“Communication is key.” This is phrase we hear a lot of times. We focus so much on the things we feel we need to say, and most of the time we get it right. However, there is a major aspect that we forget to address – tone.

In music, composers and [smart] producers use timbre and orchestration to set a mood or tone to whatever message they’re communicating in their music.  Sometimes it works, other times it doesn’t – personal taste – but I assume that the writer knew what he was trying to say and how he wanted to say it: What Makes Good Writing?

Timbre is what helps us tell the difference between a piano and violin or any combination of intsruments. The tonal colour is unique for each instrument. Regardless of whether they are playing the same note or not. Similarly, the colour of the voice [tone] helps us distinguish the difference between mommy’s anger or love.

Some people are very sensitive to tone and timbre. You can spew out the nastiest words to someone in a well-coloured tone and your words may not have as much of an impact as they would if you had said something kind in an dark tone.

I don’t think the things we say matter as much as how we say them. What do you think?

6 Novembre 09

It has been long since I blogged about more contemporary ongoing stuffs. Time to do that!

The trip to Timbre was timely for a depressing and busy week.. This time round, we were lucky that it had been a rainy day before that and in addition to that, Vampy drove up. Making the trip there much more easy. The breeze was much more stronger than the first.

There is an unspoken comfort with having the breeze and the skies when you’re feeling relatively down. (Other than the inconsiderate table who smoked incessantly behind us, everything was great. Thankfully, they left about 1hr later!)

My love for Sour drinks

The Seafood Platter – His finger food

This is gonna be a new addiction ;p

Back to Pepperoni!

Smiley

The man with his dark Erdinger & my Lime Margarita..

Merci Vampy pour ne me laisse pas seul.

what would you say to me if I told you I had a dream,
If I told you everything, would you tell me to go back to sleep?

LEIO-TE

Leio-te: — o pranto dos meus olhos rola:
— Do seu cabelo o delicado cheiro,
Da sua voz o timbre prazenteiro,
Tudo do livro sinto que se evola …

Todo o nosso romance: – a doce esmola
Do seu primeiro olhar, o seu primeiro
Sorriso, – neste poema verdadeiro,
Tudo ao meu triste olhar se desenrola.

Para ler o restante clique no link abaixo e conheçam nosso novo blog

http://www.poemasepensamentos.com.br/2009/10/25/leio-te-e-longe-de-ti-por-olavo-bilac/

Hot of the presses, here are the sides for the tutorial that Justin and Paul are presenting at ISMIR 2009 on October 26.

Note that the live presentation will include many demonstrations and videos of visualizations that just are not practical to include in a PDF.  If you have the chance, be sure to check out the tutorial at ISMIR in Kobe on the 26th.

This project explores several different ways of visualizing sets of extracted audio features in real-time. These visualizations are realized in a toolkit for the Max/MSP/Jitter programming environment. The primary purpose is to visualize timbral changes in the sense of exploratory data analysis. The program has four main parts: feature extraction, visualization, similarity, and audio control. Features are calculated by using a combination of pre-existing libraries, as e.g. the zsa.descriptors and the CNMAT analyser object. Additionally, we introduce a simple notion of timbral distance, which can be used in real-time performance situations, and present its performance for a set of different textures. The visualizations are further used to inform the control of audio effects by feature trajectories.

Researcher: Kai Siedenburg
Paper: An Exploration of Real-Time Visualizations of Musical Timbre

The sound of the flute is light, bright, soft. The piccolo flute sounds thin, very bright, sometimes shrill. The sound of the oboe is potential. The oboe d’amore and the cor anglais (english horn) sound more heartily and lovely. The sound of the clarinet is clear, bright in the high register and dark and thick in the low register. That of the alto clarinet is typically the alto timbre, and that of the bass clarinet is full and stiff. The bassoon sounds often pompous, quite humorous, ironic or comic. The trumpet’s sound is bright, brave and loud. The horn sounds full, broad, round and sometimes also loud. The trombone and the tuba have a deep, intense sound. The sound of the strings varies from pure, light, sparkling, sharp to dark, stormy. As an alto instrument the viola also has the typical alto sound and similiarly the violoncello has the deep bass sound and a baritone or tenor timbre in the high register. The sound of the piano also varies in the same way, either quiet, soft, or sharp, sparkling, light or even dark and stormy. The sound of the harp is very soft, quiet and sweet.

Among the older instruments, the recorders sound soft, quite colourless, transparent and fluent. The viols also sound soft, mellow, sweet and round. The harpsichord sounds cristalline, bright, sparkling, sharp and reflexing.

So the fateful day came, 31 Dec 2008. I have made all my preparation ready, all our friends are in town and in the know. It is time to execute the plan!

We all met up and proceeded to Timbre, Old School. Earlier in the day, me and Kevin went up to Timbre to place the flowers I bought for the occasion too. I got 99 roses and placed it in the Timbre fridge. It was huge (the flowers)…

[Tip for Proposal #1 - Big Flowers! It dazzles the mind, distracts the gal, makes the gal too guilty to say no... Big flowers FTW!]

Anyways, the day did not start well. When we were all gathered around Plaza Singapura, we went up. Being the cheapskate I was, I thought is was frugal to just walk up. Eh… the flight of stairs was ultra long, and frankly, it was quite a workout…

[Tip for Proposal #2 - Don't Be Stingy! How many times are you going to propose in your life??!! Hopefully, once. So spare no expenses, make it memorable. Money = Memories, for everything else, there's Mastercard..]

[Tip for Proposal #3 - Keep Fit! You never know when your body will be put to the test in a proposal. I did not realise the long flight of steps! Never good to say "*Pant pant*... will you... *wheezeee* marry *pant* me??]

When we got there, it wasn’t time for Pam & Fatt’s gig yet. So we ordered some drinks and food.

[Tip for Proposal #4 - Time Schedule! Make sure you are not too early for the proposal. If you take too long to reach the moment, suspicions and awkward silence sets in.. which in a sense of the word means.. it's awkward]

No more long and corny texts. I am going to post the pictures from the day and briefly mention what went on. This is going to be a long one…

So we are in Timbre waiting for the 'moment', and these are my childhood friends and their galfriends.

Passing time as we wait on. Mingling around...

A rare pic of the 3 guys that grew up with me: JH+Nah+Ni!

The gig is up, here is Fatt getting ready for the performance.

With Ari now, making sure everything is ok.

My other good friends, and the setting we are in, Timbre.

Final confirmation of what's happening.. although I think something is going to go wrong very soon...

Hellen tells me she suspects a proposal and she is very uncomfortable...

I assured her I was not going to propose... as she did not want to be pressured into it... oh well..

Apologies to the rest of the guys, guess the proposal is indeed off..

But I do not want to waste this opportunity.. I decided the show must go on!

Countdown to Wedding Day (19-06-10): 252 days

Nume Produs: Timbre de Colectie, vechime peste 25 de ani.

Fotografie Produs:

Imaginea este exemplificativa!

Contact: alecs_fyddo@yahoo.com

Pret: Negociabil

2 months before New Year Day 2009, I began sourcing for the place. As written in an earlier post, I went to Jazz@South Bridge first, but due to the performances on countdown day, I got no choice but to find another alternative. After much consideration, I decided on Timbre@Old School, which is at Mount Sophia.

With the focus on pure acoustic music, Timbre@Old School is romantic, soothing, music for the soul… haha.. in essence great for a proposal. So after some email correspondence with the management, we arranged for a time to practice for the proposal. Anyways, I did not remember the actual day of the practice, it was either one or 2 months before the proposal, falling somewhere in the Oct / Nov 2008 time.  I went with 2 of my bros, Kev and YC, cause it feels really odd if I go alone… and I am shy (cue vomiting motion)…

Pam and Fatt are really nice people! Pam has that naturally powerful voice that you hear from Idol contestants. Fatt is a ultra-talented musician and a wiz at the guitar. Although it is an acoustic set, for some songs, he will be playing the percussionist role using his feet! I am not sure what he uses, but it sounds real cool. He can sing very well too!

I have planned 2 songs: Always Be My Baby (David Cook version) and For the First Time by Kenny Loggins (Hellen’s favouritest song from the movie One Fine Day) –

I planned to only sing the chorus of the first song, and the whole of the second song… hahah… it was not to be on the actual day though…

Anyways, the very nice Pam and Fatt was sharing their pizza with me during their first gig interval. Pam was especially excited since it is her first time doing a proposal in Timbre, so she was encouraging and assuring all at the same time. I was amazed too that both Pam and Fatt are married, not to each other though. Maybe it is due to my inner prejudice that arty-farty people are loners… They told me to enjoy my food and drinks and wait for the second gig interval to do some practice… haha…

OK, so while we were waiting for the practice, we enjoyed the music, drinks and atmosphere. I still remembered some poor guy who dedicated a song to a total stranger at another table, the funny thing was that as Pam was reading the dedication, the lady pointed at her ring! Talk about a total bummer.

Finally the second session is over and it’s my turn to shine (or flop depending on the way you see it)! YC took my practice videos through his handphone so pardon me for the quality. Nonetheless, it is pretty cool and a great memory. Thanks to my bros for accompanying me on that day..

Say ‘Yeah!’

 Countdown to Wedding Day (19-06-10): 264 days