Usine Hollyhock

In regards to this program, I am fairly confused. I played around with a few of the demos, and while somewhat easier to use than some audio software I've used in the past,  it was still rather confusing. Finding the buttons for even just saving your work was a challenge. It comes with a small compliment of different filters and synths, though this is offset by the confusing nature of the interface.

The interface itself is fairly easy to work, though the buttons are hard to read, and knowing where tools and racks are comes with practice. The other pieces of the interface are fairly simple to understand, though I had problems with using some of the pieces at first. Compared to "professional" pieces of software like Ableton, it could use a bit of polish, but given the time it could be a competitor with these softwares. I personally prefer Ableton.

Usine Hollyhock

Usine Hollyhock is a unique DAW and music editor.  For a free trial, the version I experimented with was quite extensive.  With loads of features and preinstalled grooves and sounds, there was a lot to do right of the bat.  For a quick demo of the software in the first couple hours, it never got boring, and only the surface seemed to have been scratched.

That said, Usine feels like a beta project.  It runs fine and does what its supposed to, but getting to that point is overly tedious.  The icons are ambiguous and the menus change with every click.  While that may be clever and useful for long time users, it is extremely confusing and difficult to adjust to.  I never figured out if I can simply export the sounds as WAVs, and recording in Audacity became a challenge as well.  Overall, Usine Hollyhock has lots of depth and potential, but it is not currently very user friendly for beginners.

Spectral and String Synthesis

Of all the types of synthesis we've learned in class, spectral might possible be my favorite. This video about spectral synth gives several examples of how spectral synth can be controlled.

Many of the types of synthesis we've learned take a lot of tweaking to find the sound that you want. While spectral isn't any different. Since it's graphical it gives the ability to fine tune your sound and really make exactly what you are looking for. Spectral synth uses colors along the y axis to configure the pitch and volume.

String synthesis is also very graphical and interested. Although String synth is like an instrument in the fact that you have to learn how to play it. While Spectral allows the user to adapt one piece at time.

Spectral Synthesis Introduction

Spectral synthesis (SMS) is an acoustic approach for sound and other sound related signals. The sounds are perceived as a combination of harmonic content and noise signals. The harmonic contents are recognized based on their peaks in the frequency spectrum. This spectral model can be applied to many different types of audio signals. For instance, various musical instruments produce sounds containing both harmonic and percussive contents.

Spectral Synthesis and String Synthesis

Spectral Synthesis 
Also known as SMS, spectral modeling synthesis which is an acoustic modeling approach for speech and other signals. It considers sounds as a series of harmonic content and noise content. The harmonic components are identified based on peaks in the frequency spectrum of the signal. The signal that remains following the removal of the spectral components (white noise) is passed through a time filter. The output is the frequencies of the detected harmonic components and the time-varying filter.

String Synthesis
Ken Freeman, audio designer, couldn't afford a mellotron to play his string parts so he invented a new string synthesis to imitate the string sounds. I found this physical model of string synthesis to be very interesting because it digitally presents visuals of the strings being plucked with the sounds of each string. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUyupapSwZY

Usine Hollyhock Passes

Here are the two passes that I created using Usine Hollyhock. This first one is a homage to the game "Super Mario Bros.".



In this second one, I included a patch called Bit Crusher. In my opinion, it makes beat sound even more techno.



Overall, this program is pretty powerful for being free. It can get somewhat complex and very cluttered at times, but I bet that if I use this program more often, then I will feel more comfortable with it.

Usine Hollyhock

I'm ambivalent in regards to Usine Hollyhock while I found it to have a lot of interesting options and a lot of the stock standard filters and tools, the poor usability was a huge distraction. Often, there are random panels and buttons with arrows, the buttons don't even highlight when you hover over them. I rarely knew what I was actually doing.

That said, as an experimental tool for generating sound (I particularly enjoyed the random sound clip generator), it is fun. As a professional development tool to be used in a live performance, I'd really caution against using it. It lacks control and polish that professional software more typically has. Ableton Live may be complex, but it has rhyme and reason. Usine Hollyhock is complex, and also confusing.

For Next Time

Create to passes with Usine
http://www.sensomusic.org/download/
if it doesn't work on your windows machine re-install AISO4ALL

bring 6 mono sounds for next week
We still meet at the Sage next Tuesday, but we meet at the REV next Thursday.  we will meet in the rev next week

Spectral synthesis and string synthesis blog

Spectral modeling synthesis is a set of techniques and software implementations for the analysis, synthesis, and transformation of music based on a sinusoidal plus residual model. These techniques can be used for a variety of things related to music, such as synthesis, sound source separation, music perception, performance analysis, and more. This model was developed by X. Serra in 1989.

Karplus-Strong string synthesis is a type of synthesis that loops a short waveform through a filtered delay line to create a noise that sounds like a plucked string or some form of percussion. This type of synthesis is known to be a subtractive synthesis technique based on a feedback loop similar to a comb filter for z-transform analysis. This type of synthesis is also viewed as the simplest of a class of wavetable-modification algorithms since the delay line acts to store one period of the signal. String synthesis was developed by Alexander Strong, and Devin Karplus did the first analysis of how it worked, hence it being named Karplus-Strong string synthesis. The first song that used this type of synthesis was a song called “May All Your Children Be Acrobats” written in 1981 by David A. Jaffe.

Quiz Post - FM

Frequency modulation is a method of altering the frequency of a digital or analog waveform to create various sounds.  When modifying an analog wave, the frequency shifts continuously through the signal wave called the carrier. With digital FM, however, the frequency is shifted abruptly, as the digital data is processed.  FM can be used in synthesis to create both harmonic and inharmonic sounds.  The higher the frequency is raised, the more data that is passed through the signal in the same period, causing complex sounds that can often become atonal and busy.  Digital FM was developed by John Chowning at Stanford University in 1967.  The technique was later licensed to Yamaha after being patented in 1975.  Yamaha's DX7 synthesizer popularized FM with its huge success in the mid 80s.  Today, digital FM is accepted as the main standard of the technique because analog FM can lead to pitch instability.

Spectral Modeling and String Synthesis

Spectral modeling synthesis (SMS) is a set of techniques and modeling approach used for analysis, transformation, and synthesis of speech and other signals.  SMS is composed of two major parts, harmonics, and noise content.  The applications of SMS range from processing and coding, to sound source separation, performance analysis, and more.  The original model was developed by Xavier Serra in 1989 as part of his PhD thesis.

String synthesis was a method of modelling synthesis that simulates the sound of a plucked or hammered string.  The model uses a short looped waveform with filtered delay to recreate the acoustics and sound.  Alexander Strong invented the original algorithm, while Kevin Karplus was the first to analyze the method.  The resut of their work was a combination of guitar and digital, forming their name "Digitar."

Patchworks File

Purr patchwork synth

It's like a robot kitten purring.

TrueGrid Modular Synth

Patchwork-Synth

Patchwork homework

Here's my patchwork track.. its a bit weird, but i like the sound of it.

Assignment: Patchwork Synth

Here's what I created after using patchwork. I call it "Cheerful Nightmare," mainly because it sounds both ominous and cheerful. Enjoy!

ModularGrid

Modular Synth Assignment

Midterm Project: Table-Based Sound

Elsner Midterm

Website for Pulling Youtube Audio and Audio Converter

I use this to pull audio off of youtube clips easily as an mp3 then use media cope to turn it into whatever file type I need.
http://snipmp3.com/

I have been using this software for years to convert any of my audio into the needed format such as wav, mp3, ac3, m4a. It's free. It also converts video files.

http://www.mediacope.com/

Phil Spector's Wall of Sound / Max Matthews Bicycle Built For Two

Phil Spector's Wall of Sound 

The wall of sound is a musical production technique for pop and rock music. Spector created a dense, layered, reverberant sound that came across well on AM radio and jukeboxes in the era. The sound is created by having a number of electric and acoustic guitars play in unison, adding musical arrangements for large groups of musicians up to the size of the orchestras, then recording a sound using the echo chamber. The natural reverberation and echo from the hard walls of the echo chamber gave Spector's productions their distinctive quality and resulted in a rich, complex sound that, when played on AM radio, had impressive death rarely heard in mono recordings. His work can be seen in popular artists such as the beach boys, david bowie, and the beatles. 

Quiz Post: Max Matthews Bicycle Built For Two

Max Matthews figured out how to digitally synthesize sound on a digital computer, and wrote Music I, the first in a long line of music programming languages to which all digital synthesis has its root. He worked in acoustic research in Bell laboratories.  Bicycle Built For Two was made on Music 4 in 1961 and was a fully digitally synthesized version of Daisy Bell. It was the first computer singing song. In 2001 it was incorporated into a move.  He is know as the "father of computer music". Listening, it is funny to think of something so simple now yet to be so revolutionary. 

Midterm Remix Project

My midterm project will be a remix of songs from the Nine Inch Nails concept album Year Zero. The album concept itself is interesting, and the music therein is gives itself over to remixing. My project will give me solid experience in remixing different tracks, while allowing me the privilege to work with audio from this album. I plan on using Pure Data to create a few of the layered tracks, and Ableton to bring it all together.

Nine Inch Nails Ableton Live Sessions

This post is for anyone who wasn't able to see the disk with the Ableton Live sessions from Nine Inch Nails' album Year Zero. i suggest looking at them to see how the different pieces look together in the sidebar view.

You can view them:
Here

Thank you.
Have a great spring break, and good luck with your projects.