link to my dream sound piece (with drums at the end)
28th January 2022
by Fikrat Kirkland
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It displays an overview of your entire session: a mini representation of all video, audio and MIDI material on you displayed tracks.
By clicking in the Universe view you can scroll the Edit window horizontally, vertically or both.
One clip: clip once on the clip you want and it will be highlighted.
Multiple clips: click on the first clip you want then SHIFT-CLICK on the last clip you want. Both clips you clicked and the ones between should be highlighted.
Click and drag across the area on the track that you want to select.
OR Click once to define a starting point for the selection and then SHIFT-CLICK to define an ending point for the selection.
Double-clicking.
When you create a selection with the selector tool, you can drag vertically to select the same area across several adjacent tracks.
After creating a selection on one or more tracks , you can add the selection to a non-adjacent track by SHIFT-CLICKING on the track playlist with the selector tool.
Provides an option for sharing Edit selections among tracks by selecting or deselecting the tracks themselves. This allows you to copy a selection to another track, remove a selection from an individual track, and move a selection among tracks by selecting or deselecting track nameplates as needed.
Can be used to move the cursor or extend a selection to a clip boundary.
Useful for finding the initial peak or modulation in an audio waveform (start point of a sound or louder transition).
Press the OPTION key while selecting the desired height on any track.
Arrows pointing N E S W. Located directly below the Zoomer tool.
The Zoom Toggle function toggles between the current zoom state and a preset/predefined zoom state.
They are used to store and recall commonly used zoom magnifications.
Markers – store locations on the timeline and Selections – store edit selections (edit locations)
Pro Tools provides up to 999 memory locations for each session
By pressing ENTER on the numeric keypad to access the New Memory Location dialog box.
By pressing ENTER on the numeric keypad during playback or recording.
26th January 2022
by Fikrat Kirkland
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Anke Eckardt’s work encompasses mutimedia / sound art installations, artistic concepts, research and teaching.
She received her Master of Arts at the University of the Arts, Berlin in 2010. She studied with Sam Auinger, who was also a visiting practitioner last year.
Anke presents her artistic work internationally in exhibitions.
I took a deeper dive into her artwork via her blog. Here are my two favorite pieces.
The way she thinks about “sonic spaces” and the relationship between architecture and sound reminded me of Sam Auinger’s talk, and how we should create infrastructure with sound in mind. It is really important yet overlooked how important it is for a space to be sonically pleasing. It is not only the visual aesthetic that is important.
With my father being an architect, I felt myself thinking about sound and architecture quite a bit. I researched further into ways in which cities will use buildings or parks and trees to block out unpleasing sounds from a highway or railway, for example.
25th January 2022
by Fikrat Kirkland
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Rebecca Lennon is a British artist based in London, and works in many artistic fields including performance, sound, music. She uses her voice and body to experiment with what she calls non-linear rythms. Linear rhythm refers to the visual characteristic flow of the individual line, whereas non-linear rhythm might refer to being more dependant on pattern.
Rebecca Lennon exhibits internationally, across contemporary art and experimental music platforms, radio and recently, publishing.
The way Lennon uses vocals in her work inspired me to experiment more using my own voice in my music. She creates dense layers and the final result is always so unique. There’s so many more possibilities through the use of the human voice compared to using an instrument or a synthesizer, for example.
References
https://vimeo.com/rebeccalennon
https://vimeo.com/348267905 (WHIP DERELICT)
8th December 2021
by Fikrat Kirkland
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Richard Phoenix is an artist that works in many fields, he makes music, paintings, drawings, and writes. Richard is known for the way he combines all these types of art and uses them as a tool to interact with communities. Richard also works as the creative associate for the learning disability arts organisation Heart n Soul. He showed us a bit of how he uses art as a powerful tool to help young people express themselves more freely and providing opportunities for these people. Richard is also the founder and director of Constant Flux, a project set up to create opportunities for musicians with learning disabilities paving the way for learning disability arts and music as a whole.
Here is a painting made by Richard Phoenix that I liked. The way he uses strokes of color in his art is very unique, like the way the red “lips” are painted over the darker red. I feel like this painting – similarily to most of his art, I’ve noticed – can be interpreted in a dark sense but also has a calming feel at the same time.
19th November 2021
by Fikrat Kirkland
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What are some actions that can be initiated from the Dashboard?
Create a new blank session on local storage. Create a new blank project, with or without cloud backup. Create a new session or project from a temlate. Open a session or project from a list of recently opened Pro Tools documents. Open a project that you created or are a collaborator on. Open a session from a connected storage location on your system.
What is the difference between a session and a project in Pro Tools?
A session file is saved to local storage. A project is stored remotely (on the cloud)
What is required to create a project document? What are some reasons you might want to create a project instead of a session?
An Avid account, and Internet connection. The reasons to use a project include the following: a. to protect your Pro Tools work against loss in the event of Drive failure or other computer mishap. b. To be able to access your projects from anywhere with an Internet connection. c. You can collaborate with other Pro Tools users anywhere in the world.
What are some available options for parameter settings in the dashboard?
Create from Template, Audio file type, Sample Rate, Bit Depth, I/O settings, Interleaved, Prompt for Location, Show on Start-up
What audio file types are supported in Pro Tools? What is the default file type?
WAV or AIFF
What is the maximum sample rate supported in Pro Tools? What is the maximum bit depth?
192Khz. 32-bit
What menu command lets you add tracks to your session? What keyboard shortcut can you use to access this command?
Track. cmd+shift+N
How many tracks can you add to a session at one time?
You can simultaneously add as many tracks with as many different configurations as your session will allow.
Describe some primary track types that are available in Pro Tools. Describe the two types of folder tracks.
Primary Track Types: Audio, MIDI, Instrument, Video, Auxiliary, VCA, Master Fader.
Basic Folders: purely for organisational purposes, essentially just containers for visually grouping sets of related tracks together into a collapsible view. Basic folder tracks do not have any signals rooted through them. Aside from solo and mute functionality that propagates to their constituent tracks, basic folder tracks have no mixing controls.
Routing Folders: have all of the signal routing functionality of an Auxiliary input track (audio input an output selectors, insert points and send routing), along with mixing controls (Pan and Volume) and all associated automation controls in the Mix and Edit windows. Routing folders are designed primarily for sub mixing and stem mixing workflows combining key features of Auxiliary inputs and VCA master tracks with folder behaviour for organising and managing sets of tracks.
Which timebase do Audio tracks use by default? Which timebase do MIDI and Instrument tracks use by default?
Audio tracks are Sample-based by default, while MIDI and Instrument Tracks are tick-based.
What happens to the Audio and MIDI data on a track when the track gets deleted from your session? Can the Track > Delete command be undone?
When you delete tracks, your audio or MIDI clip data will remain in the Clip list, but your arrangement of clips on the deleted track (the tracks playlist) will be lost.
Name the two types of cursors available in the Edit window. What is the difference between them?
1. Playback cursor2. Edit cursor. The Playback cursor is a solid, non-blinking line that moves across the screen during playback and indicates where the current playback point is. The Edit cursor is a blinking line that appears on a track playlist when you click with the selector tool in a track .
Which tool can be used to set the playback point by clicking directly on a track?
Selector Tool
What is the Playback Cursor Locator used for? Where will the Playback Cursor Locator appear (in what Ruler)?
To help locate the playback cursor when it might have moved off screen after reaching the edge of the Edit window. It appears in the Main Timebase Ruler.
What is the purpose of the Save As command? Which session will be opened after completing the Save As command – the original or the renamed copy?
It’s useful for saving a copy of a session under a different name or in a different drive location. The Save As command leaves the original session unchanged and allows you to continue working on the renamed copy. And such, it is particularly useful when experimenting, to save alternate versions of your work. This command is also useful for saving stages of your work under different names. By working in this way you can always retrace your steps if you ever need to go back to an earlier stage of the project. It is the renamed copy that will remain open to continue working on.
What is the purpose of the Save As New Version command? What type of Pro Tools document does this command apply to?
It provides similar benefits to the Save As command, but is available only when working on project documents
How can you open a session after locating it in a workspace browser?
Double-click
8th November 2021
by Fikrat Kirkland
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It’s important to consider the crucial role of the sense of touch coupled with the conjunction between the senses of sight and hearing.
“The perception of our time is mainly determined by communication media. Wherever we are, we are surrounded by invisible waves, which can be received everywhere and anywhere and can be made sonorous and vivid.”
Für Augen und Ohren – Opening introductory in the exhibition catalogue
Christina Kubisch – Electrical Walks
Christina Kubisch is a German composer, sound artist, performance artist and professor. She composes both electronic and acoustic music for multimedia installations. She gained recognition in the mid-1970s from her early works including concerts, performances and installations.
“Technological development made the mediation of our senses ever more pervasive”
The modernist exhibition space of the white cube is meant to be a neutral space. Works are displayed in a setting curated for optimal concentration on their perception. Walls are painted white, windows are sealed to ensure there’s no natural sunlight and just artificial illumination. The feeling created is “clean” and “artificial” and the space can feel disconnected from the outer world. This space is dedicated to the Kantian and Greenbergian understanding of the optimal settings for a visual presentation. Other exhibitions that attempted to include other senses, like hearing or touch destabilised the traditional institutional policy of display and exhibition.
5th November 2021
by Fikrat Kirkland
0 comments
How much disk space is consumed per minute by a mono track at a sample rate of 44.1 kHz and a bit depth of 16-bit? What happens to disk space consumption if the sample rate is doubled to 88.2 kHz with the same bit depth?
At a sample rate of 44.1 KHz, each track consumes approximately 5 MB of storage per minute for 16-bit audio (mono). With increasing bit depth in sample rate, drive consumption increases correspondingly; recording at a sample rate of 88.2 Khz, therefore consumes twice as much drive space as recording 44.1 kHz. Similarly recording in stereo consumes twice the space of recording in mono.
How can you monitor the storage space available on your system to determine the amount of record time remaining for each mounted drive?
WINDOW > DISK USAGE
How can you create a click track for a session? What kind of track is used for a click track?
TRACK > CREATE CLICK TRACK (OPTIONS > CLICK to enable the CLICK track) (Alpha numeric 7 – toggle click) SETUP > CLICK / COUNT OFF
What window(s) can you use to record– enable an audio track?
EDIT or MIX windows
What selector can you use to route a signal from an input on your audio interface to a track for recording?
AUDIO INPUT PATH SELECTOR in the tracks I/O section
How can you adjust the input level going to a record – enabled track? Can you use the volume fader to achieve a strong signal going to disk?
By adjusting the level of your analog source, while monitoring the indicator lights on your on-screen track meter. No – Record levels cannot be adjusted within Pro Tools. (For best results, aim for an average peak input level around -6DBFS, keeping the track meter in the yellow range.)
How can you place a session in Record Ready mode after record–enabling a track? What modifiers/shortcuts are available to initiate recording without first entering Record Ready mode?
Click the RECORD button in the Transport Window / controls in EDIT window). cmd+SPACEBAR or f12
Where are recorded audio files stored for Pro Tools sessions?
Session hierarchy / AUDIO FILES
What term is used to describe an unedited audio file in Pro Tools? What term is used to describe the smaller, edited pieces of the original sound file?
Audio files / Whole-file clips. Subset / clips
What types of clips are represented by boldface text in the clip list? What type is represented by normal text?
Pro Tools shows all whole-file clips in boldface type and all other clips in normal type.
How do track names affects the default names of the audio files you record in Pro Tools?
When you record audio on a track, Pro Tools names the resulting file (a whole-file clip) using the name of the track as the base name. Pro Tools also appends an underscore and take ID to the clip name.
Describe two ways to rename an audio file after recording into Pro Tools.
Double click the file or clip in the Edit window (with the GRABBER tool) or in the Clip list. Right-click on the file or clip in the Edit window or Clip List and select RENAME from the pop-up menu .
How would you go about removing unwanted audio from the Clip List without deleting the files from disk?
Select the clips in the Clip List that you want to remove (to select multiple clips cmd+click, to select a continuous range click on the first clip and shift+click to the last clip) then click the down arrow at the top of the Clip List and choose CLEAR from the Clip List pop-up menu. Click REMOVE in the resulting Clear Clips dialog box.
How would you go about deleting unused whole –file clips to erase from your storage drive? Can this action be undone?
As above, but in the Clear Clips dialog box choose DELETE.
1st November 2021
by Fikrat Kirkland
0 comments
What icon is used for the Zoomer tool in the Edit window? How can you use this tool to quickly zoom out, filling the Edit window with the longest track in the session?
A magnifying glass. Alt + A allows you to zoom out to fill the Edit window.
Which Edit tool is represented by a hand icon? What is this tool used for?
Which tool is active when the Trim, Selector, and Grabber icons are all selected (highlighted in blue) in the Edit window toolbar?
Smart tool
What are the four Edit modes in Pro Tools? How can you switch between them?
You can use F1, F2, F3, F4 to switch between them.
Why should you use caution when editing synchronized material in Shuffle mode? When is Shuffle mode useful?
How does editing a clip in Slip mode affect the timing of other clips on the track?
It doesn’t affect the timing of other clips on the track.
When is it helpful to work in Spot mode? When it is helpful to work in Grid mode? (See “Spot Mode” and “Grid Mode” beginning on page 57.)
What are some ways to set the Main Time Scale in Pro Tools? (See “Main Time Scale” beginning on page 59.)
Click on the Main Counter selector (in the transport window) and select one of the time scales
What are the two types of Rulers available in Pro Tools? What is the difference between them? (See “Ruler Display Options” beginning on page 60.)
What are some ways to hide Rulers that you do not need displayed in a session?
In the View menu, click the Rulers you want to be displayed.
Which Pro Tools windows provide access to MIDI controls, such as Wait for Note, Metronome, and MIDI Merge?
The Edit and Transport windows.
What is the purpose of the Metronome button in the MIDI Controls area? What kind of track must be added to a session for the Metronome button to work?
What are the two states or modes available for controlling the current session tempo? How can you switch between these modes?
Using the Tempo Ruler button
What is displayed by the Tempo field in the MIDI Controls area? What are some ways to set the session tempo using this field?