LAB2 Process
Dagmar Erla J贸nasd贸ttir
Book
Me
My name is Dagmar Erla Jónasdóttir and I come from Iceland. I enrolled at Design Academy Eindhoven in 2012 and I´m currently studying there in the department, Man and Leisure. I love to to learn new things, gather experience and I´m a quick learner. I work pretty decisively and focused on what I´m doing, or until happy with the outcome. My goal is to use the education to expand my mind, to get to know new and exotic materials, work with creative concepts and different methods. My strongest skills would be organizing and to create events and overall I like to work with other people. I would say I´m a thinker and curious designer and therefore doing researches is a great part of how I work. I can work with almost all programs and if not I learn at least the basics how to. My biggest opstacles is that I intend to overly think things and I need to be careful about the time and to work faster. Drawing and painting are definitely not my strongest skills.
About the project This is a project is a part of LAB2 classes at Design Academy Eindhoven and it´s all about observing certain topic related to technology and in the end to learn and be aware of the process and production. By this assignments the Design Academy will be mapped for it´s qualities but also for what might be improved. Choosing topic was up to the observer and therefore totally free.
This project is a great oportunity for me to dive a subject that I´m passioned about and has been on my mind for a long time . I´ve always been interested in music and sounds, where it comes from, the story behind the process and how it´s produced. To learn all about it has been on my to do list for a while now but there is never the right timing or the opportunity. I want to learn how to create, produce and play electronic sounds and music. To understand the world behind that industry. Unfortunately there are not so good acess to these kinds of programing and studies at DAE. I will look for answeres and hopefully lessons outside the school and explore and observe. I´m aiming at interviewing professionals by recording and document everything I learn. I think this knowledge will benefit me in so many ways on my future works, not matter if it concernes designing, concept creation, random project or even just for me to release and expand other creativity. In the end I will hopefully manage to make my own track and be a little more wiser than the day be for.
How will I accomplish? The plan I came up with was quite simple but needs a lot of work to accomplish so I decided to make a solid plan (which is always possible to change) and START! TO DO LIST
1. Researches - The industry in general. 2.Networking - Who do I know, hwo might know somebody that knows something about the subject? 3.Prepare - questions, eqicuments, interviews contact people etc... 4.Interaction - Interview by recording and visit professionals, studios, exhibitions even ask random people from the streets. 5.Create - I´v probably learned a lot already at this point and should be ready to actually start creating a track, hopefully with a bit of assistance. 6.Performe - When/if I will have a track ready then it would be tim to performe but at that pont the documentray should also be ready.
Researches “All sounds are vibrations traveling through the air as sound waves. Sound waves are caused by the vibrations of objects and radiate outward from their source in all directions. A vibrating object compresses the surrounding air molecules (squeezing them closer together) and then rarefies them (pulling them farther apart). Although the fluctuations in air pressure travel outward from the object, the air molecules themselves stay in the same average position. As sound travels, it reflects off objects in its path, creating further disturbances in the surrounding air. When these changes in air pressure vibrate your eardrum, nerve signals are sent to your brain and are interpreted as sound.” (http://documentation.apple. com/en/soundtrackpro/usermanual/index.html#chapter=B%26section=1%26tasks=true)
Music
is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch (which governs melody and harmony), rhythm (and its associated concepts tempo, meter, and articulation), dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture. The word derives from Greek μ (mousike; “art of the Muses”).
“ ‘Het Geluid van Nederland’ ‘ or Sound of the Netherlands’ ( http://
www.geluidvannederland.nl) makes a sound archive from the collection of The Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision available to a wide audience. The total collection contains over 10,000 sound recordings from the 1950s to the 1990s, showing the evolving soundscape of the Netherlands. Sounds include horse driven trams, street vendors and recordings from the ‘Eleven Cities’ (‘Elfstedentocht’) ice skating match. Since the service launched in September, it added approx. 200 crowd sourced sounds to its repository of 2,100 sounds from the sound archive of Sound and Vision. They are available through a ‘sound map’. This interface provides an overview of the national coverage of the sound archive, both in space and time, and is used to encourage users to add their own sound to complement the archive.” The word “soundscape” was coined by composer R. Murray Schafer to identify sounds that “describe a place, a sonic identity, a sonic memory, but always a sound that is pertinent to a place” (Wagstaff, G. 2000). “A soundscape is a type of audio script used to add ambience to maps. It can be used in any number of maps, requires only a single entity to implement, and does not generate any network traffic. Soundscapes use a mixture of looped and randomly played sounds, all of which have the option to be emitted from one of eight assignable target locations; DSP and Soundmixer profiles can also be enforced. Only one soundscape can be active at any given time, and the individual sounds used within it cannot be controlled via inputs. When another soundscape is activated, the game will cross fade from one to the other.”
“The World Soundscape Project or WSP is an international research project founded by Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer in the late 1960s at Simon Fraser University. The project initiated the modern study of Acoustic Ecology. Its ultimate goal is “to find solutions for an ecologically balanced soundscape where the relationship between the human community and its sonic environment is in harmony.” The practical manifestations of this goal include education about the soundscape and noise pollution, in addition to the recording and cataloguing of international soundscapes with a focus on preservation of soundmarks and dying sounds and sound environments.”
Mapping Weird Stuff
“Acoustic ecology”
http://mappingweirdstuff.wordpress.com/2009/06/14/mappingsound-soundscapes/
http://earthear.com/aboutesa.html
Sound around you
http://www.soundaroundyou.com/
http://www.acousticecology.org/soundscapelinks.html
http://artsonline2.tki.org.nz/resources/lessons/ music/soundscape/index_e.php
http://audio.tutsplus.com/tutorials/production/ creating-rich-soundscapes-with-organic-electronic-sounds/
http://www.crypto.com/audio/soundscapes/
Networking Kris Van De Ven
DJ and Musical amateur
Pieter-Jan Pieters
Designer (DAE grad 2012). Focuses on superior design, technology & engineering.
Ástþór
Student at SAE and works at MTV in Amster-
Andrea Dris
Electro producer and works at MTV
MarcoAntonio Spaventi Teacher at SAE and Professional sound engineer and producer.
http://maspaventi.com/MaSpaventi_2013/Home.html
Dagmar (Me)
Others
Mails sent to interesting strangers. ‘Het Geluid van Nederland’
http://www.geluidvannederland.nl/
Amsterdam Dance Event
http://www.amsterdam-danceevent.nl/
Soundscape - conceives and realises music for brands. http://www.soundscape.nl/
Preparation I decided to make a long dream come true and invested in a very nice handycam.. ..which is indeed really handy for all my interviews and other projects. I felt like I needed to narrow my subject within the electonic field and chose to go full force for Soundscapes (sounds recorded from the environment) and house music. I prepared myself for all the visits and the interviews with loads of questions.
After doing a whole lot of researches and prepare I contacted Kris Van De Ven and told him about my project. He was really enthusiatic and excited. He agreed on helping me with the process and answer some questions. We arranged a meeting included with a cup of coffe and a long chat. Next thing I wanted to do is talk to ﾃ《thor, student at SAE and works at MTV, and ask him what he knows about this subject. He really loved the idea of me diving into this since he knows my passion for this. He was sure of that I could accomplish to create a track within this timeframe (Super motivation)! He gave me some information and advise. He also connected me to guys in Amsterdam that I could visit for a chat. He was also willing to help me to start create a track but made it clear that the first thing I needed to was to collect as many intresting sounds and samples to work with.. so I started.
A little trip to Amsterdam One week-end in october I went to Amsterdam to interview people but also in hope of gather some information. I went to Muiziekgebouw, STEIM, De Waag and more. My visits included open days in Sience Park were I explored how vibrate from sounds affects movement and light but also witnessed sound being transfered in a tube by gas.
Click to whatch the video
Interview with MarcoAntonio Spaventi An interview with Marco Antonio Spaventi got me even more motivated. He an incredibly talented music producer and teacher at SAE Institude Amsterdam. I visited his amazing studio and got to ask him some questions. I recorded the whole interview.
Click to whatch the interview
Collect sound samples It takes time and amazingly hard work to find the right sound which will fit to my project and track. Loads of tracks are needed to have the variation to accomplish a single track The quality needs to be good, the lenght matters and many other features need to be thought of.
Click to play
Programs and editing I spoke to numberous of sound and music experts and did some researches on what program would fit for my intentions the best. I found out that the most common programs to work in are Abelton Live, Fruity Loops, Sinapse Orion, Logic and Reason. I started with Fruity Loops simply because it seemed to be nice and easy for beginner to learn.
Well! Unfortunately it refused to save anything that I did and didn´t allow me to use certain samples and effects. Eventually it shut down and wouldn´t open again. After a whole night battle with the program I found out that It might not be right for me.
Though I was advised to start with Fruity Loops, as a beginner, I decided to switch program. It seemed like most of the people I spoke with, who might be able to help me to get started, were working with Ableton Live. I decided to go with that so it would be better to get advise, even though it would be more difficult to learn.
Interview with Pieter Jan While working on learning the program an experimenting I decided to visit Pieter Jan Pieters to explore what he and his works are about. I got to ask him a few questions on what he is doing with sounds and the future with his project. Pieter Jan graduated from Design Academy in 2012 but his graduation project was series of instruments that play music off human pulses. Electronic devices contain sensors that transform intuitive movements such as taps, heartbeats and finger movements etc. into music. I recorded the interview with him at his studio, at Sectie C.
Click to whatch the interview
Ableton Live I decided to install Ableton Live and to start with I got some basic tutors from Kris through phone which helped a bit. I have to admit that it is very difficult to learn how these programs works but I guess as soon as you start to understand a little bit then it starts to be more and more fun. It surprised me how much work it is in getting to know the basic features for the program.
Getting started I started with setting up the program which would be best for my intetions and saved as defult template.
Online lesson Click to play
emplate Empty t
After spending to many hours, on figuring out the most basic and simple steps to get started, I finally found out how to import sound samples. Button s for d ifferen The bu t tton w ith hor setup. s tripes izontal sho uld be on!
Drag au d the samp io c hann les o ve r to el. the
It sounds quite stupid that I spend hours on figuring it out how to drag a sample to the line. Well, it was a matter settings and working on the right template
Keyboard shortcuts There are a lot of shortcuts and other nice-to-know factors that can take tme to figure out. My mo s t usef ul
shortcu t.
. samples g n i t t i l p S nd place a e s o h C d+E. push cm
Showing and Hiding Views Toggle Full ScreenMode Toggle Second Window
CTRL+F11 CMD+Shift+W
ToggleSession/Arrangement View
TAB
Toggle Device/Clip View
Shift+Tab
Hide/Show Detail View
CMD+ALT+L
Toggle Hot-Swap Mode
Q
Toggle Drum Rack/lastselected Pad
D
Hide/Show Info View Shift+? Hide/Show Browser CMD+ALT+B Hide/Show Overview CMD+ALT+O Hide/Show In/Out CMD+ALT+I Hide/Show Sends CMD+ALT+S Hide/Show Mixer CMD+ALT+M Open the Prefer- CMD+, ences Close Window/Dialog ESC
Adjusting Values Decrement/Increment Finer Resolution for Dragging Return to Default Type in Value
Up and down arrow keys CMD
Delete
Go to Next Field (Bar. . + , beat.16th) Abort Value Entry
ESC
Confirm Value Entry
Enter
0...9
Transport Play from Start Marker/Stop Continue Play from Stop Point
Space Shift+Space
Play Arrangement View Selection
Space
Move Insert Marker to Beginning
fn+left arrow
Record F9 Back to Arrangement F10 Activate/Deactivate F1...F8 Track 1..8
Editing Cut
CMD+X
Undo CMD+Z
Copy
CMD+C
Redo CMD+Y
Paste
CMD+V
Rename CMD+R
Duplicate
CMD+D
Select All CMD+A
Delete
Delete
Loop Brace and Start/End Markers Move Start Marker to Position Nudge Loop Left/Right Move Loop By Loop Length
Shift+click
Halve/Double Loop CMD up and arrow Length down
right and left arrow keys
Shorten/Lengthen CMD right and Loop left arrow keys
up and down arrow keys
Select Material in CMD+Shift+L Loop
Session View Commands Launch Selected Clip/ Slot Select Neighboring Clip/Slot Select all Clips/Slots Copy Clips Add/Remove Stop Button
Insert MIDI clip CMD+Shift+M
Enter
Insert Scene CMD+I
Arrow keys CMD+A CMD+drag CMD+E
Insert Captured CMD+Shift+I Scene Move Nonadjacent CMD+up and Scenes Without Col- down arrows lapsing Drop Browser Clips CMD as a Scene
Arrangement View Commands Split Clip at Selection
CMD+E
Consolidate Selection into Clip
CMD+J
Create Fade/Crossfade Loop Selection
CMD+Alt+F CMD+L
Insert Silence CMD+I Pan Left/Right of CMD+Alt Selection Unfold all Tracks ALT unfold button
Scroll Display to Fol- CMD+Shift+F low Playback
Commands for Tracks Insert Audio Track
CMD+T
Insert MIDI Track
CMD+Shift+T
Insert Return Track
CMD+Alt+T
Rename Selected Track
CMD+R
While Renaming, Go to next Track
TAB
Group Selected Tracks
CMD+G
Ungroup Tracks
CMD+Shift+G
Show Grouped Tracks + Hide Grouped Tracks Move Nonadjacent Tracks Without Collapsing Arm/Solo Multiple Tracks Add Device from Browser
CMD+click
Enter
Grid Snapping and Drawing Toggle Draw Mode
B
Narrow Grid
CMD+1
Widen Grid
CMD+2
Triplet Grid
CMD+3
Snap to Grid CMD+4 Fixed/Zoom-Adaptive CMD+5 Grid Bypass Snapping ALT While Dragging
More sound samples
Click to play
Learning from mistakes When it came to exporting my first soundscape sample I noticed that something was not correct with my Abelton version. It seemed like it only saved my work for the first time and when I wanted to save and even export for the second time it didn´t allow it. I couldn´t belive that I was going through trouble like this again. After a whole evening work I could save it, great.
It was nothing that I could do about it at that moment than just accept my work was gone (I took screenshots of the arrangement, but it didn´t really help in the end).
I have to say that I didn´t expect these programs to be so comlicated to learn on. Normally I find it easy to learn new programs and I usually just google my way through it but I definitely underestimated the difficulity level of sound editing programs. I needed to fix the program as soon as possible so I could manage to deliver at least something. I asked Ásthor from Amsterdam and he wasn´t able to send me any new version so I also asked around in school. There were some solutions which seemed to be working but eventually they didn´t, not even the trial. After many “unexplainable” failiure attempts It wasn´t until I decided to update the software of my computer. Yes, another silly fail step but the trial program seemed to be working for now. :)
I finally had the change to export my very first tryout track sample. Please listen with good speakers/headphones :)
Click to play
Effects After learning how to import samples, arrange and adjust them, I felt I needed to get to get hint on how the effects work. There are numberous of effects existing already in the program and you can adjust each and every of them the way you wish. I´m not planning on using them specially in my final results but is always good to know how to use them.
an C hose fer yo u pre the in menu.
effect to use sample
Gener
al men u for t he sam ple
s.
Here yo u can chose
effects
The samples you wish to add certain effect on are all on the same audio channel. After that you need to make sure that the channel is selected.
By d o yo u uble cli c get a co king on yo u n to e d th t it an o ller wh e sampl e i ch a d ad jus t llow s the e ffec t.
It´s difficult to know exactly what each and every effect does and how to adjust them. in the right way. I guess the best way to find out would simply be to just play with it.
More edited sound/track samples. Please listen with good speakers/headphones :)
Click to play
Click to play
Final tracks.
(Edited and in Full lenght)
Please listen with good speakers/headphones :)
Click to play
Click to play
Final track with video
Click to play
Presentation video
Click to play
LAB questions 1. What did you learn in Lab2 and how do you think you can employ this in the continuation of your study? First of all what I gained from this class was to train myself more in working in an independed way, organize myself, make decisions, schedule meetings and observe. I knew it right away that I wanted to dive into environmental sounds and learn how to manipulate them and how they affect on each other. I think this knowledge can be used in so many ways regarding designing. If it isn´t for only knowing how to use these complicated programs, used for sound editing, then it is the understanding of environmental sounds and how to treat them. 2. Did Lab contribute towards your development as a designer? I learned a lot from this project and I believe that this was that kind of an assignment that every individual needed to be responsible for how much they would gain from it. To answer the question, yes it did, I got the perfect chance to go outside DAE, interact with professionals, expand my network and put things in perspective. I got a chance to learn to use program which otherwise takes a long time to learn and I would never have had the time or manage that outside the school. 3. Can you give an example of how you can use Lab-mentality in your design assignments? The research, interview and observation part was such a good training and can be used in any future projects. I think I will from now on try to interact more with people outside the school for my future assignments. The knowledge of the recording and how to edit in sound programs is something that I consider very handy and I will definitely use it in my future design projects.
4. Name/judge your results in this trimester (use insufficient-sufficiant-good) and give convincing/clinching arguments. I believe my whole process is the results. I spend a long time in researching, observing, interview etc. and I´m really pleased about that part of my process and I learned so much from that. I could have been more realistic and careful when collecting the sounds. Even though I enjoyed this part of the process it took way longer time then I thought and in the end there were at least 35 sounds samples I couldn´t use because of interruption in the recording. The most difficult part for me was to install and learn the basics of the program, it took me surprisingly long time to install the program and learn the first steps. I was quite disappointed with that since I wished to have longer time in learning the program. Over all I´m happy with my results. In the end of the day I’ve beaten every obstacle that was in my way, frustrated or not. I worked very independently (maybe to much sometimes). Most important for me is that I now understand the methods and technology behind creating a sound samples and how to treat them. Also I now know how to work with the basics in in a program such as Ableton Live. I can without a doubt say that after I started this project I´ve been really sensitvie and so aware of every sound in my environment. 5. Name and illustrate your best project in this trimester and do the same with your worst project. My best project would be the whole researching and observation part. Not only did I learn a lot about the topic I chose but also broke the ice in a new country and felt the freedom to step out of DAE in order to approach the topic in other ways, interactive ways. 6. If you could do Lab again would you go about it in a different way? Can you explain this? Yes I would, If I would have known that my group and I would decide not to make a document I would probably have recorded more of other things and try to make one document myself. I would also probably have tried to install the program earlier in case some it would work perfectly the minute I wanted to start.