Steve Reich - Violin Fase
Videographics - EQ - Recording - Mixing
Preliminaries:
Violin Fase is one of Reich's most famous examples of phasing, also commonly heard in works such as 'Come Out', 'It's going to rain' and 'Piano Phase'. The work can be performed by 4 violins reacting to the subtle nuances in tempo changes or by a solo violinist reacting to the tempo changes with a pre-recorded tape. Both versions take many months to prepare so I figured that using studio techniques would be more time efficent to produce the work. In addition, with some inspiration from other artists/performers on this work, I was able to collaborate with an artist to produce a beautiful representation of the work via light sequences in a mirrored space that react to the subtle changes throughout the piece.
1. Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker
A beautiful example of using dance to accomodate the music. There is a clear connection between the medias and the intimate sound of her breath and the movement of clothes are likely to have been achieved with a high gain on the clip microphone. The idea of breath would be more challenging to achieve in my work, due to the looping - however, I did incorporate this idea in the duos.
2. Ton de Kruyff
A clever and inventive use of video to visually show the phasing. The original video has been split, rearranged and phased with other parts of the video. This is particularly effective when the stairs are shown at different points, creating an infinite loop of stairs. Personally, there doesn't seem to be much interaction between the video and the music which is something I'd like to achieve in my work. The audio has little reverb and the panning is mostly central, creating an intimate sound. My personal preference would be to have more space in this work, especially with the infinite feel of the video, and as a result adding slightly more reverb seemed most appropriate.
Technical Considerations:
I used a Rode NT2-A Microphone with the cardioid setting to record the required cells. Crotchet was set at 144 in Ableton and I figured it would be easier to record everything at that tempo and then adjust the subtle tempo changes using a Psuedo Warp Marker because the phasing transitions would be easier to hear.
To control the gradual changes in dynamics, I used automation. Whilst doing this I also found out that automation doesn't have to relate to just dynamics. Other features such as panning, audio effects and VST's could be adjusted within a piece - all of which were used in my other projects.
For EQ and reverb, I used a bus to add effects to the four channels simultaneously. I wanted the reverb, as described earlier, to be far from dry (51%). In addition, the use of chorus added a richer stereo sound which links with the music being contained within the mirror space. In terms of EQ, the music itself produces overtones which lead to my decision of boosting the 2k-9kHz frequencies so they are more impactful. Boosting can sometimes lead to an over-focused, unnatural sound. The Q-Value is a ratio of centre frequency to bandwidth and a lower Q-value results in a more gentle, natural sound. With Band 5 set at 0.65Q, this was acceptable, due to the wide band. The cut at frequencies below 100Hz is to remove any unnecessary background sounds.
One feature I found on Ableton that was useful, in order to execute the Psuedo Warp Marker was the 'Consolidate' button which combines multiple audio tracks into one bigger audio track. The general pattern of work throughout this project was to select the cleanest sounding cell, loop it, then consolidate the resulting loop into a bigger track and then use the Warp Marker to achieve the subtle accelerandos in the music.
Reflection:
To keep the performance as natural as possible, I used a random number generator to select the number of times I would be repeating each cell in the score within the limits. This worked well as it makes it difficult to predict when the music moves on, just like in the real performance. Personally, the use of automation is too clear in the work, resulting in an unnatural crescendo and diminuendo. To provide a more natural performance, recording the crescendo and diminuendos separately means that not only will I be avoiding using automation, but it means there will be more variation in the subtle intonation nuances that is more realistic for an instrument such as a violin. However, there is a fine balance between realism and looping because the looping does enhance the rhythmic changes and phasing in the performance which is what the premise of the piece is based on. The visual aspect is beautiful - it provides the listener with a representation of the different phasings in the work and thus makes my work unique to any other performance where this representation is not visible by the eye.
With thanks to Matthew Stewart- Artist for assistance on the videographics
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