Archive for January, 2007
The 19th century French chemist and perfumist G.W. Septimus Piesse was convinced that music could be translated into aroma and vice versa. According to Piesse’s rigorous research, heavy odors corresponded to low notes, sharp odors to high notes.
Piesse’s Smell Organ, a contraption that may or may not have actually been constructed, consisted of a row of perfume atomizers actuated by piano keys. The odors were projected towards the listener/smeller by a steady stream of compressed air. From a 1922 article in Science and Invention, reprinted in Experimental Musical Instruments magazine, and discovered by the Dead Media Project:
Of course, the combination of odors will creates a smell entirely different from any individual qualities of the various perfumes and it is necessary that, in the soft, dreamy compositions, the odors blend harmoniously. Discords will have a decidedly unpleasant effect but inasmuch as the composers did not dwell upon discords to any great extent, the audience will be saved the rather unusual embarrassment of smelling disagreeable combinations. Some music would perhaps have to be changed and the odors carefully graduated so that no particular perfume will predominate, except when the loud pedal, or rather in the smell organs, the *strong* odor pedal is trod upon.
The smell organ’s register:
| BASS CLEF C patchouli D vanilla E clove bark F benzoin G frangipane A storax B clove C sandalwood D clematis E rattan F castorium G pergulaire A balsam of Peru B carnations and pinks C geranium D heliotrope E iris F musk G Pois de senteur A balsam of tolu B cinnamon C rose |
TREBLE CLEF C rose D violet E cassia F tuberose G orange flower A new mown hay B arome C camphor D almond E Portugal F jonquil G syringa A tonka bean B mint C jasmine D bergamot E citron F ambergris G magnolia A lavender B peppermint C pineapple D citronel E vervain F civet |
In the mastering studio at the moment finishing off a record for top bloke Jim Moynihan aka Spoonbill. His music is some crazy mashed up electro with that true blue aussie flavour through it. His new record is called Nest Egg and should be hitting the street sometime round the end of of March. Check out his website for updates and gigs. Jim tells me he’s been out playing heaps of gigs over the summer, festivals mostly, and with still a little warm weather to go there are still more chances to see him do his thing live. Good for getting your crazy dance on.
jim likes to grope barrel chested mastering guys…
Was in the mastering studio this arvo with Chris Coe aka Digital Primate. He’s about to put out a 12″ of some re-mixes of his track, My Bush Would Make A Better President. The two mixes featured on the disc will be one by T-Rek (look for ‘My Bush remix’ in his player) and Spacey Space, with the other by DeeDee (2004 interview). The original mix will be on there as well.
Getting the bottom end right on tracks like these can be a challenge for me as I don’t go to clubs much at all, so getting a sense of what’s gonna work off vinyl is a combo of a couple of things. One is trusting to a certain extent what the remixer has put down in their tracks. All of the guys on this disc are solid working DJ’s so you can be pretty sure that they have already dropped a bunch of different versions of their remix on different crowds in different clubs, to see what works and what doesn’t, particularly when it comes to bottom end.
The second thing is to make sure that after compression and eq in the mastering studio, the mixes will transfer onto the vinyl with no technical problems, as well as making the most of what the medium has to offer. Really, it should be down to the mastering engineer to cut the master-disk, but not many mastering studios run lathes now-days. It’s hard to say of those that do still have lathes, how much they see use - particularly in Australia. In many ways, it all seems to have come full circle, where the guy at the factory cutting the disc is all important when it comes to getting a good transfer onto disc. I guess in some way you could say that a lot of stuff that goes to vinyl gets double mastered.
I’m keen to listen to the test pressing to hear for myself exactly how these tracks have made it over to vinyl. Getting to listen to how each project you master translates onto whatever medium is part of what makes mastering an interesting thing to do. It’s about constantly building up your ears by way of detailed listening to the same material across a variety of media and sound systems. The more I work the more I’m beginning to think that somewhere in here lies the key to becoming a good mastering engineer, or even just a good sound engineer in general.
Apart from the occasional run in with a piece of fish, I’m pretty much of the not-eating-meat persuasion. However, I have said to people (that like to talk about such things) that I might go back to eating meat when you can grow it in a vat at the back of the fridge. Looks like I’d better dust of the BBQ and get ready to hook into some tasty flesh.
I’d say that there are plenty of goons people out there who won’t eat this gear when it hits the street. They’d rather eat the natural shit.
Look out for the Fisher and Paykel meat-o-vat montly rental option coming soon. I guess you’d need four vats - beef, foul, fish and pork. Hell, while we’re at it, lets open the door to all the forbidden meats. Vat pork for jews? I mean, there is no animal right? So that makes it cool. Everyone can start to get into asian-style no-go-flesh with cat-in-a-vat or dog, or horse. Damn, we can even get our man/monkey-buger on - Transmet style.
Link via boingboing
