Next weekend I’m presenting a workshop / audio art experiment at the The Megapolis Audio Festival in Baltimore. I’m calling the workshop “WikiMixing,” and I’ve set up a separate page about the project at www.drivebyhighfive.net/wikimixing. I’m mirroring it in this blog post:
Mixing on a computer is usually a solitary endeavor: one person controlling one mouse and keyboard making one decision at a time. We’re going to try to fix that. Part workshop and part experiment in “crowd-sourced” audio art, this is like editing Wikipedia but with sound instead of text. Participants will be asked to provide four short sounds with four different sonic characteristics. (Details below.) We’ll import all these sounds into a computer and collectively mix and manipulate them as a group in real-time using a bunch of colorful customized keyboard controllers, all connected to a single computer. The idea is to get as many hands/ears/minds at once collaborating (and competing) on the same soundscape, so that whatever strange, beautiful, or frightening noises that emerge are the product of our group’s collective will. Everyone is in control at the same time and yet no one is! NO prior audio software experience is necessary; everything you need to know is on the keyboards. (Pics coming soon!) Recordings of our experiments will be available immediately following the workshop.
For anyone who knows me through the AIR board, I’ve frequently mentioned how much I prefer using Logic Pro over Pro Tools. I use a number of audio programs, but for most of my “work work” (as opposed to fun stuff), I find myself hopping back and forth between Logic and Pro Tools for different projects. I used to say that the only thing I liked better about Pro Tools was its general approach to audio editing. Now that I’ve really gotten used to Logic, however, I’d just say that each program’s approach to editing is somewhat different and 90%(+) of the time I’d rather be working in Logic than PT. There are a bunch of other reasons for this outside of general editing work-flow, but I won’t get into them here. Instead, I’d just like to focus on how I use Logic specifically to edit radio-style projects, so that any radio/podcast people out there can give Logic a try. It’s written with someone in mind who is reasonably familiar with basic “radio-style” editing in Pro Tools.
View all 7 commentsI’ve been super busy this past week. I just finished editing an audio tour for The Metropolitan Museum’s new Picasso exhibit. I had to do most of the editing over the past weekend–50+ audio “stops” in just a couple days–so I’ve been dreaming in Pro Tools. (“Cut, cut shuffle, fade, cut/copy; grab slip, paste!” Yes, it’s one of the circles of hell.) Revisions kept trickling in throughout the week. That plus keeping up with a couple other projects (one of which I’m excited to write more about in the near future but has to remain confidential for the time being) has kept my nose pretty close to the grindstone. That said, I’m glad to be busy!
I’ve also fallen behind again on posting the Onion videos I’ve mixed recently. Here are the last three:
DEA Official Announces Successful Drug Bust On Son's Room
Red Sox Announce Plans To Return Fenway To Original 1912 Conditions
Stouffers To Include Suicide Prevention Tips On Single Serve Microwavable Meals
Here’s the most recent podcast I helped put together for The Newark Museum. Because the video was made to promote the commission, we needed to record the podcast long before the installation was finished. We asked the curators and artist to imagine giving us a virtual tour of the completed space, reminding everyone to speak in the present tense. Then I recorded a bunch of ambient sound in the court–footsteps, murmuring, etc. When it came time to mix the audio, I was able to layer the ambient sounds with the edited interview and a little bit of room reverb to give the feeling of walking through the redesigned court as Ramirez gives you personal tour of his installation.
Note: The audio quality is significantly better if you watch in 480p or higher resolution.
A handful of videos I’ve worked on for the Onion News Network have gone up in the past few weeks, and I haven’t updated the site:
Kentucky Violated NCAA Rules While Recruiting Basketball-Playing Dog
Boy’s Tragic Death Could Have Happened To Any Family With 20-Foot Pet Python
Filming Of Congressional Reality Show Disrupts Committee Meeting
New Law Would Ban Marriages Between People Who Don’t Love Each Other
The Onion News Network provides some food for thought on Valentines day. It’s not right that there are couples who DO truly love each other but still aren’t able to express that love through marriage.
As for sound design: The original recording only had 20 or so people chanting, so I had to do a lot of copying, pasting, looping, and panning to beef up the crowds. For the chanting in the reporter’s background, I submixed the “foreground” chants, added reverb, delay, rolled off the high EQ, then decreased the stereo image just shy of mono. That gave sense feeling a huge crowd in the distance, off-mic from the reporter’s scene. Also–though you can’t really hear it in the mix–I recorded some fo the reporter’s outdoor ambience sounds on my roof during New York’s so-called “snomageddon.”