Epic Sounds: Jimmy Page’s Production Strategies
Guitar Player : The Complete Electric Guitar Package
I took guitar lessons once but I don't play. This article is about sound, recording... the art of noise, so to speak. Audio production remains one of my strongest interests, though I haven't practiced it for years now due to lack of time and equipment... and of something to record. I prefer to focus on subtle things, not the notes themselves, but the tonal quality of the notes, the ambience of a sound.
Sounds (not words right now, just sounds alone) have the ability to paint mental images (mostly abstract), a la segments of Disney's Fantasia*.
In the old days, before Windows XP, I spent quite a bit of time making custom audio clips for use as my system sounds and as chatroom sounds on AOL, and a few bits for use as background sounds on my AOL web pages. I would make minor tweaks, sometimes obvious tweaks, and spend a lot of time getting a clip to start and end at just the right spot for loops. It's just something I enjoy doing.
I like the idea of post-production, effects, and other audio manipulation, but only once you've got good source audio to work with. I don't like wasting time trying to hide flaws with effects and tricks. My philosophy is very similar to that ascribed to Jimmy Page in the article linked above. Capture the natural, organic perfection of your subject and use that sound as your source. Tons of effects are graceless, more often than not, but can be used if they serve the purposes of the project... if they help deliver your message.
*Fantasia was one of the first films produced with audio that made use of a multi-speaker system, but few theaters could afford to equip themselves to show the film as it was intended. The 50th Anniversary Laser Disc version
Side note -- "When The Levee Breaks" http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/08/a-short-history.html
30 September 2008
23 August 2008
Alien Barbecue
Are aliens edible? It gives a whole new meaning to "Gray" Poupon.
Do the xenomorphs from "Aliens" produce that sound lobsters make when boiled?
Help find the answers to these and other culinary E.T. queries.
I'm pondering the creation of new blog for this very topic. If anyone reads this, let me know what you think and if you'd like to participate.
Do the xenomorphs from "Aliens" produce that sound lobsters make when boiled?
Help find the answers to these and other culinary E.T. queries.
I'm pondering the creation of new blog for this very topic. If anyone reads this, let me know what you think and if you'd like to participate.
05 August 2008
Weather hysteria
I just spent an hour photographing everything I would hope our renters insurance would help us replace in the event of a terrible storm.
The Weather Channel's Jim Cantore alerted me to the possibility of severe storms overnight. He even had some new name (to me) for this particular type of storm, describing it as potentially worse than pinpoint tornadic events because of it's hundreds of miles wide front of high winds. To my ears he was describing this as something worse than the more common 'bow echo' of a storm, which usually indicates a concentrated area of high damaging winds.
As usual, these storms could produce lightning, strong winds, and damaging hail, and according to the panic mongers, er... weather reporters (some even full-fledged Meteorologists), these storms had already wreaked havoc through northern Illinois and Indiana. Local news, WHIO specifically, was quite subdued (for once), probably because they expect far fewer people to be watching this late at night.
Just as I was taking all this in, the wanted to go outside, so we leashed up and headed out. I hoped she would take care of her business before the storm came through so she wouldn't face the distress of having to wait it out. I urged her to go, but she was more interested in trying to spot one of the local stray cats that constantly trouble her thoughts and haunt her dreams. Also, the sky was lighting up like the Las Vegas strip was floating overhead. The entire horizon, my complete field of view, peripheral and all was outlining the leading edge of the oncoming front. The flashes were growing noticeably brighter by the second, the temperature was dropping, and the wind picked up. Since the dog had gone number one and showed no interest in anything more even though she was overdue for number two, I urged her back inside.
Shortly, I heard rain begin to fall. The lightning intensified and the thunderstrikes became more urgent. I was in a bit of a fit. Thunderstorms themselves don't bother me too much. I used to sit and try to photograph lightning with my old Casio QV-11 camera. That camera was slow enough that by the time the split second of lighting registered on the sensor, I had already had time to hit the shutter button, having seen the flash with my own eyes. Success depended on me watching the storm intently and trying to have the camera pointed in the right direction. I had a nice collection of lightning shots, but lost the best in a hard drive crash, before there was such a thing as free online storage... heck, before broadband was available in my area... about 10 years ago. Anyway, it's not the thunder and lightning that bother me, it's the wind. Wind is the thing that commonly leaves the most evidence of it's passing.
So I spent an hour documenting as many of our possessions as I could in as much detail as possible at the time. I wasn't going to get the serial numbers because there wasn't time for that much detail and I didn't want to risk playing with the wiring during a storm.
Why I've never felt the urge to do this before is anyone's guess. But a couple of things inspired me. Ever since the tsunami a few years ago, I've been aware of an intriguing concept. Digital media survives disasters.
Cameras found at the site after the disaster were ruined, their owners were likely deceased, but the memory chips, solid wafers of circuitry, remained intact and simply had to be dried and slipped into a card reader to retrieve what may be the first pictures ever seen by the public-at-large of the ocean as it withdrew from the shoreline just before the tsunami struck. Supposing you are the person on the beach at that time taking such pictures, it was probably the last thing you ever saw, unless you happened to be lucky enough to be taking such pictures from a helicopter or something. But your pictures survived and serve to show the world just what it was like. Thank you for clicking that camera, whoever you may have been.
I was reminded of this digital media survivability just last night while reading an old issue of WIRED, in a story about an amazing team of salvagers who bring cargo ships and other large seagoing vessels back from the brink of disaster. Near the end of the article the tsunami was mentioned reminding me of those camera chips. So, that's most likely what urged me to document our living room, dining room, kitchen, counter appliances, dinnerware, glassware, furniture, computers, peripherals, audio/video system, gaming equipment, other electronics, and our libraries of DVDs, CDs, Laser Discs, and, naturally, books. I even took photos of the contents of the pantry, cupboards, and refrigerator. I took wide angle shots of the rooms to illustrate the whole of our possessions, I narrowed it down to desks, shelves, the entertainment center, to show things in context. I then snapped shots of individual items such as the DVD player, the TV, my printer and scanner. I finished it off with close-ups showing the make and model logos.
The storm passed before I finished. I finished anyway so I could do the serial numbers in the future when things aren't so pressed for time.
Now that the storm has passed and there is no fear of another cropping up while I sleep, I've taken the dog out and she's done the whole of her business. There's still some lightning to the southeast, the ground is wet, with the sounds of water dripping off the roofs and crickets, and I found this:
It seems my fear of wind damage wasn't totally unfounded after all.
The Weather Channel's Jim Cantore alerted me to the possibility of severe storms overnight. He even had some new name (to me) for this particular type of storm, describing it as potentially worse than pinpoint tornadic events because of it's hundreds of miles wide front of high winds. To my ears he was describing this as something worse than the more common 'bow echo' of a storm, which usually indicates a concentrated area of high damaging winds.
As usual, these storms could produce lightning, strong winds, and damaging hail, and according to the panic mongers, er... weather reporters (some even full-fledged Meteorologists), these storms had already wreaked havoc through northern Illinois and Indiana. Local news, WHIO specifically, was quite subdued (for once), probably because they expect far fewer people to be watching this late at night.
Just as I was taking all this in, the wanted to go outside, so we leashed up and headed out. I hoped she would take care of her business before the storm came through so she wouldn't face the distress of having to wait it out. I urged her to go, but she was more interested in trying to spot one of the local stray cats that constantly trouble her thoughts and haunt her dreams. Also, the sky was lighting up like the Las Vegas strip was floating overhead. The entire horizon, my complete field of view, peripheral and all was outlining the leading edge of the oncoming front. The flashes were growing noticeably brighter by the second, the temperature was dropping, and the wind picked up. Since the dog had gone number one and showed no interest in anything more even though she was overdue for number two, I urged her back inside.
Shortly, I heard rain begin to fall. The lightning intensified and the thunderstrikes became more urgent. I was in a bit of a fit. Thunderstorms themselves don't bother me too much. I used to sit and try to photograph lightning with my old Casio QV-11 camera. That camera was slow enough that by the time the split second of lighting registered on the sensor, I had already had time to hit the shutter button, having seen the flash with my own eyes. Success depended on me watching the storm intently and trying to have the camera pointed in the right direction. I had a nice collection of lightning shots, but lost the best in a hard drive crash, before there was such a thing as free online storage... heck, before broadband was available in my area... about 10 years ago. Anyway, it's not the thunder and lightning that bother me, it's the wind. Wind is the thing that commonly leaves the most evidence of it's passing.
So I spent an hour documenting as many of our possessions as I could in as much detail as possible at the time. I wasn't going to get the serial numbers because there wasn't time for that much detail and I didn't want to risk playing with the wiring during a storm.
Why I've never felt the urge to do this before is anyone's guess. But a couple of things inspired me. Ever since the tsunami a few years ago, I've been aware of an intriguing concept. Digital media survives disasters.
Cameras found at the site after the disaster were ruined, their owners were likely deceased, but the memory chips, solid wafers of circuitry, remained intact and simply had to be dried and slipped into a card reader to retrieve what may be the first pictures ever seen by the public-at-large of the ocean as it withdrew from the shoreline just before the tsunami struck. Supposing you are the person on the beach at that time taking such pictures, it was probably the last thing you ever saw, unless you happened to be lucky enough to be taking such pictures from a helicopter or something. But your pictures survived and serve to show the world just what it was like. Thank you for clicking that camera, whoever you may have been.
I was reminded of this digital media survivability just last night while reading an old issue of WIRED, in a story about an amazing team of salvagers who bring cargo ships and other large seagoing vessels back from the brink of disaster. Near the end of the article the tsunami was mentioned reminding me of those camera chips. So, that's most likely what urged me to document our living room, dining room, kitchen, counter appliances, dinnerware, glassware, furniture, computers, peripherals, audio/video system, gaming equipment, other electronics, and our libraries of DVDs, CDs, Laser Discs, and, naturally, books. I even took photos of the contents of the pantry, cupboards, and refrigerator. I took wide angle shots of the rooms to illustrate the whole of our possessions, I narrowed it down to desks, shelves, the entertainment center, to show things in context. I then snapped shots of individual items such as the DVD player, the TV, my printer and scanner. I finished it off with close-ups showing the make and model logos.
The storm passed before I finished. I finished anyway so I could do the serial numbers in the future when things aren't so pressed for time.
Now that the storm has passed and there is no fear of another cropping up while I sleep, I've taken the dog out and she's done the whole of her business. There's still some lightning to the southeast, the ground is wet, with the sounds of water dripping off the roofs and crickets, and I found this:
It seems my fear of wind damage wasn't totally unfounded after all.
12 January 2008
Now Playing @ THE NEON MOVIES
Now Playing @ THE NEON MOVIES
130 East Fifth Street, Dayton, OH 45402
Office Phone: (937) 222-8452
For Showtimes: (937) 222-7469(SHOW)
http://www.neonmovies.com
TheNeon on MySpace (http://www.myspace.com/neonmovies)
"ATONEMENT" Showtimes:
Friday, Saturday, Sunday: 11:40, 2:10, 4:40, 7:10, 9:40
Monday - Thursday: 2:10, 4:40, 7:10, 9:40
"THE KITE RUNNER" Showtimes:
Friday, Saturday, Sunday: 11:50, 2:20, 4:50, 7:20, 9:45
Monday - Thursday: 2:20, 4:50, 7:20, 9:45
Through Thursday, January 17th, 2008
130 East Fifth Street, Dayton, OH 45402
Office Phone: (937) 222-8452
For Showtimes: (937) 222-7469(SHOW)
http://www.neonmovies.com
TheNeon on MySpace (http://www.myspace.com/neonmovies)
"ATONEMENT" Showtimes:
Friday, Saturday, Sunday: 11:40, 2:10, 4:40, 7:10, 9:40
Monday - Thursday: 2:10, 4:40, 7:10, 9:40
"THE KITE RUNNER" Showtimes:
Friday, Saturday, Sunday: 11:50, 2:20, 4:50, 7:20, 9:45
Monday - Thursday: 2:20, 4:50, 7:20, 9:45
Through Thursday, January 17th, 2008
16 October 2007
Samantha Who? pilot episode
I really, really liked "Samantha Who?" Christina Applegate produced it herself, she's a good actress, and I like the way it's unfolding. It kind of reminds me of "Stranger Than Fiction" with Will Ferrell because none of the other characters seem to be connecting with the main character and really understanding what s/he is experiencing. I can relate to that. Plus, it was totally absurd, yet believable, and very funny. Jean Smart*, as Samantha's mom , was entertaining as well.
Clearly, Samantha is going to reconnect in some way with Todd because his building's doorman, Frank, played by Tim Russ, is in the title credits and was the one character with which Samantha did seem to make a connection.
BTW, Russ' co-star from Star Trek: Voyager, Robert Duncan McNeill, directed this pilot. Kudos!
Riddle me this, Batman...
Where would any of us be without Star Trek?
Where would TV be without Star Trek?
In the last week I've seen enough Trek alumni on brand new episodes of current TV shows to man an away mission, and I didn't even watch any Trek! Star Trek pwns H-wood.
*Extraneous Trek reference: While looking up Jean Smart on IMDb, I noticed one of the posts in her dedicated message board mentioned that she looks a lot like Kim Cattrall, who was in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. How weird is that?
Clearly, Samantha is going to reconnect in some way with Todd because his building's doorman, Frank, played by Tim Russ, is in the title credits and was the one character with which Samantha did seem to make a connection.
BTW, Russ' co-star from Star Trek: Voyager, Robert Duncan McNeill, directed this pilot. Kudos!
Riddle me this, Batman...
Where would any of us be without Star Trek?
Where would TV be without Star Trek?
In the last week I've seen enough Trek alumni on brand new episodes of current TV shows to man an away mission, and I didn't even watch any Trek! Star Trek pwns H-wood.
*Extraneous Trek reference: While looking up Jean Smart on IMDb, I noticed one of the posts in her dedicated message board mentioned that she looks a lot like Kim Cattrall, who was in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. How weird is that?
07 July 2007
I keep thinking it's Saturday
Technically, now, it IS Saturday, but at various points throughout the day I'd be doing something that involved some degree of minor thought toward the future and then, like a scratched CD, my mind would jump to a new point, reminding me that it was actually Friday. If anything, I should be a day behind, due to the day off we just had, but no.
My best guess is that my perceptions are being skewed by the increased volume of traffic at work. I suppose there are many people taking a long weekend or a short vacation owing to Independence day falling in the middle of the work week. So it seemed or felt like a Saturday when clearly it was not.
I just have to be sure I get up and go to work tomorrow instead of trying to take the day off. Doh!
My best guess is that my perceptions are being skewed by the increased volume of traffic at work. I suppose there are many people taking a long weekend or a short vacation owing to Independence day falling in the middle of the work week. So it seemed or felt like a Saturday when clearly it was not.
I just have to be sure I get up and go to work tomorrow instead of trying to take the day off. Doh!
28 April 2007
Legitimacy
It's been more than a year since I've posted here. It's like that with me. I'd love to post something amazingly interesting several times a day or even just once a week but I'm really too private a person for that kind of activity. Anyway, I wanted to add a new post here just so any passersby would find SOME sort of activity.
Since, clearly, I must say so myself, I really am a busy and interesting guy. In fact, the appearance of little output may actually be due to too much activity between the two halves of my daily routine. [Yes, I intentionally used to/too/two all in the same sentence, just because.] If you still care or have the catlike curiosity that compels you to follow links no matter where they may lead, here is a partial list of the pieces of my puzzle...
BONNETT'S BOOK STORE:
www.bonnetts.com
www.myspace.com/bonnetts_books
bonnettsbookstore.blogspot.com
My personal sites:
www.myspace.com/mr_bs_ballroom
picasaweb.google.com/khbonnett
blonking.blogspot.com
members.aol.com/kbonnett
Since, clearly, I must say so myself, I really am a busy and interesting guy. In fact, the appearance of little output may actually be due to too much activity between the two halves of my daily routine. [Yes, I intentionally used to/too/two all in the same sentence, just because.] If you still care or have the catlike curiosity that compels you to follow links no matter where they may lead, here is a partial list of the pieces of my puzzle...
BONNETT'S BOOK STORE:
www.bonnetts.com
www.myspace.com/bonnetts_books
bonnettsbookstore.blogspot.com
My personal sites:
www.myspace.com/mr_bs_ballroom
picasaweb.google.com/khbonnett
blonking.blogspot.com
members.aol.com/kbonnett
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