by Chin-Chin Chen
Moving from Studio B to Studio A, I gained access to more sophisticated equipment, more choices of sound processing and data storage to work with. Therefore, the first idea that came to me was "I want to do a piece, which may be difficult at the beginning but I can get the most out of it." Here came 4 x 4.
4 x 4 is a 4 minute 4-channel composition. All the sound sources were realized from the Buchla through additive and subtractive syntheses, complex and elementary AM and FM. The premise of the composition is to take advantage of the 4-channel system to create a sense of larger space and to move sound within the 4-channel field. In order to achieve this goal, I need not only to pan the sound, but also to use filtering and different reverb times to create different size of space and the sense of sonic movement from near to far (or far to near). I also used SoundDesigner II to place, pan, and reverse the sound.
The formal structure of 4 x 4 is a simple A-B-A form. The A sections consist of mostly dry and percussive sound and are more rhythmic oriented. The last A section also incorporates sounds from the B section, and at the same time introduces new sound as background to support the drier and percussive sound originally in the A section. The B section is more melodic oriented, involves more layers, and introduces more pitch material. In the B section, the background material is created by using a technique called "surround echo" to provide a spacious sense. The result of it reminisces the scene of the coast, therefore, the flute-like trill sound carrying the "good old melodies", the "whistle-like" sound, jumping from channels to channels, analogous to the dialogue among people, and the "running figure", running from one channel to the other and changing the timbre over the time, similar to the surf running towards to the shore are produced within the same context.
A couple of effects I wanted to have in the B section are sounds which emerge from the center of the 4-channel field and eventually dissipate into 4 discrete channels, and vice versa. Professor Wyatt suggested that I create four similar but slightly different sounds for each of the four channels. Through the mixer panel, not only bring the four similar but different sounds into four different mixer bank, but also mix down the four sounds into one single bank. Finally by changing the slider-decreasing the volume of the mix-down and increasing the volume of the four banks, or vice versa-the effect of the sound emerging from the center and then dissipating into 4 individual channels, or vice versa, is achieved.
However, the success of the effect also relies on the nature of the sound itself. If the sound is longer and continuous, the effect works better than if the sound is shorter and percussive. In the latter case, we are unable to feel the effect because we lose the continuity of the sound in order to sense the movement of the sound. In the case of my piece, I lost part of the effect in the density of the section. The texture in section B is very thick, therefore it is hard to single out this effect.
When working with a 4-channel piece, one has to have a very clear mind what needs to be done while one is working. Instead of stereo, one now has two more channels to think of. To place your sound at the right place and the right channel and to synchronize two stereo files into one quadraphonic file are sometimes very crucial-it depends on how stubborn one is. To plan ahead which tape deck to store what kind of sound file (i.e. background, mid-ground, or foreground) is also very important. In order not to lose the fidelity of the sound, one needs to make very good use of all the tape decks available.
However, one also needs to take into consideration of the availability of the dbx units and the mixer inputs - if you are using MIDIVERBII, you need two more inputs for the return of the reverberation.
Generally speaking, this is a very good learning experience and a very good start within Studio A. Through completing this piece, I now know how to efficiently and correctly operating the equipment in Studio A. I feel more comfortable in working with "Mr. Buchla". There is, of course, still more to learn and those will be the goals for the next term.