Brian Wilson....Multi-Tracking Master

One of America’s greatest musicians is Brian Wilson. His work with the Beach Boys and numerous other artists pushed the boundaries of music, both in production and in writing. In the mid sixties, Brian Wilson stopped touring with the Beach Boys to concentrate on writing and made one of the greatest records of all time, Pet Sounds. His use of multi-tracking allowed for him to group layers of vocals on top of layers of vocals with a process that was inspired by his mentor, Phil Spector. The result was spectacular.

Brian Wilson was pushed to create such a great record by his rivals, the Beatles, who released Rubber Soul in 1965. They were rivals and friends, yet they were trying to create a record better than the one before. Pet Sounds has an amazing sound to it, something that has not been equaled since. The songs “Wouldn’t it be nice”, “God Only Knows” and “Sloop John B”, in particular, are three of my all time favorite songs. One interesting thing about this album is that it was so good that the Beatles were pushed even harder and their response to it was Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, which has been listed as the greatest album of all time by Rolling Stone Magazine. It was contributing factor for Brian Wilson’s nervous breakdown. His response to Sgt Peppers was going to be Smile, which he started in 1966 but it took him until 2004 to finish.  Pet Sounds is listed as the second best album of all time on that same list.

Iconic Music

50's Bo Diddley- "Bo Diddley" a local Gainesville legend
60's Beach Boys- "Good Vibrations" Decades after its release, I still jam out to it
70's The Eagles- "Hotel California" First song I learned on the guitar
80's Queen- "Another one bites the dust" still gets sports fans amped up
90's Cher- One of the first songs I loved to sing along with
00's Jay-Z and Alicia Keys- "Empire State of Mind" Immediate classic.

Iconic Music and Film Influences

50's - "Yakety Yak" - The Coasters, Film Ref. Twins (1988)
60's - "What'd I Say" - Ray Charles, Film Ref. Black Rain(1989)
70's - "Rapper's Delight" - Sugar Hill Gang, Film Ref. Kangaroo Jack (2003)
80's - "Push It" - Salt N Pepa, Film Ref. 10 Things I Hate About You (1999)
90's - "Gangsta's Paradise" - Coolio, Film Ref. Bad Teacher (2011)
00's - "Ms. Jackson" - Outkast, Film Ref. No Strings Attached (2011)

Multi-Track Recording

Multitrack recording is one of the best things to ever happen to sound design. It allows for a more dynamic  sound and gives more opportunity for artist to explore different avenues, especially for jazz musicians and classical composers who record most if not all their music simultaneously. With the mutiltrack recording technique, you no longer have to spend hours upon house trying to edit mess ups or glitches in a track that is direct to stereo. You can now edit certain elements of the track that were recorded separately instead of all at once.

Also, another great invention along with mutlitrack recording techniques that Les Paul invented was the Sound on Sound recording method. This allowed artist to be able to record and play along with previously recorded sounds so that you would be able to hear and play along with the other tracks.  This invention has had monumental effects on today's music with dubbing, ad-libs, chorus, etc.  Without Les Paul, Ross Snyder, Mary Ford, and Patti Page I don't think half the music we have today would even exist.

Check this out...

I just came across what is quite possibly the coolest synth I have ever seen... might wanna check this out:

http://rateyourmusic.com/board_message/message_id_is_1288357

Sock Ninjas!! Final Proposal

Final Proposal

For my final project I will be producing a 5 minute film with my two favorite actors, my two boys, Lucas and Ty. The film will be an epic battle between two 'sock ninjas' in the exotic location of Gainesville, Florida. I will populate this film with sounds from freesound.org, pure data, cecilia, MAX/MSP as well as audio I will capture. I have a studio at home with Final Cut Studio that has Final Cut Pro, Soundtrack Pro, and Compressor. I will produce the final version according to the specs set out in class.

I will focus on using sound to create depth to the audio track to match up with the sword play, arrows flying, spears, daggers, and the movement of the actors. I will try to incorporate all the classic elements of a ninja film, bad lip synching, unnecessary back flips, and so much more.

Thanks.

Final Proposal

In this final project, I want to do some traditional sound design, which mainly includes ambient and sound effects. My film is a short animation which content is mainly about playing football in a fantastic and violent way. Therefore, there are a lot of fighting, shouting, metal impacting, running, and monster sounds in it. It is difficult to find all those fit sounds from Freesound, so I want to use Pd to make most of them so that the sounds can meet the rhythm.

Basically, I still want to use Albeton as the main software to synthetize the sound tracks which I found from freesound or made by Pd. Besides, I think I can make sound of TV with no signal by adjust the module of Cecilia. At last, I’ll synthetize them together by Audition.

Final Project

For my final project I plan to work on the Signs of Life performance and add audio sounds for casts members as needed. I will be cliping audio for the rap song in their intro rap as well as picking/creating the right music for select cast members in 5.1. I will also be working with sound effects where needed and add waterdroplets, heartbeats, and also other sound effects with pd and freesound that will be timed with the performance. If I am able to find the time, I will also add audio and sound to a short video clip from one of my favorite shows, Naruto. The clip is showing a conflict between the character, Itachi, and his brother, Saskue. I want the feel to be somber because the clip is about a fight to the death between brothers. I want to envoke the emotion of sadness and maybe a little bit of anger/passion because the little brother, Saskue, has devoted his life to killing his brother and this is his last shot at revenge.

Final Project Proposal

For the final project, I want to design at least ten pieces short sounds by Pd, only Pd. During this work, I will research how to design short sounds especially sounds effects just like rain, water, bubble, wind and so on. Among them, I will search some pieces of sounds with the help of PUREDATA examples which were downloaded from pd website before. The rest part pieces will be completed through my own design, I want to have a try.

The original idea is that I will choose a thirty seconds or one minute video that shows a public environment scene which needs some environment sounds to match with. I will put the 10 pieces of sounds effects that I did before into the Audition for making a surround sound for this scene.

These sounds will include some rain, water, wind and bubble which are my present idea about this. Maybe I will change the name and rename them flowing my research.

Final Project Proposal

Hogan Williams

            I plan on creating a 5.1 surround sound audio track for my final. I intend to create a musical track in an electronic dance style utilizing all 6 channels of surround (if tastefully possible). I’ve never tried creating a surround sound music track, let alone messing with the Left and Right channels too much, so this will be a challenging project. If I can’t create an electronic dance piece that I find acceptable to be heard in surround sound, I plan on making a softer, more orchestral style. A basic orchestral style, but with basic instruments such as pianos, drums, string section and maybe horn section (I have plugins for these, I wouldn’t be composing everything).

Miggs-Final Project

For my final project, I am going to be adding sound to the “God of War III,” trailer.  In the video, Cratos is tearing apart a skeleton army.  He his wielding his swords and hammer arms to smash through the undead army as he makes his way to a giant monster.  Sounds to include will be the ominous wind thrashing, the ungodly screeches of the hoard of the undead.  The clank of metal on flesh and earth as Cratos pounds away at his adversaries.  And an epic soundbed that goes with all the violence in the game.  The video is a little over 3 minutes.

Final Project

For my final, I will be working with Alfred, Gillian and Michelle on Signs of Life.  For the show, I am creating several ambiances and sound loops to be played as background/mood music.  I will be using several synths in ableton to do so, and will output through soundflower so that I can record and edit them in audacity or garageband.  I will also be using Cecilia for several sounds.  For some of the sound effects, we will either be using a PD patch that will allow us to loop a certain sound effect and adjust the tempo with the mood, or use cecilia to record a tempo adjusted piece that matches the cues.  We are also using Audacity to sample and remix certain audio pieces to be more fitting.

In addition, I will be making a short video clip in which I extract the audio and replace it with original audio and sound effects.  I will be going into Audition to adjust for surround sound.  The replacement for the piece will mostly be music based, and sound effects will be put through several filters in order to add a muffled, dream-like fog of war sort of sound.  The actual video clip is one of the Mass Effect 3 trailers.  For the video, I edited out all cutscenes that were not actual video.

Final Project Proposal

For my final project, I will be recreating the audio in a scene from the Wes Anderson film The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. Specifically, I will be working with the chase scene towards the end of the film, approximately five minute long (see clip for example. Note: I won’t be doing the entire nine-minute scene). As it is now, the scene is filled with running, explosions, gunshots, ambient noise, base beat and soundtrack.

 In my final, I will recreate the ambient/environmental noise and sound effects utilizing multi layering with sounds created in PD and reconstructed using Cecilia, Max/MSP, and Free Sound clips. For the base beat of the scene and the soundtrack, I will not mirror what is in the original film, but create my own bed and beat using Ableton Live. All of these components I will then put in Adobe Audition and place in a surround sound setting.

 The original film clip does have some narration/dialogue in it, which I will not be re-recording. That narration/dialogue track will be lifted from the original and played through the center speaker (C). I anticipate using at least 10 “free sounds” and just as many sounds created through PD files. As stated above, this scene allows for many “moving sounds,” and timing/synchronization with the sounds will be key, as it is rare in the clip for only one person to be in action/producing sound at a time. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbSghPrDyj0

 

Final Project

Option for final: Scene Scoring.

3-5 min.

1.) PD sound

2.) 10 freesound/creative commons sounds

3.) 1 Environmental - at least as long as scene.

4.)  All effects present in scene

5.) 2 Max/MSP sounds (BONUS)

6.) 1 Moving sound (walking, wind moving, thunderstorm)

7.) At least one Cecelia sound

8.) Soundtrack

Final Due Date (Tentative)

Wednesday, December 12 12:30 - 2:30 p.m. in the REVE

Multi-Track Recording (Les Paul)

In exploring multi-track recordings, I listened to Les Paul's cover of "Lover."As the album art showcases, Paul played the eight different parts to the song on his electric guitar.  The song was recorded in his garage on acetate discs, in layered tracks, not parallel ones. The piece is really upbeat, but after watch a few of the old Listerine sponsored shows with him and his wife/collaborator Mary, this first song of his captured as a multi-track recording fits Paul perfectly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8jEkQ7FB8g

Lover


I also came across a great little documentary on him: Les Paul - Chasing Sound

Iconic Music for the Decades

50's - "Johnny B. Goode" by Chuck Berry
60's - "My Generation" by The Who
70's - "Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zeppelin
80's - "With of Without You" by U2
90's - "Don't Speak" by No Doubt
00's - "Seven Nation Army" by White Stripes

Do we have class today? I can't remember if he wanted us to come this Tuesday or next Tuesday.

multi-track recording (George Martin )

About George Martin I like two pieces among his recording works – “Love Me Do/PS I Love You “ & “ The Family Way “. The first one is recording 1962. The single one gained the top 20 grades on British list. It is recorded in mono at 44100hz 32 bit float. It gives me a feeling of digital sound cause the monorail synthesis. The heavy beat by drums as the back track which is combined with dialogue in front. In the middle, the guitar played an important role. “ The Family Way “Written by Paul McCartney for the film of the same name and recorded in November 1966 by George Martin and his Orchestra. The instrumentation used in this version is more in the vein of "For No One" (recorded in May '66) and "Penny Lane" (recorded a month later in December '66). Released as the single you see here, this was the B-side. The A-side being the same tune but slower and with classical guitar, flute and strings called "Love in the Open Air".

George Martin began recording classical music specialising in the Baroque period. As a producer he has been responsible for bringing a host of artists into recording studios particularly in the humorous field with brilliant performers. 

Technics in the Sounds of the Beach Boy

In the past, a good sound for me just means that the vocals and lyrics can make me figure out the story expressed by the singer. I was seldom to regard the environment of the sound, which composed by many other different sound tracks. But after the class in Tuesday and the comparing the difference between the solo sound and the multi-tracks sound after class, I began to be interested in the creation of the environment of a sound. It seems like those different tracks can make the sound from two-dimensional to three-dimensional.

My favorite in these all is The Beach Boys.

In My Room: 4 tracks; 1 kick, 2 vocals, 1 guitar. The melody in this sound is relatively smooth, so all the background music is usually a kind of loop. They change little, so that the perfect sound of the singer can be emphasized perfectly.

Good Vibrations: I like this sound most. I suppose that it should have 9 tracks; 1 drum, 1 tambourine, 3 vocals, 1 guitar, 1 flute and I cannot name the rest two instruments. I like the bel canto in the background so much! If I was the designer, I would dare not to put such kind of sound to match this pop music. But this bel canto really create a kind of space feeling which makes all those other sounds stayed in it comfortable. 

Modern multi track influences

While computers now have the potential to run upwards of one hundred tracks at a time, many producers still "bounce down" tracks to a singular track. With our last project, in order to export my file in a state that would allow others to use it, I bounced down all of the bass elements of my track to one singular track, and rendered it. That way, the computer it's played on doesn't have to have the same effects or VSTs that I was running. This also allows the computer to do less work, which is important for most producers who plan to play their sets live without any stutters or skips.

This technique was implemented in the past by the recording artists we mentioned in class the other day and a vast amount of others. Using a simple 4 track recording mixer, they were able to stuff a multitude of different elements into songs. This was especially useful when using multiple voice chorus pieces like Neil Sedaka would.

Another use of this multitrack recording technique is looping. Les Paul used it in many of his tracks and even implemented a system where he could do it live. Nowadays, there are multiple different interfaces to achieve the same effect. There are even widely available apps for your smartphone that allow live, virtually lagless, multitrack recording:

Multi-track recording

So all of the songs that Pat played in class on Tuesday happened to be songs that always make me think "I could never do something like that..." whenever I listen to them.  I have tons of attempts at replicating those sounds, simply because I strive to make something like them of my own, and I can see no better way of replicating it than to cover it first in order to "perfect" it.  Unfortunately, the majority of my cover attempts are still unfinished because I never seem to think they're anywhere close to good enough to do the originals justice.  I do, however have plenty of multi-track recordings of my own that incorporate my singing and playing multiple parts on my own.  The following was done with six tracks:  one drum, three vocal and two guitar.

Forever and a Day Ago

I think my biggest bust was with Brian Wilson's "Good Vibrations," which reportedly took seventeen sessions in four different studios, 90 hours worth of magnetic tape recording and $50,000 to produce.  It's one of my favorite songs, and while I can generally hit the falsetto, it doesn't necessarily sound good.  Similarly, I can generally play a lot of what's being played, but for some reason, it just doesn't seem to come together quite so well.  I feel as if my tambourine is off key, my keyboard playing is not quite holding the beat, etc.  Perhaps it's just a paranoid frustration.  Either way, I know that Brian Wilson is one of my favorite music writers, and the production value in time and cost of Good Vibrations alone show his dedication to perfection.

Music For the Ages

Iconic Music for the Decades:

50's - "That'll be the Day" by Buddy Holly and the Crickets
60's - "The House of the Rising Sun" by the Animals
70's - "Superstition" by Stevie Wonder
80's - "Purple Rain" by Prince and the Revolution
90's - "Come as you are" by Nirvana
00's - "Where is the Love?" by the Black Eyed Peas

Rocky – Punchout Style

For my midterm project, I replaced the audio of several clips from Rocky and Rocky 3, namely part of the training montage in Rocky and the final fight in Rocky 3.  I used music from Mike Tyson’s Punchout on the NES.  Through Ableton, I processed the main music for both scenes from MIDI files, as well as a few of the sound effects.  The majority of the sound effects were downloaded or generated then processed through Audacity.  I placed the sound effects and music strategically throughout the piece in order to sync 8-bit punches and allow for the proper mood setting.  In order to collect the music for the project, I did a Google search of “Punchout Midi” and of “Punchout Music.”  The sound effects were collected either through the sites that held the music or were generated through the following site:

http://www.superflashbros.net/as3sfxr/

Waning Hope

For my piece, I selected a scene from Peter Weir’s The Truman Show (1998) and redesigned the audio. Keeping with the cinematic nature of the piece, my goal was to update it, preserving the dramatic sound effects, but reconfiguring the bed and tone of the scene. In the original selection, the music takes almost a religious tone with choir like vocals accompanying the scene.  Though my version of the scene remains hopeful at times, I wanted to utilize a stronger, repetitive beat to relay the character’s frustration.

All the sound effects in my piece were found on free sound, including the water, waves, sails, footsteps and creak in the ship. For the waves, sails and water, I added reverb to increase the size of the room (the movie takes place in a small town-size dome). I also used filters, loops and adjusted the attack and decay for various portions. The bed of the piece comes from a midi file “Where is My Mind.” For my project, I worked in and out of Ableton, Audacity, Final Cut Pro and Noatikl.