Sunday 27 October 2013
Back to Russ
The research process has been quite frustrating, given the more specific the investigation, the more irrelevant the research (and past research) becomes. The Sound Synthesis and Sampling book by Martin Russ has been a consistent source throughout the weeks of narrowing sources, and given the potentially more sound-synthesis based approach of my investigation, has gained more relevance.
- (Russ, M. 2009.) Page 12.
- (Russ, M. 2009.) Page 12. Saturday 19 October 2013
Pitch Session 1.0
The pitch session on Friday gave us a chance to tell our lecturer and peers about our projects, and what research we had conducted thus far. During my project research presentation it became apparent that my biologically focused findings might not be immediately relevant to the production requirements of the project as I had mainly discussed my findings on the descended and mobile larynx found in mammals along with the concepts of vocal learning (which would bear no relation to production requirements.)
A suggestion included investigating subtractive synthesis and if possible as an outcome for my project; the creation of a soft/hardware sound effects chain for a tiger emulation system for a human voice. Upon reflecting on this point, I created a very simplified IO diagram;
HUMAN VOICE >>> PROCESS >>> MODIFIED VOICE (Tiger, Etc.)
This "Process" will be what the project will manifest itself with the experimental production/synthesis techniques, along with the informative biology sources.
Preceding this, I also found the full video of the Big Cats episode of Inside Natures Giants that showed the lions mobile and sizable larynx;
http://www.dailymotion.com/gb/relevance/search/inside+natures+giants+big+cats/1#video=xpk1nj
This documentary features an interesting experiment in which Tecumseh Fitch attached a tube to the lions larynx and blew compressed air through it. He then repeated this and pulled the larynx back which change the pitch of the roar, essentially a biological pitch shifter.
A suggestion included investigating subtractive synthesis and if possible as an outcome for my project; the creation of a soft/hardware sound effects chain for a tiger emulation system for a human voice. Upon reflecting on this point, I created a very simplified IO diagram;
HUMAN VOICE >>> PROCESS >>> MODIFIED VOICE (Tiger, Etc.)
This "Process" will be what the project will manifest itself with the experimental production/synthesis techniques, along with the informative biology sources.
Preceding this, I also found the full video of the Big Cats episode of Inside Natures Giants that showed the lions mobile and sizable larynx;
http://www.dailymotion.com/gb/relevance/search/inside+natures+giants+big+cats/1#video=xpk1nj
This documentary features an interesting experiment in which Tecumseh Fitch attached a tube to the lions larynx and blew compressed air through it. He then repeated this and pulled the larynx back which change the pitch of the roar, essentially a biological pitch shifter.
Monday 7 October 2013
Research and Lit Predictions
Given the nature of this project, one of my lecturers was happy with the idea of having a hybrid research approach splitting the technical sound elements along with the biological area of the subject. The reading materials at the moment have been mainly biological, looking at the production of Vocalizations in Mammals and some more specific articles involving the Panthera family.
An interesting clip from "Inside Natures Giants", unfortunately due to copyright issues the full episode is unavailable. This clip details the lions larynx and its movement to produce growls and roars. Interestingly it is still unknown how the roars volume can be so great in amplitude.
- Production of Vocalisations in Mammals; http://homepage.univie.ac.at/tecumseh.fitch/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Fitch2006MammalVocalProd.pdf
- Adapted to Roar: Functional Morphology of Tiger and Lion Vocal Folds; http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0027029
- The larynx of roaring and non-roaring cats; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1256521/
DBB
One of my favorite voice actors in the industry, with over twenty years experience in video games and animation, Dee Baker has taking his talents in a different direction; mainly in the production of sounds for animals and creatures.
One of the most crucial points with his approach is that he rarely alters his recordings post production, as shown in his online portfolio - http://www.deebaker.com/
One of the most crucial points with his approach is that he rarely alters his recordings post production, as shown in his online portfolio - http://www.deebaker.com/
Thursday 3 October 2013
Research Aim Revised
The area of recording/ recreating original animal/creature sounds for media can be problematic dealing with real animals. Investigate the industry practices and techniques that deal with these problems, looking at human vocalizations and production techniques.
(Very rough ballpark aim)
The Honours project itself (main reason for this blog in the first place) would primarily consist of making a sound library (potentially commercial), and conducting some extensions of the techniques explored in the dissertation to create sonic atmospheres and soundscapes, possibly resulting in some sort of game or simulation.
(Very rough ballpark aim)
The Honours project itself (main reason for this blog in the first place) would primarily consist of making a sound library (potentially commercial), and conducting some extensions of the techniques explored in the dissertation to create sonic atmospheres and soundscapes, possibly resulting in some sort of game or simulation.
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