AUDIO STUDIES - CREATIVE PROJECT

Program Note
Emu Challenge
Dorothy Pawlowski
03:14

EMU CHALLENGE MIXDOWN MP3 - CLICK HERE

Whenever I think of video game music, I think of the music of the Commodore 64 and (later) the Super Nintendo gaming consoles of the 1980’s. By today’s standards, these machines were capable of producing only low resolution audio, often played back through a small speaker. The result was usually brittle, noisy and trashy.

When writing this, my own hypothetical video game music ”Emu Challenge”, I deliberately attempted to emulate the sound of early digital audio by including “noisy” percussion samples and copying the vibrato-heavy, string-like synthesizer sounds which were typically used for melody instruments at the time.

Emu Challenge

The hero of this video game is an emu who faces challenges within three main gaming zones namely, The Adventure Zone, The Spooky Zone and The Fun Zone. All of the sequencing for the final work was carried out in Pro Tools LE (session bit depth 24 and sample rate 48kHz).

The percussion samples for the work were obtained either from the Garage Band library or manufactured using the ES1 and FM synthesizers in Logic Pro). I obtained sound effects from the web as well as recording voice tags which I felt would emphasise the “game” flavour of the music, editing and normalising some of the samples in Peak LE as necessary. The melodic components were composed in Logic Pro using the matrix editor and ES1 synthesizer, which I found most appropriate to the style of music. I exported the melodies as 24 bit wav audio files from Logic and imported them into the Pro Tools region list, converting the sample rate to match the Pro Tools session sample rate. The Spooky Zone melodies utilised the “swing” function of Logic, as I wished this section to have a less rigid feel to the meter.

After manufacturing, recording and collecting all of this source material, I arranged it accordingly in Pro Tools, mostly using grid mode, and performed mixing, panning, automation and organisational operations as well as applying plug-ins. Although normalised, there were still problems with varying levels between the vocal effects tags and there were no tracks left over to allocate each tag a track of its own (as I had already used all of the tracks available in Pro Tools LE at this sample rate and bit depth), so volume automation was particularly necessary on the two “FX” tracks.

The Adventure Zone

Meter: 4/4
Tempo: 160 bpm
Key: C minor

(In this section I have departed from my original idea (as per proposal) of using C major as the key because I found when I began writing the melody that the feeling of a strictly major key was not “dangerous” enough.)

The Spooky Zone

Meter: 4/4
Tempo: 160 bpm
Key: G minor

The Fun Zone

Meter: 6/8
Tempo: 180 bpm
Key: C major

Production Credits

Voice Tags: Captain I (appears by permission of Sleazy Studios)

MTF - STUDIO PRESENTATION (MIX)

The audio files that I chose to remix originated from Peter Gabriel’s alternative rock/ new wave song “Shock the Monkey”, (released 1982 on Geffen) which was produced by Peter Gabriel and David Lord.

The overall structure of the audio is as follows:

 31 x unsynchronised audio files of various durations
 file type mp3 @ sample rate of 44.1 kHz(?)
 no pro-tools session data
 tempo nominally 148.64 bpm (according to supplied documentation)
 time signature: 4/4
 base-key: D minor
 longest audio file: 04:08m

The audio tracks included:

 various live percussion (several tracks)
 bass guitar (several tracks)
 electric guitar (several tracks)
 synthesized brass (several tracks)
 marimbas (and synthesized marimba)
 lead vocals (several tracks)
 back up vocals (several tracks)
 various “filler” sounds (several tracks)
 what sounds suspiciously like a Fairlight CMI

After performing the analysis of the provided audio as detailed above, I researched possible remix techniques. My initial researches in the Elder Music Library were surprisingly fruitless so I tried the internet. Most of the references to remixing that I did find were mostly in various sound production forums and were often unattributed (to “real” people). Eventually, however, I found five techniques that I thought I could reasonably interpret into my remix.


“Now ev’ry gambler knows that the secret to survivin’
Is knowin’ what to throw away and knowing what to keep.”
- Kenny Rogers, “The Gambler”


I began by analysing each track and decided what to remove and what to work with. I focussed on percussion and tuned percussion type sounds with vocals and some keyboard strings for contrast. After deleting unwanted tracks, I was left with 17 of the tracks to work with. I then decided how I wanted the remix to begin and set Pro Tools in grid mode with the tempo specified as 148.64bpm and the grid resolution set to 1/16.

This is when I applied remix technique No. 1 which formed the most important structural premise for my whole remix, namely:

“...my favorite (sic) thing is to chop up a bunch of loops and totally twist the song...1”

That is, to chop up whole audio files into smaller regions and sounds and restructure them into new loops and patterns. I chopped individual percussion hits out of percussion tracks and the attack segments of melodic tracks and recombined them into new drum beats. I used the same technique to make new melodic parts and bass lines using larger segments of the audio files. Once I had my basic drum patterns and melodic parts, I looped and recombined these to form the basis of the remix. Another aspect to this is:

“...skipping beats...2”

That is, totally removing percussive elements to give a syncopated feeling.

Next I applied a remixing technique where the kick drum track is duplicated twice and the copies are used to trigger both higher and lower kick drum sounds, then a phase shift is applied to the EQ of the duplicates, thus:

“...apply EQ phase sweep to kick drum copy...3”

I simplified the technique somewhat by just duplicating the kick drum track altogether then applying an automated filter sweep to the copy.

Next I applied (my personal favourite) from the “chopped and screwed” school of hip-hop remixing which involves:

“...select time stretch from the menu and time the tempo with the vocals as you change the pitch...4”

I applied this to both “normal” vocal parts and heavily chopped vocal parts.

The final technique which I used was gleaned from an article referring to methods to spoil unauthorised music downloads, like this:

“...shifting channels (sounds like a speaker cut out).5”

My channel shift was applied as panning automation synchronised to the grid.

Altogether, I enjoyed this exercise, not least because I detest the original song and was looking forward to making some improvements to it (hopefully).

References

1 “Uncle Jerr”, Studio Recording Engineer (forum)
http://www.studiorecordingengineer.com/ftopict-1019.html
Retrieved 20/05/08


2 Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chopped_and_screwed
Retrieved 20/05/08

3 Tom Holkenborg, Interview with Randy Alberts, Digidesign
http://www2.digidesign.com/digizine/archive/digizine_august04/protechniques/
Retrieved 20/05/08

4 “Mr. New Material”, Associated Content
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/269048/the_perfect_mixx_how_to_chop_and_screw.html
Retrieved 02/06/08

5 Startling Moniker
http://startlingmoniker.wordpress.com/2007/09/20/mediadefender-remixes-chopped-screwed/
Retrieved 20/05/08

SES WEEK 11 - COMPRESSORS AND GATES

Ah, gates explained (at last) and compressors explained (yet again). Which is OK. I feel I understand the concepts behind these two standards of audio equipment quite well yet whenever I actually apply one during the course of my mixing adventures, the results are... well, you know. So I have looked further for explanations to assist with my application of these tools (given that I had to leave this week’s session early and no doubt missed something important). I found yet another cool place to go for audio tutorials namely, Doctor ProAudio, which appears to be a site dedicated to the world-wide Spanish-speaking audiophile community but fear not, this page is en Inglés:

Doctor ProAudio compressors/limiters tutorial with link to gates tutorial

These tutes feature an excellent explanation of the (to me) mystifying concepts of side-chain and “knee”, which was a profound relief, lemme tell ya, as well as clear graphics (which actually help for a change). Armed with this new cache of e-knowledge and in conjunction with my D-learning (Dave), I shall no doubt be able now to produce mixes of the very highest quality. We can only wait and see.

References:

D. Grice, Lecture, Sound Engineering Studio, 27/05/08

http://www.doctorproaudio.com/english/
Doctor ProAudio, viewed 31/05/08

CONCEPTS OF MUSIC WEEK 9 LOUDNESS

I know you all think I’m mad because I reckon foetuses can perceive ultrasound when being bombarded with such – perhaps my un-researched reasoning is wrong (I believe that the smaller the ear canal, the higher the detectable frequencies), but I’ve seen the little unborn ones reacting to the ultrasound procedure with my own eyes… co-incidence, conspiracy?

Check this link if you’re interested:

Is this relevant to our discussion this week? Yes, as we investigate the nature of intensity and relative loudness, infrasound and ultrasound, heterodyning (which has meaning beyond the scope of audio). Once more Stephen has juxtaposed the physical and psycho-physical aspects of sound. This increased knowledge of the nature of sound is having an effect on the way I listen when I’m recording and mixing down, although the conditions at the EMU are relatively sterile (“relative” to my usual musical environment which often involves beer-fuelled chaos and countless uncontrollable noises). To put it in a nutshell, I am trying soooo hard to listen with my brain, balancing the pure auditory input with the new knowledge about the way sound (mis)behaves and the way I perceive it (mis)behaving.

References:

S. Whittington, Lecture, Concepts of Music (Aural), 15/05/08

Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal-loudness_contour
viewed 19/05/08

Chicago Tribune Online Edition
http://nie.chicagotribune.com/activities_082905.htmhttp://www.hhs.gov/
viewed 19/05/08