Awkwardly Sound

Paula Frazer: A Place Where I Know 4 Track Songs 1992 - 2002

2005-03-28T23:25:00.000-05:00

OUTLINE:

First Track: Only One

Biography: Pictures
Nice to meet you, Paula.
Discography: Past Bands
Frightwig

Aesthetics: Philosphy dealing with the nature of beauty
Voice
Melody
Sound

4 Track: Tapeless Sound Recording = Aesthetic Choice
Phonograph
Gramaphone
compare/contrast Mirador (Tarnation) and A Place Where I Know (Paula Frazer)
Track 1: Awful Shade of Blue
Track 2: A Place Where I Know

Continuity in Music
Influence / Reference / Collaborations

Conclusion

? Any Questions ?

Untitled (Triptych)

2005-03-13T21:18:00.000-05:00

I’m listening to Elvis Costello… it seems I always download music and never listen to it… and here I sit… and I don’t download music anymore.. this is an aside… anyhow, I’ll try to keep this short.. Hmm, I‘ll try writing this in point form.

Project 1 TITLE: Untitled (Triptych)

I’ll start with credits.

Director: Michael Shu
DOP: Sebastien Gauthier
Camera Operator: Anna Sarkissian
Boom Operator: Emilie ?
Sound Mixer: Elizabeth ?
Production manager: Ameesha ?
Original Music: Title “Liver Pate” by Alexis Dray aka DJ..p-HI- t-HI (don’t ask)
Sound Editor, Sound Designer, Foley Artist, Foley Editor: Emily Gan
Thanks to: Iain Cook, Jessica Landry, Mike Smart, Concordia University

About the movie:

It’s an experimental with no plot. The movie is about framing – both visual and audio.Triptych experiments with how things should be framed, using the long shot as a way for things to simply fall into frame (with a little bit of control). The audio in scene one is stuck to the diegesis of the film. The plan in pre production and the plan still is to eventually unstuck the audio as well as the visual. We are not attempting to break down the fourth wall since it is (in my opinion) not possible. We are simply construction meaning that is more a comment on the art of film (?) I leave it up to you to decide really. For the storytelling junky with a pension for narratives, I apologize: there is NO PLOT. Or maybet here is... I must say, that while editing, I find myself trying to construct a type of continuity, a type of story, because, stuff happens in 6 minutes. One can say this film is voyeuristic. And whatever happens to the characters or if they are even important is up to the viewer. I want to see what you have to say about it.

A lot of weight was put on my shoulders since the sound drives the film. This consensus was made in Michael’s class one day during his critique where I, of course, was not present.

Everything takes longer than I think.

Delay 1:

- Scene two was ALWAYS out of synch. No matter what we (Michael and I) did, the audio would be faster than the picture. We exported the file countless times at different sample rates, but to no avail. Jess and I asked around, looked online, and asked Michael questions regarding specifics (i.e Was is recorded in 48k? Are you sure? Did you transfer it at 48k? is it all recorded at the same sample rate? Etc..). That took about 2 weeks in and out of the studio. I ended up re-synching things in pro tools, which is a sure NO NO in future projects!

Delay 2:

- Waiting for the original music to be composed and passed to me. I got it just this Friday night (like March 11) at 1:30am. I logged stuff, prepared the dialogue mix, and recorded my own sound effects in the meantime. Bugger! But I still love my team!

Today, I was having so much fun but my time was up so i had to go. Anyhow, I have yet to do the last part which is a music concrete piece. I was thinking of using the telephone ring as a type of bridge (which is such a tantalizing sound (especially the sound in between in ring), everytime I pick it up at home is goes ‘DING!’ – Love it).

Secne one:
- i just had to edit the voices, and take out some things that sounded out or were badly recorded.
- there's a part where it peaks and i wish i could get rid of it, but you see her lips... ADR anyone?
- i want to eq it all to make everything more consistent. any suggestions? for instance, would compresion help?
- how are the levels of the phone?
- the off screen "yas" and "reallys" and "i dunnos" bug me at times, i dunno know whether to take them out or keep them.. or wich ones to keep, or whcich ones not to.

Party scene:
- it was hard not to fall into the trap of white noise (a thank you to Walter Murch)
- Layers (roughly in order of importance):
1. Dialogue mix (includes1 layer of “synched” sound, 2 layers of inserts, and 1 layer for room tone)
2. Foley mix (glass breaking (6 layers.. it was hard!), telephone, doorbell)
3. Music (2 layers, mentioned below)
4. Other stuff: wind, leaves, bike
- I logged dialogue from other takes and rehearsal takes and layered them.
- I used the GAIN to bring out certain voices, comments (to carry some meaning), and background murmurs.

I have two mixes for the house music in the background.

- One is the original with the full stereo bass boom, nicely balanced song.
- Two is one with a bandpass filter on it that alex was so kind to do for me. This sound is supposed to simulate the music coming out of the stereo speakers in the room. I want to still experiment in pro tools or EQ it on the mixer board, however. A bandpass filter means taking away (attenuating) frequencies above and below a certain desired range (Q)... is there another term for “desired range” like bandwidth or passband?. (please correct me if I’m wrong, since these terms still puzzle me).

Scene 3:
- MOS
- music concrete that i talked about earlier...

I said I’d keep this short… to be continued / or tweaked since i want to keep this as one post.…

Dada is dead: 1929

2004-12-05T16:02:00.000-05:00

I wanted to amuse myself.

So I tried to make myself laugh - or at least chuckle while i worked on this textsound project.

[Aside: Not surprisingly, all my courses this semester seem to have an overlap in content. For instance, Dada and Surrealism is one overlap. So i went and looked up some Dada poetry (whatever that means) and decided to use it for this assignment.]

But yes, HUMOUR - or rather: humour-induced-by-all-nighters-in-the-studio-that-is-probably-not-very um...
sane [?]
or...
funny [?]
is what i was going for in this assignment. I'm kind of suggesting the absurd by doing everything "wrong." Maybe it's a cop-out effect changing the pitch shift while it's recording but it made me giggle so i went with it.

An ABSURDITY indeed:
The people participating in the movement, DADA, that wasn't supposed to be a movement in the first place, promoted anti-art, anti-rules, and anti-everything else. However, they still defined their non-movement with a name. Granted, DADA is an incomprehensible word; the perfect word for their non-movement, but Dada always was - and defining it as an art movement was a contradiction in all that it stood for at the time. So, to remedy their previous move by naming their non-movement DADA, they proceeded in 1929 to declare the non-movement dead. To add, while the non-movement was still alive, they wrote out manifestos telling people how to follow this non-movement, i quote one author of the time, Tristan Tzara:

Pour faire un poème dadaiste
Prenez un journal.
Prenez des ciseaux.
Choisissez dans ce journal un article ayant la longueur
que vous comptez donner à votre poème.
Découper ensuite avec soin
chacun des mots qui forment
cet article et mettez-les dans un sac.
Agitez doucement.
Sortez ensuite chaque coupure l'une après l'autre.
Copiez conscienseusement
dans l'ordre où elles ont quitté le sac.
Le poème vous ressemblera.
Et vous voilà un écrivain infiniment original et d'une
sensibilité charmante,
encore qu'incomprise du vulgaire.

To Write a Dada Poem
Take a newspaper.
Take some scissors.
Pick out an article
which is as long as you wish your poem to be.
Cut out the article.
Then cut out carefully
each of the words in the article and put them in a bag.
Shake gently.
Then take out each piece one after the other.
Copy them down conscientiously
in the order in which they left the bag.
The poem will resemble you and you will find yourself to be
an infinitely original writer
with a charming sensitivity
even though you will not be understood by the vulgar herd.

So i found a poem by Lewis Carroll about "words in a hat" (see below). Lewis Carrol lived from teh mid 1800's to the early 1900's i beleive, so he came before dada. I had fun with the piano at the beginning of my piece by following the directions closely and then diverting off into nonsense. The piano plays a character... a spastic me perhaps. And then it takes on the role of a clock. What i wanted to comment on as well, is that this movement in retrospect is echoed (or reverberated - har har) in time. But resides in that post-WWI pre-WWII social/political/art scene and somehow its art is extremely dated to me. Dada was a continuation of what preceeded it and in turn, an influence to what came after it. But it still juts out laterally and reflects off the walls of our memory. Was that cheesy? Regardless, when everything goes out of whack, so does space, time, memory... etc...

As one person dear to me said: "Dada existed the whole time before the dadaists came and gave it a name. That's why dada is stupid."

...and dead (i may add - and i mean the word DADA, what it represents is a whole other dimension).

So, this art movement of anti-art and nonsense achieved its goal to be just that: nonsense.

But it's still fun.

All the same, i think i've had my fill.
Dada,
for me,
is now officially
dead.

December 2004

Textsound Assignment: material used

2004-12-05T15:25:00.000-05:00

"Words in a hat" Directions:
First learn to be spasmodic

A very simple rule.

For first you write a sentence,

And then you chop it small;

Then mix the bits, and sort them out

Just as they chance to fall;

The order of the phrases makes

No difference at all.

Then if you'd be impressive,

Remember what I say,

The abstract qualities begin

With capitals always:

The True, the Good, the Beautiful -

Those are the things that pay.

- Lewis Carroll in Poeta Fit, non-Nascitur

The Sentence:

Le bruit

Se croqua

Laissa

Ses dents

Dans les
Touches

Du piano.

The sound
Crunched
And
Left
Its teeth
In the
Keys
Of the piano
(own translation - so don't quote me)

- Malcolm de Chazal from Sens Magique (extraits DVII)

15 seconds:
Recorded piano - A minor natural scale
recorded on DAT with a shotgun mic (Audio-technica AT 835B) at home in a reverby open staircase, and also in the modules at school.

NOTES:

The 15 seconds was a challenge regarding editing. I didn't want to cut off a wave to get that horrible tick sound so I zoomed right in and tried to cut the wave where it finished.. dunno if that was worth all the effort *shrug*
I used pitch shift on the piano and the voices. The little girl's voice is the same voice as the woman's. At first i was going to lower the pitch but was charmed by the princessiness of the higher pitched voice.
I added reverb occasionally on the piano and voices to acheive specific effects (i.e. echoed memories, repeated phrases)
I might have abused the reverse plugin and time compressor plugin a bit too much.
A lot of the recordings I got were somewhat distorted (need to work on that), so i tried to EQ the piano, but thought against it because i did have enough well recorded piano.
I'm not too fond with how i ended my piece.
Likewise, i am not too fond with how i am finishing this post.

the end.

time to haul ass and GO

2004-11-23T23:28:00.000-05:00

The setting is perfect. Our baby grand piano is placed on the second floor of our house in this open area by the stairs. Very reverby. Beautiful sound. However, it's one of those hot spots that pick up a lot of noise... Like the zip of a zipper, or - THE SOUND OF MY DAD SNORING!!!!

first off, i should have managed things better for me to be recording before everyone goes to bed. but then i thought: "hey, i love my house at night cuz it's so silent. the sound of a piano won't be too disruptive (even though it still reverberates throughout the house)." "Yes," thought I, "I'll record when I get home."

Well I get home at 10 and I eat, then I set up to record. I get some stuff in, fiddle with the positioning of the mikes... then I hear a buzz.. it's my daddy snoring. and i say this:

"BAHHHH! oiua8d0&';d//aSdo"

Result:
frustrations

Cause:
end of year, strange productivity channeled in every student being. Which, I add, is caused by NO TIME.

but i appreciate the time allowed for this project to sit... and fester in my head... without the disruption of another studio project. PROPS.

amimakingsense?

A mima king sense

*sigh*

i'll go pretend i'm a music student tomorrow and go record the piano in the practicing modules... that's my plan.

i'll add reverb later.

or maybe i'll just do recordings on my md player and take out mics rather than a DAT also.

well, at least I have an idea and a voice talent so all is still well... the concept fermented in my brain... i'm quite excited...

i need to reassure myself of these things from time to time.

Digitally Remastered

2004-10-14T22:35:00.000-04:00

There must be some kind of equation
for EQ-ing The War of the Worlds.
And when I figure it out, no doubt,
I will be happy forever more.

Yes, indeed I'll feel a sense of elation;
because finding a balance is key.
As for having it done for Tuesday;
the thought makes me have to go pee.

Steps 8 to 10: Technical stuff / credits

2004-10-14T01:29:00.000-04:00

Recordings were done on DAT as well as a MD player. We used Lapel mics with the DAT machine and it didn't turn out too well. I'm still feeling my way through the "pro" way of recording. All md recordings were done with a stereo mic. I did not experiment that much, unfortunately, so i have yet to play around with microphones. The lapel mics picked up wind pretty easily mostly because there were no covers for the mics. The DAT machine treated us fine.

I played with the audiosuite eq to get rid of room noise and wind in certain cases (the shorter tracks). Seeing that I did not want to distort the sound too much, I layed off the eq for the most part.

My awesome partner was Mikey B who had to run around town for DAT tapes this one day of unproductive recording... the one day whent he metro was actually busy busy busy.

As for the final track itself, I wanted to give a sort of surreal effect that is familiar yet on another dimension (time capsule-ish feeling mentioned in previous post). Think of it along the same vein as floating (drifting?) about, aware of the physical setting, and yet, being completely distracted by one's own headspace.

Or, think of it of a mish mash of sound that (hopefully...) sounds alright.

word.

Steps 4 to 7: figuring it out [Neighbourhood Portrait WriteUp]

2004-10-12T14:40:00.000-04:00

PREAMBLE
Over the past few weeks (which, coincidentally coincides with the working process of this assignemt), I have grown a fondness for the bus and consequently, a loathing for the metro. This ripening animosity in me towards the metro no doubt held some sway while doing this project. reasons may be the following:

the metro is LOUD
the metro is underground
the air inside metro stations makes me cough (sometimes)
the weather has been super
I kept on just missing the metro and therefore had to wait
I've been taking the metro too much at rush hour

Please do not misunderstand, I appreciate public transit immensely (indeed I do). What I like best are the silent/non silent interactions I witness and take part in.

Anywhoooo, the project is only indirectly related to how I perceive metros / the STM... Rather, it is (or should be)directly related to one metro in particular (in my case): Jolicoeur Metro Station.

WRITE UP STEPS 4 to 7
It is hard to find something that is unique to Jolicoeur Metro station. So I decided to play on the repetition. By repetition I mean, repeating sounds to the point of exhaustion (like repeated settings). Also, when taking the metro, there is always the sense of time. For instance, being pressed for time, travelling at high speeds, or people always asking for the time. At the same time (oops pardon the pun) I still get this feeling of being engulfed (perhaps stuck) in a mini time capsule. And when I step outside, I am hit with a weird shock. Especially when I find myself in a neighbourhood I do not frequent.

So I find myself in the hood around Jolicoeur metro station and all I hear is traffic and construction. Familiar sounds, yet, different settings. As well, even though every metro station is different, there is still something familiar with the sounds, the smell, and the layout. I feel out of place in any case; transported into a different realm outside of what I am used to. But I only realize how many things are the same... walking contradictions... So I walk to the park to find it deserted. i go back another day at another time and it's still pretty empty. I would see the occasional passersby and on one day I secretly recorded a strange (almost sensual) little chubby couple (age 9 I assume) get in an argument.

All this to say that there was no monumental sound that I found to make Jolicoeur-hood unique UNIQUE (doubling for emphasis). However, it did give me an undecided feeling between the familiar and the foreign. And, on top of that contradiction, I wanted to give a sense of (1) being pressed for time (strangely enough) inside the "time capsule" and (2) the residual effect the metro has on me (i.e how encounters, events, sounds still linger even when I'm not in the metro station).

step 3: ...

2004-10-05T17:40:00.002-04:00

go back to metro to do the final recordings.

ended up not doing them because i was stood up by my partner. BOO. well, actually, he was running around town looking for DAT tapes, so I can't blame him for being late. la di da thanks Mikey for running around town for DAT tapes. desperately seeking DAT tapes.

but I got some MD recordings down... and i bumped into a friend who lives in the area.. coolio.. she says it's really quiet and quebecois (she said the last part with a coy smile). The area was filled with students and the consturction workers weren't there. The area around is really residential and if i walk even farther down, there's a nicer park... hmmm...

looked up Guy Debord at the library and all his books are out. BOO again. Well, one book is in at Vanier but blah blah blah... But then i found a book of his scripts, documents, and movie stills from his movies. double coolio.

in other news:

I've had 5 strange encounters today. Including conversations about de/re/construction, born again ideas, hemp chocolate bars, animation, the translation program, bible school, past bus encounters, and misunderstandings. it's amazing what can happen when i just drift...

Champ Libre at the in-CIN-er-ATOR

2004-09-22T01:07:00.001-04:00

From Sugar to Styrofoam, line dancing to flying gorillas, beer to vegee food, plastic igloos to blue lights, i had a lot of fun.

Big THANK YOU to Iain for having the class outing at Champ Libre!

I'm going back to take more pictures and maybe bring my MD player. The area is the perfect setting I must say.

pictures

Step 2: visit the site

2004-09-21T20:07:00.000-04:00

11:14

Prochaine arrêt: Jolicoeur.

The metro fades to a stop. A little plump woman with a blue windbreaker tied around her waist is bookmarking her page with her thumb. She gets off. We follow. Up ahead on a bench is a half eaten toasted sandwich. She picks it up and throws it in the garbage.

The metro space is shallow. The light streams in from the wall-to-wall windows, illuminating the staircase and SORTIE sign. It's bright.

It's quiet. So it seems. There's a hummmmm.

Then we step outside. AND A BURST OF NOISE COMING FROM THE CONSTRUCTION SITE ATTACKS MY EARS.

flashback: when walking in the main lobby of the metro there were boarded up windows. The windows (almost) completely blocked out the noise. It (almost) completely blocked out the sight of the site too.

THE CONTRUCTION WAS OBNOXIOUS (OBNOXIOUS SOUNDS)... ALMOST AS OBNOXIOUS AS WRITING IN CAPS ALL THE TIME.

other observations

high traffic / busy street
empty cement tennis courts
Lachine Canal
Cool bridge
Little boy playing with toy gun at park
not that many people
waiting for bus 112
residential area juxtaposed with busy high traffic road (it's like a cross between a city and a suburb)
Verdun is another breed of its own
trucks everywhere
metro station faces northeast
deserted park
Students / young people live around there too, it's cheap in Verdun
loud outside
want to scope out site at another time (perhaps at rush hour/dusk/when construction stops for the day)

Sitting in Jolicoeur metro station is like a sitting in a vacuum. I'm sucked into myself, feeling the glow of the light filtering through the windows. All I hear is the hum of the lights and the distant metro that is still 2-minutes away.

pictures

so here's my take on things

2004-09-17T01:50:00.000-04:00

yeah, that's right, life is full of awkward situations. and it seems as though awkward may just be THE word. But tell me, ever heard an awkward sound?

what actually just made my night is this.

all this to say that I'm staring at an empty red little square frame on my wall; listening to the drone of my computer; thinking about Tom Robbins whose fresh descriptions would seem almost awkward if said aloud in a totally different context.

for instance:"It was a hot, burpy day"

So (i have decided at, like, 2am):
my quest, as of now, is to seek awkward sounds. If they exist. After all, I do dwell quite soundly in my own awkward bubble (um... suuure)

And in other news:
song i listened to tonight: Swim by ani difranco

step 1: find facts

2004-09-16T14:06:00.000-04:00

Jolicoeur metro station

not bad for a pretty heart

Sound II

2004-09-09T13:29:00.000-04:00

Here we are, trapped in the amber of the moment. There is no why.
- Kurt Vonnegut in Slaughterhouse-Five