Sound Quote: Steppenwolf - Herman Hesse

I've become more and more tuned to the representation of sound in the written word. Seems like I can't turn a page in most fiction without coming across a passage that attempts to bring the ephemeral quality into black and white. Most recently in the writings of Herman Hesse and Steppenwolf. One of the few of his that I hadn't already read, it can be a tough slog at first. Pages go by without pause in intense descriptions of the inner workings of a man's grizzled mind, leading towards a myriad of epiphanies and eventual blossoming of understanding of the human condition.

Several section lept off the page:

Sound:

"For my part, the whole building reverberated everywhere with the sound of dancing, and the whole intoxicated crowd of masks, became by degrees a wild dream of paradise."

Music:

"I stood for a moment on the scent, smelling this shrill and blood-raw music, sniffing the atmosphere of the hall angrily, and hankering after it a little too. One half of this music, the melody, was all pomade and sugar and sentimentality. The other half was savage, temperamental and vigorous. Yet the two went artlessly together and made a whole. It was the music of decline."

Escape:

"The discovery would be made - and perhaps very soon - that there were floating around us not only pictures and events of the transient present in the same way that music from Paris or Berlin was now heard in Frankfurt or Zurich, but that all that had ever happened in the past could be registered and brought back likewise. We might look for a day when, with wires or without, with or without the disturbance of other sounds, we should hear King Solomon speaking, or Walter von der Vogelweide. And all this, I said, just as today was the case with the beginnings of wireless (radio), would be of no more service to man than as an escape from himself and his true aims, and a means of surrounding himself with an ever closer mesh of distractions and useless activities."

Happiness:

"Whoever wants to live and enjoy his life today must not be like you and me. Whoever wants music instead of noise, joy instead of pleasure, soul instead of gold, creative work instead of business, passion instead of foolery, finds no home in this trivial world of ours..."

While I would recommend my personal favorite Gertrude (also especially music and sound minded) or even Demian over the tale of the Steppenwolf, it is not without it's own power and grace.

Until next time!

Music Vault - Beautiful Flute

Arguably among my first hands on non-linear audio experiments, Beautiful Flute was the culmination of hours of tiny slices made to an epic improvisational flute piece by my soon to be wife. It was with care and delicacy that I approached the source material in an effort to render the emotional tone into a meditative instrumental poem of tranquility.

Working on a Power Mac 7300 in Cubase 3.5 I set to splicing and dicing into short passages and loops, after which I took isolated tracks and eventually the entire mix through the (now) well documented Reverse Reverb process in order to give it an otherworldly effect. Admittedly a technique cribbed from some of my favorite bands, it helped lend the appropriate fluttering shine that edged the piece further towards realization.

Lost Chocolate Lab - Beautiful Flute 01


Lost Chocolate Lab - Beautiful Flute 02


Lost Chocolate Lab - Beautiful Flute 03


Lost Chocolate Lab - Beautiful Flute 04



At the core of it is the beautiful voice of the flute lilting and looping, supported by the reverse ebbing fluctuations giving things an abstract propulsion.

Things are in a state of imbalance lately and it's moments like those represented in the music of my past that I cling to in order to secure footing. Whether it's music I've had a part in the making of, or sounds made by people I've never met, I often seek the comfort coming out of two speakers when things start to drift. Vibrating air molecules like the wings of a butterfly, resonating deeply and soothing my road weary soul.

Thanks for listening.

Goodbye Austin GDC Audio Track

After the recent renaming of the Austin Game Developers Conference to Game Developers Conference Online. With the change in name has also come news that the Audio Track has been removed from the proceedings, and GDC San Francisco will carry the torch.

"That is correct. We have combined the program with the Audio Pass at GDC in San Francisco. Come join us in San Francisco in March 2011!" - Think Services

With other conferences focusing on Game Audio it's not the worst thing to lose it, but I'm keenly interested in growing the next generation of technically minded Sound Designers, and I felt that the Austin GDC Audio Track had become a reliable destination for deeper thinking on the subject - as opposed to the audio boot camp at GDC SF, who's open door policy is a magnificent gateway into the throng of like-minded noise makers.

Thankfully there are still a few good reasons to head down to Austin.
Y'all come back now, y'hear!

Sound Quote: Carlos Castaneda

It's always interesting to read descriptions of sounds unfurling from the pages of whatever text is crawling across the page. This one comes from "The Lessons on Don Juan - Journey to Ixtlan" by Carlos Castaneda.

“My elation and joy were so overwhelming that I began to weep...I was living in a most mysterious world and, like everyone else, I was a most mysterious being, and yet I was no more important than a beetle...I heard a peculiar roar at that moment. It was like the sound of a distant jet plane. As I focused my attention on it, the roar increased to a prolonged sharp metallic whizzing and then it softened until it was a mesmerizing, melodious sound. The melody was like the vibration of an electrical current. The image that came to my mind was that two electrified sphere's were coming together, or two square blocks of electrified metal were rubbing against each other and then coming to rest with a thump when they were perfectly leveled with each other.”

Having never dipped my toe in Castaneda well back when it may have been more "appropriate", I'm finding this passage particularly comforting in trying to access some of the themes touched on in what has been called a work of non-fiction:

My basic assumption in both books has been that the articulation points in learning to be a sorcerer were the states of nonordinary reality produced by the ingestion of psychotropic plants...My perception of the world through the effects of those psychotropics had been so bizarre and impressive that I was forced to assume that such states were the only avenue to communicating and learning what Don Juan was attempting to teach me. That assumption was erroneous.

Not one to buy into new age mysticism wholesale, the book has been an interesting and entertaining read which blurs the line between fantasy and reality yet keeps things grounded in an organic way. Reading about an authors description of sound continues to be a fascination whenever I stumble across it. To describe the sensation of vibrating air molecules in words can be clunky at best, but the attempts are always a pleasure to try and envision. Wait...enVISON implies sight...what is the audio equivalent of being able to synthesize(?) the sound of a description of sound?