Gantt Chart

Here is my updated Gannt Chart:

All Wrapped Up

I've handed up all the material now so all that's left to do is to present it on Monday in the room. I'm looking forward to seeing all my own work coming together finally. It's the culmnation of all our work and so it's a very important day. Myself and Matthew will be in charge of recording the days events for future students'benefit. We will catalogue any of the problems we run into and as well as the success of the project as a whole.

Final Mix!

Here is the final mix for my MP4 Project. It is a stereo mix so now I'll go about saving the song as three distinct channels in Garageband - one for the left screen, one for the middle, and one for the right. ALso I'll be finishing the visuals which will accompany the piece.

Mix 10

Here is Mix 10 of the piece. Now I'm going editing it with a view of shortening.

Text Revision

I'm currently working on the text which will accompany my piece tomorrow. I'm experimenting with having more text in order to further emphasize the meaning of the piece.

So far this is what I have in my piece:

For decades it has been the dream of man to create life.
To stand in the shoes of his creator to create form from the formless.

But if art truly does imitate life,
Will we not eventually recreate the bad?
Along with the good.

We may well end up where we started.

And the process will start again.

Update

After recording new material last night I've spent the morning incorporating it into my audio piece. The recording process was quite tricky because I had to use the amplifier. Using the Zoom recorder in conjunction with this made for some unwanted variations within the recording process.

I Acquired an Amp!

Today I will be collecting a guitar amp to use with my effects pedal. I had my own amplifier but it was stolen a while ago. Having the new amp will allow me to record the output of the effects pedal using the zoom recorder.

Back to work!

Easter break is well and truly over. I still have a lot to do for the mechanical side of the track so I'll be experimenting some more tonight. I really want to get a good sound!

Mix 9

Long Day. Short Post. Here it is. Mix 9 of my piece

ROBOTS!!!!

I'm in the School of music at the moment spending time trying to find a good sound to represent the robotic/mechanical part of my piece. It's a slow process and I'll have to leave at ten but it's progress nonetheless. I'm using one of the music technology labs which have Roland keyboards for each computer with MIDI so I can just play directly into Garageband. Very handy. I'll get a mix up soon when I feel it's getting there

tippin' away

Recording went very well. The Piano adds a nice bass frequency to the piece. I'll post the updated piece soon. Now that I am happy with the human aspect of the song, this week will be focused on developing the robotic / mechanic part. I want to have a good draft ready for the presentation next week before we break for Easter.

School of music facilities

Later today I'll be recording in the Cork School of the Music. After booking a room I'll go home and get my ZOOM recorder and come back to get started. I'm looking to get a room with one of the Steinways. It would be fantastic to be able to utilize the piano in my composition. On top of that, the rooms have fantastic acoustics - ideal for recording.

At the same time I want be careful not to just mess around for a while as is my tendency when I get behind a Piano! Neither college are open tomorrow because of St. Patrick's day so I don't know if I'll be able post the results until then be cause I won't have internet access.

Mix 3

Here is a mix of last night's work. I'm really going to have to condense ideas into less time!

Reverse the Process

I spent tonight recording more new material. This time I reversed the production process by recording ideas on guitar first an then going to drums to flesh them out. I wanted to see if this changed how I approached. I also changed the position of the kit within the room and the position of the mic. This change in acoustics had a significant effect on the output. This time I think it work against the sound. Also, I forgot to change the Gain setting on the recorder when I switched from guitar to drums. Because the guitar is lower in volume you have to increase the gain or sensitivity of the mic to capture enough signal to use. Using the same Gain setting for the drums just sounds horrible - all fuzzy and harsh. I had to re-record the drum beats again which was a tad anoying. Hopefully that won't happen again!
On the whole I must say that it is very difficult to depict a visual idea with music. Having to narrow all this down to around 1min feels daunting at the moment but I will take it one step at a time. Right now is about getting the foundation done.

Recordings 2

I've recorded more drum tracks using 128kbps encoding this time. This makes it FAR easier to move around within my computer and the quality is more than adequate for basic recording. I'm not going to play along to these tracks on guitar with my iPod so I can start layering. This is where it gets interesting!

Recordings

Got some basic recordings done. This time I actually pressed the record button properly! The files are huge. I must have recorded in 93,252,349,870,326 kbps judgint by the upload speed. I know now how to change it before recording though. These small changes save huge time in the long run when you're moving stuff arounf and backing stuff up.
Click here to hear the basic drum pattern which will come to the fore at the end of the track. This pattern is to represent the inevitable, robotic, industrial fate of mankind as he continues to develop artificial. Fairly heavy stuff for a simple, LOUD drum beat!

When all else fails...read the manual

I set up my drum kit at home to sketch out some preliminary ideas for the percussion part of my audio. I set up the ZOOM recorder that I was using. The red light was flashing so I thought it was fine to go ahead and play. So I played for ten mins or so with lots of ideas coming out on the fly. I brought the recorder to the computer only to realise that I had only primed the mike and not actually started it recording. Sometimes it just pays to read the manual. I'll try again tomorrow :-( I would try again but once you've played all your ideas and tried everything its hard to go back and do it all again.

School of Music Infiltration Update

To my great delight I have been issued with a CSM keycard:

This grants me the same level of access as any other full time CSM student after 7pm. I simply have to book a room (as is normal practice) and then fire away. At this point I envisage using the pianos in there. Couldn't really ask for better than the Steinways that they have in their labs. Looking forward to getting in there and getting stuck in.

Industrial Beats

http://bit.ly/sltUo

Above is a link to Radiohead's song Reckoner. Well that's all very nice I hear you say but what's that got to do with my project? In short this song has a unique drum track which is of particular relevance to my idea. It display's well the type of industrial sounds I would like to achieve within the percussive aspect of the project. If you are using earphones then take out your left earphone leaving the right channel only and play the song. This will allow you to here the drum track in almost complete isolation because of the way the track was mixed.

The drummer in question is Phil Selway. Phil used the bell of a cymbal (the dome part closest to the centre) to get a high pitched 'cling' which to me connotes images of hammers and heavy industrial forging. I think when you listen to the track you'll get the picture. Enjoy!

The Blue Man Group

Now I'm not suggesting that I douse myself in blue paint and start hitting a load Flavin waste pipes but this is a great example of unconventional sources of percussion. It's more engaging than the average drum performance because it is simple and effecive.

http://bit.ly/OI3Cw

It's 3:27mins long but you'll get the idea after a minute or so.

Rooms and Equipment

When I was in the Cork School of Music earlier this week I inquired about recording facilites + equipment rental. It appears the availability is uncertain at the moment but I'll be issued with a CSM Room Card next week which will afford me access to some labs and rooms in the building. I'll follow up on the availability issue next week when I get the card.

Medium/Choice of Media

I have decided to use audio as the main medium for my project. Having said this, I will be incorporating visual media as well (illustrations, possibly video) so that when the project is implemented into the final environment the user/viewer will have a visual stimulant to complement and reinforce the audio.

Here is a JPG of my Gantt Chart.

Gantt Chart

Here is the link to my Gantt Chart (You'll need Microsoft Project to view it). The Gantt Chart is a vital tool for managing the progress and completion of a project.

http://tinyurl.com/ygafnqu

What is MP4?

As the name suggests, Media Project 3 is project centered around the use of Media. Particularly in this semester, there has been and emphasis on the exploration of 'transmedial narrative'. Transmedial essentially means more than one media type - ie audio, video, still image, typography etc. As is my understanding we will work in groups while still focussing on our individual media content. I am yet to decide exactly which type of media I would like to use. I'm thinking audio would be good. I like the idea of communicating a theme/idea through sound.

In the first class we were given the brief and schedule of the module. Along with this we received a list of the characteristics of humans and machines. This list is to be the basis for a brainstorming session we will have in class the next day with a view to forming a basis for our projects. I like the idea of these two seemingly opposite entities being compared. I'm thinking of a mix of the two and the tension that would bring. A sort of Ghost in the Machine idea I suppose...

Hello + blurb

Hello there!

My name is Kevin O' Connor and I'm studying Multimedia in the Cork Institute of Technology. I've set up this Blog to document my progress in one of my modules - Media Project 3 (MP3). MP3 is a compulsory module in our course which we have for 5 semesters throughout the duration of the degree. I'll be posting various materials on the Blog for others to see and also as an aide for myself to show the progression of my thoughts and processes. I'm aiming to post at least twice a week. There are few things more pointless than a blog that isn't updated!