During January and February 2010, Andy Krumeich and I began work on a Digital Audio Station (DAW) based studio at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.
Monthly Archives: May 2010
Verses That Hurt
Verses That Hurt is a Poetic/Theatrical/Musical performance that took place March 5th and 6th, 2010 at the Armory Free Theatre on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. I collaborated primarily in the area of sound, but also contributed in the original development of the performance, along with the project’s originator, Grant Bowen.
A main element of my sound design for Verses That Hurt was the subway atmosphere. A main idea of the treatment of the performance space was that we wanted to place the audience actually in a subway station. The main environmental element of the experience of being in a subway station is its sound (or maybe its smell, depending on which city…).
Here is a short clip of the subway atmosphere and a train arrival that I created for this show.
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More details on the show and sound design can be found in the documents and photos below:
Verses_That_Hurt_Documentation
Verses That Hurt System Diagram
New Philharmonic
This semester, I have been assisting Jon Schoenoff recording the New Philharmonic Orchestra, under the direction of Music Director and Conductor, Kirk Muspratt.
On April 23rd and 24th, I had the opportunity to record the orchestra myself, which was a great learning experience. This example is from one of the concerts from that weekend:
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This is the documentation for the concerts I was involved in recording:
New_Philharmonic_Recording_Documentation
New Philharmonic Recording System Diagram
The following photos are from the January concertized opera performance of Puccini’s Turnadot. The orchestra mic’ing was supplemented by microphones on the front edge of the stage to highlight the solo singers, and mics were placed in front of the choir and on the organ loudspeakers.
Soloist Mic Placement
Choir Mic Placement
Organ Mic Placement
XenakibloX
Last year, my friend James brought up the idea of building woodblocks specifically for Iannis Xenakis’s Rebonds. Here’s what we came up with:
embedded by Embedded Video
That’s my friend from Truman State University, Scott Quade performing on a set we made. Scott, like many others at the school, is a fantastic percussionist.
Anyway, James had some sketches of a set of blocks which belonged to a former teacher. Along with this, Kolberg makes “Power Blocks”, which are often used for the piece. There is a great video of percussionist Pedro Carniero playing Rebonds B. Carniero’s blocks are cool, but of course I’m partial to “XenakibloX”!
…next up will be designing and building a mounting system for the blocks.
Matt Jacklin, percussion
Recently I had the opportunity to produce and record a project with percussionist Matt Jacklin. We completed two sessions, one week apart in Foellinger Great Hall at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts.
Matt_Jacklin_Recording_Project
We recorded three pieces:
Session I (4.11.2010): Bernard-Francois Machet – Phenix (for vibraphone and 9 tom-toms)
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Session II (4.18.2010): Andrew Thomas – Merlin (for marimba), Jacob Druckman – Reflections on the Nature of Water (for marimba)
Session I Photos:
Session II Photos:
“Red Vibes” Vibraphone Project
This is a vibraphone “rescue” project I completed for a local musician. The instrument was given to him by a friend in derelict condition, and only had the bars (the part that is struck by mallets), the damper bar and the frame intact. It did not include a pedal to operate the damper, or, more importantly, resonators. Because it was given to him by a friend, the instrument has special sentimental value, and it is affectionately called the “Red Vibes”.
- Red Vibes
MAIN IMPROVEMENTS/FEATURES:
Damper System
Damper Bar – New felt on damper bar
Pedal- Completely new, wide damper pedal for easy access while playing through whole range of instrument.
Resonators
Dimensions – 1/4 wavelength one-end-open, one-end-closed (half open) aluminum tubes, 1 3/4″ outer diameter (equal to the bar width).
Tunable – Tube stops made with aluminum discs with rubber o-ring as a seal (similar to a piston in a combustion engine). Each tube stop has a 1/4″ hex bolt through it, allowing each resonator to be tuned individually with a hex wrench.
End Correction – Gap between bar and tube provides end correction for 1/2 open tube resonators. This ensures the vibrating bar is at the anti-node of the wave, which is slightly (about 1/2″) outside the open end of the tube.
Finish- I investigated several finish options, (anodizing, lacquer, etc.), but decided a “brushed” finish would be best (least expensive and cool looking).
Bars (keys)
I cleaned the keys (along with cleaning and lubricating other existing metal parts) using Scotch-Brite, steel wool and acetone.
THE PROJECT
Design
I designed a pedal mechanism which would mate to the existing damper bar hardware and that would be easy to remove and reassemble at performances. I had it machined from aluminum at Wagner Machine Co. in Champaign, IL (they were in Urbana, IL at the time). This was the easy part…
Because the resonators are part of the sound-producing system of this instrument, designing and building them was particularly challenging. They needed to work with the existing frame and be easy to assemble/disassemble, in addition to making the instrument sound better.
The operating principle of resonators in keyboard instruments is that when a vibrating bar is situated near the end of a tube of equal fundamental frequency (f0), the column of air in the tube will vibrate sympathetically. Because the bar and tube resonate sympathetically at f0, but have different resonances at the harmonics (fn), f0 is amplified more than the higher harmonics. This means that the loudness of f0 is greater than the loudness of fn, making the instrument sound less “bright” or more “mellow”. There may be matching of higher harmonics between the resonator and bar, along with the vibraphone, but the main amplification is at f0. This is the signature sound of the vibraphone, and what I sought to achieve in my design.
Fabrication and Assembly
As mentioned above, the damper pedal was machined at Wagner Machine Co.:
- Pedal Assembly
- Pedal Assembly
Note that significant mass has been removed from the pedal to keep the action lighter.
- Pedal bottom
Wagner was also the site of drilling the holes for the resonator tubes and rails. The tubes were cut using a plumbing pipe cutter. The brushed finish was achieved using sandpaper, steel wool and Scotch-Brite with the tube spinning on a metal lathe. The tubes are attached to the rails by round head hex bolts and nylon-insert lock nuts.
- Resonators – rough
U-Channel aluminum was used for the endpiece on each resonator set. The original instrument included a small metal bracket with a raised knob in the middle. The U-Channel endpiece has a hole into which the knob fits, holding the resonators in place.
The curve of the resonators made smoother after the “rough” photo above was taken. The curve was made more smooth.
- Improved curves
- Improved curves
The vibes on a sunny fall day before being returned to their owner!
- Red Vibes’ day in the sun