Sadhna Sounds : Final Crit

I set up my installation proper for the final crit on friday, and it was the first time useing a speaker not headphones. It pretty much worked exactly as I wanted it which I am very pleased about.

The only real problem I had with it was that I couldnt make the output volume very high because otherwise the system started to feedback. If I could take the mic further from the speaker that might stop this from happening. However I don’t want take mic to get too far away otherwide I don’t think it would make so much sense. The sound that is being exaggerated needs to be close to the speaker.

The output level of subbass and lo frequency was just on the edge of being clearly noticeable. You had to be still for a second and think before you heard/felt it. I think that the output level could almost be considered as the obviousness dial, and for some people perhaps it should be higher.

It was interesting to see that the system didn’t exaggerte all sound; I clapped and shouted and it didn’t really pic ut up as the sound was of too high a frequency. I think most of the input was just the general rumble of the world around and outside. I quite like this although it makes the piece feel less interactive and live.

I think that this incarnation of the piece is a successful resolution of the aims of my project and my idea. However I think it was be interesting to apply this system to other spaces, and to adjust some of the parameters.

Overall the afternoon of projects was very enjoyable; it was much more interesting that a normal crit and much more fun to be moving around and having different site-specfic experiences.

Ghins talk reflection

Ghin’s talk was really good, full of rambling surprising interesting things. It helped me reaffirm my idea as the way he spoke about sound as just a type of energy coincides with my idea exactly. He spoke about experiencing earthquake aftershocks as a wonderful feeling. He also told us about some ancient use of sound and environment such as a theory about stonehedge possibly having an amplification usage. And a similar one about and chamber building in France. These theories generally were about drug sounds and reverberation, almost exactly the kind of thing I like.

Sadhna Sounds Experiment 1 Videos

You can’t really get it clearly because obviously the little camera mic couldnt replicate the subbass. I was hoping there would be more obvious distortion sounds to convey the loudness/vibrations but perhaps it makes sense. I think the location is demonstrated reasonably well too.

Sadhna Sounds: Experiment 1

Today I had a pretty fun day; I drove a 1000 watt speaker [yes just one] up to the top of our farm and played with it full volume. We blasted out trax to the uninhabited valley below and enjoyed some brief sun. I also did some experimentation for my sound piece.

My current idea and sketch is a piece that processes the sound of a space and plays it back at a much lower frequency. I only want to play back the subbass [in the process I greatly exaggerate what low end there really is.] What I want to do is create an experience that brings highlight to the real lack of difference between sound and movement. When you are in a wood with trees swaying you can hear it and also feel it, the kinetic movement of the trees is part of that sound. And when you feel the wind blow against your face it also has its own sound. I want my subbass machine to excentuate that kinetic quality of sound.

So the piece I experimented with today was quite strange but I think somewhat successful. The piece throbbed with pulses of grumbles and rumbles, feeding off both the wind and feeding back off itself. I had to work hard to get the feedback at the right level. I wanted reverberation but I didn’t want to piece to exist without the ‘ambient’ sounds as the starting point; I don’t want just a feedback loop.

One problem with today was that previous to the experiment and also after we listened to music. Specifically I was listing to some of my own trax in development and thus was thinking intently about those also. Then I was just rollin to other stuff and enjoying the loud sound and the environment. This meant that my sound experiment was a lot less exciting in the moment that the music was and I didn’t concentrate my full faculties to it. This does go back to my earlier thoughts that music [in my case really rhythm and beat] seems so much more exciting that this falsehood of ‘ambient sound design.’ Perhaps I should try other things too, to find the rhythms in a room or whatnot [like George's work...]

Sadhna Sounds Briefing

Went to the briefing for my next project today; working with both Sadhna and sound which will be good.

I’ve already starting thinking on it. What I want to work with is subbass. I had started thinking extensively about DJ Screw for this project; surely chopped and screwed is a kind of ambient sound:

This coinsides with trax I’ve been doing recently chopping & screwing modern uk house records. I took one of my trax and started to make a VIP [varient in production] that was screwed and without too many beats. I still wanted rhythm and beat but not too much, I was thinking about Wiley devil mixes:

But I also had ideas of playing with pure subbass, I think I’m going to go home at the weekend so I can use my mate Winmill’s big club speaker 1000WATTS at the top of the farm. That was I can get loud without annoying anyone, and I can also explore putting sounds like that in unusual places. There is a lot to talk about in terms of the club context for music enjoyment. Anyhow Sadhna kind of made it clear she didnt really want people to use music trax, while I would be happy to debate any difference between ‘music’ and ‘ambient sound design’ [I don't think the later exists really] I am also happy to work on a less obvious music project with the pure subbass.