Back to Du More

Coming to you live and living from Bangkok airport. I've finished university for the year and I've got 10 hours to kill on this stop over, so what else would I be doing with a free internet connection but updating a neglected blog?

I'm going back to Kathmandu to assist Greg once more in his pursuit of world music so that I can get more sound recordist experience. I'm hoping to be more focussed on the recordings this time. It's never not about the adventure because that is a by-product of pursuing what interests you but I feel less like a wide eyed deer in the headlights. I don't know how much has actually changed though.

Once again it was a spontaneous trip to a travel agent on a pay day that spurred ideas into action. It was Greg mentioning 'I've always wanted to do this trek, it just got cheaper, we might get to meet a king, I've got a lot of gear and I need someone to operate Logic for me.' Well that was it, of course I had to go, I might get to have tea with a king in a forbidden kingdom and record previously unrecorded monks!

Everything is still up in the air but hopefully my aspirations will be realised. I'll be just as happy to hang out in Kathmandu for a bit over a month, do a bit of this and that and make some cool recordings. The only real downer is the lack of my lady, six weeks apart sucks for two people who are rarely apart for more than 12 hours. Oh well, I've gotta see a kat and man I've got things to du!

More soon-ish

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6 Months On

Here we are in '08 and I've been back since February. Haven't had much to add because there hasn't been much to report. I've been busy at uni and I've barely had a chance to touch the audio that I've got let alone get my hands on the rest of the suff that wasn't recorded on my mac. Bad news though, my T.C died and I am thoroughly itching to get some mics together and get back to pointing mics at things.

Being back in Sydney and keeping busy it has been very hard to keep all that I've taken away from my experiences. Financial discipline, dedication to goals and especially keeping fit but if theres one thing I haven't lost, its listening. One particular memory always drives home for me how important it is as a devotee of sound to be listening. We were in the last village of our trek, recording some beautiful chanting through some beautiful mics on a night so cold it couldn't be anything but beautiful, what a good night to be listening.
Of course being as keen as I was to keep on top of things and prove that I could keep good records and be a good 'operator' I thought, 'Hey, why not quietly type some notes on this and that about the performance to help with editing etc later.'. Of course this is an issue with uber sensitive DPA mics and was quite a double standard on my part because we were constantly telling our kind villagers that even though the mic wasn't pointed at them, it could still 'hear' them. Then there was me oblivious to the damage I was causing, going 'Tap, taptap, tap' When Greg or George kindly and patiently tapped on my shoulder telling me to be quiet what was my response? 'Oh sorry! I'll type more quietly...' 'tap.....tap.......taptap' Not my smartest moment ever.
This was not met with kind comments at the first break in recording because it was thought I ws typing emails to my Alexandra or something, I was given a little more slack when my good intentions were revealed. The point was missed by me at the time but now I feel that I've learnt it, I should've been listening to the recording! Should've been stuck in the music in the atmosphere rather than contributing "Tap, tap tap taptap tap" to it. What can I say I'm just another product of my generation convinced that I know best and I'm totally listening even though my left brain is being occupied by a fiddly text editor. Sorry Greg.
So lesson learnt, LISTEN. Just stop trying to be clever and LISTEN! The rest comes later. This applies to the rest of it as well. When you sit down and listen to some music instead of just consuming it on the train to work or wherever. We sit down to sitcoms or food and indulge sight and taste so why not sit down and endulge the ears. It takes patience and a quality reproduction system helps but this aural experience once appreciated is addictive. You may find you crave more harmonic structure than drum, bass and lead vocal. You may find you desire a finer response from your system and choose to listen to .wav s instead of .mp3s or even vinyl if you're a fan of the fine ritual it entails. I digress, but really just listen.

My T.C should soon be resurrected, I spoke to Amber Tech Australia and it wasn't anything major, just some tired pots. The 3 analogue components of the system ate it after 4 months on the road and daily use thereafter and thats really quite acceptable and better still I'm told I'll be getting better pots as soon as Amber recovers from the recent SMPTE show. The digital side of things couldn't be better and truth be told I really miss my T.C converters. I listen back to over the standard jack on the mac and the difference is astounding. I don't know what it is, Its the sound of headroom, stability, I don't know its just a subtle, beautiful difference though.
When I am reKonnekted to T.C I'll be hunting for some microphones. At the top of my list is the DPA SMK4060, a favourite from the trip due to size, character, binaural compatibility and thrift! Next is the DPA Shotgun with the Rycote windshield, quite a lovely mic and useful should I attain location recording work. I also think an M-S rig would be fabulous but cost factor makes it unattainable for me to obtain perhaps a nice scheops rig. I'd consider the Neumann KM series but have had many bad experiences with them and ribbon mics are still just not rugged enough. I've also checked out the AT 4050 capsuled X-Y mic and I think for the price and size It'd be a great tool to have on location but you can't separate capsules if you decide you want too do ORTF and a pair of 4050s are just too big for me.
I think right now if I had my way, I'd have my DPA omnis and shotgun and 2 scheops cardioids and 2 bi-directionals. 7 mics capable of just about anything. This is gear lust (which makes one into a gear slut) though and its something I wish I could avoid becuase it is both irritating and counterproductive. I thought I left it behind when I went overseas. I guess it was waiting for me when I came back. What to do though? Keep busy, extended periods of lethargy are destructive and lead to dowdy-ness and old age.
I think I need to go back to Nepal again, hang out for a month with the worlds coolest and nicest musicians, try put in to practice what I was learning the first time. Sounds like a plan.

Back in Kathmandu,

Relaxing for now, trying to sort out a recording rig so that I might get some world music down of my own personal interest and decide whether I'm interested in continuing to use this T.C gear or not.

I've been a big fan of the quality of the equipment and found it easy to use despite very little chance to learn it and get my head around it, especially the incredible routing of the Konnekt 48 exacerbated by beta quality drivers for the mac. 

From what I've seen though, its been incredibly stable and bug free on the P.C platform and has integrated well with programs like live, Cubase and Logic (Mac). The Konnekt 24 has been quite a great little device to use despite being a bit heavy (justified by all of its ins and outs) and really shows potential for a 12+ track interface for a hobby to semi-pro studio because of its built in DSP and firewire interface. In fact going from Pro Tools and USB powered Mbox land, I've found the quality of the converters and Pres markedly better even to my amatuer ears because of the ability to draw more current and supply more headroom. Also the T.C software does provide a number of ways to work from more traditional studio work to Audiophile direct to stereo recordings and would probably suit people from many different head spaces.

The DPA mics have also been probably the most fitting mics I could've fathomed for this project with quality so transparent its hard to appreciate. Through a good set of monitors and a good stereo set up even studio owners we've collaborated with have been blown away because the sound is just so true to life on everything from sitars and Tablas to flutes and more! Its been quite a revalation for me because coming from a college focussed on western pop recording I've been used to selecting mics for delivering particular quality and timbre and been essentially taught that omni is a bit useless. 

Now, I've seen a a single 4041 used to record male and female vocals and just work so incredibly! not having to worry about whether it suits or not and just being able to get on with tracking. Using the mics with the on axis presence boost has also allowed great control over picking up the different qualities of the voice. Its a sort of EQ transparent before any sort of processing and allows you to scan which part of the mouth, nose or chest you want to pick up to get the best of or minimise the worst of a performer.

The other real stand out for me was making some incredibly convincing binaural recording with DPA's minature omnis which fit perfectly into the opening of the ear canal (allowing for encoding by the Pinnae) and super good low frequency response. The other plus was that despite tripping over and having long hair, the mics did not display any sign of picking up microphonics off the cable or transferrance from my internal noises like walking, breathing, swallowing etc.

By the way, this does sound even to me, a lot like a plug for the companies that supplied us with their best gear and made our recording possible but is honestly just my observations over almost 3 months of usage and testing under the careful watch of Greg Simmons, who wouldn't let us screw up a recording lest a performance be lost forever. And, I can't think of any other gear that I'd rather have had exposure to. The only thing I would suggest is that DPA bring out a bi-directional mic for the sake of being able to make an M-S or blumlein array because I think that it would allow any audiophile to have an all purpose recording toolbox with only 6 microphones, (2 Omnis, 2 Cardioids and 2 Bi-directionals)

More Later...

Okay,

I know I haven't actually talked a lot about the GEOS project itself since I started this blog but now I intend to actually start recounting the events of the project but no photos still I'm sorry because the internet here is still surprisingly dodgy!

I can't believe how unprepared I was for this whole event. When I got to Kathmandu and acclimatised and I'd read our itinerary 100 times it still didn't really occur to me that we'd be only be trekking for 4 days. I thought I had a handle on our technology too, coming from Pro Tools into Logic and T.C electronic. When it came time to actually use the technology, I was useless. Now that I'm travelling India independently, its been one hurdle after another and since I have the luxury this time, I'm giving up.

More from Kathmandu...

Agra

Agra has been an interesting experience second time around. In a smaller group and with a less stringent time frame. We've definitely been taken advantage of by one particular local and we'll laugh about it as long as we get on our train tonight and we get to varanasi on the 26th. So much to the point we've dubbed them 'Agli' expenses.
We've seen the Taj and Agra fort and some more of Agra but for the most part we're just looking forward to moving on from Agra. Hopefully more from Varanasi!

9a.m the day Alexandra arrives.

I'm waiting on Kathmandu to wake up and then I can try to organise for a member of the GEOS project to deliver some mics and a cable to Alexandra before she leaves for Dehli. Skype has been my biggest weapon in this battle to try and get this trip happening. I'm keenly waiting on something to pop up in my gmail inbox telling me, its okay we've sorted something out.

Meanwhile how big a filthy stereotype tourist am I? Around the other side of the world and I'm in a a cafe on a laptop hiding from the world outside. The world of monolithic graves made of marble and families deforming their children for life to make a dollar off you. Its a world of wonder and a different world altogether. While I'm not dropping my rupees into any hand fixed at a reflex angle, I feel nothing but compassion for those at the bottom of the social ladder of a country whose values stop it coming together to help everyone. The resources of a billion people and you've got to see the result of selfish enterprise for yourself. We're no better though, I wasn't concerned about the origin of the beans in my coffee or the condition of the poor guy who harvested them. I wasn't too worried about anything but the price when I bought the computer this is written, not the temperature in china where it was made but thats okay because it was 'Designed in california'

What do you do? Be an armchair activist? Sell everything and give the money all away and put yourself in the low position? I don't know, if I find an answer I'll be sure to shout it from the rooftops for you.

A Tense Day

Hi all,

Having a crazy day. The GEOS project is officially out of its initial recording phase and I'm about to venture off to India with my lovely Alexandra to have our own trip and hopefully make some more GEOS and phonographic recordings.

My hotmail account is frozen, there has been a gear mix up and I'll have to spend a night in Delhi without any of the friends I have made on the GEOS project and we only have a narrow window of hours to rectify our situation. Lets hope for the best.