Hi all, and welcome to another addition of the AudioMinds Newsletter. This month we’re excited to finally reveal our SUPER-BIG, SUPER-SECRET, PROMOTION PROJECT which has been under tight wraps for the past couple months. It’s official; AudioMinds.com opens July 1 with our Demo Recording Contest. Not only can you have your music professionally judged and critiqued, but you could win a valuable first prize. Good Luck!!!
We also want to thank our members for helping us become one of the fastest growing digital recording web sites in the world. Almost 10,000 unique Audio-Minded visitors last month, and our forum is nearing 300 members.
We hope you enjoy this month’s newsletter; it’s packed with useful musical training, a splash of humor, and CYP's monthly meanderings. These last two sections hammer away at the funny bone. Once again, thanks for stopping by! And on behalf of the entire AudioMinds Team, enjoy and keep on tracking!!!
-- Your AudioMinds crew.
AudioMinds Demo Song Contest
AudioMinds Demo Recording Contest
The rules are pretty simple, and the members of our forum pick the finalists. First place wins the prize, and the artist is featured in the following AudioMinds Newsletter. We all sit around and make recordings. Take one you have that you’re proud of, and enter it into the contest. You have nothing to loose and everything to gain. Click for More Information, and Good Luck!!!
The Physics of Oscillations & Waves - Part I (The basics)
[Ed. Note: Dennis Schulmeister is a high school student currently studying in Germany.]
An audio engineer needs to know at least a little bit about the physics of waves. No matter if doing a live act, setting up mics for an instrument in the studio, or treating a room for good sound, there are some guidelines and rules which when put to good use can make these jobs a lot easier for you.
Sound is composed of waves but before we get into that, let's start out by talking about oscillations. We won't rest long here since most rules of oscillations are of little realworld use for us but let's see how that works for a moment.
There are many oscillators known to us in the real world: Tuning forks, guitar strings, strings in general, amplifier feedback, springs and so on. All those oscillators can be divided into several groups. We divide between harmonic or non-harmonic oscillators and free oscillators or forced oscillators.
So what's a free oscillator? A free oscillator is literally anything that has the ability to vibrate. A free oscillator would be the tuning fork, or the strings and the springs. One example of a forced oscillator is the common loudspeaker. A free oscillator determines it's rhythm of vibration from it's essential makeup. Once activated it contines to oscillate by itself until the energy used to activate it is expended. A speaker can't oscillate by itself, it would need other inputs (amplifiers mostly). Continuous forces are needed to be sent to the loudspeaker, otherwise it wouldn't do anything. Given its nature, it is capable of many different speeds of oscillation.
Now we have defined free and forced oscillators but what does all that really mean? Unlike guitar strings a tuning fork oscillates very symmetrically. A good tuning fork produces one exact frequency (like 440 Hz). That is because the tines of the tuning fork have the property of Mass, plus they have the property of Elasticity. The position of the tines of the fork before a force is applied is called it’s Equilibrium. The amplitude of displacement is proportional to the magnitude of the force applied. That is, the harder we strike the fork, the greater it’s magnitude of displacement. Newton’s first law applies: All bodies remain at rest or in a state of uniform motion unless another force acts in opposition. Because of the interaction of the two opposing forces, Elasticity and Inertia, the tines of the fork continue to move to and fro, and the fork is said to have been set into vibration.
Guitar strings have a richer tonality and don't produce a pure tone of one frequency. They are therefore non-harmonic oscillators.
In the area of physics springs are popular oscillators because they oscillate slowly enough to be watched. A little experiment will explain harmonic oscillators further.
What we can see on the picture are a light source, a rotating disc with a little cork on it, a spring with a sphere and a paper sheet next to each other. First we pull the spring a bit so that it starts oscillating. Next we try to match the speed of the disc so that both shadows move up and down together. And indeed it IS possible to match the speed of the disc with the spring so that both shadows move in unision. Some (boring) math and we are able to calculate the spring's position at a given point in time*:
s = ^s * sin(w*t)
with ^s being the maximum position, w being the Angular Velocity and t being the time in seconds. The Angular Velocity w is defined as follows:
w = 2pf
f is the frequency in Hz (movements per second) and p is pi, approx. 3.14159.
So what did we learn? There are different types of oscillations. Free oscillations or forced oscillations and harmonic or non-harmonic oscillations. Unlike forced oscilators free oscillators don't need permanent forces in order to oscillate. Non-harmonic oscillators don't have a fixed frequency and so don't oscillate symmetrically. The position of a harmonic oscillator at a given time t with a given frequency f can be described as
s(f, t) = ^s * sin(2pf * t)
^s is one of the extreme positions. But what does all the math mean to us, you ask? Let me show you another figure. How would the s(f, t) function look when drawn on a coordinate system?
Remember: The arrow pointing upwards shows the y coordinate. The horizontal arrow shows the x coordinate. The curve is built from many points each being placed by both coordinates.
The x coordinate shows the passage of time in this example. On the y coordinate of one point we can read the corresponding position of the spring (or the sphere on it).You see the sphere is periodically bumping up and down sometimes faster sometimes slower thus moving very smoothly. And this is what harmonic oscillations are all about. They are periodic and smooth movements with a fixed frequency. So when we're talking about a tone with e.g. 440 Hz all we're talking about is maybe a speaker, the cone of which is moving back and forth 440 times per second, or in the case of our tuning fork, the tines are doing the same thing.
Phew, that was hard. Now have a break and then take a good hard look at the following picture.
* = There's a rule saying that one can calculate a sine curve by using a circle. I hope you don't mind that I left out things like this because they are of no special use for us.
Welcome back to the Audiominds.com newsletter. Last time we dealt with oscillations but didn't really know what we gained from that experience. Maybe we'll notice when we take a look at the waves. No, not water waves. Not yet. No micro-wave oven. Wait a minute, seems we know waves from real life again… Ahaaa. So, I'm confused. What do waves have to do with oscillations?
It’s very important to realize that waves own a direction and need a medium in which to travel, which is untrue for oscillations. Such a medium could be the molecules of a gas like air or a liquid like water. But now take care: One can think of the medium being many oscillators standing next to each other each influencing the next one. Imagine a row of hanging springs. Each spring is connected with its neighbour. So if you raise the first spring the second will follow. Just like this:
Read out the following sentence loud and clearly: Waves move forward and therefore need a medium. Ok, the medium consists of many little oscillators sitting next to each other. Just like with our connected springs, raising one spring would slightly affect it’s neighbors with a time shift also.
This one is a bit hard to understand because it's very abstract but once you get it the rest is very easy. Waves are of no material. They are there when a row of molecules of a medium start to oscillate over time. I'll use the example of water waves in order to make things easier to understand. Imagine sea waves on a beach. You can clearly see how the water raises and falls periodicly and you have the impression of the water moving towards the beach. While this may be true to a certain point we just think of the water level changing on different spots. Make sense? Waves could also be described as a moving deformation of a given material, the medium.
Look at the following graph:
Seems like the graph looks very similar to the graph of an oscillation. Be careful. We're not talking about differences over a certain time anymore. We're talking about differences at different places now. The x-axis is entitled x which means 'position'. On the left side you see the imaginary beach. The blue line shows one water wave moving towards the beach. Now it's time to introduce some definitions:
Definition:
The up-down position of a single (spring-)oscillator is called its amplitude.
^s (read "s max") is called the maximum amplitude of an oscillation or wave.
s defines any amplitude between -^s and ^s.
l (read "lambda") is called the Wavelength.
When talking about the Wavelength (lambda), the distance between two points on a wave curve with the same y-position (up/down) and the same direction is called the Wavelength. By the same direction I mean whether the curve is moving upwards or downwards. Lambda is measured in meters. Some examples of wrong Lambdas or Wavelengths can be seen in figure 6:
And here some correct wave lengths:
I know this is some boring abstract stuff, but it's soon finished. Unfortunatly we'll need it for the next issue when we deal with the practical use of all that jazz, but it must be said that we are still missing two very important things before we're done for now, and those are the frequency and the speed of a wave. Again, if you're able to determine an exact single fundamental frequency for a wave it is a harmonic wave. Otherwise it's a non-harmonic wave. As a simple rule of thumb you could use the water example here again. Each wave contains many 'mountains' and 'valleys'. If you stand in the middle of the sea the frequency f is the amount of 'mountain'-'valley' couples passing you during one second. They are meassured in Hertz (Hz) or cycles/sec, named after the German physicist Heinrich Hertz.
That's all for this installment. Hopefully we got everything right in the editing. Next time, we'll take a look at issues having to do with the speed of sound, the density, elasticity and temperature of the air, and how they relate to each other within the scope of our endeavors.
Elwood
I, ii, IV, V - Part 2
[Ed. Note: Clark McDonald is a professional electrical engineer, classically trained musician, and an original AudioMinds member.]
Knowing and practicing the ii-V7-I drills can open up your instrument and your ears. They are practiced like this:
Dm-G7-Cmaj7, Cm-F7-Bbmaj7, Bbm-Eb7-Abmaj7, Abm-Db7-Gbmaj7, Gbm-B7-Emaj7, Em-A7-Dmaj7, Dm-G7-Cmaj7, etc. round and round.
it's okay to add the dominant 7 to the minor ii chords (ex: Dm7-G7-Cmaj7).
That is HALF of the available pool of twelve key signatures. The other half is a half-step away, as in Ebm-Ab7-Dbmaj7, Dbm-Gb7-Bmaj7, Bm-E7-Amaj7, Am-D7-Gmaj7, Gm-C-Fmaj7, Fm-Bb7-Ebmaj7, and around and around.
Thorough knowledge of THE CIRCLE OF FIFTHS is advisable, do a google search for that whole string in caps right now if you need to, there are plenty of explanations and copies of the CIRCLE OF FIFTHS around the web, one doesn't need to be a music reader to delve into the examination and learn the concept behind the Circle of Fifths. Memorizing the circle and being able to draw it at will is a very good thing to do.
If you have a copy of Band in a Box, the ii-V-I drills are included in the "Jazz Practice" folder and are wonderful accompaniment for practicing both chording and scalar work with them. Band in a Box is not a necessity for practicing these drills, though, it just works as an accompaniment to your practicing which can come in real handy whan practicing comping, soloing and even singing drills over the ii-V7-I changes. One could also simply record the chords of the drill on n-Track and add some drums to taste to provide some backing tracks for their own practicing. And just because those drills are in the Band in a Box "Jazz Practice" folder, don't let that deter the blues player, rocker, country musician or any other music performer from studying the two fives: they are used in any music that uses the Tempered Scale and can help anybody in any genre become a better musician.
Practicing the ii-V-I drills is very important for both the ears, the brain and the hands, this will open up the beginnings of the standard chord changes for you and start you on the path to more than I-IV-V changes.
A good rhythm pattern is Common Time, place the ii on the first two beats of measure one, the V on the second two beats of measure one, and the I for the full four beats of measure two, then minor the I and it becomes the ii minor of the next key signature in the loop. | // // | //// |
Even if you are not a guitar player, but are interested in learning more about the changes be sure to check out the free jazz lessons on JazzGuitar.be and put them to good use on your keyboard, horn, vocal practice, what have you. The theory and the notes are the same.
We see ii-V-I and II-V-I hiding inside a lot of changes and turnarounds, it is very common to encounter these as apparent key changes also within a song, they are very important. (Want to change keys during any progression anywhere, just play the ii of the target key, then the V and bang, you are there).
Review for some, or information for those who may be wondering, the Roman Numerals simply define the name of the chord at hand as taken from the Major Scale, Capitolized Roman Numerals signify a Major Chord, the Lower Case indicates a minor chord. So "ii-V7-I" in the key of C would translate to "Dm-G7-C", or "Am-D7-G" in the key of G.
Some common short progressions that are used as whole songs or simply "turnarounds" within whole songs are:
I-IV-V7
I-V7
I-iv-ii-V7
iii-vi-ii-V7
I-VI-II-V7
iii-VI-II-V7
ii-V7-I
II-V7-I
ii- bII maj7 - I
(note the chromatic sub for the V in the last example, this can be a good sub for the organ player, play the flat II maj 7 overtop of the five chord with an ensemble to imply some tension... sometimes, with taste.)
The I chord can sound rather plain. Beboppers and Jazzers commonly substitute either the Maj6 or the Maj7 on that one, somewhat interchangeably dependent upon the melody line at hand. Try that when doin' the drills.
Practice your two-five-one drills all the time, in rhythm to the metronome until you don't have to hesitate or even think much about it and your musicianship will improve by many orders of magnitude. A musician who knows the drill will find that they do not get "lost" from the key or chord at hand nearly as often for those drills will come into play as yet another way of closing the hearing gap. Your ears will improve in what they are able to hear and identify when listening to music. Many modulations from key to key within a piece are perpetrated with the use of the ii-V-I in one way shape or form.
There is no endpoint to practicing this particular drill: I still do it and shall continue. As your ears develop you will find more and more things to do with it, modes to play over it, scales that fit, etc. and all work with it will translate to improved soloing, music composition and playing skills.
Until next month,
Straight ahead,
--Mac
Mac's Humor
...And so it came to pass that as the 10th hour of the Day after Sabbath approached, the Leader did look upon his Children and say, "It is time to rest." And the Sidemen did rejoice, and repaired to the Room of Hiding. Then did appear the Party Planner, saying unto them, "I have news both good and bad". And the Sidemen did reply, "Tell us
first of the Good News". And she replied, "There are dinners, and they are chicken". And the Sidemen did rejoice, and smacked their lips. But the Bass Player, being of a suspicious nature, did narrow his eyes and ask, "And what of the Bad News?" And the Party Planner, looking towards the floor, did say, "But there are not enough Meals, for you must share them with the Photographers and the Video Guy. Furthermore, thou must eat your meals in 10 minutes. And furthermore, there are no Utensils available to those of lowly caste, and so thou must eat with thy Hands only." Whereupon a great lamentation arose from the Sidemen, reaching unto the very depths of the Temple. And the Leader heard, and came running, saying "My Children, why dost thou raise thy voices, so that even above the DJ you are heard?" And the Bass Player did cast a dime on the Party Planner, saying "The Jezebel doth tease and mock us, even as does one to a mule with a carrot!" And a great Fury rose up in the Leader, as he was, as these things go, a Righteous Man.
And he turned to the Party Planner and swore great oaths, and saith, "Thou thinkest to save a nickel here and a dime there, at the risk of our Relationship? Doth thou have Waste for Brains? Shall I go unto the Father and tell him that his son David's Mitzvah will be interrupted while we send for Pizza?" And the Sidemen did cheer, as did the Photographers and the Video Guy.
And so the Party Planner did stammer and shuffle her feet, and summon her Flunkies, and many more meals were
discovered, as well as Forks and Knives, and even Napkins. And there was Fish as well as Fowl, and even Vegetables and Fruits. And thus was David's Bar Mitzvah saved, and the Leader kept the respect and love of his Children, for
at least another week.
And so in the dark of night the Lord awoke Noah, and spoke to him. "Noah, awake and heed my words!"
And Noah, being sore afraid and disoriented, did cry out, "Who goeth there?"
And the Lord did smite him upside the head, saying, "It is the Lord of
all things, dummy!"
And Noah did tremble, saying, "Lord, why hath thou wakened me?"
And the Lord did say, "Noah, build me a Jobbing Band. "For the earth will be visited by a plague of Brides, followed by forty days of Trade Shows and forty nights of Awards Banquets."
And Noah did say, "Command me, Lord."
And the Lord did say, "First, thou must find me a Leader." And Noah replied, "But Lord, will I not be thy Leader?"
And the Lord did smite him again, saying, "Fool, thou will be my Contractor. Ask not why!"
And Noah did bow his head, saying, "Yes, my Lord. And what will this Leader play?"
And the Lord said, "It mattereth little, whether he play or not, or whether he be proficient or not. For his job shall primarily be to talk to the Brides and their Mothers, and to deal with Clients, and to count off Tempos wrong, and to inquire as to whether Overtime will happen, and to try to segue tunes that should not be segued. If he playeth any instrument, thou must always have another player of that instrument on the band, just to be safe."
And Noah did say, "And what else shall this Leader do?"
And the Lord replied, "It shall be his job to spread Bad Information and Confusion amongst the Sidemen, and to pit them one against the other, and to delay all payments. Further shall it be his job, until we can afford a Soundman, to create Feedback, and to invent new Equalization Curves therefore."
And Noah did shake his head in wonder, saying, "Lord, thy ways are Strange and Mysterious. What more shall I do?"
And the Lord said, "Next, find me a Rhythm Section. First, find me a Drummer. And Three Things above all must this Drummer possess."
And Noah did ask, "What are these Three Things? Double Bass Drums? An Electronic Kit? Congas?"
And the Lord did smite Noah again, saying "Second-guess me not, my servant. First, this Drummer must have slightly imperfect time, so that whenever he playeth a Fill (and he shall play many), he always emergeth at a different place, sometimes early and sometimes late, but thou may not guess which. And second, he must be Supremely Discontent, always hoping for the Big Break which will lead to him playing with Chick Corea or Madonna, so that he despiseth Jobbing. And third, he must always be convinced of his Righteousness, in all things, including Time, Volume, Tempo and Feel, so that he argueth always with the Bass Player."
And Noah did say, "As you command, Lord. And what next?"
And the Lord did say, "Thou art learning, Noah. Next shall be the Bass Player. And he shall be Bored. That is all."
And Noah did say, "Of course. And next, my Lord?"
"Next shall be the Piano Player. And he shall play as if he has twenty fingers, and he shall ply Substitute upon Substitute, until no man may name the Chord, and he will not be helpful. Furthermore, he shall always be Late. And he shall always be trying out New Gear, of which he has no knowledge."
And Noah did wonder aloud, "Lord, Great is thy Wisdom!"
"Next shall be the Guitar Player. And he shall be a Rock Guitar Player. And he shall be Loud, and he shall sing 'Old Time Rock n' Roll'. Also shall he know not The Page, and so shall rely upon his Ears, which have been damaged by exposure to High Sound Pressure Levels. For the Guitarists who Read shall already be playing Shows, and will be making the Big Shekels. And his tux shall be the Rattiest."
And Noah did say, "It shall be done."
And the Lord did say, "Next thou shall need Horns. First shall be the Saxophones. And they shall be Beboppers. And they shall play their Bird Quotes in every song, yea, even the Celine Dion ballad. And they shall Get High on every break, and make the Long Faces all night long, but especially when 'In The Mood' is called. Next shall be the Trumpeters. And they shall every one attempt to take everything Up an Octave, and fail frequently. And of Changes they shall know nothing. And finally shall be the Trombone Player. And many jokes will be made about him, for he will have a Beeper, as well as a Day Job, and he will be the first to be Cut from the Band."
And Noah, taking many notes, did say, "Mighty is the Lord!"
"Next shall be the String Players. Find me Three Women, and attach Pickups to their Violins that are more ancient even than Myself, so that their instruments screecheth and causeth great pain. And their job shall be to dress in Evening Gowns, and to Fake Parts on all Ballads, and to occasionally Stroll, and to complain about the Volume, and the Intonation, and to impede the Swing."
And Noah did say, "What else can be left, Lord?"
And the Lord did say, "Finally, find me the Singers. And they shall be Three, one a Male, and two Females. And the Male shall be a Strutting Peacock, with the Rock 'N Roll Hair, and he shall never have to wear The Tuxedo, and also shall he play The Harmonica. And of the Females, one shall be Black and one shall be White. And the Black one shall ALWAYS sing the Aretha songs, and the Disco. And the White one shall ALWAYS sing the Power Ballads, and the Country Songs. But both shall share the Motown Medley, and shall sing Backup for the Male, and forget the Words, and be Late, and know nothing of Keys or Form. And they shall leave every gig immediately, having never touched a
piece of Equipment. And they shall be paid many more shekels than the Sidemen. Ask not why."
And Noah did say, "As Thou sayest, my Lord."
And the Lord did command him, "Search high and low for these, as not every musician can fulfill these requirements. And though we have No Work yet, a Committment must be secured from All. And while you're at it,start looking for Subs."
And Noah did say, "Lord, thy will be done."
And it was.
--Author unknown
Yet Another Side of the Glass - by Cyprian Alexzander
What do you do when you are lost?
Sitting here in front of the front loading washing machine at the laundromat, I have realized that I am lost and over suds. Yep, I didn't read the sign which said, "Front loaders use half the amount of detergent used for top loaders." Why does life spring these little surprises on you? Next thing you know, I am going to hear a countdown from ten and my washing machine is going to blast off into to space with my clothes in it. Look out Mars, straight from the 7th Avenue Sparkle-O-Mat comes a prized cache of soggy underwear, perfect as a house warming gift or just to hang on your wall as a conversation piece.
How do you tell the little recording demons in your head that placing a trusty Shure 57 into the washing machine during spin cycle will not get you that magic sound for your next hit, or that sending a letter to the latest pop product diva informing her of your theory will only serve to limit your liberty and not increase her fame? Thinking about it, how do you tell them anything?
Between the kid beating the illegal fruit machine and his mom who thinks shouting on her cell phone is the best way to kill time in the laundromat, you have nothing to stand in the way of committing bizarre laundromat activity in the name of recording except for not having any of your recording gear near, but that doesn't stop the thoughts. A crazy guy just brought in what looked like a bag of dirty shoes and threw them into the 50lb load Merlin Max-o-loader and left.
The load of shoes sounds like a load of shoes. You reminisce about that drummer you had in your first band. Maybe if you could get a hold of him and throw him into the Merlin Max-o-loader with the shoes, then you could record it and loop it. "Dunk, dunk, duh duh dunk, dunk, dunk, buh buh duh bam dunk." That would be what the young ones call a "phat" beat. I don't think Aaron would like to get pummeled by a bunch of second hand dirty shoes, but I may have stumbled upon every drummers secret fantasy.
Now they are going nuts. The kid just hit a pay out on the illegal fruit machine. The shoes are thumping and the fruit machine is pushing out quarters. Miss Cell Phone is yelling that her kid is making a mess with quarters on the floor. The guy who went into the bathroom twenty minutes ago either just came out a girl or dressed as a poor imitation of one. I feel like I have fallen into high school musical hell and soon the chorus will come out and do the dance number to the "Age Of Aquarius". It must be the shoes; thumpy, bumpy shoes torturing my ear, demanding to be recorded.
When will the washing be done? I want to use the dryer. I need to embrace the dryer; escape to the quiet goodness of the dryers. Each breath of ambiance emanating from the reassuring warmth of these noble machines increases my desire to record every available noise in an inane attempt to create the next pop trend. I can get back to the task of my laundry. The dryers. I must make connection to the dryers.
With all the quarters the kid is picking off the floor, I could dry my clothes for hours, cuddling with the machine itself. There is no sign that says I can't hold my dryer in warm embrace, searching for the answer to musical overload. Free me, O dryer, dryer, dryer, dryer.
It is those shoes. That beat has driven me insane. It has overcome my senses. My need to record all good ideas is being driven wild. Writing it out on this used fabric sheet is not going to work. Notation will not capture this rich earthly rhythm. Shoe man, you are my hero! I can save myself the pain of not achieving if I can just make it to the dryers.
What is that coming at me? What sort of insect inhabits laundromats? A silver suited Clara Bolls is talking to me. I can't hear her. The shoes are talking. Must listen to the shoes.
"You want some paper? I got some paper," the space alien also known as Clara says.
"Paper?" I respond. I can't think. Must record this. Must have a microphone. Must do this to survive.
"Are you alright?" Clara is on to me.
"Ah..." Failure of syntax. I didn't make it to the dryer in time. If I would have made it to the dryer, then I would be okay.
"Don't worry sugar, I caught you off guard. I ain't gonna bite. I just had to wash my costume before doing my shoe tonight. You know, over at the Drag On." Clara isn't onto my aural illness. I might be able to escape.
"Drag On!" I say. Repeat something they say, and they will think you are okay. Dunk, Dunk, duh duh duh. Shoes.
"9PM," Clara walks out, throwing a flyer into my lap, which glides off onto the floor.
I pick the flyer off the floor and notice something is missing. Where's my dunk, a dunk, duh duh bamb dunk? Oh, I know. Clara distracted me from even making a feeble musical representation of this divine beat on my spent fabric sheet. No, no, no! The agony of another lost spiritual moment hits me with the sinking realization that I will not be sharing this beat with all the kids on MTV.
Still, if I can make it over to the linty breath of the dryer, I'll be alright and won't have to wear soggy underwear tomorrow.
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