Forum - week 1 - Introduction

So, this is my first entry and as I was not in Australia in week one, I will write up some thoughts and impressions as I felt in week two instead. As I arrived Wednesday, I was still a bit sick and jet lagged on Thursday but got happy when I saw the equipment and software available. The class seemed to be good as well, everyone seemed friendly too. I have no clue what aspect of music the class mates are into but the blogs gave ideas about this, so blogging seems to be a very good format to learn to know classmates from and I think other faculties should adopt this idea when universities can be very anonymous in many aspects. So my first impression, considering feeling like a walking dead, were surprisingly good. The course is totally on topic of my interests and so seems to be with classmates as well. Also, the resources looks much better then I thought they would be, Ableton, ProTools, Cubase and logic in same machine says it all, the staff are up to date, knows what they are doing and what is standard. Big up!

cc 1 - week 1 - DME

Once again, I was not here in week one but the blogs gave me an idea of what topics that were discussed. As I understand, the topic was DME which involves audio and MIDI. Luckily, I am familiar with to both when I got presented to MIDI and Cubase 1993 on an Atari 1040ST that caught my interest, what a fantastic computer that was. However, some things are impossible to do with MIDI, sooner or later things needs to be recorded and that’s were audio comes in. My favourite choice for capture and edit audio is ProTools because of the excellent control of automation, but, I cannot get my eyes off Ableton that are a pretty new platform. Yet, DME are the future when it is considering cheap in comparison to tape machines and effects but some people will always prefer old technology. I would not mind a Lexicon reverb myself but who has $20 000 to spend on a single effect when plug-ins can emulate ‘the real thing’ pretty good. In other words, DME is the future, no doubt.

AA 1 - week 1 - Facilities introduction

As I understand, I missed the facilities introduction but working on to catch up. Also, from the blogs, I understand you spoke about basics of sound and I know a bit about this topic. Sound waves are compressions and rarefractions that travel around 230 meters per second, if I remember right, and that’s in air. If you think this is hard to understand, think again and you will all see it pretty easy to understand the logic of soundwaves as vibrations in air particles. On top of this, a sound source are needed that gives away frequencies in different amplitudes and this can be a whole range of things from nature to inventions such as oscillators. What are a bit trickier are the cycle of the sound wave and I highly recommend those not familiar to this to read a bit about phase and problems that can occur. When you understand phase problems, you will not only be able to record material with good mono compatibility but also be able to use it as an effect like for example mono/stereo microphone setups. So, sound basics are not rocket science but the behaviours of them can sometimes be very problematic and that is one of the reasons why I am here in this course.