spinning drum blog

So I spent the weekend geeking out, as my roommate calls it, at UBC for the 3rd annual Bloggers Conference Northern Voice. I got a heavy dose of the social software scene and had a chance to integrate myself into blogger world, which until now I had never really identified myself as part of. Sure I have a blog, doesn’t everyone? I thought when I set up my little wordpress wonder two years ago, I would simply compliment the Spinning Drum web site with a random note side page dedicated to my turntable discoveries. It was a place to work out ideas, cast them into the digital ocean and hope they’d float by a few musically inclined web surfers. Well, my naivety about my simple little blog was shed this past weekend as I immersed myself f2f in the real world bloggisphere.

If you look at a web site like a house, the blog, I thought, was like a side room, maybe a small bedroom off the kitchen, near the back, but now I realized for many it’s the front door whose space extends into the living room. The blog like the living room, gets more of the foot traffic than the rest of the house, and it was a virtual place to meet and greet, more often than not the most active entertainment room for most of your guests. Northern Voice gave me a little paradigm shift and reinvigorated my blogging interests. I feel a renewed commitment to mixing it up in the blog world.

At Northern Voice the big draw for me, aside from the philosophical explorations of why we blog and who the hell cares, were the podcasting workshops. Dave Olson’s The Three Ps of Podcasting:Plan, Produce and Promote was my favorite. With no more tech-aid than a stack of paper and a paint brush, Olson made one of the most creative and hilarious presentations I’d seen in a long time. Better yet the piece was not only easy to understand and incredibly informative, but he also affirmed the importance of a beverage while producing a podcast. It’s these little details that allow you to get through some of the mind numbing parts inherent to digital hobbies. Getting your podcast levels right was affirmed by the Levelator presentation which gave the audience a recording 101, and if nothing else, reiterated the evils of clipping. The main bent of the whole presentation was to advertise the fact that this new software freebie could turn any voice based podcaster into an intermediate sound engineer through a drop and drag process. Providing newbie sound engineers with a brainless way to even out voice recordings is a worthy endeavour, maybe the corp should apply for charity status given how many ears they may save.

Overall, the most important thing I walked away with besides the importance of the blog to the evolution of humanity was I got a handle of what to do with my feeds (burn baby burn), and signed up with feedburner, technoratis and all the other rss agents that promise to deliver my blog to the masses.

So in the end what does it mean to the spinningdrum? Well perhaps more frequent blog posts, now you can subscribe; and as of last night, I let feed burner write and sort all my feeds. Sort of a more work less work equation for me and a less work less work equation for readers. Thank you Northern Voice.

For notes on the conference and all the good blog stuff you missed check the Northern Voice Wiki

Want to get podcasting try these tutorials
The Art of Podcasting
Podcast-how to
Podcasting from wikipedia

Studio b has moved. It’s left the creative expanse and country confines of the Sunshine Coast and is now centralized in the Republic of East Van. While it’s still in the process of migrating over here turntable by turntable so to speak, at this point, I’ve at least established a virtual connection to the digital world and opened a channel where a steady stream of .wavs are sure to follow.

This is a public service announcement: low down and loud.

I’m going to take a little time to talk about the importance of bass, or more accurately what you need to channel it.

The sub woofer, sometimes forgotten, sometimes under-powered, sometimes misunderstood, the sub is a requirement to any sound system that wants to project the full range of bass and is essential to any sound person who wants to get the room “feeling it,” and a dj who wants a phat set.

I remember a turntable jam at my friend’s eastside house. It was the first time we jammed there; and, unfortunately, we were underpowered monitor wise, simply relying on the house mini-system for sound. Well, it’s just a jam and no one would admit to being such a gear snob that we’d shell-out extra for a pair of decent speakers or a sub, not for just a jam. So making due, we began throwing layers upon layers, mixing hip hop, techno and breaks, and per usual I pulled out the ole Richie Hawtin lock grove, treasure trove, “Closer Edits”. It’s a mainstay – 68 thick and creamy sub-defined glitch-laced tech house locks.

Launching it into the spin, anticipating its bubbly thunder, which provides such a deep bass undercurrent to any 4/4 track, low and no behold, Hawtin was barely audible. Why, because regardless of how deep a groove your vinyl has, if the bass line is below 250 kHz, it cannot be launched from a cheap pair of bookend speakers. So Hawtin was out, leaving us with a bunch mid-range bass and high hat. This was a true c’est dommage moment and a perfect illustration of the absence of sub power.

In the world of sound size matters. That’s why bass bins are big. It’s not just for show. Audio frequencies are waves and low ones are big ones. How much of the them can be channeled through a given speaker is a matter of its size and force. Bass bins hold woofers 8 -18 inches in diameter to accommodate low frequencies, and with a powerful amp they can travel approx 56 feet.

So in your sound stack, which has a speaker for each frequency range. For bass below 250 kHz that’s when the subwoofer comes in. This squat box of throbbing vibration, pumps out omnidirectional frequencies. These are super low and don’t travel long distances. But as any beat junkie knows, up close and personal, provides the chest thump and bowel rattle that makes for what we technically call “phat sound.”

Remember, there is no dub with out the sub. Breaks is just that with out the sub. Techno would just be an empty thud, and you’d call it “drum and what?” without the sub. So next time you’re out and asking yourself why does your favorite track sound so different, so much better, in the desert or the club ? Remember, It’s the sub!

Give Thanks!

Acoustic Crash course 101
http://www.marktaw.com/recording/Acoustics/AcousticsCrashCourse1-Mod.html

Bass Waves
http://www.realtraps.com/art_waves.htm

Check the spinningdrum links section for more audio knowledge.