So continuing from earlier, at the last mintue three more subject made themselves available! Better late than never...
Ill keep it brief by saying that I was once again fully impressed with the results and I feel like the analytics speak for themselves! (other than the bits that need explained :P)
My Testing Analytics
I have had a 100% success rate in terms of people seeing enough of a reaction to the incoming audio to determine it as being analytical, which is pretty awesome! Can't wait to try it out on people who have no idea about creating music, perhaps it might turn out to be something more useful than I gave it credit for, here's hoping!
Now time for a drink! Cheers :)
Monday 27 April 2015
TESTING
So here are copys of my first formal testing session. This was conducted in my studio, using the Light Speaker and Ableton Live. Here is a copy of the Questionnaire that my test subject filled out whilst completing the tasks within the DAW. Unfortunately, there are only 3 just now. though I dont expect to be graded past these three, there will be more results to come over the following weeks and these will be continually updated. If you live in Scotland and have a desire to take part in my test, please get in touch with me via email at synct.music@gmail.com
Firstly I wanted to establish if the subject understood colour theory. Unfortunately the test only has three willing participants. this is partly due to how late the system was working, but also two of my confirmed ones have now cancelled. Im saying this because all my tests have been done on people I live with. They have not spent any time in my room with the system other than this, however I have spoken about colour theory over the months, so they all said they knew because I told them about it.
Next they were asked to listen to an excerpt from the start of "Daft Punk - Get Lucky". I chose this as it has received a lot of praise from a mixdown perspective. It is also quite complex though. I wanted to show something that was quite fast and chanable in terms of its interaction with the light, in order to increase the feeling of accuracy when less complex material was played.
Next I had created a Drum Mix Buss, with stems I created using Maschine. Kickm Snare, Clap, Cl Hat, Op Hat, Crash and Tom tracks were created.
Each subject was asked to then mix them all together, whilst referencing the light. I was really pleased here. subject 1 decided with no promting to experiment with how each channel looked through the light before proceeing with the mixdown and took 15 minutes playing around and was also vocalising how much they were enjoying the system. Conversely subject 3 mixed them quite quickly, then played around with the balance, again vocalising how they were already starting to notice positive aspects of using the system. Subject three also took it apon themselves to open a synth and create a bass line, which was sidechained to the Kick, testing how well it performed there. They said after that they saw this as a valuable insight into the interaction between the two. Really positive. All three said they found the experience fun along with the comment above.
Again, all three seemed to achknowledge a deeper understanding quickly, before this question was posed.
The next question was designed to understand what sort of music was preferred through the system, specifically tempo related. I'm chuffed that 1 out of the 3 actually felt that the faster track was more appealing, I myself thought its would be 100% sqing to the 124BPM track (Track 1) however Subject 2 prefered Track 2 (175BPM).
Unfortunately, I didn't think about the layout of this clearly enough, and the results dont really display the outcomes here.
I had three "silent" bits of audio to play them, and they had to identify two that I chose at random in each test. Subject one saw Human Voice and Bass Guitar Through the Light Speaker and answered 100% correct. Subject 2 got Bass and Drums and was 100% correct. Subject 3 got Human Voice and Drums and answered 50% correct, choosing Piano instead of Human Voice. Baring in mind how similar the spectra between these two instruments can be, I count this as a resounding success and that it is completely possible to determine, at least in the ball park, what audio is being playing without even hearing, using this system.
Although only one participant said outright they felt it integrated well, this was again a success. The two that chose a little bit of both as their option, said that if there was a comment box (my bad) that they would have put that it did cause a slight distraction, but it was in a positive manner. I then asked if they would have called it creative inspiration, to which they replied Yes. This was completely unexpected, but made me extremely happy, as with no prompting they made their own choice that they viewed as something that was creatively inspiring. 2 of the three said that they believed that colour should be used in the studio. Subject 3 expressed they would need more time.
This time, Subjects 1 and 2 said they would buy it, suggesting that subject 2 likes it as an ornamental piece at the very least, even if they are unconvinced it should be in the studio. Subject 3 commented that they would like to see a more modular implementation of the system for use in the studio, something that I totally understand and would love to look into developing further on. Subject 1 is a DIYer like myself, so they said they would rather use online tutorials and go about making it themselves, something that I also strongly encourage! In essence though, all three would spend some amount of money on a system a kin to this one.
Finally to round it all off, the point blank question is fired. All three expressed whilst clicking Yes that they were very impressed with the system and that it out performed their expectations. All three seemed genuinely more excited and talkative after finishing the test, and took the time to talk to me about what they had noticed and what they liked, suggesting that they did indeed feel more creatively inspired. Being completely honest, I thought that some people may find it slightly over bearing, but the results show otherwise.
I thought hard about this testing and wether or not it was worth it, however in retrospect I wish I had focused on the Light Speaker alone and conducted a more thorough testing of it alone, rather than trying to compare it against another Light Speaker Colour Organ idea. As I said, I feel i was valuable up to a point, however with such positive feedback from my small test on the light speaker, I feel it could have gone much deeper into that.
With that in mind, and with the permission of my supervisor, i am going to continue to try and find willing participants to have a shot at my test during the expo, giving me a much wider breadth for testing on the general public.
Three people chosen all have a minimum of 5 years experience in the creation and mixing of audio content, as such they were ideal for an initial round of testing.
Firstly I wanted to establish if the subject understood colour theory. Unfortunately the test only has three willing participants. this is partly due to how late the system was working, but also two of my confirmed ones have now cancelled. Im saying this because all my tests have been done on people I live with. They have not spent any time in my room with the system other than this, however I have spoken about colour theory over the months, so they all said they knew because I told them about it.
Next I had created a Drum Mix Buss, with stems I created using Maschine. Kickm Snare, Clap, Cl Hat, Op Hat, Crash and Tom tracks were created.
Each subject was asked to then mix them all together, whilst referencing the light. I was really pleased here. subject 1 decided with no promting to experiment with how each channel looked through the light before proceeing with the mixdown and took 15 minutes playing around and was also vocalising how much they were enjoying the system. Conversely subject 3 mixed them quite quickly, then played around with the balance, again vocalising how they were already starting to notice positive aspects of using the system. Subject three also took it apon themselves to open a synth and create a bass line, which was sidechained to the Kick, testing how well it performed there. They said after that they saw this as a valuable insight into the interaction between the two. Really positive. All three said they found the experience fun along with the comment above.
Again, all three seemed to achknowledge a deeper understanding quickly, before this question was posed.
The next question was designed to understand what sort of music was preferred through the system, specifically tempo related. I'm chuffed that 1 out of the 3 actually felt that the faster track was more appealing, I myself thought its would be 100% sqing to the 124BPM track (Track 1) however Subject 2 prefered Track 2 (175BPM).
Unfortunately, I didn't think about the layout of this clearly enough, and the results dont really display the outcomes here.
Although only one participant said outright they felt it integrated well, this was again a success. The two that chose a little bit of both as their option, said that if there was a comment box (my bad) that they would have put that it did cause a slight distraction, but it was in a positive manner. I then asked if they would have called it creative inspiration, to which they replied Yes. This was completely unexpected, but made me extremely happy, as with no prompting they made their own choice that they viewed as something that was creatively inspiring. 2 of the three said that they believed that colour should be used in the studio. Subject 3 expressed they would need more time.
This time, Subjects 1 and 2 said they would buy it, suggesting that subject 2 likes it as an ornamental piece at the very least, even if they are unconvinced it should be in the studio. Subject 3 commented that they would like to see a more modular implementation of the system for use in the studio, something that I totally understand and would love to look into developing further on. Subject 1 is a DIYer like myself, so they said they would rather use online tutorials and go about making it themselves, something that I also strongly encourage! In essence though, all three would spend some amount of money on a system a kin to this one.
Finally to round it all off, the point blank question is fired. All three expressed whilst clicking Yes that they were very impressed with the system and that it out performed their expectations. All three seemed genuinely more excited and talkative after finishing the test, and took the time to talk to me about what they had noticed and what they liked, suggesting that they did indeed feel more creatively inspired. Being completely honest, I thought that some people may find it slightly over bearing, but the results show otherwise.
I thought hard about this testing and wether or not it was worth it, however in retrospect I wish I had focused on the Light Speaker alone and conducted a more thorough testing of it alone, rather than trying to compare it against another Light Speaker Colour Organ idea. As I said, I feel i was valuable up to a point, however with such positive feedback from my small test on the light speaker, I feel it could have gone much deeper into that.
With that in mind, and with the permission of my supervisor, i am going to continue to try and find willing participants to have a shot at my test during the expo, giving me a much wider breadth for testing on the general public.
Three people chosen all have a minimum of 5 years experience in the creation and mixing of audio content, as such they were ideal for an initial round of testing.
Light Speaker Thoughts Going Forward
So before I post up the results from the testing I conducted on my flatmates last night, I want to talk on a personal level about my experiences with the Light Speaker.
As you will see from my Portfolio, the videos show it residing in different positions within my room. At first, it was just a plain LED strip, which I then made a diffuse glass box to act as a housing.
My thinking at first was that it would be too distracting to work with it in front of me. In my first video expanations, it is placed on a desk to the right of my mix position. I also made sure it was far enough back that it could not be seen directly out of my peripheral vision.
Very quickly, I realised that I was spinning round to look at it more and more often, so I decided to go against my initial thoughts and get it central to my mix position. As you have seen, it is now placed above the acoustic diffuser I built for use as a studio viable Projection Mapping Screen.
I have been extremely pleased with how easily it has integrated into my workflow. I have the chance to now write three pieces using the system, which are included in my portfolio. In my opinion, they are a different musical direction to where I normally take my music, something that I wanted to achieve. As you will know by now, I wanted the metering to enhance creativity in the space. I feel that when compared to my previous music, this is demonstrated. I also wrote them in a much quicker time frame than usual. Now this was in part due to the time constraints of the project, however the quality is higher than my previous music. That is a compound improvement in performance. Now to prove this I would need to do far more extensive testing, though as you will see in a bit, my initial small test group have reacted extremely well to the system under testing.
I like to think now of the system increasing the frequency response of my monitoring system. I also have a Subpac, so I now can perceive Electro-Magnetic spectral changes from 5hz to 740ghz. PRETTY COOL.
Next we can dig into the results that I got from my initial testing session last night.
As you will see from my Portfolio, the videos show it residing in different positions within my room. At first, it was just a plain LED strip, which I then made a diffuse glass box to act as a housing.
My thinking at first was that it would be too distracting to work with it in front of me. In my first video expanations, it is placed on a desk to the right of my mix position. I also made sure it was far enough back that it could not be seen directly out of my peripheral vision.
Very quickly, I realised that I was spinning round to look at it more and more often, so I decided to go against my initial thoughts and get it central to my mix position. As you have seen, it is now placed above the acoustic diffuser I built for use as a studio viable Projection Mapping Screen.
I have been extremely pleased with how easily it has integrated into my workflow. I have the chance to now write three pieces using the system, which are included in my portfolio. In my opinion, they are a different musical direction to where I normally take my music, something that I wanted to achieve. As you will know by now, I wanted the metering to enhance creativity in the space. I feel that when compared to my previous music, this is demonstrated. I also wrote them in a much quicker time frame than usual. Now this was in part due to the time constraints of the project, however the quality is higher than my previous music. That is a compound improvement in performance. Now to prove this I would need to do far more extensive testing, though as you will see in a bit, my initial small test group have reacted extremely well to the system under testing.
I like to think now of the system increasing the frequency response of my monitoring system. I also have a Subpac, so I now can perceive Electro-Magnetic spectral changes from 5hz to 740ghz. PRETTY COOL.
Next we can dig into the results that I got from my initial testing session last night.
Sunday 26 April 2015
Final full System example with Resolume explanation
Here is the last installment from me about the projection mapping system before hand-in. I think this video out of all the ones included in my portfolio, is the one that demo's the combined systems strengths and weaknesses. Obviously in an ideal world I would invite everyone in the world in my room, alas a video must suffice..
As you can see from the thumbnail, the colours are once again matching up. So lets look at how to recreate this in Resolume Arena.
I have written a post a couple of months back about how Resolume works, so please read that first if you havent already to bring yourself uptodate
So in the case of replicating my Light Speaker, I used a relatively simple range of parameters
As you can see from the thumbnail, the colours are once again matching up. So lets look at how to recreate this in Resolume Arena.
I have written a post a couple of months back about how Resolume works, so please read that first if you havent already to bring yourself uptodate
So in the case of replicating my Light Speaker, I used a relatively simple range of parameters
As a source for the colours, I am using the FFGL Colour Strobes built into Resolume. You can set the Hue or Colour you want displayed per channel using the hue slider, pictured above.
In the case of the colour organ, I used three channels, just like the Arduino - RGB. The Brightness and Opacity levels were then mapped per RGB channel, using the FFT reading as input.
In the picture above the brightness wasnt mapped yet, as that came through practical experimentation with the system. The Opacity is however. As you can see above, there are also sliders to control ranges of values being applied to each parameter, allowing for very deep control over the whole interface.
As you can also see, Resolume have actually included quick Low Mid and High buttons for mapping you parameters to one of the three main bands.
The two main controls, which effectively control the blending of the colours when audio is recieved, are the Gain and Fall knobs. these can really be thought of as attack and decay knobs on a synth and they control how senstive the reaction to the FFT reading is. Unfortunately for use as a colour organ, finding a sweet spot was really difficult. In the end, the most pleasing and representative way was to have the reaction gain set to 2/3rds on all three colour channels.
As you can see, the opacity band is fully open, meaning that is no audio is coming through, there is absolutely no colour being displayed, which was one of the main requirements of any system. However as talked about the projecter still spills light. Thats not resolumes fault though.
I found through testing that keeping the brightness band at the lowest of half open was the most effective for getting a nice colour blending, and all the previous videos shown on the blog, along with the accompanying portfolio were done using these parameters (bar one for illustration of my point).
There is a quick screen shot I just took illustrating my point about the width of control given to brightness, by comparison to Opacity. Both are just showing the Lowend Red channel. The same applies for all three.
As demoanstrated through the portfolio, the system works well, however unfortunately cannot be implemented for actual production purposes, and perhaps wouldnt be that good even if you could due to increased levels of distraction.
for the remainder, I shall be showing practical examples of my working setup that I am using to write music with currently. Cheers.
Project Artefact Demos and Explanations Part 6 - My Music
I thought at this point I should show off one of the pieces I have made while using my Light Speaker in the studio. One thing I noticed about using it was it strongly encourages anybody using it to keep dynamics in their track and not go wild.
I dont have time to upload, but when playing Skrillex tracks, which are known to be among the loudest printed audio ever commercially released, basically the system just displays white, because all frequency bands are pushed so hard against the ceiling, even when a kick plays, there is lots of high end activity.
There has been a massive push back against this "loudness war" within the music industry. I strongly believe that with refinement, the Light Speaker could be used as a way of encouraging producers to stay away from their limiters, as it shows in a very visual manner the damage that over squashing does to audio.
During mixing, the light speaker should be dynamically shifting through colours, displaying the full rainbow. If you start to see the overall balance shifting towards white, then you are overcooking your mix and have to back of on your levels.
I think this is a very intuative and fun way of keeping an eye on what you are doing in terms of mixing audio and keeping clarity in your mix. Lot's of colour - GOOD. Lot's of white - BAD. Thats pretty easy to understand, right?
So as one of my final videos showing the Projection Mapping system in action, here is a tune I wrote using the Light Speaker as reference throughout.
As you can see, there is plenty of colour shifting, meaning the mix has not been overcooked. I found the process of writing with it genuinely insightful and fun. Even if no one else in the world finds a use for this, I certainly will, so in that respect it has been a resounding success.
In the accompanying portfolio there are many more video's of the two systems combined, including another piece I wrote using the Light Speaker called "Nightmares in the Light".
I dont have time to upload, but when playing Skrillex tracks, which are known to be among the loudest printed audio ever commercially released, basically the system just displays white, because all frequency bands are pushed so hard against the ceiling, even when a kick plays, there is lots of high end activity.
There has been a massive push back against this "loudness war" within the music industry. I strongly believe that with refinement, the Light Speaker could be used as a way of encouraging producers to stay away from their limiters, as it shows in a very visual manner the damage that over squashing does to audio.
During mixing, the light speaker should be dynamically shifting through colours, displaying the full rainbow. If you start to see the overall balance shifting towards white, then you are overcooking your mix and have to back of on your levels.
I think this is a very intuative and fun way of keeping an eye on what you are doing in terms of mixing audio and keeping clarity in your mix. Lot's of colour - GOOD. Lot's of white - BAD. Thats pretty easy to understand, right?
So as one of my final videos showing the Projection Mapping system in action, here is a tune I wrote using the Light Speaker as reference throughout.
As you can see, there is plenty of colour shifting, meaning the mix has not been overcooked. I found the process of writing with it genuinely insightful and fun. Even if no one else in the world finds a use for this, I certainly will, so in that respect it has been a resounding success.
In the accompanying portfolio there are many more video's of the two systems combined, including another piece I wrote using the Light Speaker called "Nightmares in the Light".
Full System, Having Fun!
So earlier in the project I talked about generative graphics as well. In terms of teh final proect this has become less relevant, however I still want to demonstrate some of the work I put into the development of the idea.
Though the colour organ in Resolume was made using FFGL generative graphics, there are a range of other patches and parameters that can be manipulated by an audio signal. this could be much more useful for live performance and making fully integrated audio visual set's for me to perform, something that I will definitely be doing a lot more of again after uni!
Here is a video of me running a piece from Australian artist Mr Bill through the system. Many more examples of this will be demo'd at the expo.
Again, this would be far to distracting to be used in the creation process, but as I said for live performance as an artist this is an amazing platform for development. for instance, I could create a live set with the system in action, then bring the same system along to any live performance I do and have the same visuals in the venue I am playing at.
It has also been useful for imagining other methods for achieve an effect like this. For instance, I would like to investigate the possibility of developing a clear acoustic diffuser that is loaded with small LED screens, or simple LEDs. This could be incredible and haave all the ease of setup as the light speaker, with the visual effect of the Projection Mapping system.
Though the colour organ in Resolume was made using FFGL generative graphics, there are a range of other patches and parameters that can be manipulated by an audio signal. this could be much more useful for live performance and making fully integrated audio visual set's for me to perform, something that I will definitely be doing a lot more of again after uni!
Here is a video of me running a piece from Australian artist Mr Bill through the system. Many more examples of this will be demo'd at the expo.
Again, this would be far to distracting to be used in the creation process, but as I said for live performance as an artist this is an amazing platform for development. for instance, I could create a live set with the system in action, then bring the same system along to any live performance I do and have the same visuals in the venue I am playing at.
It has also been useful for imagining other methods for achieve an effect like this. For instance, I would like to investigate the possibility of developing a clear acoustic diffuser that is loaded with small LED screens, or simple LEDs. This could be incredible and haave all the ease of setup as the light speaker, with the visual effect of the Projection Mapping system.
Final Artefact Demos and Explanations Part 5
So now we move deeper in to the Projection Mapping aspect of my project. As I have talked about already, for the remainder of testing the system isn't practical enough and I don't have two computers.
In order to compare the efficacy of each system as "monitoring" for audio signals, I decided that the best thing to do would be to run them both in tandem and determine through my own practice which system (FFT or Analogue Filtering) is the better. For clarification once again, Resolume uses FFT analysis of audio and allows you to select a range of 32 bands of signal, to control the parameters within the software and 3rd party plugins.
Once again I am waiting for videos to upload, so in the mean time here are some stills of the full system working together. As you can see, there is actually quite a synergy between the two systems.
Above are six still shots taken of the systems combined. As you cans see, there seems to be a pretty constant correlation between the two systems.
It might not seem obvious at first, but essentially I am concerned with how easily colour can be generated from audio and then how easily we can interpret that information.
I have talked about this before, but I find metering an extremely boring process, yet extremely neccessary for getting a mix right. I have also always wanted an outboard metering source, as I hate having to either put spectrum analyser on every channel, or on the master of my DAW.
In both cases, I have to click to view it, because of this, my creative process gets broken. This is no good; I want to be creating, but the technical side of my brain likes to eliminate mix problems as they arise. Outboard metering solves that issue. It doesn't solve the boring aspect however.
That's where my idea for this whole project comes from, so it is pretty encouraging that colour can reliably represent sound in this manner. That isn't to say they aren't without their issues, however as a starting point for development of a commercial audio metering system, these results are encouraging.
As with anything technical, there is a learning curve. I would argue that in the case of system a kin to the one above, this learning curve would be extremely fun.
Having tested the systems together at length, I now know the Arduino powered light speaker is the system that has legs as an audio metering source for the masses.
The resolume FFT analysis system is unquestionably more powerful, however it has too many constraining factors surrounding it's implementation for it to ever be practical as a product for sale. Thanks to student discount I have the software, but supposing the user wasn't in education, this system would cost over 1000 pounds to implement, making it out of reach for most people.
In terms of detail of analysis, both systems work well, however I would say that the FFT powered system performs better through the representation of the Mid Range audio to colour conversion, so it's definition through the Orange, Yellow and Lime Green range (200-600hz) is greater. It is also smoother when changing colour spectra. One of the main weakness that I hadn't considered is that the projector is always casting a light on whatever it is pointed at. In that respect, it actually fails my list of essential parameters outlined in the dissertation and there is literally no way around that. I am going to continue though as it is worth noting the differences.
Through this is more pleasing, it is actually not as good for analytical insight into the signal. It is also visually pleasing to the point of distraction. I have been working a lot with the light speaker and now it has completely integrated into my workflow. I can't see integrating as much, it is extremely cool for parties and I prefer this sort of visual than some half cut VJ putting up youtube rips of transformers or some bullshit, but I feel like I would spend more time looking at it than producing if it was an easily integratable system. Which it isn't
Anyways, here is the first video showing this system in action.
It's going to take a while to get the next few vid's uploaded, so Ill leave this post here and get ready for testing the Light Speaker in a more formal manner.
In order to compare the efficacy of each system as "monitoring" for audio signals, I decided that the best thing to do would be to run them both in tandem and determine through my own practice which system (FFT or Analogue Filtering) is the better. For clarification once again, Resolume uses FFT analysis of audio and allows you to select a range of 32 bands of signal, to control the parameters within the software and 3rd party plugins.
Once again I am waiting for videos to upload, so in the mean time here are some stills of the full system working together. As you can see, there is actually quite a synergy between the two systems.
Above are six still shots taken of the systems combined. As you cans see, there seems to be a pretty constant correlation between the two systems.
It might not seem obvious at first, but essentially I am concerned with how easily colour can be generated from audio and then how easily we can interpret that information.
I have talked about this before, but I find metering an extremely boring process, yet extremely neccessary for getting a mix right. I have also always wanted an outboard metering source, as I hate having to either put spectrum analyser on every channel, or on the master of my DAW.
In both cases, I have to click to view it, because of this, my creative process gets broken. This is no good; I want to be creating, but the technical side of my brain likes to eliminate mix problems as they arise. Outboard metering solves that issue. It doesn't solve the boring aspect however.
That's where my idea for this whole project comes from, so it is pretty encouraging that colour can reliably represent sound in this manner. That isn't to say they aren't without their issues, however as a starting point for development of a commercial audio metering system, these results are encouraging.
As with anything technical, there is a learning curve. I would argue that in the case of system a kin to the one above, this learning curve would be extremely fun.
Having tested the systems together at length, I now know the Arduino powered light speaker is the system that has legs as an audio metering source for the masses.
The resolume FFT analysis system is unquestionably more powerful, however it has too many constraining factors surrounding it's implementation for it to ever be practical as a product for sale. Thanks to student discount I have the software, but supposing the user wasn't in education, this system would cost over 1000 pounds to implement, making it out of reach for most people.
In terms of detail of analysis, both systems work well, however I would say that the FFT powered system performs better through the representation of the Mid Range audio to colour conversion, so it's definition through the Orange, Yellow and Lime Green range (200-600hz) is greater. It is also smoother when changing colour spectra. One of the main weakness that I hadn't considered is that the projector is always casting a light on whatever it is pointed at. In that respect, it actually fails my list of essential parameters outlined in the dissertation and there is literally no way around that. I am going to continue though as it is worth noting the differences.
Through this is more pleasing, it is actually not as good for analytical insight into the signal. It is also visually pleasing to the point of distraction. I have been working a lot with the light speaker and now it has completely integrated into my workflow. I can't see integrating as much, it is extremely cool for parties and I prefer this sort of visual than some half cut VJ putting up youtube rips of transformers or some bullshit, but I feel like I would spend more time looking at it than producing if it was an easily integratable system. Which it isn't
Anyways, here is the first video showing this system in action.
It's going to take a while to get the next few vid's uploaded, so Ill leave this post here and get ready for testing the Light Speaker in a more formal manner.
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