Less Clear is the new In Focus
In graphic design, I've seen the idea expressed that there is a continuum from emotive to descriptive (or specific), and a given image falls on a point between those two poles. It's an interesting idea, but what are the equivalents of things like clarity and ambiguity in sound? I'll present a few ideas here that I have collected or developed over the course of my practice. Focus and Depth of Field. This is an idea I began working with in a music production context so I'll sta
Little Robot Arms
As part of a project, I found I needed to control the strings of a guitar with actual little robot mechanisms. For the benefit of those that may like to do something similar but are unfamiliar with the basics, here's some details about it! Driving servos with an Arduino is pretty simple. If you've any coding and electronics experience then it's a piece of pee(tm). If not, then it's still not too hard. I'll skip things like installing the software you need to set up programmin
Non-Mathematical Microtones
A sound can be a sound and a sound can be music and the difference is in how we choose to hear it. At least, take that as my working position! Conventional western music organises pitch by dividing an octave into twelve evenly spaced semitones and for the most part, sticking to them like glue. If music is in the hearing of it, then there shouldn't be anything special about these particular notes. Indeed, around the world and over time there are other systems in common use. In
Binaural Recording Techniques
At first recording binaurally seemed a bit exotic but now it's my go-to choice for a lot of stuff! The principal is simple. Normally, a sound wave passes across your head. It reaches one ear first, is delayed and partially absorbed as it carries on, and at some point reaches the next ear. Your brain can work out a lot about what direction a sound came from by the time and tonal differences as it appears at each ear. So far so good. People think of binaural sound as giving a s
