Analysis

So the semester's winding down and that means final papers. For my music theory class, Structure, Context, and Style, I have to analyze two pieces and then compare and contrast those pieces. So in order to make things somewhat easier for us we are allowed to analyze the piece we did for our analysis presentations a couple of weeks ago. By the way in case you forgot that was this piece and yes, we did get an A on our presentation. For the presentation I analyzed the third movement but for my paper I have to choose another movement. So naturally I chose the second movement for its abundance of trombone solos!!!

Now since we have analyze two pieces for this paper we were basically allowed to choose anything we wanted for the second piece so I chose the second track from this album. I'm not really sure why I decided on this song other than it's similar in length and features a harp, which if you're familiar with Scheherazade and its violin solos, is also a similar feature. Other than that, I'm not too sure how they compare. I'll let you know.

So for the next 2+ weeks I'll be looking at Sound, Harmony, Melody, Rhythm, and Growth (movement & shape) for these two pieces and constructing a 35-45 page paper about it. I should probably get started.

Today's T: Tenacious D on black

Back with some actual music

Above is a video I made featuring my first recording project for Advanced Multitrack Production. Blogger won't let you upload mp3s, but they will let you upload videos featuring the greatest video transitions known to Windows Movie Maker. So take a look and listen.

The main jist of this project was to capture a live performance onto multitrack tape. So there are no overdubs or punch ins featured in the recording, its one continuous take. I used about 18 microphones for the recording and they went straight to 2" tape.

The other cool thing about this project is that it was mixed down onto 1/4" tape meaning that it only reached the digital domain when it was burned to CD. Up until that point it was completely analog, which is cool. That also means that the signal processing (equalization, compression, gating, and some reverb) were done with outboard gear, not on a computer.

I know I haven't been to consistent with this blog but stayed tuned because I'm comin back baby!

Today's T (Actually a polo): Maroon with white stripes

Sigh of Relief

I didn't get to blog last night because I was busy working on my mid-term paper which was due today. So here's the recap from yesterday.

We spent two hours rehearsing "Kokomo" in the studio trying to really nail down the vocal harmonies. I don't know if I ever thought that's how I'd be spending part of grad school. But that's what we did. My responsibilities for this tune are as a performer. I'll be taking the high harmonies (which is weird because I don't think my classmates know my history of being called ma'am on the phone and at drive-thrus). I'll also be playing the sax solo on my t-bone, which is the first time I've played all semester so I needs to get practicing.

Tonight in Context, Structure, and Style I had to turn in my mid-term paper which was probably eh. It wasn't my best work but the timing of the paper and our move didn't really help. Making excuses. Just as I was relieved to be done with that paper, we got homework for over spring break! So next week while I'm chillin' in Florida with my bro watchin' the Cards I'll also be busy transcribing the harmonica part to this recording.

Tomorrow's a big day as I'll be engineering my first recording session! Tune in to see how it went.

Today's T: Blue/Blue Ringer

Let there be internet!

So Emily and I are finally "moved in," moved in being in quotes because there's still a lot of unpacking to be done. We do have the internet working now so why not post? Pictures of the apartment will be up as soon we're a little more composed.

Monday was Recording Studio Ensemble. We started by discussing last week's session and I got glowing reviews for my work as the assistant engineer. I didn't have that much responsibility, but it was nice to know I handled it well. The rest of class was spent learning how to program drums. Since there's not a drummer in our class we've decided to program drums for our next song. What's the song? Here are some clues:
1. It was featured on the soundtrack of the 1988 movie "Cocktail."
2. A special performance of the song was aired on an episode of "Full House."
3. This Muppets version of the song was the reason my classmate Shauna, she'll be producing, picked it for this project.
It also helps that we have plenty of guys in our class to do all the harmonies associated with that particular group.

Tuesday was Structure, Context, and Style. Our midterms are due next week so we spent some time talking about how to best go about completing them. We have to analyze short piano pieces structurally, harmonically, melodically, and rhythmically and then write a 10-12 page paper about what we found. I'd tell you what my piece is, but I don't know. Our professor deliberately left off titles and composers so that it wouldn't influence us. Or so we wouldn't look up stuff on the internet about it.

Yesterday was Advanced Multitrack Production. I had a presentation with my classmate Brandon called FXpertise. We researched all the gear in the studio that handles this aspect of signal processing. As it turns out, some of the stuff we have is really good, and some of it not so good. Hopefully the information we shared with our class will help them out. I learned a great deal about distortion, and also a little bit about compression (I'll hear the rest of that next week).

Cards played today. Only 2 weeks until I see them live in sunny Florida!

Today's T: Kevin Garnett jersey T

Stay Tuned

I'm really trying to keep up with this thing I swear. We're a bit busy at the Wall house right now. Em and I are moving this weekend so between her working and me doing homework, we're trying to get everything done without losing our minds. So I don't know when I'll post again next, but you can expect some pics of the new place.

Last Wednesday I had Advanced Multitrack Production and we talked about various stereo mic techniques. This was a precursor as we then started discussing surround sound and we'll finish that up tomorrow I suppose. One interesting note about the discussion was Alan Blumlein. Blumlein patented the concept of stereo, which he called binaural sound but the technology wasn't developed when he came up with the concept. He died young in a plane crash doing a secret trial of on-board radar. Really interesting person.

Yesterday during Recording Studio Ensemble we tracked the Bolling flute piece. All the performers did a great job, which helps when you're trying to capture music. A good recording starts with a good performance. I was the assistant engineer, which meant I plugged in all the mics and made sure the engineer had everything he needed. Here's a photo of my classmates Mike, he was the producer, and Pierre, he was the engineer sitting at the console.
Tonight in Structure, Context, and Style, we discussed the analysis of Sound (timbre, dynamics, and texture) and Harmony. I also found out what piece I'll be doing for my final presentation. Looks like I'll be getting to know it pretty well.

Today's T: 60 Isn't nearly as old as it used to be on black

Snowy Monday

The commute home today took an hour and a half. This was after I cleared three inches of snow off the car after only four hours of class. This was pretty frustrating as last Wednesday classes were canceled due to snow that never fell and I guess today I had to pay for it.

Because of the Monday holiday yesterday, today was a Monday schedule meaning that I had Recording Studio Ensemble. We were supposed to track (record) the Bolling flute piece today but because there was a conflict with the drummer, who's not in our class, we delayed the recording until next week. So it was more rehearsals today. My job is page turner/extra set of ears. Not terribly important but I did notice something's today that will hopefully help in the performance next week.

I didn't update last week because of the snow day and no class, but I thought I'd fill you in on my Tuesday night class. It's my music theory class and currently we're discussing how to analyze pieces. It's a very thorough exercise. The musical aspects we look at are called SHMeRG (Sound, Harmony, Melody, Rhythm, and Growth), we also look at these characteristics on three dimensions: small, mid, and large. So while a large harmony dimension might be a song's key, the individual chord changes would be considered a small dimension of harmony. In order to put this idea into practice, our homework is to analyze Pachelbel's arrangement of "Jesu, meine Freude" and Handel's "Largo" from Concerto Grosso Op. 6 No. 2 in F major.

No word on whether we'll have class tomorrow or not due to snow, but I'm guessing we will.

Today's T: Beck Mutations on blue

Recording Studio Ensemble

So I'm a day behind. Here's what happened yesterday. We decided what our responsibilities would be for our first project and what we would be recording. Here are the deets (details for those older people out there).

Our first project will be to record the Suite For Flute & Jazz Piano Trio #1, Mvt. 2 Sentimentale by Claude Bolling. The only female in our program is a flautist so she's doing this with a piano, electric bass, and drums. Now since none of those instruments will be played by me, I'll be on the other side of the glass. Because I don't have any experience with any of the gear yet I'll be the assistant engineer on this gig. Which basically means I'll be helping set things up, but primarily documenting the session. Marking down what equipment we used and where we put it, what settings we had all the knobs turned to, things like that. It's a good role for me because I can still watch what's going on without having to worry about too much. So hopefully all will go well. I'll let you know next week.

Today's T: Fantasy Baseball on grey

Advanced Multitrack Production

Since my background is in music education and not audio production I was missing a pretty crucial piece of the application when I applied for this program, a portfolio of previous audio work. So technically I was accepted conditionally with the idea that after this semester I can submit a portfolio of work from my classes this semester. My Wednesday class, Advanced Multitrack Production, is the class that will help me build this portfolio. The class is actually primarily for undergrad seniors in their last semester but a lot of grad students take it as an elective.

The class has several projects that involve recording music onto multiple tracks. What that means is that each instrument is recorded to it's own track, either on a computer or onto magnetic tape, so that their levels can be adjusted individually when mixing them down into a final stereo mix. Essentially it's doing what I hope to be doing with the rest of my life. That being said it is by far the scariest class I'm taking this semester. There's so much awesome gear available to us to use for these projects and I don't have a clue what most of them do. Hopefully this class and some additional outside research will help me figure that out.

This week we learned about Durgin 114. That's not a sweet audio doo-hickey, but instead the room on UMass-Lowell's campus that serves as the "live room," that is the room where we'll be doing the recording. It looks like this:Now what we learned is that when this room was designed, it was built primarily as a critical listening classroom, and secondly to function as a live room. In the picture above, the wall behind the piano that's covered with grey fabric actually conceals about several thousand dollars of monitoring equipment (fancy speakers and power amplifiers). The panels along the side of the walls help to absorb and diffuse sound wave reflections so that you only hear what's coming from the speakers. The panels toward the back of the room have surround speakers in them, so that we can listen to 5.1 mixes. Apparently it's one of the best listening environments in the country.

Today's T: Bears eating berries on yellow

Structure, Context, & Style

My Tuesday class is called Structure, Context, & Style. It's essentially the music theory course for all graduate music students. Since it's for all music students, a third of the class are SRT grad students (five of us) while the rest are all music education grad students. (Pop quiz: How many music grad students are there?) I feel a little special in that I'm the only one in class with a foot in both camps kinda. I know I'm not pursuing a Masters in music ed, but at least I know what they went through at one point. And they appear to be your typical run of the mill music ed people. I'll just leave it at that.

The professor of this course is Dr. M. He doesn't go by that but I fear if I type his whole name my blog will show up on his google alerts or something. It's cool he's teaching the course because he's the coordinator of the SRT program so it's nice to get to know him some. He speaks very softly, which can be tough since kids are shredding on guitars in the class across the hall. But it does make it seem like everything he's saying is important. Or a secret.

I like this class for the reason I like most music theory classes. It feels educational. Everyone sits around discussing ideas and there are "Aha!" moments. Most of the concepts are abstract and require some higher order thinking, which is good because I haven't done any of that in a while. It reminds me a lot of my favorite undergrad class, 20th Century Composition Techniques. Plus it helps when your professor is wearing a blazer with elbow patches.

The big project in this class is that we'll work in groups of 3 to study a major work of Western art music. (More commonly referred to as Classical music. (Since Classical is a period of time in music history, we don't call it that because some of the pieces may be Baroque, Romantic, or even Impressionistic!)) I don't know my group partners or my piece yet but I'm guessing they'll play a big part in my final impressions of this class.

Today's T: bass. on brown

Recording Studio Ensemble

So I only have 3 classes this semester, one on Monday, one on Tuesday, and one on Wednesday. My Monday class is also my ensemble. Every music major at every school in the whole wide world has to participate in at least one ensemble a semester, or at least that's the way I understand it. Ensembles practice throughout the semester and perform a concert or two to demonstrate the work they've done. It's also an opportunity for music students to practice techniques they've learned in other classes or lessons and use them in a practical environment. And so it is with my class, Recording Studio Ensemble.

Now instead of performing a concert to demonstrate what we've learned, this ensemble records our performance. The production of the recordings is as much of the class as the performance.

So far I'm enjoying this class as it's seems like it'll be a great way to meet the other students in my program. It's an ensemble that's only open to grad students in Sound Recording Technology (SRT), so there's only six of us. This wouldn't be that big of a deal except for the fact that it creates some interesting instrumentation situations. In the class we have a vocalist, two pianist/keyboardists, a fluter, a bassist, and a boner (me). I'll keep you updated as we get tunes decided and worked out.

Today's T: UC Davis Tennis on grey

Back to School

Welcome to my new blog, Wall of Sound! This will be a place where I fill everyone in on how my grad school experience is going. For those of you that don't know, I'm currently pursuing my Masters degree in Music with a focus on Sound Recording Technology at the University of Massachusetts in Lowell.

For those of you who have never been to New England or have no clue where Lowell is, it's about 30 miles north of Boston. Some fun facts about Lowell: it's the birthplace of author Jack Kerouac; it's the title of a Death Cab for Cutie song; and it was featured in the 1995 HBO documentary "High on Crack Street."

The first week of classes hasn't been all that exciting. Pretty routine first day of class stuff. I do have homework so that's good since I don't have a job yet. I did get a student id, which should make your day. I'm not exactly sure what happened except for that she said she would count to three and then take the picture. Obviously I didn't hear her count.


The purpose of this blog is really just to let you know what sort of things I'm working on and how it's going. I plan on posting samples of projects as well as sharing any interesting/funny/frustrating stories that happen along the way. If there's anything you'd like to know about, just give me a holler and I'll try to oblige. Oh and one other thing. Since I don't have to dress up anymore I get to wear all of my fabulous T-shirts. I have a great collection so I'll make sure to post which shirt I'm wearing at the very end of each post.

Today's T: San Francisco football poster on green (Thanks Ashlee and Ethan)