Tim Duck In a New York Times article entitled “They Really Don’t Make Music Like They Used To”, the author Greg Milner discusses the dynamics of classic contemporary (not classical) music compared to current contemporary music. No real surprise that a lot of the most popular music around is from decades ago, and that that music has … Read more Classic Music and Dynamic Range
A few years ago musician greats Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock wrote an open letter to the next generation of artists for NestHQ. The letter is a beautiful piece sharing some key points of their philosophy including awakening to your humanity, embracing the road less travelled, and several others. It can be inspirational for artists. … Read more Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock Letter to Artists
The Web of Stories website has a bunch of videos of some of the “greatest people of our time telling their life stories”, and their collection includes stories from Walter Murch, who is one of the greats of sound design and film editing. I’ve checked out a few of the videos so far, and I … Read more Walter Murch Videos
I currently have a sound installation called Beneath the Surface at Enlighten Festival which runs each evening from 1 March until 10 March in Canberra. The festival is based around projections onto the national institutions based in the parliamentary triangle including the National Library of Australia, Questacon, National Portrait Gallery, National Gallery of Australia and … Read more Beneath the Surface
The Sound Pack Tree has a few basic online sound generators on their website which includes a generator for Shepard tones/ambiences, fireworks and footsteps. Not all of the generators seemed to be loading properly in my browser, but I did have a play with the Shepard tone one in Safari and it is pretty cool. … Read more Online Sound Generators
Sonarworks have put up a fun little web-based EQ game called Match the Mix that might be a useful resource for students just starting to learn the fundamentals of EQ. Check it out at: https://matchthemix.sonarworks.com/
Paul Maunder from Pro Tools Expert published a neat free video tutorial discussing the basics of mixing in surround in Pro Tools Ultimate. It covers a good amount of ground in its 40 or so minutes and serves as a good introduction for people looking to get started in surround mixing in Pro Tools. Check … Read more Intro to Surround Mixing in Pro Tools Video
I remember an episode of Mythbusters where the team set up a few different greenhouses with different sound or lack of sound and found that the plants growing in the greenhouses with more sound generally grew better. A new study has just been released which shows that some flowers respond to pollinator sound within minutes by … Read more Can plants hear?
CBC Radio from Canada released a nice radio interview with Hildegard Westerkamp last year which has some good insights into her philosophy. Westerkamp is an influential sound artist and acoustic ecologist, who is mainly known for her soundscape compositions. The piece touches on the importance of listening and being in the moment (much like mindfulness), … Read more Hildegard Westerkamp on the radio
Yellowstone National Park have done a cool thing by releasing a whole library of sounds that were recorded in the National Park into the public domain. The library includes a bunch of biophony including bird and bear calls, and geophony including geysers. You can access the library online at: https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/photosmultimedia/soundlibrary.htm They also have a short … Read more Yellowstone Sound Library