The project started as a joke, but like everything Justin touches, it's elegant and thought-provoking. (He and I worked together closely during the early days of the Digital Media site.) I told him it reminded me of the One-Minute Vacation field recordings, although the photos take it to another level.
Justin and Stephanie use a Zoom H2 handheld surround recorder, which Justin picked up after reading our review. The H2 has four built-in microphones — two facing forward and angled 90° apart and two facing the other way, angled 120° apart. The H2 can save stereo recordings from either pair or mix all four mic signals into a super-stereo file.
Justin reveals, "We use different mics depending on the scenario. The 120° is great for ambient handheld, because I can see the LCD readout while recording. I use the 90° mics if the sound is really localized, and the 2-channel surround if I'm trying to capture a 360° environment, like the food court at the mall."
I really like this concept of pairing audio snapshots with visual ones. It's a richer form of street photography and reminds us that life comes at us in fascinating little slices.]]>
Wondering which handheld digital audio recorder to buy? Guitarist and recording engineer Mark Nelson just compiled this helpful comparison chart based on his detailed reviews. Mark is one of the few people on the planet to have used each of the top recorders extensively, recording everything from Hawaiian surf to wild coyotes, so he has an especially deep perspective.
As the guy who edits Mark's reviews, I read every word, so I especially enjoy how he turns each review into a story. Consider this passage, from his review of the Edirol R-09. It's miles from the typical lab-coat test:
even mobile devices, which tend to have more sophisticated Audio UIs (i.e. ringtones), are still pretty simple ... and not just phones, anymore. i recently picked up a lovely red Cybershot camera, which sports a touchscreen AND a very nice, very transparent, very Sony, set of system sounds.
the more complex yet amazingly harmonious Sidekick Audio UI (he said, blowing on his fingertips) actually only consists of about 16 different sounds, plus a few standards (like "sad clown" low-battery). i get some extra mileage using combinations, but it's still "one event = one audio file," again and again and again, so it's no surprise that many customers run silent (except for the ringtones, of course).
it's the curse of video game repetition!! it's space invaders circa 1981, and every time you hit Fire!, it plays that same exact low-rez "lazer" waveform, over and over and over and over and over and AMAN! that's why it's so annoying!!!
game audio guys will do whatever's necessary to avoid that kind of repetition, and numerous techniques have been developed to prevent it. when you run around in grand theft auto or halo, you don't hear the same two footstep samples over and over -- the footfall sounds change depending on many different factors (speed, weight, terrain, material, etc etc etc).
in fact, since you must vary the sounds over time, how to do it becomes "a big question with a short answer" => you vary them "appropriately".
you can vary them in a way that conveys information to the user about game states (now i'm running in boots over concrete), or survival tactics (there's an enemy in the grass over there). you can vary them so they sound more like the natural world (each cricket chirp slightly different than the others). you can vary them completely at random, simply to increase the amount of variation ...
SO (and here comes the big leap) how about if you did the exact same thing for Audio UI?
how about if you generated sounds based on the context of your interaction with the device. for example, instead of that same frackin' doorslam whenever someone logs off AOL IM, the system could generate an "exit" sound based on the guy's screen name ...
how about varying the sound of typing using a stochastic algorithm, so instead of playing the same beep for every keystroke, the device played subtle melodies based on what you were texting. you could vary the pitch, the volume ("exclamation point" louder than "comma"), the length ("period" shorter than "underscore"), by letter, by modifier key, by phase of the moon ... or by all of the above.
that way, the Audio UI becomes more like a game soundtrack: never played the same way twice, always changing based on user interaction -- but that's just the beginning ...
imagine if the system could predict what you'd *expect* to hear in a given situation. let's say you command-F a word on a web page: if found, generate a "there it is" sound based on the search criteria; if not, generate a "hmm, not there" sound ... based on the same criteria. the two sounds would be different but complimentary.
imagine if the system knew you were displaying a set of responses to a query: it could then play the little "plink plink plink" as the entries appeared, like they always do in the movies. you could then be fairly sure that the next "enter" would actually mean "select this item," and so the system could generate a "selected" sound, instead of just playing the "pushed a button" beep. here's one of my favorite examples of this:
because everything i know i learned on Star Trek.
so i bought one --
because i could,
because it was my birthday,
because i had an AT&T landline i could convert,
because i wanted to see what the competition was up to,
because i wanted to check out what my colleagues had been working on,
because it was hip and trendy (and i'm never hip and trendy),
and because i wanted to use it as the punchline to the opening joke of my conference presentations that fall [1].
later, i realized that the number on my dog's tag was the same as the iPhone, which means:
"i'm so wireless, my dog has an iPhone"
look at the steinway piano action: an unbelievably complex mechanical apparatus, designed (evolved) to provide a tactile interface for producing expressions of the human spirit.
that's deep, when you think about it, but can be said to varying degrees about any keyboard anywhere, including the one i'm typing on right now (macbook pro).
your brain uses the same mechanism for playing 88 black and whites as it does for touch typing - muscle memory. i can play that kick-ass, funky-fast, blues riff, because after a thousand repetitions, that neural pathway is seriously burned in. i just fire it off and my fingers remember what it feels like to move that way, in rapid succession, bam bam bam (big finish!)
typing is the same thing: i think the word, the fingers move, in sequence, to exactly the right places, by touch. that's true whether you're using all ten fingers ... or just your thumbs. the reason we are even having this conversation, is because the thumb keyboard on the sidekick feels so good, even paris hilton could use it. personally, after 6 years of practice, i can work it freakishly fast ...
note to mr. jobs: dear sir, i really like your products, but
TOUCH SCREEN TYPING IS NEVER EVER GOING TO WORK.
if there is no tactile response, there is no keyboard, end of story. typing on the iPhone is like trying to play piano keys painted on a tabletop -- can't be done, and i've stopped trying. [2]
There's this comedian, Al Franken. He used to write for Saturday Night Live in the 70's and one time I saw him do this sketch: "Hi, my name is Al Franken, and because I make a living doing comedy on television, anything I use during my act on television is, by definition, a business expense, and therefore is ... tax deductible. This suit, for instance, which I purchased specifically to wear on the show, is part of my act, and therefore is ... tax deductible. Here's a photograph of me and my wife and my kids on vacation in the Bahamas, and now, because I used it in my act, that vacation is ... tax deductible. Here's a picture of my new car. Here's my new house!"
Here's my new iPhone!
something like a pin sculpture, where the pinheads are pixels, and the contour is computer generated -- a smooth surface with glossy graphics that bumps up pushable buttons on request, provides variable magnetic resistance for detents, and goes back to flat, at will. the surface reconfigures itself automagically for sliding, dialing, typing, gaming, music production, whatever. label the buttons, dials, and switches with letters, symbols, animated glyphs, photos, video, anything you want.
so, crazy piano player, or materials science visionary? time will tell ...
one summer, in the opening band on the 'hard at play' tour, i watched huey lewis and the news get up on stage and do "power of love," every night, every encore, each time like they meant it, like they loved it, like they hadn't done it 850,000 times before. it was really quite a performance, and taught me a valuable lesson:
if you ain't having fun,
i hate sketches in general. nobody considers the pencil drawing to be the finished asset, but most people can't hear that an audio sketch is not the real thing unless you say "this is the sketch, this is not the real thing." even then, they can only hear the difference if you play them side by side (or as audio guys say, if you A-B them).
then it's "oh, of course, the fully orchestrated version you spent three months producing is much better than the quick take you banged out on the piano last night" ... but here's the problem: the use of sketches as placeholders during product development.
if you play ANY sound again and again in a certain context, your ear will become trained to expect it, to anticipate it, to react badly if you don't hear it, or when, god forbid, you should hear something else. Once the client or producer gets accustomed to the sketch, anything else he hears can sound "wrong ... i liked it better the other way!"
there's the reverse angle too: you play them the sketch, and they say "oh my god what is that horrible noise!?" you try to explain that the final version won't sound like that, but the truth is:
a) they can't hear what's in your head, and
b) you don't really know how the final version will sound until it actually exists!
you just have to trust that they think that you know what you're doing.
one time, during a project bid, i brought in a piano sketch of what was to be a big broadway show tune, complete with flashing lights and dancing girls, and the QA guy (who obviously wanted the gig for himself) said "that sounds just like what i was gonna do!" i think he was trying to pay me a compliment, but i had to resist an urge to whup him upside the head ...
4. when you hear the final product, say "it needs more dobly"
look, fella, i've been using my ears to pay the rent for 30 years now, and despite age, entropy, and playing the blues, they still seem to function pretty well. in fact, they are the essential tool i use to do my job. sound design is the art of listening, and if my sense of hearing was a muscle, i'd be arnold freakin' schwarzenegger, ok?
of course, when an audio guy is actually using his finely toned and highly trained ears, it's sometimes difficult to distinguish the activity from napping. he just sits there, eyes closed, not moving ... but inside his head, amazing feats of cognitive prowess! frequency analyzation, pattern recognition, beat mapping, and more (the snoring is just a by-product).
although ear training is necessary, listening is a talent, like cooking, acting, and basketball -- some people are really good at it; others, nnnot so much. nobody expects me to be able to dunk, and i don't expect you to pick out the 2nd trombone part of an ellington arrangement. but few things annoy an audio guy more than listening to some wannabe pretend to have solid gold ears (when they're obviously made of tin).
5. misspell his name in the credits
here's the thing: while life as a road dog piano player was tough, i never once felt like i got screwed out of a credit. onstage, there was always a "and on keyboards, that guy!" at the end of the night. in the studio, seemed like folks were always careful to get the name right, since often, credit was all you was gonna get.
my favorite credit is for a CD i ain't even on! when i first joined joe louis walker and the bosstalkers, i toured behind 'live at slim's' because he'd fired the guy on the album (joe had a reputation for being hard on piano players). at shows, fans would ask me to sign the CD, which i would, thinking "i'm not on this album." then, he released 'live at slim's, volume 2', which contained a 'special thanks' to yours truly for touring behind the first one. i used to sign it "i'm not on this one either!" (and then, right before he went into the studio again - he fired me! like i said :)
BUT in the brave new world of multimedia, i can't tell you the number of times my credits have been completely whacked. products have shipped containing all my sounds and/or music, my name nowhere to be found. conversely, i've been credited for games i never even heard of, let alone worked on. one guy first dissed, then took credit for my work in the same article, and another guy asked the publisher to remove my name from a credit list, so that his name could go on instead.
my favorite screwup: years ago, i wrote and produced (what i thought was) a smokin' blues tune for a Simpsons product, a MIDI-rendered "cutting session" between lisa simpson and bleedin' gums murphy. i sweated hard on that one, wanted it to sound as authentic as possible, used custom sax samples specifically designed for the purpose, even had one with a funky loop that, when played out of range, sorta growled. as a final finesse, i worked the first bar of the simpsons theme halfway into the solo, a "quote" as it were, like throwing "donna lee" into a jazz improvisation. i thought it a clever conceit until the product was released, and the credit read "Moanin' Lisa by Danny Elfman" (d'oh!)
of course, none of it matters, i still gots paid, but annoying? oh yeah ...
- pdx
disclaimer:
gentle reader, please remember, these words written by the bard
that aptly limn my little blog: "dying is easy, but comedy is hard"]]>
