New Fractal Gallery: The Aural Ascendancy Series

A while back (Late 2009) I Had been playing around with a new idea for creating fractals that visualized audio phenomena and terminology or simply inspired by music.  Thought I'd share; it's been a while now since i've posted any of my personal art work on here.  These will be going up on my DA account soon.  I do plan on doing more shortly as well.

Phase-Phobic

Pulse Rider

RT60

Red (inspired by Motorgrater - Red)

We get some Soul..

This last weekend Troy & I went to Milpitas to film a live performance of Pacific Soul as a favor to a friend of a friend.  Wow!  This group is a nine-piece band that performs R&B classics and are a really well-rounded, amazing sounding group!  Pretty much everyone in the band sings and harmonizes together, Everyone's got a function in the band that plays well.

It was sort of last minute and a little under-communicated, but I think we've pulled it off with a decent look.  We shot with the Sony Z1u and the Canon T2i so the look between cameras is vastly different, and is a real pain to get a close match between them.  The area they were performing at was inside at a seafood marketplace, and was really dark (no lighting).

The Canon T2i fared well as we simply boosted the ISO to 3200 and the footage came out clean even at high ISO for video.  The Shutter speed pretty much sat at 60 and Troy walked around with the T2i getting various close-ups and shots with the shoulder rig we were lucky enough to have borrowed from a friend's production company!  Thanks Ian, we'll have it back to you ASAP.

I kept the Z1u stationary and just did simple panning and zooming as best I could while taking notes and monitoring audio.  I brought my XLR cables for just such an opportunity to get a direct feed from the Front-of-house (FOH) mixer. This was where I ran into a problem.  Once I started monitoring the audio coming into the camera with my headphones I noticed severe compression and limiting and I had already set the camera's gain settings for the XLR inputs to -18dB (the furthest down it would go).  I thought maybe it was the camera doing the limiting and maybe just maybe it would be decent.

Pulled frame from T2i footage

The next level to the audio problem was the mix itself.  The FOH mixer was only creating a mix for the PA system to pump out to the audience.  I know how live mixing goes and for a session of this size the PA really just needs to fill in the gaps for the lowest level performers: Keyboardist who has no amp on-stage but has a monitoring speaker by him, the vocalists who also have a couple of monitoring speakers in front of them on the ground.  The Bassist has a cab on stage but it's mic'd and instead he's also using a monitoring speaker on the floor.  There is a percussionist in the back, and to add to that an electric acoustic guitar being played by one of the singers as well who's got a direct out feeding the mixer.  The drummer has some mics on the kit but I couldn't see much as he was behind the stage. 

Pulled frame from T2i footage

The problem with getting a mix from the FOH is the mix is designed to fill in the mix around the drums which are naturally loud.  The keys had a prominent position at teh front of the mix, the vocals collectively sat just behind that, and the drums were barely audible in the mix at all feeding the PA system.  the Bass sat just under the Vocals as well and was primarily low-end.  However, the mix was either being heavily compressed in the mixer or as an artifact of the signal coming into the camera.

Pulled frame from T2i footage

We had no idea how it would turn out in post, but would have to make due with what we got.  Before the performance started we had time to set up and talk to the engineer at the FOH mixer.  I did notice he had a macbook with Pro Tools ready to rock and the idea was that he was to capture the multitrack performance from the mixer so that the whole session could be mixed properly in post later on.  After the performance was over we talked to the engineer again and that was when we were informed there was no capture into Pro Tools!  Sometimes these things happen and miscommunication can lead to issues that need troubleshooting later on.

Pulled frame from Z1u footage

So I'm at home dubbing the tape from the Z1u into Premier Pro and then importing all the captured video from the T2i.  Once we started dropping the video on the timeline I got really curious as to the sound of the audio from the T2i.  I was greatly surprised by how well it could fill in the mix once i started getting everything in line.  I knew I'd have to battle with sync issues as there was no way to lock the two cameras together so that frames and timing would be in sync.

Pulled frame from Z1u footage

You won't notice it by the video as the lip-sync between both cameras is not noticeably off, but where you will immediately hear it is in the audio tracks lining up.  It creates a slight delay affect that's a quick echo.  So, this can be simply remedied by bringing the audio into Sonar later on and aligning them so they are in-phase.  The natural top-end clarity due to the small diaphragm of the built-in mic in the T2i was able to lend clarity to the mix from the Z1u which was quite muddy, and the lost transients and the natural room tone (the live sound) came back making the drums present again.

Pulled frame from T2i footage

My final issue to tackle is creating a good blend between the two audio sources in mixing to get the sound to blend.  There is a couple spots where the main audio track (FOH mix) cuts out.  First in the very beginning something happens to the mix cutting out.

The timeline cursor (red bar) you can see the right channel cut out and then the left channel.

Then I had Troy run the T2i while I changed tapes because I was running off a previously used tape that still had 30 or so minutes unused.  Finally got the fresh tape in and it took a little bit to get to camera speed.

The timeline cursor is where you can see the gap in the main video and audio feed.

Other mix conditions have to do with Troy's camera position around the band and how it captured the sound of whichever instrument or vocalist is most present.  Some positions he took with the camera are directly out of phase with the direct mix as he's standing next to a speaker 180 degrees out of phase with it.

Just barely wrapping up final edit.  It's getting even more hectic as there are a couple jobs coming up, and i've been getting contacted about more job opportunities elsewhere..  The immediate agenda for now is to just finish this video and get back to my story-board and novel projects.

Cut Your Teeth on some Commercialism

The last few weeks have been pretty up and down with my back problems. However I've been extremely productive this weekend and this week with commercial production and networking for some jobs lining up soon!

First, take a look at the behind the scenes I put together:

Hope you enjoyed that, it was definitely fun working on these 3 shoots on 3 days, even despite the long odd hours!   Let's take a short trip back to Thursday the 17th.  Harry and Michael contact me to ask me to help out with some commercials they wanted to shoot and they had put together a couple scripts for their separate ideas.  I get the scripts in email and read through them roughly.  That night we went to the house where we were to shoot Hot Diggity Dawg and plan out lighting and camera angles.





The idea was pretty simple and according to how he wanted to shoot it pretty much a majority of the audio would be built in post.  So on production evening the next night: Friday, I brought my Rode NTG3 and my Audio Technica AT3035 and ran some creative mic placement with the AT3035 in different positions in the room for when we did voice takes for when Lori had to say her lines.

I should mention that Friday before the shoot, Michael and Courtney showed up here before to do some quick foley session for all the sound elements we would need.  We had just enough time to record all the material.  That night Mok came by after and we dubbed the tape and brought it into a project to start a rough build, as well as capturing a separate session for the Door and gargle noises.   I didn't get to start cutting and editing the sound recordings until Sunday.

The first Foley session with the chip and bag noises I set up out in my living room for a large open space.  I used my Audio Technica AT3035 running through a snake which fed into an RME Fireface 800, and an SE Electronics Reflexion Filter on a 2nd mic stand (those things are beastly and heavy).  Michael was more than happy to oblige eating Pork Rinds and Tostitos,  I actually had him stand almost a foot away from the mic even with a low gain. 

The 2nd half of the session I brought the mic down toward the floor, and the Reflexion Filter as well.  We have a huge area rug but I brought in a small thick carpet mat and laid it down and covered it with a coupe strips of plastic wrap.  We did a few takes with a pair of sandals crunching on Pork Rinds, and then the same with Tostitos.  Then, we removed the thick carpeted mat and just did it again on the area rug which a much harder surface.  Several passes of "pitter patter" in various configurations.  

Later that night for the 2nd session, I employed my AT3035 outside the bathroom door in the hallway with the reflexion filter on for more direct sound and less room interference, close proximity to the door.

The NTG3 was placed inside the bathroom aimed down toward the sink, and then after a couple takes aimed up toward Mok.  The room tone inside the bathroom is very prominent but the door sounds after the gargles used the NTG3 aimed directly toward the door handle. I decided I'd share these with everyone.

Notes about samples provided: All the samples provided below are recorded at 96k / 24-bit and are provided in mono microsoft .wav format.  These are the raw unprocessed cuts, no processing, noise reduction or manipulation have been applied (not even gain adjustment).

Copyright notice: These are provided free for use in any form private or commercial use and I don't even require credit for use or duplication.  Feel free to share, distribute, edit, mangle, destroy and make the sounds into whatever you like, for whatever you like. 

Bathroom Gargle & Door.zip

• Size: 4.28 mb
• 4 files

Footstep Crunches.zip

• Size: 7.84 mb
• 19 files

Bag Ruffles.zip

• Size: 9.45 mb
• 13 Files

Eating Chips.zip

• Size: 16.41 mb
• 12 files

Download all Assets (37.1 mb)

 
Saturday I spent most of my time processing and cleaning up audio making cuts to Hot Diggity Dawg and revising, all before production was supposed to start for It Takes A Lady.  We were to meet at Mok's location for shooting at 5pm.






When I got there everyone was setting up lighting and rehearsal.

The same two mics were used for all three commercials: Audio Technica AT3035 for room tone and ambience, and the Rode NTG3 on the boom for dialog and close-up.  We shot a ton of material that didn't make it into the 30 second spot, but perhaps later on we'll post up the 1 minute spot that the full commercial could have been.  

I placed the AT3035 right along the right wall just passed the cable hanging from the window sill to pick up a wide stereo effect for the scene where Troy Allen gets a kiss-assault on the couch.  I boomed the NTG3 slightly left overhead to pick up the left hand grabbing the couch and the AT3035 picked up the whole wall early reflections and movement ruffles Troy did when slamming himself into his seat for dramatic effect.  The Rode also helped for getting the close up of Arielle in her heels when she steps into frame as Troy Allen looks up at her in shock.  I blended the two mics to get just enough room tone and low-end to give some body to the heel sound but still have the prominent click for the impact on the hardwood floor that made it a definitive heel sound.  

It was difficult working in some tight spaces between the wall and the couches even with a long boom as trying to get the angles right for all the actor movements would tend to fall out of the scope of the mic or in the case of dialog with head rotation would cause severely noticeable off-axis sonic characteristics because of the narrow field of focus for the shotgun mic.   Luckily in the best takes that we used for the final cuts those issues weren't a problem.

One thing i tried to keep in mind as production sound mixer and boom operator is what the camera operator's position is dealing with.  During the productions we had 3 connections running to the camera (2 XLR's for phantom powered mics, and headphones so I could monitor sound).  

Both mics were run with 50 foot cables so there's a lot of  free cable all around the floor, and my heaphones (a pair of Sennhieser HD280 pros) are a much shorter length coiled cable.  One solution I tried was to use velcro cable wrap to attach to the operator and hang some of the cable up through his belt-loop.  However, Michael and Harry both were switching the camera between them fairly often so this became impractical.  

They were pretty good about it but I kept my eye on the cables for them and for complex shots where they needed the freedom to move I held the cables out of their way while operating the boom;  The Rode boom I have is extremely lightweight even with the mic attached which made it very easy to operate for longer periods of time and even one-handed.

The daytime on Sunday I spent an hour or so with Harry and his friend he had brought down from Sacramento to do the voice-over for Hot Diggity Dawg, and then that night I proceeded to post and sound design which was the most fun on this one as it called for a little "enhancement" and the use of sound design elements really helped sell what was happening on screen.  

The first shot where Troy slaps Daren's hand away I utilized several sounds layered in over the production sound track.  The swish sound of a whip through the air and a separate bullwhip crack together with the sound of Daren's hand being slapped and the ruffle of the Doritos bag sit well in the mix that really draw the attention to the fact that he's getting his hand slapped away.  

The biggest sound design elements I took my time with but still went really fast to make were the whooshes in and out of Troy's delusional dancing around in his head.  The first whoosh I used several layered elements including the noise of the water running in the sink I had recorded the other night, and some quick on-the-spot recordings I did with my mouth to mimic wind.  I processed these all heavily and mixed them together to get the final sound.  I used some parallel processing of dry and processed with some distortion, delay, and lots of reverb.  The result are some very crunchy and in your face whooshes that I pushed even further in the final mix for the comp.  The final element was an orchestral cue I had created just a sustained chord.  

The last element was the record scratch sound, and I re-used the whip noises for the butt-slap.  Doritos has a ton of assets they provide for the contest which includes music.  The rules are also extremely specific and limiting for the contest but I believe by sticking with the actual music from the contest assets they provide (which is what they specify) and venturing just a little bit outside of that for the orchestral cue just from my own sampler library and triggered with a midi keyboard, we were breaking the rules in just enough of the right ways. 

Another mixing decision that the rules were a bit vague on (they specify that you are not allowed to alter the music assets) was "Lo-fi" affecting the classical song that plays in the beginning to emulate the sound coming off a flat-panel TV,  Band-Passed EQ very heavily compressed and then a subtle distortion applied after compression.  All in all I edited audio late into the night (about 4 am) into Monday morning.

Monday morning however I had to be up at 7 AMto meet at Mok's location at 7:30 AM to shoot our final commercial he had thought up just the other day.  Running on just a few hours of sleep we were all a little tired and tried to get into it quickly.  Dewitt also had to be at work after 10 AM so we had to get as much as we could shot with him before he had to go.  

I had to operate the camera this time and got to cut my teeth some more on cinematography helping Michael get all the shots he wanted for this one, but even then the idea was so simple and quick there wasn't much to do.  A big factor in the difference between this one and the previous two is Natural light.  His open window with the blinds provided much of the light, but we still used some CFLS to help fill in, as well as Michaels new portable LED panel to accent key light.


I'd like to point out that shooting with the Sony Z1u I was happiest with the look of this video out of everything else we've shot on that camera.  It's an older one though it does HD well it's anamorphic (squeezed pixels at 1440x1080), and due to the age of the sensor even with a nice big lens it doesn't look very crisp especially when you starve the sensor of light.  The lighting on this commercial definitely came out the best, all the others just felt under-lit.  






Some thoughts on music scoring and comedy:

A few things I noticed when it came to this contest in particular is that working under constraints can be very rewarding in ways you weren't expecting.  Before we had finished editing we were still looking up all the rules for the contest and I was expecting to be able to write original score material.  And, while I noticed with a fair bit of examining competitive content on the crashthesuperbowl website had broken a few rules, all of them had some kind of score or use of music to it.  I don't think there was a single contest entry up that didn't utilize at least the music provided by the contest, some went so far as to make music the gimmick by having kids rap about Doritos or something to that effect, but very few if any featured any kind of scoring outside of the approved assets.  

While it would have been nice to create custom music to make our commercial stand out that much more, we were already under time constraints and to our surprise the music they provided actually proved to be very easy to get the mood we were looking for.

On a side note, congrats to Trials & Memories on their hard work and effort over the year working on their album.  The EP Hits local shelves and online Black Friday:





My first commercial work with orchestration is on all 4 tracks at over 30 minutes for the EP and the full length album will be 11 tracks which I will be working on starting next year.

Thanks for reading, and as always these are just my opinions.  Most importantly I like to hear others' opinions, suggestions, and commentary on these topics.  Feel free to leave comments, they're much appreciated!

Something's been on my mind...

A dragging economy, sluggish and self-serving government, broken political system; the list goes on.  Today there’s more wrong with this society than there were good intentions founding it some 200+ years ago.  We’re no longer in the era of fear of alienation.  What some would consider the “Era of information communication” is under constant political attack with bills that want to sway for control over the freedom of the internet.  Gone are the days of specialization and “profession”, this Era is something totally new.  It’s beyond just the DIY era; technology is so affordable and easy to access that even without much education someone is able to put together a small plan and call themselves a professional in whatever industry they like, with or without license or background.  That’s only half the problem, the government (and the special interest groups looking out for themselves) continually make it unscrupulous to enter into business, do business, or get out of business than ever before. 

During a report on CBS earlier this week I learned that currently in Stockton the city charges $52,000 in fees and anywhere from six to nine months to approve a single home building project.  A bit high considering the estimated median household income sits at around $45,000 (Stockton CityProfile).  In Washington DC, Interior Designers managed to get laws fabricated to secure their market for themselves by introducing legislation that requires strict and expensive entry as a newcomer.  Not only does this allow the current Interior Designers to be grandfathered in, it’s a win-win for the local and state governments.




The recording industry has experienced a complete change in landscape over the last 2 decades which in the last quarter of that span has completely shifted.  In 2009 the estimation was that half of LA’s commercial music business was up for grabs due to the economic climate change (Recordingstudios are being left out of the mix).  It used to be the kind of landscape where bands focused on writing and creating the musical and creative material that connected with an audience, the labels focused on how to market the act, and studios and producers practiced the obscure art of marrying the ideas the act created – the art; to a finished and polished product the label could sell.  Today, the major label studio is succeeded by the home studio; often powered by a single computer and software (which one could easily question how some of the software was acquired).  Now, a single person can pick up an instrument, hit record, and release a song or an album without so much as a single course supporting any skill in the various trades they’re covering.

The Film and TV industries have just started feeling similar effects over the years as the technology changes the landscape and it’s only going to make leaps in the harder direction (ThePost-recession model:  Fewer Jobs inDigital Hollywood).  In my opinion, they haven’t yet felt the turbulence the music industry has, but that’s only because the video technology shifts have not yet happened; not completely at least.  HDSLR revolution has only just begun to remold the landscape.  HDTV is being met with 3d stereo imagery; which will get superseded very soon as resolution wars continue to shoot into the 2k and 4k consumer devices. 

Even big industry moguls are trying to adapt to the quickly changing landscape, adopting digital distribution and copyright licensing methods to keep the business alive.  But my guess is that not too far from now the film and TV industry will be replaced with the ubiquity of the internet, the revolution of HDSLR empowering a single person the ability to create from the comfort of his or her own home; as our major news and Television network outlets are already trying to shift to an internet-centric medium.  The big hustle then will be proof of intellectual property.

Copyright law is severely outdated and special interest groups are kicking into overdrive to try to gain some control of the marketplace and protect what they can of their precious life’s work.  Due to the freedom of the internet and affordable technology combined the music industry has crashed down on itself.  Most of the market relies on impulse buys of singles on iTunes and digital distribution while music departments of brick and mortar stores sit with nearly full racks of physical cd’s which sales have plummeted further than ever before. (AlbumSales Hit Record Lows. Again.).

Meanwhile, [special interest groups] bankrolled by corporations with an agenda for self-preservation fight to pass bill after bill for control of the internet effectively “blacklisting” sites from U.S. Citizens by gaining unprecedented access to ISP’s and internet gateways (PROTECTIP Renamed E-PARASITE Act). This would force users to be unable to access a particular site because of copyright infringing material residing on it without so much as a notice to the site administration to allow them the chance to take down the offending material (House Hearing on SOPA).  What’s next? I can easily imagine not being able to publish anything to an online website without FIRST getting a copyright claim number to show proof your original material was indeed created by you.  Youtube, Twitter, instaGram and numerous other social media networks and services would effectively get shut down, at least in the U.S.  (Congressto Make Streaming A Felony).

So that’s not so bad right?  Finally making people take accountability for what they publish!  Maybe this turn could lead to better context of the internet instead of the sea of half-truths and unfounded opinion and personal trash; we could ideally separate from the flood of social newscasters.  Except in order to submit a copyright claim currently in the U.S. there is a global charge of $45.  Not bad… but every time you want to publish something you need to submit it before you can publish.  Government would make a killing off this, especially if you “tweet” every 10 minutes, or post up a picture from your iPhone on Facebook frequently just to share with the world whatever it was you wanted to share.

Here’s the downside, social media and the internet in general has been the final frontier in free speech and one of the few freedoms Americans and the world proudly defend.  Being required to show proof of ownership to publish a post on a social media site or upload that photo of your darling adorable kid could be considered a gross invasion of privacy and profiling.  Your entire life being categorized processed and stored for records at government facilities and databases on file no matter how innocent or suspicious it looks.  Suddenly, wanting to share your opinions behind the veil of the internet doesn’t feel so empowering anymore.

What’s this all mean?  Honestly… I have no clue.  I’m a big proponent in the words spoken by a very famousCharlie Chaplin, “we have developed speed, machinery that gives us abundance has left us in want.”  I believe it is true, that we have lost humanity to the cold and isolation of technology.  Technology itself has become our avatar.  Nowadays audiences are so floored and captured not by intriguing tales with great morals, but to the intricate and believably photorealistic special effects and every ounce of adrenaline-fueled action packed onto the screen.  Of course, the film and TV industry is not all action.  Each genre has an idiom but most are self-serving, shallow, or pedantic.

We concern ourselves more with the “feel good now” and the aesthetic than we do on the purpose, and true nature.  Even more sinister at the heart of general social culture is the disinterest in global good.  Make no mistake, I do not point a finger at any individual and say that he or she is unwilling to learn at all; most are just so concerned with only the individual goal, that anything beyond in science or nature that does not directly relate to that goal is usually not worth learning about.

All throughout grade school and high school I shared that sentiment.  Something changed though; as I reached adulthood I found myself curious about every facet of life, nature, and the world.  I jump at the chance to absorb new knowledge about something when I am introduced to it.  Now, I yearn for deeper understanding, even philosophical; I don’t just question what, but why.  Especially with these kinds of issues our society currently faces, I ask why about politics, laws, even new technological emergence. 

I have a deep passion for audio, an affinity for learning, and an equal passion for film making and the dying art of telling stories.  So naturally, when I see a film, play a videogame, or read a book, I tend to experience it differently than most.  The first time when I watched Jurassic Park and the T-Rex pounded its way onto the screen and roared a majestic roar, the sound evoked a visceral feeling in my gut that resonated with some undefined emotion; it makes me smile and drop my jaw in awe, and instantly wonder how the creators made that sound.  What sources natural or synthesized did it take to get it to sound that way, and how did they make it sound so believable.  In fact, what was it about that particular sound and sight on screen that made it so believable?  I’ll bet when most people watch a TV show or film (at least for the very first time) they probably don’t wonder these things.  I know, some of you will; we apparently have something in common: we’re not the majority.

Today, in a world where the line between what’s real and what’s fabricated is so hard to distinguish, it forces us to scrutinize and become all the more skeptical.  Suddenly, everyone’s a critic.  People have such potent and distasteful opinions of our own media, yet we consume it still like it’s quite the opposite.  We all focus on the negative and explain how we would have done it differently (if not better).  We all aspire, we all have ideas, but in the wake of technology advancing beyond our capacity for compassion and kindness, have we lost touch with humanity, or is humanity evolving into this beast?

What industry are you in or aspire to get into?  What challenges have you faced in it, and what ideas can you think of to creatively troubleshoot the issues at hand?

Evasive Maneuvers!

Congrats again to Trials & Memories on their E.P. debut set for Black Friday.  They just posted up a 4 minute radio edit of Where Are You now on reverbnation, feel free to check out my orchestration work on these tracks!  My back has been slowly getting better, and projects are evolving all around me,  talks with Troy about doing some collaboration stuff for Neologic Studios, a couple of filming and video projects are in talks with Back Yard Studios and some other people as well.  When I finish my story boarding for a short film skit idea I'm working on I'll be posting those up here as well.

In the last couple days I started a quick project in Sonar just to get back into things and play around a bit.  Came up with this little idea i'm working on.



Troy had let me borrow his old Ibanez guitar to play around with and get in tune.  I opened up Sonar and just screwed around with some plugins, noteably this really cool feedback looper I was messing around with.  I laid down a couple takes and panned them wide in stereo and that started the track.

What the project looks like so far....

I wasn't sure what I wanted to do but I liked the idea of a pulse so I immediately looked for something bassy I could use.  There's a few synths I had in mind but I also wanted to play around with sound design so I kept that in mind as i built the track.  I played around with a bunch of synths for a few hours and then proceeded to tweak and dial in sounds until i landed on a couple that i liked, i simply played a single sustained note and some really cool ambient drones laid right over the guitar track I had, gave it life.

Since I hadn't done it in a long time, I started dropping some buses in to the project and using aux sends to create some alternate sounds with and start mangling up the ambiances I had started.  The guitar tracks were fairly simple and got old quick so after the idea of the feedback loop had run its course the with the regular bass pulsing on, I created an aux send for the pulse to go to a bus called Pulse where I put some plugins called Betabugs Chorrosive and then into Absynth 5 to get this really cool sounding distorted heartbeat effect out of the bass pulse.

 

The other bus I created for an aux send was for one of the synth elements called Synth Drone which fills in for the guitar with the muddy distorted mid-range droning and the high end metal tones that come in and out throughout the rest of the mix.

I moved on in the piece quickly to piano and strings.  I used the piano sound to try and play around with the chord Ideas I have in my head that I can hear the strings playing.  I still have some work to do on it as I hear some other changes with suspended 7ths that I can't quite get down yet.  I also fully intend on expanding on this idea and take it somewhere else.

I hope you enjoyed this quick mix.  The strings are still just a bit harsh thought i did want the more intimate close feel, I used several Divisi sections,  when layered with the piano make the symphonic components feel separate in the mix from the electronic sound-scape.

I didn't want the typical "LARGE" hall sound but that Sony sound-stage feel from a quieter more direct passage with strings.  I used a subtle reverb on the whole symphony bus and it helped blend and marry the strings to the track without creating a tail or smearing the details of the string movements.

It's actually been really fun writing this piece with all the Divisi sections and a real learning experience.  These are all just legato sections being played so it's actually fairly easy to get through.

My next phase for the piece is to move into a more symphonic movement that keeps the pulse coming and going to pay homage to the track, with some of the dystopian electronic elements sprinkled throughout for the original flavor as the movement turns more action oriented.  I can definitely imagine some type of spy scene of the Bourne supremacy likes or even Body of Lies, modern techno covert turns action.

Divisi (interesting article for reference) is a really cool way of dividing up a complex combination of notes to be played amongst the group of musicians.  Especially strings which often account for a majority of the instruments in a modern or classical symphony.  Usually these softer passages require the attention during a production recording to get in closer to the instruments with close or section mics, so you get more of the natural phenomena of the instrument (the sound of the bow scraping across the string producing a hissing or scratching sound) which is often diminished when larger groups play together, i.e.: the "chorus" effect.  Breaking down the whole group of violins (1st and 2nd) into smaller sections and having them play the passage this way allows to get the softer dynamics and more intimate feel (granted the close/section microphones are available in the sample libraries).
 

The whole thing inspires me in the way John Powell's work on Bourne Supremacy soundtrack meets something like Battlefield 3's score (which is very electronic ambient; very different from their previous works).  Even a little bit of Alexandre DeSplat with the fusion of electronic (much cleaner) and symphonic in Syriana.

There's also something else to the space created in the sounds, all the dystopia electronic drone work going on with the glitches and panning effects, coupled with the heart beat and pulse, then this distant washed out piano comes in with a sparse melodic chord change which is met with an intimate and close string section.  I'd like to know what everyone's thoughts are on the picture being painted here.  Please feel free to leave comments, flaming remarks, doodles, power-point presentations, links to unrelated events, even cast your vote for American Idol, whatever you like!  Just kidding, but please if you have feedback of any kind I absolutely love to hear it!

Short and Quick

So,  October was fairly busy.  Life's been hectic if nothing else.  Wrapped up work on the E.P. for Trials & Memories including finishing album art design;  which you can follow here.  They also just recently posted up a 4 minute radio edit of Crematoria.  The EP Drops on Black Friday!  Congrats to Jeremy and Mikey!  They also were very happy with the final album artwork.  I am too.

So what have I been doing?  Nothing. Well, not really.  Short Film Soiree got started with a group of friends doing short film projects and lately I've been spending my time doing some storyboarding for a couple.  Troy is also back in the area so we've been collaborating on some of the projects, and planning out a couple skits.  Aside from that I helped him set things back up at the Warehouse.

Microsoft started a public submission for the Windows Gallery themes expansions they've been doing and calling for all kinds of artwork.  I took some time to update a bunch of my Fractals and submitted them

Unfortunately, my back has been giving me a ton of problems the last couple weeks.  So much left to do, so little time!  Looks like I'll have me plenty of free time now to get back on track with my novel.  Speaking of...  I'm off!

OH, first... Battlefield 3 on PC has been in my possession since it's release day; unfortunately none of my current circle of friends are PC gamers (extremely sad face).  So, if you are so inclined to add me, hit me up on Origin and let's join up for a match or two!