word clock (sample clock) – timing signal between digital devices so signals are synced
*most prof devices have i/O to sync timing in multiple devices
*requires 1 master clock
time code – is actual data about the media content and is optional
JITTER – overstretched audio is example of this
errors can occur when combined multiple units
to avoid:
*sending device needs to be set as a master and receiving device obeys
*samples rates need to match
weathervein.com
ADC/DAC conversions slightly degrade signal each time it occurs.
All digital will maintain better quality.
digital transmission standards –
ADAT (optical) cable – transfers 8 tracks of multiplex signals interleaved down 1 cables (only one direction!) – developed by Alesis
SPDIF (AKA coaxial) – (sony/phillips digital interface) – carries 2 channels of multiplex digitl audio data one way – uses either RCA or optical connectors
AES/EBU or XLR – 2 channels multiplexed audio in one way on standard balanced cable
tdif – (tascam digital interface) – carries 8 channels but non-multiplexed digital data in 2 directions (not interleaved)
trs – stereo -3 pin xlr
ts – mono – 2 connector
Cables
connection
Digital audio
transducer – mic is transducer
analog signal flow:
spl-mic-mic preamp-console-???- DAW
Analog to digital :
anything digital in signal flow requires processing
ADC/DAC process – anolog to digital or digital to analog
most digital audio devices have built in ADC/DAC’s (eg. rverb/fx unit/delay pedal,etc)
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why digital?
-its easier/convenient
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ADC
acts like transducer
translates electrically to numeric (1 and 0’s)
analog signal from mixer,mic preamp,etc – sampling – quantisation
sampling – taking portions
measuring analog signal voltage at various time intervals determines by sample rate
sample rates always in KHz
determines number of measurements taken of analog sig voltage/sec
(think of sample rate like camera pixels)
Nyquist frequency – highest freq an ADC can handle is = to half the sample rate (eg. 48khz would have Nf of 24khz)
alias frequency – incorrectly sample resulting in frequencies that were never there being heard in playback (form of distortion- not good)
anti-aliasing filter – most gear has built-in & will role of freq above selected khz (steep freq sound bad)
Oversampling – 1.OS on record 2. OS on playback (creates nicer sounding role off
*soundworks – sound of godzilla documentary
quantisation – making things in time/putting something on grid
involves amplitude
assigns binary number to each taken sample
ie. bit depth
bit is 1 or 0 (binary numbers) – basically on or off switch
eg. 16bit ADC would give 16 digit number to each sample taken
greater bit depth = more accurate
quantisation error – sample voltage unlikely to have precise binary value. gets rounded up or down to nearest quantisation value (changes waveform slightly)
lower signals suffer most of Q errors as less bit res is used (its rounded down)
Dither – filtered white noise – white noise = all freq played at same level
dither basically white noise cut around 1-5khz (hides form your ears)
dither reduces Quantisation error
‘what is PCM’ video
multiplexing – making it interleaved
error processing signal flow
I am comforted by the idea that I will most likely not be spending a lot of time being formally interviewed for jobs. I find interviews to be the least accurate representation of myself referring to both my personality and as an employee.
Although my interpersonal skills and personal confidence need work I think approaching another creator at an event/conference seems more doable and realistic for me.
It might not feel natural or comfortable to start a conversation by just walking up to someone but seems like it would present an opportunity to create a dialogue about common interests and each others works which leaves (hopefully) some beginning of a rapport between the parties.
It also gives a nice indication of how well you could communicate and work with a person if the option came up.
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A DEGREE IS NOT ENOUGH.
That is increasingly obvious.
There will always be someone else with the same or better skill set than me.
Being the best at anything may get you a job but it won’t keep getting you jobs if you are terrible and difficult to work with.
Hence the need for critical thinking and communication skills.
You can know exactly what you’re doing but that doesn’t mean everyone else you’re working with knows what you’re doing… and they’ll probably need to know what you’re doing. So you’ll need to know how to tell them what you’re doing so they actually understand it – especially if they’re from a different industry/discipline.
– learn how to communicate to get a job
– learn how to communicate to keep/complete a job/project
– don’t be an asshole (so you can still get another job/project)
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Networking Events in AU
https://ozpodcasts.com.au/events/
http://www.audiocraft.com.au/#intro
http://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/ozpod/
http://www.ozanimate.com/events/
http://www.ozanimate.com/event/asian-animation-summit/
http://tonedeaf.com.au/the-7-aussie-music-industry-events-you-should-attend/
http://themusic.com.au/news/all/2017/03/15/australian-music-week-locks-in-2017-conference-dates/
http://musicaustralia.org.au/program/contemporary-music-roundtable/
Although most social media is used to connect on a more personal level with others, it has also become a way to build an audience for your creative work.
This week revolved around different ways to use social media in your career, and how it goes beyond promoting – it facilitates conversations, ask questions/advice, discovering technologies or techniques, and getting insight into the practices of other people within the industries you’re interested in.
The best way to grow the community interested in what your making is having clear objectives about what you’re posting and why. So it becomes more structured like a business and separate from a ‘personal’ account.
But social media, even used to promote a creative professional or their work seems to be less strict and is good way to connect with an audience further than presenting content to be consumed.
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For my own accounts I think it will be easier for me to use an ‘alias.’
Not so much an fake name but operate under the name of a company.
I find it is easier to discuss and write about myself and my work if I am a bit removed from it.
I think separating personal and professional media makes online users less likely to associate the person with their thoughts/feelings and more likely to view the work as it is (or – a good way to avoid becoming ‘Phil Fish’).
This week Rose took us into the studio and thoroughly went through the different effects and sounds you can get out of a guitar amp without needing any pedals (she used a VOX amp – i think).
We also broke down how the signal flow of re-amping practically works.
How the signal from a DAW can be sent back out into the live and into and amp and recreating the guitarists performance while having it sound exactly like its being played through.
Re-amping – Sending a recorded (DI’d) signal back through an amplifier and recording that.
DI Box – captures the impedance of a signal and keep that unaltered from the amp/other effects. *you can get a DI recording from anything with a 1/4 jack
Although I don’t know if I will remember how to do what was shown in class properly, I do think this will help with understanding the signal flow relative to the patch bay better.
a microphone is a basically a speaker.
You could use a microphone as a speaker but it would fuck up your microphone.
You could use a speaker as a microphone but that would be really hard to do.
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Condenser – require phantom power/ electrical/ highly sensitive/
Dynamic – works with magnets and sound source must physically move coil/ don’t require phantom power / good for recording with high spl
Small/Large diaphragms
Small diaphragm: higher self noise/ low sensitivity/ high spl handling capacity/ wide frequency range/ high dynamic range
Large Diaphragm: lower self noise/ high sensitivity/ lower sply handling capacity/ narrower frequency range/ lower dynamic range
Polar Patterns –
mic setups/micing techniques
Close micing – (within 30cm)
distance micing – (30cm- 1m)
ambient micing – (beyond 1m)
Placements include on axis, off axis, rear/underside
3 to 1 Micing
Mic 1’s distance from the sound source
should be tripled and Mic 2 should be placed there.
(this should ensure no phase cancellation)
. A-B technique – common – follows 3to1 rule
. Coincident (x-y) – very close together, angled between 90 & 120 degrees
*used with cardioid
the diaphragms can be corner to corner, middle (X shaped), 100% over each other “end to end”
. Blumlein – requires figure 8 polar pattern capability – should be same brand & type
.M-S/Mid-Side
1x cardioid or omni (top) + 1x Figure 8
* must be altered in post – duplicate figure 8 track and flip it to ensure no phase cancellation
.ORTF (office de radiodiffusion – french)
– 2x cardioid mics 17cm and 110 degrees separation
– needs to be very accurate
*used for ensembles, wide sound sources, best at distance
.NOS
– 2x cardioid mics 30cm & 90 degrees separation
*variation on ORTF
ALL:
Other things
sibelus – ssss sounds
plosives – ‘pop’ (hard to fix in post)
feedback – mic signal feeding into speaker and back out over and over (reverb/delay but awful)
Having completed Trimester one of BA of Audio at SAE Institute (BNE) I feel more confident in my ability to learn more than anything else.
CIU110
This subject can be mundane – defining terms and finding references will always be mundane. But I have a better understanding of why it is important to have well-rounded knowledge of what a term is and isn’t and gained a sense of why I need critical thinking skills to be successful in creative industries – something I had not considered before.
In particular I enjoyed the final assessment more than I thought. As i was reading academic and none academic sources about ‘The Shining’ and Sound design in horror films I learnt some of the reasons why I like the film and how it is practically affective.
AUD110
This was challenging. The 3 hour classes were very hard to stay engaged with, partly because the lecture slides were absurdly long – I don’t think there was a single week the class time allowed for everything in the slides to be discussed. I found Adrian to be a passionate teacher but seemed to lack the ability to water down more complex concepts for the class and seemed to rely heavily on the slides themselves to communicate the idea.
I could’ve contributed to my own learning more in this subject as well with independent research.
This was quite disappointing as the concepts in this subject are a foundation and necessary in the learning of new ideas and other subjects.
AUD111
We spent a lot of time in studio as this class was aimed at giving students a better knowledge of studio equipment and signal flow.
I found AUD111 quite challenging as I hadn’t been in a position to use a console before.
I remember being monumentally confused and overwhelmed in the first class and was wondering how I would ever grasp understanding in this environment.
Never the less – I passed.
The learning environment in studio is quite challenging as they’re are many students and not a lot of space combined with the fact that their is only two consoles. Class time is not the most effective in giving practical application of skills.
I under utilized my personal studio time allowances – I think because I was intimidated by the console – but avoidance is not going to teach you anything.
Once I was in the studio for longer I found ‘doing’ is the best way to learn anything, and that everything is figure-outable.
I now feel more comfortable in studio but I have a lot to learn about the equipment and how to use it.
AUD112
Definitely my favourite subject of TRI 1.
I credit this to the fact that I had some previous knowledge of protools and the fact that Rose is a truly FANTASTIC lecturer (no exaggeration).
Even though 3 hour classes are incredibly hard to stay mentally present in the entire time, I found this the easiest class to stay engaged with.
The info was concise enough to be contained within each weeks lectures and Rose contributes and communicates ideas very clearly with great visual examples.
Conclusion
The fact that SAE is a relatively small campus/uni has advantages and disadvantages. The advantages include the smaller cohort allowing for more communication with the educators. A major disadvantage I found was being the limited amount of studio time available.
The first Tri was extremely challenging but quite rewarding and I look forward to building on my knowledge.
*See also WK1 AUD113 Tri 2 Blog for more…
Lynda tutorials
Playback engine settings
Buffer sizes – a smaller buffer size will have the least latency (lag basically) – this is most useful as a setting while recording
where as a high buffer size will be more useful when mixing as this allows for the use of more plug-ins (which creates more latency)
ADC Automatic Delay Compensation –
When using a lot of plug-ins in a session your tracks might become out of sync (usually just by milliseconds) when playing back.
ADC (when enabled) takes the track with the longest lag and adds the difference in lag to the other tracks in order to keep them all in time.
If ADC is enabled it will appear as ‘Dly’ in the edit window (see below pic)
ACtivate in OPTIONS- make sure delay compensation is ticked
ADC is becomes more important as your session becomes more complicated with more plug-ins
*MIDI tracks – measure impedance ?
*Instrument track – combo of MIDI and AUX
When would each be used?
Notes:
Lynda.com is good shit.
Dave Pensado (pensados place)- talks to producers
Work flow is super important
Reaper is an underrated DAW
Q-base is on par with protools (but not industry standard
Abelton is fantastic for making music
INFO
Protools-Preferences
(display) – Organize plug-in menu~Catalogue &manufacturer — this allows you faster access to plug-ins if you are looking for a specific manufacturers one
– Organize I/O menu ~ Type & width — Where interface interacts and (width) how many
(Operations) – AUTO backup settings
(editing) – Fade Shapes and level of undos
(Mixing) – Default EQ/Dynamics — can create shortcuts to most used ones so you dont have to find them in drop down menu
(Processing) – AUTO copy files on import —- so you don’t lose tracks!
*Dragging audio onto DAW will automatically convert the sample rate of file to what the session is set to
*Command +shift +I ~ shortcut to open proper import audio window
*option +shift+ I – shortcut to import session data
*playing file in wrong sample rate affects speed and pitch — think of a vinyl record being slowed
e.g 44.1khz file played in 48khz will be sped up (can be used as cheat to increase speed of guitarist in post)
48khz file played at 44.1khz will be slower and lower
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I/O setup (for if you fuck up or someone deletes I/O
set-up / I/O / New Path
Hold option (so it applies to all tracks) select output as whatever new path was named
DONE
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Tip:
in laptop system preferences / keyboard
check box for use standard keys
F1/F2/F3, etc can be used as shortcuts to toggle smart tools and slip mode
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Reflection:
This seems like an enjoyable class and Akshay(?) seems like a good lecturer.
I am looking forward to becoming more proficient in shortcuts and learning wtf a lot of the stuff in protools is.
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