Saturday, March 31, 2007

The Sounds of Realism in 'Master and Commander'

Listen to NPR's interview with supervising sound editor and effects recordist Richard King about Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World.

Don't miss the articles: Sounds of the Sea - Bringing Authentic Naval Audio to Master and Commander (source Millimeter), plus details by HamiltonSterling on creating and cutting all of the sound effects for the storm (via Symbolic Sound).

Thursday, March 29, 2007

Cycling '74 Collaboration with Ableton


David Zicarelli (Cycling ‘74 Founder) shares his perspective on what the strategic partnership with Ableton will mean for Cycling '74 users.

"The thing we are making with Ableton is not going to replace Max/MSP/Jitter. In fact, we are hard at work on a new version of Max (version 5) that will be most significant and dramatic transformation of the software in its twenty-year history".

[via Cycling '74 Journal]

JazzMutant Introduce Dexter


Dexter is the first multitouch sensor control surface, dedicated to DAW control.

USO Performance @ Live!iXem 06



Check out the video of USO's live performance in Rome at LiveiXem (title link takes you there).
Live synthesis under keyboard and tablet control, live processing of acoustic bass, plus a pair of baby-blue LEDs staring out at you from the dual Capybaras.

[Flickr: Photos from U.S.O. Project]

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Layers of Sound

Ben Burtt reveals some of the Episode III's sound secrets.

"From the beginning of the first Star Wars film, George Lucas always encouraged the sound development to start in pre-production," says Ben Burtt, Sound Designer and Co-Editor of Revenge of the Sith. "That way, sound is being talked about when you first see the artwork, and sound effects and concepts for sound are there from the beginning as the films were shot. Once the film is being edited, sound is put in right away." Though that is the tradition with Star Wars movies, the standard Hollywood model had been to scramble to develop sound deep in the post production period. "In that case, there may be only a short amount of time left to work out all of the concepts; but for us, the sound has really been developed over a long period of time."

Like many elements in Episode III, the sound design is a mix of new and old as the Star Wars saga bridges together, and the prequel trilogy segues into the classics. Burtt was very much cognizant of that as he began putting together elements for the opening space battle. "I knew when those ships came in that they were going to be the new Jedi starfighters, which were related to the TIE fighters from A New Hope. I felt the sound should have some continuity, so I started working with the old TIE fighter sounds and adding NASCAR sounds to it to develop something that would hint at the direction of the technology."

Burtt describes there being about a thousand different sound projects for the film, not including foley effects like footsteps. In addition, the sound crew also provided performances both large (Matthew Wood as General Grievous) and small (Burtt as the Niemoidian captain). "We're a small operation, a sound crew of 9 people, so we tend to use ourselves as characters," says Burtt. "Matt and I played in the recent films probably about 30 or 40 incidental characters -- battle droids, Nemoidians, Gungans, Utapaun pit crews, R2-D2, all kinds of robots, and we've enjoyed that because it gives us the feeling that we can really put our performances into the film."

Since the first Star Wars, Ben has been the "voice" of R2-D2, combining synthesizer and organic sounds with his own voice to create the distinctive beeps and boops of the beloved astromech droid. "We revived some of our old equipment for this film," he says. "We pulled out an old ARP synthesizer from under my house, and it was all moldy. Howie Hammerman, our engineer, got it working again so we did lots of new Artoo for this."

The combination of many disparate and sometimes surprising sound sources has been a Ben Burtt trademark, and it continued with this final installment of the saga. "You look at General Grievous' wheel bike, and it's nasty, loud and dangerous. I thought a chainsaw would be perfect," says Burtt. Likewise, the low rumble of the very first Star Destroyer we see on screen is actually the filtered sound of Niagara Falls. And the sound of Vader's heartbeat while he is undergoing his final transformation into a Sith Lord who is more machine than man?

It was a sonic boom emitted by the space shuttle, as heard in northern California.

[source: 'Homing Beacon" #156, the official starwars.com newsletter]

Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Cycling '74 and Ableton to Codevelop New Products


For those who have not heard, the world of creative media software tools is about to get a lot more interesting. Ableton CEO and cofounder Gerhard Behles and Cycling '74 CEO David Zicarelli had announced a new strategic partnership between these two innovative audio/video software companies.

Live Performance in the Age of Super Computing



Chapter I - the Invisible Instrument

To me the laptop is just another musical tool and the only reason why I am using it on stage is the simple fact that it is a portable supercomputer, capable of replacing huge racks of hardware.

Robert Henke

First chapter of Monolake's paper about live electronics.

Non Linear Food Vol. 1


Matteo Milani, Lorenzo Brusci and Fonògeno, sound designers and electronic composers, in collaboration with PowerFx, are proud to announce the release of a sound library called NONLINEAR FOOD, elements for new composers.

Three distinct personalities that bring life to an elaborated sound spectrum that is elegant and primed to move beyond the clichés of cinema and television. Sound elements that walk the border between music, ambient sound and abstract acoustical synthesis, where the sound source is in constant mutation and has the ability to carry images to points outside the television and film screen where it seeks a psycho-emotional connection, a new physical world capable of forging new frontiers within multimedia interaction.

In other words, audio and video create an environment of constant interaction and perceptive antagonism in which one works to steal expressiveness from the other, moment to moment, scene by scene. A struggle that molds the spectator, an active participant in this dimension where content and medium are constantly renewed.

You can listen to [this] one minute-demo, it's a short sample of the aestethic and quality of the optimized materials included in the library.

Four gigabytes of custom, absolutely never heard samples and sound effects, are organized in five main directories as follow:

· RHYTHMIC_TOOLS (electronic loops, e-percussions, vivid grooves))

· ELECTRO_SCENARIES (active drones, beat oriented textures)

· HYPER_DRUM_SET (one-shot heavy-processed claps, crashes, fills, kicks, snares)

· SURROUNDSCAPES (5.0 ready-to-go textures)

· DIGI_EVENTS (alarms, buttons, communications, telemetries, transitions)

They have been spending hours composing, editing, mixing and mastering these categories with main platforms like Symbolic Sound Corporation Kyma and Digidesign Pro Tools. The team mastered a thousand of broadcast wave files (.WAV, acidized WAV), 44.1khz/24bit, compatible with all the Digital Audio Workstations and loop applications running on multi-platform operating systems.

This cd is now available for download at PowerFx:
[\Downloadable CDs\Acid/Wav].

nonlinearfood_at_gmail.com

Monday, March 26, 2007

Skywalker Sound


An interview with Matthew Wood, Supervising Sound Editor at Skywalker Sound. He talks about his mentor and friend Ben Burtt, ADR, sound effects recording on location, editing and mixing. Matthew landed the role of the voice of General Grievous for Revenge of the Sith.

Sunday, March 25, 2007

Unidentified Sound Object


Federico Placidi and Matteo Milani, composers and sound designers, have together developed 'Unidentified Sound Object', which can be enjoyed on any DVD player. To experience the surround mix on this Music Disc, all you need is a 5.1 sound system consisting of a 5.1-channel receiver plus 5 speakers and a subwoofer.

- Listen to an excerpt -

In the U.S.O. Project, they resolve sounds into sonic particles using a method they call transient drawing, whic is a process of editing microscopically small bits of digitally-recorded sound. These basic sonic particles are then input to an electronic synthesis system where they can be used to create clouds of pointillistic events, structures of extensive polymorphic and spatial complexity. Listeners are submerged in a real-time generative musical environment, where they observe both simple and complex phenomena. The first section, 'Quantum Dripping', consists of the tracks 'Quantization A', 'Inflaction', and 'Quantization B'. The second section, 'Rebirth' consists of 'Time Vector 1: Elemental', 'Time Vector 2: Mutation', 'Time Vector 3: Modular Lexicon'. The disc concludes with 'Farewell', for solo violin and live electronics.
You can order the disc from CDeMUSIC or Music Zeit Download Platform (formats: mp3/flac).

"DTS and the DTS Digital Surround logo are trademark of DTS, Inc."

Saturday, March 24, 2007

History of the Wilhelm Scream


List of movies with the Wilhelm Scream (via Hollywood Lost and Found).

Dickson Experimental Sound Film


The Dickson Experimental Sound Film is a film made by William Dickson at the end of the 19th century. It is the first known film with live-recorded sound and appears to be the first example of a motion picture made for the Kinetophone, the proto-sound film system developed by Dickson and Thomas Edison.
Walter Murch and Rick Schmidlin resynchronized the sound and image.

MANT! Only screams can describe it!

The Secret of Pixar Storytelling


Gary Rydstrom, director of Pixar's Academy Award-nominated short film, Lifted (2006), has been working in sound design since 1984. He describes the process of writing like "getting on a bike again, and instantly being hit by a truck."
Title link also takes you there (via Animation World Magazine).

Thursday, March 22, 2007

The 50 greatest film soundtracks

The Observer has compiled a list of the Top 50 Greatest Film Soundtracks. Title link takes you there.


(from left to right) 35mm film audio tracks SDDS, Dolby Digital, analog optical, and DTS time code.

The Music of "E.T."

A discussion with John Williams

Longtime Steven Spielberg collaborator John Williams received three Grammy Awards for the soundtrack:
- Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or Television Special;
- Best Arrangement on an Instrumental Recording;
- Best Instrumental Composition.

The Music of Star Wars Episode III


Composer John Williams discussed his Star Wars scores from I to VI (from the bonus disc from Episode III).

The Making Of THX 1138 (1971)


It was the first feature-length film directed by George Lucas, and a more developed, feature-length version of his student film Electronic Labyrinth THX 1138:4EB, which he made in 1967 while attending the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

Lucasfilm Archives



...going thru the archives...

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Picture and Sound as Collaborators



Music, dialogue, and sound effects can each do any of the following jobs, and many more:

* suggest a mood, evoke a feeling
* set a pace
* indicate a geographical locale
* indicate a historical period
* clarify the plot
* define a character
* connect otherwise unconnected ideas, characters, places, images, or moments
* heighten realism or diminish it
* heighten ambiguity or diminish it
* draw attention to a detail, or away from it
* indicate changes in time
* smooth otherwise abrupt changes between shots or scenes
* emphasize a transition for dramatic effect
* describe an acoustic space
* startle or soothe

exaggerate action or mediate it.

At any given moment in a film, sound is likely to be doing several of these things at once.
But sound, if it’s any good, also has a life of its own, beyond these utilitarian functions. And its ability to be good and useful to the story, and powerful, beautiful and alive will be determined by the state of the ocean in which it swims, the film (Randy Thom, via FilmSound.org).
Here is a short example of sound used in an organic and powerful way, Nissan 4x4 Naturally Capable ad.

Toyota Yaris Chase


Tons of sound design fun!

Radiophonic Workshop -Alchemists of Sound -Part 6



The BBC's Radiophonic Workshop was set up in 1958, born out of a desire to create 'new kinds of sounds'. Alchemists of Sound looks at this creative group from its inception, through its golden age when it was supplying music and effects for cult classics like Doctor Who, Blake's Seven and Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, and charts its fading away in 1995 when, due to budget cuts, it was no longer able to survive.
There are interviews with composers from the Workshop, as well as musicians and writers who have been inspired by the output. Great archive footage of the Workshop and its machinery is accompanied by excerpts of the, now cult, TV programmes that featured these sounds.

[via fartfx3]

Radiophonic Workshop -Alchemists of Sound -Part 5



The BBC's Radiophonic Workshop was set up in 1958, born out of a desire to create 'new kinds of sounds'. Alchemists of Sound looks at this creative group from its inception, through its golden age when it was supplying music and effects for cult classics like Doctor Who, Blake's Seven and Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, and charts its fading away in 1995 when, due to budget cuts, it was no longer able to survive.
There are interviews with composers from the Workshop, as well as musicians and writers who have been inspired by the output. Great archive footage of the Workshop and its machinery is accompanied by excerpts of the, now cult, TV programmes that featured these sounds.

[via fartfx3]

Radiophonic Workshop -Alchemists of Sound -Part 4



The BBC's Radiophonic Workshop was set up in 1958, born out of a desire to create 'new kinds of sounds'. Alchemists of Sound looks at this creative group from its inception, through its golden age when it was supplying music and effects for cult classics like Doctor Who, Blake's Seven and Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, and charts its fading away in 1995 when, due to budget cuts, it was no longer able to survive.
There are interviews with composers from the Workshop, as well as musicians and writers who have been inspired by the output. Great archive footage of the Workshop and its machinery is accompanied by excerpts of the, now cult, TV programmes that featured these sounds.

[via fartfx3]

Radiophonic Workshop -Alchemists of Sound -Part 3



The BBC's Radiophonic Workshop was set up in 1958, born out of a desire to create 'new kinds of sounds'. Alchemists of Sound looks at this creative group from its inception, through its golden age when it was supplying music and effects for cult classics like Doctor Who, Blake's Seven and Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, and charts its fading away in 1995 when, due to budget cuts, it was no longer able to survive.
There are interviews with composers from the Workshop, as well as musicians and writers who have been inspired by the output. Great archive footage of the Workshop and its machinery is accompanied by excerpts of the, now cult, TV programmes that featured these sounds.

[via fartfx3]

Radiophonic Workshop -Alchemists of Sound -Part 2



The BBC's Radiophonic Workshop was set up in 1958, born out of a desire to create 'new kinds of sounds'. Alchemists of Sound looks at this creative group from its inception, through its golden age when it was supplying music and effects for cult classics like Doctor Who, Blake's Seven and Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, and charts its fading away in 1995 when, due to budget cuts, it was no longer able to survive.
There are interviews with composers from the Workshop, as well as musicians and writers who have been inspired by the output. Great archive footage of the Workshop and its machinery is accompanied by excerpts of the, now cult, TV programmes that featured these sounds.

[via fartfx3]

Radiophonic Workshop -Alchemists of Sound -Part 1



The BBC's Radiophonic Workshop was set up in 1958, born out of a desire to create 'new kinds of sounds'. Alchemists of Sound looks at this creative group from its inception, through its golden age when it was supplying music and effects for cult classics like Doctor Who, Blake's Seven and Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, and charts its fading away in 1995 when, due to budget cuts, it was no longer able to survive.
There are interviews with composers from the Workshop, as well as musicians and writers who have been inspired by the output. Great archive footage of the Workshop and its machinery is accompanied by excerpts of the, now cult, TV programmes that featured these sounds.

[via fartfx3]

Superpower Sounds for Superman Returns


An interview with the post-production crew and sound designers about recording Superman Returns. Recording and mixing techniques and equipment used during post-production.
via Mix Magazine.

Engine FX With Personality in Pixar's Cars


Pixar, the animation studio that can apparently do no wrong, continues its amazing string of successful films with Cars, in which anthropomorphic autos of every stripe (including some with stripes!) roar and race and putter and sputter and — naturally — tell us much about the way that humans behave. Once again, the animation wizards at Pixar have created a fantastic world, rich with imaginative detail. And it all begins with the cars themselves.
Click here to read the complete article (stay tuned via Upcoming Pixar).

Dialog Replacement 101

NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE VALUE OF GOOD DUBBING


Blair Jackson examines the world of ADR — automated dialog replacement, also known as looping or dubbing (or post-synchronization in Britain).
via Mix Magazine.

Monday, March 19, 2007

Creating a Soundtrack to Evil



How do we know when we hear evil in music? Is it the crashing dissonance, the screeching soprano? Commentator Claire Blaustein studies the musical elements in several scores that have long inspired a sense of horror (via NPR).

How Hollywood Makes Noise


Without sound, a movie is just celluloid and sprockets. But often there are too many distracting noises to capture the perfect effect. Sound is usually added in post-production.

One of the places where filmmakers go to add sound is Todd-AO Studios in Santa Monica, Calif. The facility has a Foley stage, where "human effects" such as footsteps, body punching, eggs frying and dogs running are recreated.

Read the full article here (via NPR).

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Sound for Beginners (Highlights) - 1960


via Mr. Projector.

Using Code as an Expressive Musical Instrument



Live coding (or on-the-fly programming) is a style of programming in which the programmer/performer/composer augments and modifies the program while it is running, without stopping or restarting, in order to assert expressive, programmable control for performance, composition, and experimentation at run-time. Because of the fundamental powers of programming languages, we believe the technical and aesthetic aspects of on-the-fly programming are worth exploring.

via Princeton Sound Lab.

Sound sources - High Speed Film


High speed film illustrating how sound is made by vibrations, acceleration noise, shock waves and sonic booms.

via TrevorCox.

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Sound Design: "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" and "Mission: Impossible III"


The finest sound designs for features contain a delicate balance between silence and volume. You'll find the most pleasing, interesting and dynamic sound designs are not from films whose soundtrack relentlessly pounds its audience into submission. Garbled, intrusive and assaulting, these films tire audiences, distracting them from a story (or lack thereof).

Click here to read the full article (via FxRant).

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Postmodernism and the Music of John Cage


via UBUWEB Papers.

John Milton Cage (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an early composer of what he called "chance music" (and what others have decided to label aleatoric music)—music where some elements are left to be decided by chance; he is also well known for his non-standard use of musical instruments and his pioneering exploration of electronic music. His works were sometimes controversial, but he is generally regarded as one of the most important composers of his era, especially in his raising questions about the definition of music. He is perhaps best known for his 1952 composition 4'33", whose three movements are performed without playing a single note.

It's worth to watch these clips @ UBUWEB Film & Video.

Luigi Russolo




Luigi Russolo (April 30, 1885 - February 4, 1947) was an Italian Futurist painter and composer.
On 11 March 1913 he published the treatise The Art of Noises (L'arte dei rumori). He is considered the first theorist of electronic music. Russolo invented and built instruments including intonarumori ("intoners" or "noise machines"), to create "noises" for performance.

Click here to download the futurist manifesto (via UBUWEB).

Monday, March 12, 2007

Trevor Wishart


Trevor Wishart is an English composer based in York and is widely acknowledged for his contributions in the domain of composing with digital audio media, both fixed and interactive. Not only has he composed many significant pieces, but he has also written extensively on the topic of what he terms, “sonic art,” and contributed to the design and implementation of many software tools used in the creation of digital music.
Wishart's compositional interests deal mainly with the human voice. This is most evident in his VOX Cycle, Tongues of Fire, Globalalia, Two Women, and American Triptych. He is also well known as an improvisor of extended vocal techniques. A clip from a video piece by Steina Vasulka based on one of these improvisations can be seen here.

An Interview with Pierre Schaeffer



via Sailor.

Saturday, March 10, 2007

Downloadable Walter Murch



The Boston FCPUG has a link to download uber-editor, Walter Murch's talk from last year's FCP User Group Network meeting at Mac World. Walter is the Oscar winning editor of Apocalypse Now, The English Patient and Cold Mountain. If you're not familiar with his work, you should be.

(via sbfinalcut.org).

NPR Stories: Walter Murch



Behind the Scenes with Film Editor and sound designer Walter Murch.

'Fresh Air' Interview: Walter Murch.

Reconstructing 'Touch of Evil'.

Apocalypse Now Redux.

Friday, March 09, 2007

The Wilhelm Scream



The Wilhelm's revival came from Star Wars series sound designer Ben Burtt, who tracked down the original recording (which he found as a studio reel labelled "Man being eaten by alligator"). The recording was actually from a film from 1951 titled Distant Drums. Although Distant Drums was the first known use of the sound, Burtt named it after "Pvt. Wilhelm", a minor character who emitted the same scream in the 1953 movie The Charge at Feather River. Its use in the Star Wars films was the beginning of something of an in-joke amongst some sound designers of the film industry, especially at Skywalker Sound, and Weddington Productions (now a division of Technicolor Sound Services). They continue to try to incorporate it into movies wherever feasible; in a tribute to its origins, the clip was used in the film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom when the villain Mola Ram was eaten by crocodiles. It was also used in Raiders of the Lost Ark when Indy is driving the truck full of Nazis, and in several scenes of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy.

Symbolic Sound Kyma X



In 2004, Matteo Milani met electronic music pioneer Carla Scaletti, creator with Kurt Hebel of Kyma system, a language for specifying, manipulating and combining sounds.
Kyma is a visual sound design environment that runs on your Macintosh or Windows PC. It's a graphical language for creating, modifying, and combining sounds.
Kyma is an unusually open-ended, flexible, and real-time controllable environment for creating new sounds. Kyma provides you with hundreds of basic modules and over a thousand complex examples that you can combine to create your own synthesis algorithms, your own effects algorithms, and your own forms of sample manipulation that can be performed in real time with responsive controls.
The interview is available both in Italian and English (pdf).

Kyma X Revealed!
Reviews.
Sound clips.

GRM Tools


Whether you're enhancing a recording in a studio, creating new sound designs, composing jingles or film music, or transforming your sounds in performance, GRM Tools delivers distinctive and astonishing results.
There are two groups of GRM Tools plug-ins currently available:

· The Classic group consists of eight sound-processing plug-ins.

· The ST (Spectral Transform) group consists of four plug-ins based on FFT analysis and resynthesis.

For an overview of which plug-ins are in which bundles, for screen shots, and for descriptions of the functioning of each plug-in, take the Quick Tour.

Digital Musician Link


With the DM-Link plug-in (VST or RTAS) and compatible music software (Steinberg Nuendo as well as Digidesign Pro Tools) you can hook up to a partner via an Internet broadband (ADSL) connection.
You can use the Internet connection to record the musical performance in real-time. MIDI and audio data can be transferred without latency onto your partner’s computer.

digitalmusician.net

Giardino Sonoro - Sonic Garden




The Giardino Sonoro is the name of the Team of Environmental Designers based in Florence (Tuscany, Italy). They conduct in-house ground tests on new installations and study and develop acoustic-luminous prototypes (EEM – Expressive and Environmental Modules).
Contextually composed and designed acoustic/musical, horticultural and luminous components are the primary instruments applied by the Giardino Sonoro in restructuring and transfiguring architectural and naturalistic spaces.
These elements induce an extension of the ambiance’s capacity to express dynamically both public and individual symbolic contents, thus imparting an altered cognitive perspective on the Habitat.

Click here for the video via Discovery Channel.

Recombinant Art 01 - DVD - 5.0 surround in DVDA, DTS, AC3



Recombinant Art 01 (RA01) is the first surround sound disc created exclusively by artists using the Kyma audio workstation. This DVDA disc of exceptional music contains a varied selection of compositions from artists around the world. Each piece of music was mixed in a surround sound format, and is presented as a high quality uncompressed DVDA 5.1 mix. RA01 is a hybrid disc. It's primary format is DVD Audio, but it also includes a video layer of the same music in DTS and AC3 formats, making the disc compatible with all current design DVD players. As a novel touch each contributing artist supplied a 30 second encapsulation of their work, incorporating a predefined set of five sound samples as well as a sample from their respective work. Each of these 30 second "commercials" precedes the work of the artist.
Kyma is the sound design workstation from Symbolic Sound Corporation, used on every composition on RA01. Kyma is software that uses the dedicated DSP processing of the Capybara Sound Engine to create a true realtime music construction environment. Realtime processing allows the user to react quickly and intuitively in the sound creation processs. This interactive link to a "thinking machine" was the inspiration for the recombinant in Recombinant Art 01.

RA01 is available for purchase from CDeMUSIC.

Thursday, March 08, 2007

Institut National de l'Audiovisuel

Présences électroniques, France.
Electronic music in one of its spiritual homes, featuring works by Edgard Varèse, Denis Dufour and Michèle Bokanowski, plus performances from Matmos, alva noto, Mouse On Mars, The Books, Scanner, Blixa Bargeld and more.
Paris GRM, 15-18 March, www.ina.fr

Click here to download the brochure (pdf, French only).

Star Wars and Sound Design




via Create Digital Music, a tribute to Ben Burtt, sound designer of Star Wars.

Wednesday, March 07, 2007

Skywalker Ranch Tour



A beautiful photoset of the best post production facility in the world, home of the Star Wars saga by George Lucas.
via Flickr. Thanks to Phil Eager.

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Dolby Digital Cinema

Dolby Labs launched its Dolby Digital Cinema system around the world with "Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith". Dolby Digital Cinema provides the technology to store and decode digital files and deliver pristine digital movies to theaters. Rick Chavez reports for CNBC Europe on the new cinema initiative.

Please click on the post title to watch the clip.

The Last Tears from Planet Earth by Graziano Staino



A visionary voyage in a deserted land where the human race is a distant memory. This fusion of live footage, mirror photography and computer animation set to the pulse of electronic music of Lorenzo Brusci is a hauntingly beautiful elegy for humanity.

Monday, March 05, 2007

Audio Workflow for Avid and Pro Tools, part 2

Audio Workflow for Avid and Pro Tools, part 1



The Cinema Audio Society and Digidesign Present "Avid Insider - File-Based Audio Workflows".
Topic: Production Sound BWF Workflow and Post Production Sound: 4 Workflow Methods.

From Production through Post



The Cinema Audio Society presents a seminar about Audio track work flow. Covering Television Series: Episodic, Sit-Coms, Reality and Feature Films. Film and 24P. Discussion of required sample rates, T.C. rates, cross resolving for 24P, bit depth, file formats and metadata.

Music Meets The Computer



Computer History Museum
http://www.computerhistory.org

Sound Design for King Kong (FINAL MIX Part: 2) 7 of 7

Sound Design for King Kong (FINAL MIX Part: 1) 6 of 7

Sound Design for King Kong (Score) 5 of 7

Sound Design for King Kong (Foley) 4 of 7

Sound Design for King Kong (ADR) 3 of 7

Sound Design for King Kong (SFX editing) 2 of 7

Sound Design for King Kong (SFX recording) 1 of 7

Sunday, March 04, 2007

Iannis Xenakis - Metastaseis.




An example of Xenakis' theory of meta-art – the concept that an artistic expression can be realized mathematically in any artistic medium.

VARESE/XENAKIS/LE CORBUSIER : "Poeme Electronique"(1958).




Originally performed during the universal exhibition of Bruxelles in 1958.
A mix of colors, lights, sounds, voices, images and electroacoustic music.
As Le Corbusier said himself : ""Le poeme electronique proposes to show, within a distressing tumult, our civilization on her way to conquest modern times".

Alva Noto + Ryuichi Sakamoto.

John Cage - interview - PART 2.

John Cage - interview - PART 1.



Documentary film (1992).
Director: Miroslav Sebestik.
In the spirit of John Cage's historic and revolutionary composition 4'33'' - which challenges the boundaries of traditional music through four and a half minutes of intentional silence.

Stockhausen interview. Rare to find...

Persephone performing at the IRCAM resonance festival 2006.

NIME06 IRCAM - CENTRE POMPIDOU.

The Synthetic Performer.



A video from the 1984 ICMC (International Computer Music Conference) at IRCAM in Paris, showing MIT's Barry Vercoe and flautist Larry Beauregard of Boulez' Ensemble Intercomtemporain demonstrating the use of the computer as a synthetic performer, listening to and accompanying a live performer.

Discovering Electronic Music Part 3.

Discovering Electronic Music Part 2.

Discovering Electronic Music Part 1.

"GRM expérience".



Christian Fennesz, Mika Vainio (Pan Sonic) and Christian Zanesi live @ aula Magna "La Sapienza".
Rome, 2005.