This film is brilliant. It has a certain spirit to it, and it’s really inspiring to see it executed so well.

This timelapse is about a year in the making. I started sometime in June of 2010 and finished it on August 19, 2011. It wasn’t constant work of course, just working on it every now and then. I’d estimate I have invested anywhere between 250 and 300 hours on it. Most of this was time I spent walking, biking, or riding the bus to locations I was shooting. There are very few locations I used a car to get to. Total frame count is about 28,000 frames and 85 different shots. All the frames weren’t used in the final product as I edited down the clips. You will notice that some of the shots were shaky. San Francisco is a very windy city and even my heavy tripod couldn’t remain still. In hindsight I should have bought a different head. All photos were shot in JPEG and then some light editing in Lightroom. Compiled into .mov clips in Quicktime Pro and then all brought together in Final Cut Pro.

I started this project because there are so many people photographing the city that I wanted to capture it in a different way that most were not. Between the time I started and the time I finished, timelapses have become huge. It’s amazing to see what fellow artists can make with even the most basic equipment.

This is the link to the video on Vimeo, and you can watch it right here:

My trip through BBC Radiophonic Workshop history turned up this documentary film, called “The Alchemists of Sound”. I’ll follow up on this post with more information and some reflections, but for now I’m excited to watch this film as I settle in on this peaceful Sunday evening and prepare for the week…. Enjoy.

(The show is split into six YouTube videos, posted here in the full article)

Delia Derbyshire, whose 25-plus years of work with the BBC has only recently gained recognition, was a pioneering composer, innovative engineer, and something of an enigma. Her life story is really kind of a snapshot of a number of converging changes in society: The empowered woman, actively engaged in several fields all dominated by men well before the popular women’s movements; the avant-garde composer who challenged traditional Western notions of music; fighting government control of culture, music, and media; and, the free-thinking intellectual movements of the cultural wave which came to shape Western culture in the post-War era. This combination of elements is really quite amazing and it’s hard to believe that one person could have done it all.

Delia Derbyshire was a very complex and intense personality, and this BBC radio piece about her, “Sculptress of Sound: The Lost Works of Delia Darbyshire” does an amazing job of collecting various opinions and criticism and historical perspectives on her work. There’s some really glowing praise of her, and even the people who found her too difficult to work with (her idiosyncrasies are also explained) have absolutely nothing but praise for her.

Plus, I like the bit on the program where the critic said about Delia, to paraphrase: “She didn’t like the synthesizer. She felt that all ‘electronic music’ ought to be handmade.” Makes me feel kinda good

MP3 of the radio program

I love learning about the physics of sound. One thing that really interests me is phase – two or more signals can be out of phase with each other, which causes distortion that can be either a nuisance or an artistic device. On a guitar that’s out of tune, you’ll see that the strings vibrate unevenly with each other and the sound is kind of muddy or muffled. Tuning a guitar adjusts the strings so that they’re tuned to whatever key, but also so that they vibrate “in phase” with each other, producing the clearest possible sound.

In music, phase distortion can be used to alter the timbre of sounds, and it also creates a sort of vibrato / tremelo effect. Both of these are demonstrated in this piece. “Reflection I”. Play the piece here or download it here.

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This should be played on good headphones or on a decent speaker configuration.

Hey friends,

It’s good to brush the dust off this blog and post new material. Hi!!

I discovered “Continuo’s Weblog” thanks to Google Reader. In this article there is a link to download an album called “Electronic Music From The Outside In”, released on Folkways records in 1980. The first track off the album is titled “Heavy Music For Four Crowbars”. The piece’s composer, Barton McLean, explains the technique behind the piece.

He goes through a number of concepts common to Musique Concrete production, elaborating on his use of splicing, looping, varispeed playback, filters, and modulators. This was particularly useful for me, being a fan of and creator of similar music, because I was exposed to a few concepts that I’d never considered or known of before. Specifically, his mention of using ring modulation was useful because it sent me to the Wikipedia article linked here, and I will at some point look into it further and attempt to build my own device.

Here’s the track in its entirety:

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The track is sixteen minutes long so I recommend downloading the track for yourself: Link here.

I’m still listening to the rest of the album and so far I’m really enjoying it. To download the album yourself, click here. To read the original post at Continuo’s Weblog, click here.

San Francisco was delightfully damp, windy, and cold this weekend. Being a native Oregonian (born in Eugene, moved to Portland six years later) who set down roots in Northern California less than four short years ago, I find these brief respites from the Bay Area’s typically cool, room-temperature climate quite welcome as they remind me so much of my home land of the Northwest.

In typical Portlander fashion, I took advantage of the inclement weather by holing up in Studio Apartment Studio and working nearly ten hours in my pajamas. What a delight! With all of life’s demands – bills, friends, relationships, work obligations – it’s nice to detach from reality for one day and occupy the space I’ve created in my mind. I don’t think I could do it every day, as it tends to get somewhat lonely toward the end of the jag, but as an occasional retreat it’s quite sublime.

Part of the tape archive

I’ve learned a lot about work flow, especially as it pertains to music production on an eight-track recorder. Many recording artists have their pieces developed and ready to go by the time they enter the studio, but some artists – myself included – use the studio as a compositional tool. Quite often, I have no idea what I want to try, or what I want to hear, and so I’ll do little demos and try out a few ideas. I used to record these straight to the multitrack recorder but I often found myself backed into a corner when I wanted to change something or expand on the idea. Instead, what I’ve found to work particularly well is to record these ideas / experiments onto half-track/stereo 1/4″ tape and then archive them. The benefits of this are many, the most important being that 1) I’m not tempted to “overdo” something, and I can call these demos “finished” until a later time, and 2) It’s really easy to dump these tracks onto the multitrack exactly where I want to.

Now that I have these “perfect” tracks archived, I’ve gotten more used to punching in and overdubbing them on the eight-track. This has been incredibly liberating, as I feel I have infinitely more control over my work. I used to be averse to overdubbing for some reason, perhaps because it felt “unnatural” to manipulate time and sound this way, but I’ve taken advantage of it in a way that feels “good” and “right” to me, and I’m not looking back.

On another note, my first reel of 1/2″ ATR Magnetics tape arrived last week and it’s been put to heavy duty use here. My official report: At a +6 operating level on my Tascam 48-OB, dbx noise reduction is almost redundant and unnecessary for most tracks, although it still has its place on others. The sound quality is unmatched: I felt RMGI SM911 was dark and muddy for the kind of ‘instrumentation’ I’m using, and ATR tape is by far a better medium for what I’m doing. I’d still use RMGI SM911 and my old BASF PEM 468 tapes for rock bands and other, less ‘delicate’ program material, so I’m not avoiding it entirely. I was debating whether to modify my deck for +9 operation but I think it sounds just fine at +6 with ATR tape.

I’ve got some articles in development, and in the next few days I’d like to post content on the following subjects:

1. Using tape echo, including basic and more advanced techniques
2. How to get up and running with an analog home studio using minimal equipment
3. A history of tape music, focusing on artists such as Pauline Oliveros, Alvin Lucier, Pierre Schaeffer, and others
4. I’d like to write an interview with someone, and we’ll see how that goes … ?

Until then, take care and enjoy the last days of Fall…

I’m dead tired… it was nice to do nothing and just relax. I’m putting off the parts list / shopping list project for Saturday.

I found this video series by accident… I was searching the Web for something totally unrelated. This guy’s name is Cameron Paul and he apparently had a big hand in creating the dance DJ aesthetic as we know it today. He’s also a native San Franciscan.

Here’s my favorite clip. He gives a no-nonsense intro that I think most people can follow. I like it when people break things down into really simple concepts.

Dig the outfit. He did the official mix of Salt N Pepa’s “Push It” – it was actually a remix of an earlier recording.

… And here’s a quick noise piece that I’m going to use between sections of a larger piece I’m working on. It’ll probably be edited for length.

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Direct link: Here

Calistoga wishes and M&M dreams.

This loop will be featured – heavily modified – in a piece that I am currently working on.

Hey folks, I wanted to give a quick run-down of some techniques I’ve learned these past few months.

I’m spending a lot more time actually recording and mixing these days since my equipment is finally all up and running. Most of the time.

dbx Noise Reduction

Tascam owners, I’m looking at you. dbx noise reduction is a godsend for those of us using narrow format multitracks such as Tascam’s half-inch eight tracks (38, 48, 58, TSR8) and the 388. There are some caveats, though, and also some times when it’s best to bypass noise reduction on a particular track.

How dbx Noise Reduction works
dbx Noise Reduction relies on a compressor and expander to do its thing. The incoming signal – the signal which you want to print to tape – is encoded using compression and some EQ futzing. Common sense in using compressors also applies to using noise reduction: A quick jump in level will cause undesirable gasping/pumping and create undesirable artifacts.

Levels
I try to keep peaks at or below -3 dBu when using noise reduction. This allows noise reduction to work at its best. Pushing levels beyond -3 dBu will cause undesirable gasping/pumping sounds and may add extra high frequency hiss.

To NR or not NR
If you’re unsure about whether to use noise reduction, do a sample take and monitor on the playback head. While the take is running, switch NR on and off and compare the two. You’ll need to adjust the level of the signal before it hits the tape; get the peaks close to 0 or +1 dBu without NR and close to -3 dBu with NR. Folks using two-head decks like the TSR8, the MSR series, and the 388 will have to do a few test takes because these decks lack a separate playback head.

Do NOT use noise reduction with hand percussion!! Shakers, tambourines, claves, etc are notorious for creating transients and will always cause dbx encoding errors before the signal even gets to tape. You’ll notice “thuds” and “pops” on playback. With NR off, try to get the signal to peak around -6 dBu and let the tape’s natural transient-squashing abilities smooth them out for you. The tiny extra bit of hiss will dither the harshness of the instrument and make for a more pleasing sound, anyway.

Bouncing

Don’t Compress
Seriously, don’t compress bounce mixes. Compressing individual source tracks is OK, but don’t compress the whole bounce. Think about how it’s going to sound when those tracks get compressed AGAIN, because they will be compressed again in mixdown and AGAIN in mastering, if you take your mix to a mastering engineer. I learned this after a lot of heartache and after blaming my equipment for the thin, lifeless sound I was getting. Just don’t. Leave that shit turned off.

Monitoring The Bounce
Sort of like how I suggested you try a track with and with noise reduction: When bouncing your tracks down, monitor the new bounced tracks on the repro head and see how they sound. If you adjust the mix at all, you can hear the result instantly.

Don’t Erase The Source Tracks
I hate listening to a mix and realizing that the shaker/bass guitar/Yoko Ono is too loud. If you don’t erase your source tracks you can go back and do the mix over. You’ll need a second recorder to bounce your mix to (I use a half-track 1/4″ deck). Do your mix, shuttle the tape ahead thirty seconds or so, and record the bounced mix onto fresh tape.

Equalization

Cut, Don’t Boost
Cutting frequencies, instead of amplifying them, creates a more natural-sounding effect. I resisted this advice at first but I’m really glad I came around.

Hi-Pass Filter Everything*
You really don’t need anything below 200 Hz except on bass guitar, piano, and percussion (hence the asterisk). EQ this stuff out, especially before sending it to a compressor. Lower-frequency signals will add extra level to your tracks and make compressing difficult, and unless you have a sub-woofer you’re not going to hear all of the low-frequency buildup over each successive track and bounce. Just cut it out at each step.

Other Stuff

I’m leaving this part open for now, and I’ll add to this post later if anything comes up.