Forum - Week 4 - Pedal Pushers and Flushing Toilets

I was certainly lined up for a good improvisation workshop this
week, as I have managed to source a multi-FX pedal that I plan
use with a microphone. During the week I had plugged it into the
Laney amp to great effect, with the octave-down pitch shift and
power-chord effects sounding very interesting with vocals. It
seems as though I will need to arouse an amplifier from elsewhere
in the Shultz building, as there is a great need for the old Laney.
Nonetheless our group spent 40 minutes trying to get a sound
from anything, especially now that one of the decks that Matt was
using has been pilfered by another group. I am curious why a
group has suddenly decided that they need a deck, in week 4.
In any case I have little to report.

Student presentations swung into action again, first up being
Henry Reed, who’s existence I was unaware of until this class.
His composition was a heartfelt piece dedicated to his
Grandfather who served in World War II, and consisted of
various war sounds and other less definable noises. It may have
been on purpose or perhaps because of the speakers, but there
seemed to be very little low end sound, and it even sounded
monophonic. Overall it was an enjoyable piece, and maintained
the listener’s interest throughout. Following Henry was
Matthew Mazzone, presenting various compositions. The first
was designed for a computer game, and would live up to this
very well with a great atmosphere and nice harmonics. The only
negative I drew was that it used synth strings, which denigrated
the organic feel presented by the piano. His next piece was
created on Live earlier in the day, and it was enjoyable if a little
repetitive. The next song was something he had made in previous
years, and was basically a pop dance song. It was agreeable, but
I am not a fan of this style of music. Considering this and Dragos’
piece from last week, I believe I may have moved away from the
4-chord song structure that I used so much in high school. Surely
this isn’t a bad thing? Finally there was guy (who’s name escapes
me) presenting a recording of his death metal band. I have a soft
spot for Slipknot, Soulfly and Sepultura, so I did enjoy this except
for some small engineering issues. I’ll just put this out there- has
anyone who has recorded with the RODE NTV found it to have a
dead sound? I would think such an expensive microphone would
be relatively indiscriminate in its frequency pickup. Vocal
recordings I have done on Neumann U87/89 turn out beautiful,
but NTV recordings have needed drastic equalisation to get a clean
and natural sound. Due to this I have demoted the NTV to
‘room-mic’ as it seems quite capable of pick up a flushing a toilet 2
floors down.