MILKCRATE

Milkcrate

I think Seb's idea is pretty cool. However when it came to actually participate in Milkcrate I bailed. I couldn't handle the idea of being locked in room to make music for 24 hours. My attention span is not that good. I would be up for maybe 12 hours or 6. The idea of a matchbox is even more intriguing.

Workshop

I really struggle to understand most of the music that we have listened to in the workshop. I find it completely inaccessible and in short, annoying. I am concerned that in studying music tech that I'm going to end up making music that I can't stand listening to. What is wrong with these composers? I can appreciate exploring sounds and how they interact, but I want music to make me feel good, not want to head butt the wall!

Audio Arts

I'm a bit confused with our project for this semester. It seems we have to jump from a radio signal up to recording and mixing a whole band. Doesn't anyone think that's a bit of a fastforward? I guess it will be interesting none the less? I don't have too much interest in recording bands or working in a studio in that manner so I'm going to have to fire up to actually do it.

Creative Communication

The music concrete project we have to do is up there with all the stuff we have been subjected to in the workshop. I don't like music concrete. I don't want to have to make a music concrete piece. But I did find an interesting sample in the toilet of Barr Smith that I'm going to sample for it. I was thinking too of something in a stair well of Schulz.

Week 6 - Forum - Definitions of Music Technology

WORKSHOP

I was hoping that I would like all of Edgard Varese and Milton Babbit. It is amusing how I listen to these types of composers and just don't really get 'it'.

Am I meant to get anything? Or should I just experience these new sounds as if I were a baby, still unable to give sounds a name and form.

I guess the other thing to consider is weight of cultural expectations. I keep comparing these composers and their works to other standards and traditions of music. Is this tolerable?

I wonder, though, with the weight the past ejected from my value set, whether I would still be in a position to criticise or congratulate?

I didn't mind Barry Truax - Wings of Nike I - 1

I seem to like lower frequencies. Once sounds start to get random and high pitched, it just seems to mess with my wiring. Truax's piece was a welcome relief from the apparent chaos of the former composers.

Check out these link on Truax info:

http://www.sfu.ca/~truax/nework.html 2

http://www.sfu.ca/~truax/gsample.html 3

http://www.sfu.ca/~truax/nike.html 4


Download 'Wings of Nike' from here:

http://www.sfu.ca/sonic-studio/excerpts/Nike.mov 5

I'd like to know why we are spending so much time on modernist composers. I figure that if I am going to listen to music I want it to be enjoyable. I find it hard to comprehend that there are composers out there, getting paid, to come up with a bunch of sounds that could have been generated in my duodenum. I don't care much for liberalism or modernism. But yet I am a product and conduit of these schools of thought.


CREATIVE COMMUNICATION

Spear http://klingbeil.com/papers/spearfinal05.pdf 6

Peak http://www.macworld.com/2006/01/reviews/peakproxt5/index.php 7

SoundHack http://www.soundhack.com/ 8


I think Spear is a very powerful tool that is still in a developmental phase.

I am keen to get more intimate with it. Time is the only factor.

Once again I find myself in a position where I am not that familiar with these specific programmes. They all seem pretty good and I am eager to learn and apply them.

AUDIO ARTS

What to say, apart from we hooked up a radio into a room. Not exactly rocket science.


FORUM

I didn't really get much from the forum. I spent most of the time sitting there wondering about how little I care what anyone thinks MT is or should be. I just want to do it.
It seemed that the same points kept looping into the dialogue. From my point of view it's irrelevant what anyone wants to lable it. Maybe it's the anarchist in me? Yet how do I reconcile that with my obsessive desire to have everything in its place?

I feel inclined to point out that there is room for two MT streams - Science majors and Arts majors.

I wonder with all this study, that after 3 years, how much more or less I would know if I had just gone straight out into the industry and started as a volunteer. I think in terms of applying knowledge gained through experience rather than sitting in a room 'wondering' about what it all means, there is something to be said for vocational and practical focus in the course. Do universities have to be so academic?

Here's a link to some articles on aesthetics.

http://www.questia.com/library/music-and-performing-arts/music/music-aesthetics.jsp?CRID=music_aesthetics&OFFID=se1&KEY=music_aesthetics 9

http://web.apu.ac.uk/music/rhoadley/links/links_concom.html 10

1 Barry Truax, 1991, Pacific Rim (CSR-CD 9101)

2 www.sfu.ca (Date accessed 10/04/06)

3 ibid

4 ibid

5 ibid

6 Klingbeil.com (Date accessed 10/04/06)

7 Macworld.com (Date accessed 10/04/06)

8 Soundhack.com (Date accessed 10/04/2006)

9 Questia.com (Date accessed 10/04/2006)

10 web.apu.ac.uk (Date accessed 10/04/2006)

Week 5 - Christopher Williams - Radio Drama Unit ABC

I think what Christopher Williams is doing is interesting. Something maybe I could get involved with later on.

His presentation was a bit boring. He could probably engage the audience more. Maybe that's a result working in radio?

He didn't really provide any new information. It's a pretty logical process. Develop a concept, write it up, edit, get actors in, rehearse, produce, edit, master, send it off. Not to mention, backing up files and effective labelling.

I hopefully may have organised some work experience with him.

I was surfing the net and came across this article on the history of 'Acousmatics'. Interesting stuff:

http://www.sonicartsnetwork.org/ARTICLES/ARTICLE1996DHOMONT.html 1


AUDIO ARTS

It all seems pretty straight forward. I kind of wish we had more class time to go through stuff and not 50mins rushing through not spending enough time on things. I find this very frustrating. By the time I've got into the studio to have a practice I am forgetting most of it. Hence, more comprehensive notes are being taken.

CREATIVE COMMUNICATION

I like the idea of the Spear programme. That seems like a valuable tool. Although I don't know if I'm going to use it all the time. Plan is to download it.

Another link to a recommended software package is: http://musition.com/contact.shtml 2

For everyone not in the sharpest of theory states.

I finally bought myself a new keyboard, it's taken me over six months of looking:

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/ProKeys88-main.html 3

WORKSHOP

I enjoyed learing about John Cage. I haven't heard much. What I have heard I don't really like. What I do like is the processes he engaged with to create new sounds.

I like his idea of random generation via I Ching. I'd like to listen to it again. Wasn't really in the right space for 'Music for Carillon'.

Some Cage links:

http://www.music.princeton.edu/~jwp/texts/worklist.html 4

http://www.johncage.info/workscage/carillon2.html 5



1 Sonic Arts Network - Date accessed 02/04/2006

2 Musition.com - Date accessed 02/04/2006

3 M-audio.com - Date accessed 02/04/2006

4 Princeton University - Date accessed 02/04/2006

5 Johncage.com - Date accessed 02/04/2006