Chris Morris - Studio One

Studio One

One of the projects I am most proud to have been a part of was the addition of a world class recording studio to the Centre for the Arts. An 11-month construction and integration project that brought together a wide range of experts and professionals. It proved to be an exemplary  display of planning and execution.

The Team

• University of Lethbridge
• Department of Music
• Kaufman & Associates
• Alvin Reinhard Fritz Architect Inc.
• Solid State Logic
• DB Audio
• Integrity Builders

A 40-seat, 4-wall, concrete classroom was meticulously transformed into a fine tuned, isolated studio space with an air locked hallway, control room, capture room, isolation booth, machine room and storage space. Not limited to its central location, dedicated audio/video lines connect Studio One to our 240-seat recital hall two floors below. This gives Studio One the flexibility to record large ensembles and capture live performances given by our faculty, students, and visiting artists.

The focal piece of Studio One’s capture room is the Solid State Logic 48 Channel Duality. A beautiful piece of analog and digital technology that is quickly becoming the professional standard for educational institutions. Its flexible routing and digital systems make it a great tool for teaching a full range of concepts and theories.

The Duality’s 48 channels are running in to the heart of the operation through 2 SSL Alpha Link Madi SX AD/DA converters giving the system 48 analogue inputs and 16 digital AES/EBU inputs. The Pro Tools HD2 cards interface with the SSL converters through the XLogic Delta-Link MADI HD.

The immersive surround monitoring system was designed and tuned specifically for the control room by Jay Kaufman. Mounted in hand crafted enclosures, 15″ JBL 2235 speakers and custom hyperbolic wood horns are driven by 5 Bryston 7BSST’s and 3 Bryston 3BSST’s. Four Dynaudio BM14S subwoofers are recessed in the front of the room to reinforce the low end.

Here is a peek at the additional gear that is available:

Microphones

• DPA 4006 (4)
• DPA 4012 (2)
• Telefunken U47
• Neumann U87 (4)
• Neumann M149 (2)
• Neumann KM184 (4)
• Royer R121 (4)
• AKG C414 (4)
• AKG C451 (4)
• ElectroVoice RE20
• Sennheiser MD421 (2)

Outboard Gear

• Aviom Personal Monitoring System
• Lexicon PCM96
• Focusrite Red
• Universal Audio 1176-2
• Avalon 737
• GML Model 8200
• Great River MAQ-2NV

I seem to be easily distracted by shiny objects.

I’ve recently become infatuated with the art of projection mapping. After witnessing amazing installations bring buildings to rubble or 3d objects to life, I had to know how it was achieved. My obsessive nature got the best of me, I had to give it a try.

I don’t have much of a background in motion graphics (yet) so there were a few hurdles to jump when working with those types of software applications. Also, the hurdle of understanding how a 2d projection “wraps” itself around a 3d object. There are a lot of different pieces to the puzzle when setting up a mapping installation, a clear understanding of all of them will go a long way.

My first attempt at working with physical objects and a 2d projection was simple, utilizing only Adobe Photoshop and After Effects. In Photoshop I set my workspace to the same resolution as the projector. Working in Full Screen Mode (no rulers) I literally drew onto the objects. That psd was imported into After Effects and used to create an animated mask. Voila!

My curiosity runs deeper than simple static projections. Turns out there is a great niche area of software to aide in interactive and sequenced projection mappings. Each one has it’s own capabilities and purpose. While I haven’t been able to try them all, here is a list of some of the software tools available.

vvvv – a multipurpose toolkit (Free)
vvvv is a graphical programming environment for easy prototyping and development. It is designed to facilitate the handling of large media environments with physical interfaces, real-time motion graphics, audio and video that can interact with many users simultaneously.

MadMapper ($299)
The MadMapper provides a simple and easy tool for mapping projections. It is built around the idea of sharing video content between applications.

lmpt (Free)
With LPMT, you can project your video, images, colors to differently oriented surfaces and compensate projection distortion using deformable quads that can be adjusted directly on the screen by simply dragging their corners. 

What I’m using

Other than some of the standard photo/video manipulation tools such as Photoshop & After Effects, I’ve been exploring these pieces of software.

VPT6 (Free)
VPT is a powerful and flexible video projection tool that does much more than just mapping. 

mapamok (Free)
mapamok is an experimental projection mapping application that is part of the Projector Camera Toolkit developed during Guest Research Project v.1 at YCAM Interlab.

Projection mapping is still a new and emerging technique in interactive media. I imagine we will see it take off like wildfire in entertainment, exhibitions and advertising with artists striving for bigger and better things.

Resources

• Introductory Video mapping tutorial with VPT
• videomapping.org
• vvvv – How to Project on 3d Geometry

Fast forward to today. Modifying guitars and building small audio electronics has become a hobby of mine. I’m constantly searching for a unique, authentic sound crafted by my own hands. Naturally I was curious about building my own guitar processing pedals, that’s when I learned about General Guitar Gadgets pedal kits.

I ordered the Ibanez™ Tube Screamer™ Replica. The price was great and shipping was fast. The online instructions were clear and detailed, anyone with some soldering skills and knowledge of basic electronics could work their way through them.

These kits take the hardest, most discouraging aspect out of building projects; sourcing parts. Finding all the elements to these circuit designs can involve multiple vendors and alternate parts, for beginners this can be a daunting task. Another big advantage is the etched circuit board, this piece alone is a whole other ball game.

Having a well lit, clean workspace will keep you from misplacing any of the small parts. I definetly recommend a small set of tools before you decide to get started. At minimum you should have:

• A 25Watt or variable heat soldering iron.
• Damp Sponge
• Solder Pump or Solder Braid
• Diagonal Cut Pliers
• A Third Hand (link)

Since getting hooked on these pedal kits I’ve also built a Marshall Blues Breaker Replica, a Dan Armstrong “Orange Squeezer” compressor and an Atari Punk Console from Synthrotek. Here are some great sites for getting started building your own guitar pedals.

• General Guitar Gadgets
• Build Your Own Clone
• MadBean Pedals
• DIY Stompboxes
• DIY Guitarist

Features: This 22 watt (8ohms) 2 channel (normal & vibrato) amplifier features a pair of 6V6 Groove Tube output tubes, one 5AR4 rectifier tube, four 12AX7 preamp tubes, two 12AT7 tubes, one 12” 8-ohm Jensen® C-12K speaker, tube-driven Fender reverb, tube vibrato, and a two-button footswitch for reverb and vibrato on-off.

Sound: This is the tone that legends are made of. I’ve played my Fender Telecaster, Ibanez S470 (with a Dimarzio Tone Zone in the bridge position), and Epiphone Les Paul (with original Gibson P90′s) through this amp. Each guitar added it’s own color to the clean, warm, exquisite tones that the Fender Deluxe Reverb delivers.

Don’t let the 22 watts and 40lb weight deceive you, this amp is loud and clear. Comfortable playing volume in the basement of my house is around 3, anything above that and my wife might have something to say about it. Once you start cranking this amp past 6 the sound begins to naturally break up giving you that warm, bluesy overdrive.

For pedal enthusiasts the Fender Deluxe Reverb is a fantastic canvas to build upon. Although hotly debated, this amp takes pedal input very well. The clear, balanced tone provides a perfect clean channel to let your effects units shine. My only concern is the added brightness to the vibrato channel could force some adjustments to your pedal settings.

For me, it’s the chiming mid tones dripping in tube driven reverb that make this amp perfect. It’s classy with a bit of a bite. In the future I plan on modifying the Fender Deluxe Reverb with a tone switch for the vibrato channel and possibly upgrade the speaker to a Weber.

Warm Up (Download this as a .pfd)

Continuing with the above patter, but in thirds using only your first finger, ring finger and pinky. Speed is not the goal of these exercises. Getting a consistent tempo and a clean sound is what you are looking for.

Warm Up 2 (Download this as a .pfd)