Zvokovanje

01/02/2024

All that jazz...

09/01/2024

13/12/2023

Prideš na Mix & Mastering Masterclass? Za Zvokovanje, John Crosby!

24/11/2023

Forgive me Father for I have synthed...

27/08/2023

BRIAN ENO ON THE LOSS OF HUMANITY IN MODERN MUSIC

In music, as in film, we have reached a point where every element of every composition can be fully produced and automated by computers. This is a breakthrough that allows producers with little or no musical training the ability to rapidly turn out hits. It also allows talented musicians without access to expensive equipment to record their music with little more than their laptops. But the ease of digital recording technology has encouraged producers, musicians, and engineers at all levels to smooth out every rough edge and correct every mistake, even in recordings of real humans playing old-fashioned analogue instruments. After all, if you could make the drummer play in perfect time every measure, the singer hit every note on key, or the guitarist play every note perfectly, why wouldn’t you?

One answer comes in a succinct quotation from Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies, which Ted Mills referenced in a post here on Miles Davis: “Honor Your Mistakes as a Hidden Intention”. (The advice is similar to that Davis gave to Herbie Hancock, “There are no mistakes, just chances to improvise.”) In the short clip at the top, Eno elaborates in the context of digital production, saying “the temptation of the technology is to smooth everything out.”

But the net effect of correcting every perceived mistake is to “homogenize the whole song,” he says, “till every bar sounds the same… until there’s no evidence of human life at all in there.” There is a reason, after all, that even purely digital, “in the box” sequencers and drum machines have functions to “humanize” their beats—to make them correspond more to the looseness and occasional hesitancy of real human players.

This does not mean that there is no such thing as singing or playing well or badly—it means there is no such thing as perfection. Or rather, that perfection is not a worthy goal in music. The real hooks, the moments that we most connect with and return to again and again, are often happy accidents. Mills points to a whole Reddit thread devoted to mistakes left in recordings that became part of the song. And when it comes to playing perfectly in time or in tune, I think of what an atrocity would have resulted from running all of The Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main Street through a digital audio workstation to sand down the sharp edges and “fix” the mistakes. All of its shambling, mumbling, drunken barroom charm would be completely lost. That goes also for the entire recorded output of The Band, or most of Dylan’s albums (such as my personal favorite, John Wesley Harding).

To take a somewhat more modern example, listen to “Sirena” from Australian instrumental trio Dirty Three, above. This is a band that sounds forever on the verge of collapse, and it’s absolutely beautiful to hear (or see, if you get the chance to experience them live). This recording, from their album Ocean Songs, was made in 1998, before most production went fully digital, and there are very few records that sound like it anymore. Even dance music has the potential to be much more raw and organic, instead of having singers’ voices run through so much pitch correction software that they sound like machines.

There is a lot more to say about the way the albums represented above were recorded, but the overall point is that just as too much CGI has often ruined the excitement of cinema (we’re looking at you, George Lucas) —or as the digital “loudness wars” sapped much recorded music of its dynamic peaks and valleys—overzealous use of software to correct imperfections can ruin the human appeal of music, and render it sterile and disposable like so many cheap, plastic mass-produced toys. As with all of our use of advanced technology, questions about what we can do should always be followed by questions about what we’re really gaining, or losing, in the process.

Source:
https://www.openculture.com/2023/08/brian-eno-on-the-loss-of-humanity-in-modern-music.html

01/08/2023

01/02/2023

New Power Generation :-)
Hvala za pozornost

09/01/2023

Od prometnih nesreč do generalnih vaj, trije manjkajo. Ampak smo začeli Zvokovanje 2023 :-)

06/12/2022

A veš kaj bi ti mogu? Ti bi mogu met te šole online, k je ful dobr, a veš, predstavitve na jutubu ... "Hvala ne" prekinem tiste, ki mi to pravijo.
Najprej se mi sploh ne ljubi gledat v kamero in si izmišljevat hipotetičnih rešitev za namišljene probleme. Ne, navdihujejo me živi ljudje z dejanskimi problemi, taki polni entuzijazma, ki me spomni kako sem pred štirimi desetletji prosjačil prijatelje in znance, če grem lahko z njimi na snemanja. Potem ne verjamem, da obstajajo univerzalne rešitve. Vem da si večina želi preprostih receptov: "Ej Janez, kateri plugin naj inštaliram, da bom slaven?" hja ... talent, strastna predanost, znanje in izkušnje žal niso za digitalizacijo. In recepti, še tako dobri, ne naredijo dobrega kuharja. Res pa obstaja polno dobrodošlih drobnih fines (sol se ne daje v vroče olje, kurkuma se s poprom ojača, pomfri je bolje pred cvrtjem dobro namakati v vodi in osušiti ...). Torej vabim na "kuharski" tečaj, Mix & Mastering masterclass, kamor boste prinesli svoje sešne, s katerimi ste imeli kakršnekoli težave. Seveda, če ste s svojimi miksi in masterji 100% zadovoljni, ostanite doma in v svojem studiju ustvarjajte naprej. Če pa bi radi razširjali obzorja in se štiri ponedeljke-torke v januarju 2023 družili s sebi podobnimi, pridite v studio Metro na supervizijo:
https://forms.gle/5WwLyN74vtqPgpKn7

27/10/2022

https://forms.gle/1mkvCpZiin3QH2cS9

04/10/2022

Zavod za kulturne dejavnosti Vertigo Ljubljana v sodelovanju z Invida Produkcijska Hiša in RTV Slovenija pripravlja novo oddajo z naslovom ‘50 skladb, ki so nas zapele’. Gre za televizijsko oddajo iz sklopa serije, v kateri bodo avtorji skušali predstaviti niz ikoničnih slovenskih skladb.

V oddaji, ki jo vodi Luka Novak, je tokrat gostoval slovenski producent, snemalni mojster, ustanovitelj in ravnatelj šole Zvokovanje, John Crosby (Janez Križaj). Intervju je potekal v prostorih Studia Metro, oddaja pa bo na sporedu v kratkem na RTV Slovenija.

Fotografija: Simona Kralj

04/10/2022

"Ali res misliš, da lahko nekoga izšolaš za tonca?" me je nekoč vprašal Aco Razbornik. "Ne" sem iskreno odgovoril. Mislim, da se tonski tehnik rodi in naredi sam. Izkušnje pa so me prepričale, da lahko tistemu, ki hodi po svoji poti, to pot znatno olajšam, pokažem bližnjice in pohitrim njegov razvoj do boljših rezultatov. Od pojasnjevanja splošnih konceptov in filozofije delovnih postopkov, akustike in psihoakustike, do nazornega reševanja (Tips & Tricks) konkretnih problemov glasbene produkcije - več ima nekdo vprašanj, več odgovorov bo dobil ;-)
Za januar 2023 planiramo dva sklopa delavnic, sobote in nedelje "Osnove glasbene produkcije" ter ponedeljki in torki "Mix & Mastering" masterclass namenjen bolj izkušenim oblikovalcem zvoka. Če se zanimate za obisk katere od teh (ali obeh) delavnic, vljudno vabljeni to soboto, 8. oktober ob 17h, na informativni pogovor v Studio Metro

19/02/2022

If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four.
If still boring, then eight. Then sixteen. Then thirty-two.
Eventually one discovers that it is not boring at all.
- John Cage

Karaoke Kid.
If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four.
If still boring, then eight. Then sixteen. Then thirty-two.
Eventually one discovers that it is not boring at all.
- John Cage

26/01/2022

Long Play...

14/12/2021

Karaoke Kid

14/10/2021

Zvokovanje: Mix & mastering seminarji

01/10/2021

Iz tišine se rodi glasba

11/09/2021

23. oktober 2021 ob 11'55, Zvokovanje - informativni dan ;-)

Sreda 13. september ob 18ih v Studio Metro:
Janez Križaj: 2. Informativni dan Šole za oblikovanje zvoka Zvokovanje

02/08/2021

/ Lao Tzu /

01/05/2021

Zvočna trafika na newyorškem Times Squaru

The Lot Radio oddaja iz legendarnega kioska K67 na newyorškem Times Squaru od 1. -31. maja 2021!

22/02/2021

26/01/2021

Misel dneva nemškega oblikovalca Kurta Weidemanna...