{"id":53,"date":"2016-07-21T17:05:59","date_gmt":"2016-07-21T17:05:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/digital.eca.ed.ac.uk\/finalprojects\/?p=53"},"modified":"2016-07-21T17:08:56","modified_gmt":"2016-07-21T17:08:56","slug":"interim-presentations-where-the-projects-are-and-feedback-part-three","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digital.eca.ed.ac.uk\/finalprojects\/2016\/07\/21\/interim-presentations-where-the-projects-are-and-feedback-part-three\/","title":{"rendered":"Interim Presentations – Where the projects are and feedback – Part Three"},"content":{"rendered":"

Create an immersive audio-visual experience<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Dave Smith<\/strong><\/p>\n

My project has gone through a number of changes since mid-May. I initially intended to produce an audio-visual fixed media piece to explore movement and transition in sound. I ran with this idea for a few weeks and built some sketches around this theme. However, I felt that this linear approach was perhaps too simplistic and was lacking in scope, so I have decided to explore this theme within the context of an interactive environment.<\/p>\n

Accordingly, I have been building an audio-visual environment with FMOD and Unity. The idea is to offer the participant a chance to play with the sonic environment based on the choices they make within it. The most obvious choice is where to go (in this case, where to direct the first-person controller). Although this may seem like a rudimentary and self-evident thing to point out, I think there is potential for some really interesting results just within the bounds of this simple variable. Since sounds are placed within a (virtual) space, a particular route through the space can influence fundamental properties of the composition such as what sounds are heard, when they are heard, for how long and their relative levels in the mix.<\/p>\n

Below is a brief sketch of an environment I\u2019m working on at the moment \u2013 dark and ominous which I think works quite well. One thing I\u2019ve been trying to do is to construct sounds in such a way that moving between their relative locations creates a feeling of gradual transition and movement with intermingling textures of sound. I want the sonic environment to flow with little in the way of obvious boundaries between one sound and the next. Here, I\u2019ve attached sounds to each of the dark and light \u2018monoliths\u2019. You can move around and explore the ways in which sound transitions from place to place. Lots of work needed obviously, although I\u2019m quite happy with the way the dark monolith sounds create a kind of broad, composite texture while at the same time providing individual areas of interest. I intend to work on more interesting ways of triggering effects when you move through the monoliths, randomise things a little, and generally build a bigger environment.<\/p>\n

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To an extent, I\u2019ve also tried to segregate frequency bands when creating sounds and placing them around the environment. For example, I want bass heavy sounds to have more range and form a kind of foundation upon which the \u2018short-range\u2019 mid and treble sounds can sit. This way I have a bit more control over the general structure of the sonic environment rather than having bass\/mid\/treble frequencies \u2018locked\u2019 in individual sound files.<\/p>\n

Problems: Mainly technical at the moment \u2013 FMOD and Unity can be an unstable combination to work with and a few things have hindered workflow considerably. For example, Unity has a habit of randomly freezing my laptop (Windows 10 issue I suspect) requiring reboot. In addition, tweaking parameters in FMOD requires rebuilding master banks which then need re-importing to Unity to test whether the tweak sounds any good. This takes a lot of time (and patience). Perhaps I am doing something wrong here\u2026any technical advice would be much appreciated! Another issue I managed to trace to overuse of the FMOD convolution reverb parameter which was presumably asking too much of the CPU, creating glitches in the sound. However, I liked the sound of the convolution reverb too much so I applied the convolution offline and fed the rendered sounds into FMOD instead. I suppose sometimes it\u2019s about a compromise between what you want and what is technically feasible.<\/p>\n

Any comments, suggestions or constructive criticism would be great.<\/p>\n

Here is just some of the comments on Dave\u2019s project, for the full comment section click\u00a0<\/a>here<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Owen –<\/p>\n

Thanks Dave. Is there a title for the project yet? It seems to me you have a range of possibilities in front of you and having your themes developed will help pin down what you do next. As it stands there\u2019s scope to develop more variety in to the sound world but the degree to which you pursue that, and how you do it depends largely on what it is you want people to do \/ have done to them. Is this an explorable composition, for instance, or an instrument? What do such categories imply for the ways in which you might curtail \/ encourage certain behaviours and possibilities? Are there features of using 3D worlds as interfaces for things like this that seem to dictate aspects of the sonic form? At the moment everything is quite slow and gliding: how would one make a jump cut in this kind of compositional process? Can you trace out particular kinds of overall shape in the environment? Can you do an A-B-A? A sonata form? A rondo? If you were to perform this, what would be the lower \/ upper limits for a workable duration?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

tinpark –<\/p>\n

Thanks for your post Dave and for the demo example. I don\u2019t like to pass you onto Jules WRT the FMOD stuff as he\u2019s so busy, but I\u2019m a year out of date with it at the moment and haven\u2019t caught up this summer yet. If Jules doesn\u2019t respond in time, maybe we can resolve some of these issues as a group. Andrea has been making progress inspite of FMOD\/Unity too\u2026 If you\u2019re still in the experimental stages of this (sounds like you\u2019re past that now), you might consider sending commands from Unity to Max and bypassing FMOD all together.
\nI\u2019m drawn to you considering this an explorable composition, rather than an instrument. For me, this kind of work brings sound design and composition together in meaningful ways. You have the formal concerns of shape and experience to deal with (composition), but are designing these as \u201cranges\u201d rather than shaped absolutes. If you\u2019re composing with shape, terrain, object, speed, how can you parameterise these? What are you designing with \u2013 spectra, pace, rhythm? What kinds of compositional models are you interested in borrowing from and what formal shapes work well in these kinds of environments or might be explored further because of this environment? How do we listen\/hear if you\u2019re also playing as opposed to consuming in a still listening capacity? Do we begin to participate in the music differently and how does this affect the short to mid term form and structure. Can a piece of music like this be performed or can we only play it?
\nGet your title and chapterlist nailed down this week, make sure that you promise what you\u2019ve been doing and enjoy making your piece\/pieces. What\u2019s the piece about\/for? Why does it exist. Not just to be droney and dark right? It\u2019s droney and dark for a reason isn\u2019t it\u2026?<\/p>\n

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Exploring the potential of percussive impulses as a gestural means of parameter control for live\u00a0electronics<\/a><\/h1>\n

Angus Stewart<\/strong><\/p>\n

Current progress:<\/u><\/p>\n

At the moment my most universal means of parameter control is based on a 4-way switch system, where one of 4 possible sound analysis values can be output:<\/p>\n

Current value _ This is the most obviously transparent and linear of the four. Parameters will be set immediately to the current value.<\/p>\n

Mean value _ Another relatively linear means of parameter control, inspired by one of Frederick Rzewski\u2019s Little Bangs basic propositions of free improvisation, stating that \u201cthe past determines the present.\u201d This results in less transparent changes (especially as the amount of data received by the mean object expands) but also has a reset function so the user can gain a more immediate sense of control.<\/p>\n

Differential between current and mean values_ this provides a more subtle and less linear means of control by simply subtracting the current value from the mean. I have found this to be most effective when used with frequency orientated processing. It is made especially interesting in the way that materiality orientated extended techniques (Chris Corsano (www.youtube.com\/watch?v=2dIpdqH22kY<\/a>), Mark Guiliana (www.youtube.com\/watch?v=qDQ7eHNufNs<\/a>)) can break the system, rendering it less linear by emphasizing the offset irregularly and at extremes.<\/p>\n

Stored sequences that move between previous two values_ This function stores the previous two current values, and then repeatedly moves between the two (line object) in the amount of time between the two values changing (timer object). This duration of time is randomly changed slightly (by a maximum of 50 ms) with each repartition (drunk object) in order to give it a looping quality that is constantly changing subtly. Multiple loops can be set up on multiple parameters in order to create multi-metered textures.<\/p>\n

vimeo.com\/173440385<\/a>\u00a0password is: sd<\/p>\n

(apologies for the lack of audio example, I\u2019ve been away from my drum kit for the last week. One will follow shortly.)<\/p>\n

In terms of parameters that these values can be sent to, I am considering these in three main categories: Time based processing (Delay Rate, Tremolo Rate, Line loop parameters, Reverb time), Frequency based processing (Pitch Shift, Ring mod Frequency, Filter Frequency) & Dynamic based processing (Overdrive intensity, Tremolo envelope, Delay feedback.) At present my patch analyses both global and drum specific frequency, dynamics and envelope length, as well as durations of time between impulses from drum to drum. With these obviously frequency, amplitude and duration focused player and processing parameters, it is possible to set up some relatively direct and transparent relationships between acoustic material produced by the player, and the patch\u2019s electronic response.<\/p>\n

Problems and how I plan to fix them:<\/u><\/p>\n

Whilst some of my previously mentioned successes in creating a sense of transparency between audience and user have been effective, I feel that I have somewhat negated the more non-linear aspects that I initially set out to incorporate into my patching. One way that I feel could be an effective means of doing this is through creating a blurring between these three categories of processing:<\/p>\n