Audio Lab

The audio lab in the work shop at Digital Media is focussed on audio, processing, Pure Data, MaxMSP and Arduino. Introductions to audio editing and recording, as well as to using sensors are available on request.  

For audio editing, introductions to the basics of Audacity, Audition, Ableton Live, Logic and Reaper are also available. Pure Data and MaxMSP are development environments for graphics to generate vivid sounds or images. For visual projects, TouchDesigner and VVVV would be of greater interest, although TouchDesigner requires a GPU that supports Vulkan 1.1 since 2015. 

Meanwhile, Pure Data and Audacity can even work on a RaspberryPi.

At the workshop, Processing and Arduino Microcontroller are merely applied as interfaces to sensors via an object-oriented programming language.

In the audio area, Arduino can be used as a midi device via USB, which connect Pure Data or other applications such as Ableton Live with sensor hardware. Given a corresponding interest in programming, inexpensive sensors can be used instead of standard midi controllers. In doing so, one has to consider where to invest one’s own time. Audio work based on field recordings achieves intriguing results with negligible investments of time. The integration of midi controllers to control the playback of audio is also easily possible. Sound synthesis using software or an analog synthesiser is time consuming, but initially interesting results can often be achieved by changing and fiddling around on examples. Sound recordings of this type can be combined with recordings of other types, creating compelling contrasts. 

For field recordings, good audio recorders, headphones and microphones are available at the central lending desk.

The audio lab presently provides two work spaces. The studio of Audiolabor 2.10.090 has been optimised acoustically and holds high quality speakers in a 7.1.4 setup, a midi controller and microphones in a range of characteristics. Geared more towards experimentation, the Elektroakustische Labor 2.10.060 comes with less sophisticated speakers and has not been optimised acoustically yet. The lab is therefore not suitable for recording. But the facility does provide a semi-modular synthesiser and an oscilloscope to create representation of wave forms without employing a computer. It also provides the same range of software for audio editing, thereby allowing an introduction to sound editing techniques on the level of the studio.