Article Grab - Acoustic Ecology

Hot on the heels of a post over on the Official Blog of The Wire: Reading List - Environmental Agents: The Art of Field Recording. I finally got around to shaping up some scans of an old article from the magazine of the same name that has been doing time on the coffee table lately. Hard to believe I've been in possession of it since 2002, and that it somehow rose to the top of the pile over the past few weeks, but such is the case when you are talking about quality journalism in this day and age. (still a soft spot in my heart for print too, as it were)

So, in addition to the tasty round-up of links of the The Mire to whet your appetite, I'm also putting up some scans from an article entitled "Acoustic Ecology" from December of 2002. (go ahead and buy the whole mag, it's excellent!)

Acoustic Ecology - The Wire Issue 226 December 2002

Regarding our emerging man made soundscapes and the perception of what sounds "good":

"One of the things that bothered me about the WSP was that they never asked people about their sound environment. They made a lot of assumptions from a musical point of view about what people liked or didn't like about the soundscape. Sounds that soundscape musicians moan about, like traffic and aircraft noise - for some people, those are their favorite sounds."

"There are times when a plane in the distance, particularly if it's a propeller engine, is a really nice drone, and there are times when you have constant jets going overhead, which make you want to scream. I think trains generally sound pretty nice. What I personally object to is traffic noise - this broadband spectrum which prevents you from hearing everything else. There are many reasons for getting people out of cars or trucks, and their effect on what we are able to hear is certainly one of them" - Peter Cusack

I've read a bit about the crowding of the spectrum from Bernie Krauses book "Into a Wild Sanctuary: A Life in Music and Natural Sound" which is a recommended read if only for the behind the scene's story of George Harrison and the liberated synthesizer sounds. (not to mention the far out styling of the recorded In a Wild Sanctuary, which was my first introduction to Beaver and Krause...and the origination of the THX sound earcon) There's plenty of value in what he has to say about our dying ecosystem and loss of soundscapes. However, I also count several man made sounds amongst my favorites...so color me conflicted, as anyone who feels their impact upon the planet should with regards to the role they play in sustaining the human race here on earth.

On the topic of what role soundscapes serve in the general public:

"It's about getting folks to value sound. This appreciation can be one more impetus to NOT let habitats die out. The hope of these recordists is that, by the end we have a deeper appreciation for the rich variety and abundant unity of the voice of our planet. Perhaps we'll even find a way to help our voices blend more graciously, more respectfully, more receptively; from there, we may find our way back to the old ways that believe the whole story is about actively nurturing relationships with all of life." Jim Cummings

Still haven't had enough, dig into some of the great links posted over here: Music of Sound Blog - Sound Maps

Best of luck on your sonic adventures!
-lcl

Article Intro - Fear and Loathing in Game Audio

In this month's issue of Game Developer I had an opportunity to write a technically focused review of the current version of Audiokinetic's Wwise. The article comes across a bit dry, and significantly geeky - but it didn't start out that way. Initially I set out with the intent to parody the classic gonzo journalism epic Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by the venerable Hunter S. Thompson. So I cribbed the introduction and commenced with some swapping, the results of which eventually ended up on the cutting room floor to pave the way for a more succinct overview of the toolset. If the review makes it's way online i'll be sure to get a link up to it. In the meantime, here's an unofficial introduction to it.

"The production team had given us the audio budget early on, most of which was already spent on field recoding trips to the Bahama's for “source” material. The audio engine we chose had been integrated and tuned up since the first milestone. We were in pre-production and no one expected sound to be up and running so quickly, but here we were at the company meeting with prototype sound systems in place and a first pass on content throughout the demo level.

We had secured 24MB of RAM, an interactive mixer hierarchy, a high powered audio engine profiler, a  full featured Event system, and a whole galaxy of random, sequence, actor-mixer, switch, and blend Containers, and a new suite of DSP plug-in effects including a Master Limiter, HPF, LPF, Distortion, EQ, Gate, Noise Generation, device simulation, and also the ability to apply Real Time Parameter Control in dozens of places across almost every value. 

Not that we needed all that for the game, but once you get locked into serious audio implementation, the tendency is to push the limits as far as you can. The only thing that really worried me was the RAM. There is nothing in the world more frustrating and challenging and dangerous than an audio team in the depths of game development than an anemic RAM budget. And I knew we'd get close to that ceiling pretty soon. 

Luckily, we had Audiokinetic's Wwise on our side."

To those of you rocketing toward the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco this week I send along my warmest regards. I'll be deep in the throes of an implementation binge, and unable to join you for the inevitable ecstasy of communication. My thoughts are with you, and I hope you return from adventure with your cup full of sonic goodness, and monumental stories of serendipity.

Article Grab - The Skin of the Human Drum

In a series of articles called "The Secret History of Film", Phillip Brophy Chronicles an alternate soundtrack to modern cinema as heard through the ear of a detailed listener and expressive word-smith. I grabbed the article (again) out of an old Wire magazine I had laying around, but have happily stumbled across the entire series via his website available to read. While every article in the series is worth a read, reeling you in with titles like: "Reverberant Oscillators In Outer-Space", "Birth of the Monstrous", "Noise, Noise, Noise", and "Schizo Scherzos & Psycho Synths", the one that hit me like a bullet back in 1997 was "The Skin of the Human Drum" AKA "Violent Silences".

"The end fight of FISTS OF FURY is a symphony of bodily effects played by and upon the body of Bruce Lee - a tightly tuned and tautly toned human drum. As Godzilla becomes a magnificent mallet that strikes the skin of Tokyo with each step he takes, Bruce Lee orchestrates every move with an aural spike, inflicting pain, deflecting harm and directing energy from within his physical being."

I always dig reading peoples creative descriptions of sound and it's great when you stumble across someone who can mirror the intensity of what they're talking about when writing.

Article Grab - Et In Arcadia Video

In case you can't tell, I've been cleaning my desk of paper work and inspirational debris that has been deposited or accumulated over time. This habit of cataloging noise curiosities was fostered in no small way by a  music magazine out of the UK called 'The Wire' which I stumbled upon for the first time in the mid 90's. A fair portion of any article could be attributed to the passionate and colorful description of music that usually landed (way) out side the normal avenues of listening (which of course made reading about it that much more interesting).

Mixed in among the issues I'd accumulated either at newsstands, or through a brief run of subscriptions, are several pieces that continue to speak to the core sound fanatic in me, and even a couple that cross over into the interactive space I've been living in for the past years. One of these was Ken Holling's historical cross-pollination of video games and music, and the deep understanding of the influence of sound in games.

Looks like in addition to bridging the gap between William Burroughs and Simulations, Ken is also working on a piece for the Beeb: "‘From GameBoy to Armageddon’ looks at the developing relationship between videogames, military training sims and the continuing history of Future War."

"With great power comes great responsibility." - Spider Man

Great words to keep handy on our way through the interactive audio maelstrom.
-lcl

Sound of Kong

I was reminded while skimming through some old pictures of some scans I grabbed from a book on the making of the original King Kong that talked a bit about the sound design process. It's always fascinating to find these nuggets of wisdom!

King Kong Sound Scans