Creating a way to Distinguish Sounds:

A brief scale about a young artistic preadolescent surrounded around music prodigies in the earlier part of my life.  Experiences with listening techniques of how to develop 'undertones'. Music theory, midi, DAT tapes, synthesizers, percussion pads, was a minute allotment of the range of tools used before music was digitized.  During college, I’ve actively acquired additional music education.  Compared those experiences. Tested. Performed. Developed a simple major 3 note major chord scale exercise to train the ear for sharps and flats in any tonal sound in question. Realized a pattern existed. Post MIDI creation, the polishing or fine tuning begins. Back in our day, major record studio required you to purchase the 'reel' meant exactly that.  

On the production side of the arts: A small sample of an actual experience. The tech side of how  two 'reel 2 reels' were connected to left / right channels with RCA analog connections. Processing the tape through a sound board inside of soundproofed room directly adjacent to the studio. Power, lots of power. Power that keeps the a/c unit running as the sound boards generate excessive heat as it processes the mixed data.  Listening to a tuning folk with the similar frequency range as transmitter and receiver crystals. This foundation is the key to not only developing an ear for tonality, however this is an example on how to relate those frequencies on the how it effects other space technology.

Ive had the opportunity to experience music at its earliest stages of development. While in the creative art of music at an early age, knowing the theory behind the  'Circle of Fifths' was a major progression.  Back in the 1980’s, the 8 track( Stereo 8)(1964-1988) created by Learjet Corporation in 1964, had some great sounding music with similar ‘lustrous affluent full dark sound’ that filled the room, similar to surround sound in stereo mode. The instruments were heard clearly. Around the same time frame, no pun intended. Still, right around 1980,  I was introduced to the  ’Reel-to-Reel’ , as these units were a way to create and learn music with using metal tapes to record to and from. Those systems allowed for playing along to find the correct note and learn harmonies, melodies, and choruses to enhance your learning abilities.  Reel-to-Reels are used in music studios for live artist recordings to record to vinyl, .dat, CD, or digital.

 A piano instructor that came into Yamaha Music had a metronome and a tuning fork in the key of E, 329.6. Continuing to tune the piano, I asked if I could watch the master at work, he replied with a kind: 

‘’yes, sure of coarse’’. 

‘’Are you interested in learning and developing your music eduction?’’, he asked.

 I replied with, ‘’Yes, of coarse, Master Sazuki, I have heard great things about your teachings of the arts''. 

The exposure into this realm, intrigued me. As my interest became more involved, so did my knowledge for the half side of the arts.  I was also granted access to an area where Yamaha Grand Pianos were tested, and finely tuned with the ‘lustrous affluent full dark sounds’ from the Ivory’s Tusk.  He showed me the manual way to use your ear for harmony.  I learned timing and subdivision at an early age that is instilled in my brain . Later on in an artist’s life. ’Born into’ what arose to be a profession to this day. A director, amongst a publisher whom owns and publishes a fully functional online / print magazine combined with services that utilizes bleeding edge technology. A Sicilian - American publisher, fashion advertisement artist, and now recently discovered filmmaker. Progressing in a later development in commercial advertisement of our magazine, Ambition Fashion Magazine. 

Why does it matter about some random noise in the sound mixing / editing room? After all, is it not soundproofed? 

Now in present days, with new technological advanced sound boards it’s easily avoidable.  Compared to those older sound boards in 1978, having abnormal issues of uneven heat distribution. Most had a devastating outcome. Reel-to-Reel tapes to shrivel from that very same excessive heat. Or worse, small fires from an excessive amount of power consumption. These sound boards were at about 5-6’ft long X 3’ft wide with tons of sliders, dials, built-in fans, and buttons. Other mini synthesizers, special effects boards, often generated power and more excessive heat from the master soundboard. The processor of the sound boards often were overworked without adequate ventilation. The boards generated excessive noise as the fan engages to dissipate the heat. Lose, lose situation. Obviously most tones are hard to distinguish without additional noise. Other additional noises of interference such as coughing, laughing, background ‘chit-chat’ from crew of artists. Crew supporting the artist, or are they really? Making studio time increase.   

People complained of the muffled sound when the button was depressed. There is a rule of thumb. If you pressed the button and it sounded muffled without the hissing, you were hearing ‘true clean analog sound’.  Now your next option was to raise the volume without hearing distortion.  Let’s venture down the avenue of bitrate and distortion. The best way to alleviate distortion is to digitally create sounds with careful post processing techniques.  Most stereo headphones were not designed for Hi-Def sound as they are today.  Some thought it was a part of the creative process or special effect of the artist’s music. Not the case by far. Tapes were put into mass production with not much post production work.  Keeping the original content the artist was creating for the public to hear without copyright issues or destruction of the artist’s creative process ……

Studios would negotiate post production deals to re-master the artists’ record with of coarse, the remastered logo. Often, if the studio is well established, they would include usage rights. More than often, as royalties are a big factor with recording studios, those rights are often missed.  Then came, the digital tagging, or embedding metadata within your creation. An entire different venue that protects the artist. 

As a young child, my mechanically engineering mind sparked some curiosity while discovering a screwdriver, a drill, nuts, bolts, a word processor, 2 octave musical keyboards, and a few odds an ends. Now, my memory often fades me when at that early stage I was recognizing a creative process in action.  Possibly something along the lines of a DIY MIDI. 

Familiarity within the bleeding edge tech world we reside in today is imperative in blending with society’s needs.  As a young creative child, I found the sound system that was connected to some real nice Yamaha performance tower speakers for the Pioneer Reel to Reel. Everything connected via RCA right / left analog audio jacks. Mastering and slaving the system with ‘ins and outs’. The Reel to Reel had a y-splitter RCA analog connection to connect to the receiver / amp. The thought of music on the tape to be a great source of mixing music and blending sounds altogether had blown me away.  Within the same day, connected  the 8-track tape to Pioneer Reel to Reel system to clean up the static noise from the 8-track. Well, I wasn’t content on the size of an 8-track cassette so I then connected the tape deck to the amp with a graphic equalizer so that I could record direct from the Reel to Reel system alleviating static noise. Then the days of cassette tapes with Hi-Def, TDK, or metal tapes were on the rise. Most people didn’t care for metal tapes that had cleaned up the ‘hissing’ noise. Manufacturers were aware of this change thereby making physical buttons on cassette players to accommodate that adaptation.