Empedia tour now fully uploaded and ready to use!

The practical element of this project, the Empedia tour, is now live and ready for use! It can be found at: http://empedia.info/maps/142

Bibliography.

Eno, B., (1978), AMBIENT MUSIC, Ambient 1: Music for Airports [LP liner notes]. London: Polydor. AMB 001

White, P., (1994), Recording The Spoken Word, Sound On Sound [online], Available from: http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1994_articles/jun94/spokenword.html 

Dittmar, T., (2011), Audio Engineering 101: A Beginner's Guide to Music Production.

Rudolph, T. and Leonard, V., (2001), Recording in the Digital World: Complete Guide to Studio Gear and Software. Minnesota: Hal Leonard Corporation

Campbell, M., (2012), Popular Music in America: The Beat Goes On. Andover: Cengage Learning

Metzer, D., (2003), Quotation and Cultural Meaning in Twentieth-Century Music. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Hawk, B., Rieder, D. and Oviedo, O., (2008), Small Tech: The Culture of Digital Tools. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press

Lister, M., and Dovey, J., 2009, New Media: A Critical Introduction. London: Taylor & Francis

All audio and images (sans map images) created by and property of the author, Joshua Young. Copyright 2012.

Research into Locative Media.

To produce a professional end-product, it was necessary to complete a course of research into locative media. Locative media is a relatively new media form, in the instance of this project relying on high-technology present in today's smartphones. New media can, such as in my project, be used to convey a narrative to the audience at predetermined points:

"Narrative works designed for delivery via such 'locative media' seek to tell stories that unfold in real space... Narrative works in locative media are unique in that they engage the body of the participant as the agent that drives the narrative forward, revealing location-specific information though physical movement." (Hawk, B. et al, 2008, pg129)

Locative media can be considered a form of 'new media', in that it does not fall into any category of 'traditional' media types such as newspaper, books or journals. In keeping with the progression and popularisation of new media types within the modern age, a prediction can be made that Locative media will follow suit and become a more popular medium in the future:

"...nearly all of the discussions of new media to a greater or lesser degree make claims that they transform, or will soon transform (or transcend) day-to-day life, its spatio-temporal limits, its restrictions and power structures. The nature of this transformation is contentious; for some observers new media offer new creativities and possibilities, for others they reinforce and extend existing social constraints and power relationships." (Lister, M, and Dovey, J., 2009, pg239)

I have found that my time using the Empedia platform has, on the whole been enjoyable. However, obvious issues with 'bugs' in the site have hindered the smooth usage of the platform somewhat. When Empedia progresses beyond the beta stage into a more rounded platform, I can see it being an intuitive site that is easily accessible and simple to use for a wider audience.

Production of Ambient backing track completed!

Today, the production of the Ambient backing music was completed. The track was produced in keeping with the idea that the music should at no point dominate the mix, and should complement the narrative by being interesting yet subdued. Thus, I have composed the track using soft sounds and gentle melody. The track consists of a synthesised pad sound, created using Native Instruments FM8. This FM synthesiser with its large amount of control allowed for me to create a sound that fits perfectly within the project. The resulting sound was low-pass-filtered; this helped to soften the sound and prevent it masking the higher frequencies of the narrative. As opposed to bringing rhythmic articulation to the piece, this sound was designed to influence the perceived 'atmosphere' -  a popular Ambient technique: "As its name suggests, ambient music is more atmospheric than dance oriented, with more attention to texture and less emphasis on rhythm" (Campbell, M., 2012, pg318).

The mix window for the Ambient track production, showing the processing applied to the pad. Also note the use of automated EQ curves and slowly modulating volume of individual tracks, used to add a sense of forward-progression.

The track also makes use of a light melody, composed by myself and orchestrated using Novation V-Station a subtractive, multi-oscillator synthesiser. Again, the melody was composed as an interesting addition to the audio contained within the tour, and at no point distracts the audience from the main attraction within the tour - the narrative. The melody itself is a short, repeating motif; common in Ambient, as outlined by the writing of David Metzer: "...within the conventions of ambient music, an idiom that contains long sustained electronic sonorities that pass through and over each other, short repeating melodies, exotic sounds, and spoken voice melodies." (Metzer, D., 2003, pg175)


When arranging the Ambient track with the individual portions of narrative, I was sure to use fade-ins and outs to avoid abrupt starts and endings, thus helping to maintain a pleasurable experience for the listener. The use of Cubase 5's Stereo Enhancer was put to use on the Ambient track, this spread the bulk of the audio information away from dead-centre, allowing the narrative to occupy this space, and reduce masking and aiding clarity. Another technique used to avoid masking was the cutting of frequencies of around 500Hz, the fundamental of my voice. This processing is shown in the image below:

This image shows the processing applied to the Ambient track when layering with the narrative, with the view to avoid masking.