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Caroline Bokman
This weeks' chapter went over digital sampling. Sample rate, bit depth, the algorithyms that smooth the wave form representations, etc. We learned about low pass filters and why you need them (that darn "phase" problem again!) and we learned about Digital-to-Audio Converters and Audio-to-Digital Converters.
There was a lot of history about the first sequencers, samplers, and synthesizers, that I didn't know, and a review of some of the first machines- I have worked with/ seen people use DAT recorders, ADATS. We used to mix down to DAT, I believe there are many tapes still in a closet somewhere! Some bands we knew use ADATs live, to play back pre-recorded tracks, and be able to mix levels on stage, and I vaguely remember some people using mini-discs somewhere...
I, personally, never figured out how to use sequencers or samplers enough to make music with them, but I have played with some of the sounds and samples more recently on a computer....Pretty amazing stuff! How do you decide which sound to use? There are so many!
There was link to an article, in the chapter, about the Fairlight company, the first samplers, and how Peter Gabriel was one of the first adopters of the technology. Not surprising. I remember Nick Rhodes of Duran Duran swore by the Fairlight CMI, (Click to see photo) and I loved their music....Seems like anyone who geeked out on making new sounds had one...not surprised that people like Thomas Dolby, Frank Zappa, Herbie Hancock and Stevie Wonder dove right in using them, as well. (http://www.anerd.com/fairlight/fairlightstory.htm)
We lost Prince this week- SO many synths and samples in Prince's music back in the day....
We learned about how much memory digital music files take, and that lead to covering all the different file types, compressed and un-compressed, as well as the lossy formats, lossless formats and regular full size files (MP3, WMA, vs.FLAC vs. WAV etc...) and finally, the types of cables that will pass enough data at once to carry all that data: Firewire, Thunderbolt, SATA. Classroom tomorrow...
