4 ways.

For The Ixi-Ensemble task we have been set, we have to record the piece and mix it in Logic ready for hand in.
Each group spent the first hour and half recording and perfecting their respective pieces, speaking personally, our group because of nagging Ixi-problems with Jim’s program, did one-off take, that I don’t think we were happy with.

We were then shown how to use each of the 4 speakers through the main I-Mac and how to set each part through a different channel and then using the surround sound automation in Logic to move the sound around the room, gave us so much to work with, unfortunately we were only able to have a quick 15/20 minute slot to sort the levels out and mix, ultimately it sounded Ok. However I think our group is agreed in spending an afternoon/evening re-recording until we are satisfied, then tweak it using the setup in Hel 040 and I think we can come up with something pretty good.
This suits the style we have opted for in our piece, which we weren’t able to convey over our laptop speakers. It gives us so much opportunity to experiment with space and sound, which can have so much difference on the way you hear a piece.

Ixi Performance Week 2

From our second performance in class using Ixi, we have had to critically analyse each groups performance again.

The Donuts – I liked their much improved piece on last week. They had a good use of tempo change, reverse drums and a much clearer idea of what they wanted to do. There was a good addition of pattern in the middle, however it was overshadowed by the use of a vocal scratch which I didn’t think was so effective.

Dos Pendejous – Despite being 2 members down, James and Piotr did a really good job. Their piece was much more abstract and minimal in comparison to last weeks drum orientated piece, nice use of octave changes to make the piece sound structure, although it lacked in depth because of 2 guys missing, they had also tried to play 3 or 4 things each to counteract this, which didn’t really work, but hugely improved and a shame other guys had let them down.

The Memory Sticks – A more abstract version of the piece heard last week, there was some nice sounds bringing in around the soft repeating sine tones, which was the base for which others could work their processes around. A very nice low pitched ambient sound resonated every so often to give contrast to the high pitched sine tones. The piece fades out slowly, again an improvement on last weeks performance.

The Chavs – This was my favourite piece, a processed piece that was very good last week, but even better this week. Better spacial awareness meant the processes were overlapping and not becoming tangled with each other, so you could hear the piece moving clearer, high pitched ambience underneath the piece was very effective and drew me in even more than before.

Where is Andrew Kinnsey (Us) – I felt we’d rehearsed a better piece than we performed, we had better direction and I was very much aware of what we were all doing at any given point, but I didn’t get the ending right and I think the communication got a little muddled at that point, so it kind of petered out instead of the ending we had worked on.

 

Ixi Performance Review.

All 5 groups shared their work to the class after a week of meeting up and ‘jammin’ something out on Ixi Quarks.

Group 1 – I was pleased about our performance, we had met up as a group twice, both times with different results, but we decided to perform the more abstract piece, which we felt gave the piece more room to breathe and although at times it seemed unstructured, we felt it there was room for more improvisation which involved us listening to each other, I think the structure needs to be worked on I have my own ideas to put forward to the group, but all in all pretty satisfied.

Group 2 – I thought their process was excellent, the use of vocal snippets repeating as a hook, but not as a platform, that drew you into their piece. Then the improvisation over the piece was itself an attractive part, drawing the listener from the sense that they knew were the piece was headed, the ending was after all the processes had finished. Making a very good piece.

Group 3 – Third group had made a similar piece to Group 2 but the lack of practice and listening to each (as well as Gemma’s laptop crashing) let them down, it was clearer there was far less of a process and more emphasis on improvisation, I liked the slow ending with a sequence of notes repeating as the other parts faded out.

Group 4 – Built their piece around a drum loop, which immediately gave the piece a structure, but there was far too much going on, in my own opinion, to make sense of each part and to understand what everyone’s role in the piece was. I felt that they were using the drum loop as a base and all trying to make noise together like a traditional track.

Group 5 – Built their piece around a drum loop but used tempo change to stop the perception that the drum loop was repeating over and over. Also use of speech worked well with the other part, however I felt the Scale Synth needed to correlate to the piece more if it was going to be used,

I have learnt most from Group 2, I think they went in with a very good plan and executed it well, it gives me ideas on how to move our piece without changing our original idea, I think if we can make a clear definition between beginning, middle and end so our audience can recognise the definite change, it means even though our piece is not held together by any kind of beat, it can still be understood in terms of structure. I also learnt, regardless of how many times they had practised, that they all knew what their role within the group was and stayed within their parameters, that is the main difference between what they did and what most people did.

There were bits of each group’s piece that was excellent, but not enough care in planning or execution meant sometimes each piece wasn’t moving in a clear direction, which given we’ve only had a week to practise and learn the software is pretty understandable, but I think it all shows we all have the creativity, it’s just learning off each other as much as being taught to critical analyse each other that will improve our pieces.