The John Lennon Educational Tour Bus Blog

A Delay and Waylay That Wa LA: SAE & McDSP

2012-02-11T23:57:00Z

Like that, like some strange flash, we were gone from Southern California. We had been there for a full month, we rarely spend such an amount of time in one area but it was the start of the year, the landscape of the southern part of the state is expanse and warm in the winter and tradeshows and events were abound. Driving up the grapevine (see: Interstate 5), the next event was up in Pleasant Hill in the East Bay by San Francisco and the previous event was a stop at S.A.E. Los Angeles. Down there on Sunset Blvd, we sat at S.A.E. and had a day parked between two buildings gazing out to the beautiful streets that make up Hollywood. This day we had the amazing songwriter and producer Toby Gad and artist Chelsea Williams on the bus doing a live performance and an interview with winners of an S.A.E. contest.

exhibit a: sunsetblvd

As we were conducting the interview, there were a series of hurdles that we had to overcome like a marathon runner who is in it for the education rather than the checkered flag (Do marathons have checkered flags? I never ran one, I would not know). The first was that we had 7 people speaking at once in the interview and each had to have descript audio inputs. That was easy enough, we have enough recievers and batteries to where we just ran that all into Pro Tools 10 and grabbed the video with a mixture of our cameras and Tri Caster.
In post, though, we ran into some issues. Listening back to the audio, it was insightful and beautiful, with genuine moments and instances of everyone connecting, thought it was a bit noisy. With any of this live audio stuff, I found out, there is quite a bit of work put into the act to make it listenable. I had never attempted a project of these sorts so the tricks that I learned from this session were thanks to Ryan. What he pointed out to clean up noisy post audio was this:
MCDSP NF575 was the main tool for the session. I played with the preset settings until I got one that was somewhat close to what my goal was and then went into “solo-mode” to go after one specific buzz that was going on. In this case, it was a frequency in the highs that was the result of a A/C running in the background. Using a super small Q number, I surgically pulled out the one frequency and the audio came out clean.

POW POW: PREs and Sunshine and Literature

2012-02-03T06:35:06Z

I sit enthralled in the front studio of the bus, I sit enthralled reading Eugenides’ new book “The Marriage Plot.” I sit so enthralled that I do not realize that we were sitting at the University of Southern California campus until I look up and noticed the markings of the Trojan mascot around me. It all blurs on me a bit, I am running audio for today’s session. I sit and realize that the students we are going to have on today are a practiced band and will be coming ready armed with guitars and all.
Impressive, I think that they were described as impressive.
USC is a really impressive campus. Was it one of those instances that happen on the bus where we end up at a pretty location on pretty day and pretty sun lights our pretty parking spot and everything is just pretty. The weather was fantastic, the people were nice and I was running audio.
I do not do audio too often. I’m on a big video kick so doing audio was a slight change for me this day and I felt ready for the task.
Guitars are a subject of fascination for me. I spent a youth with Sonic Youth. They are a strange tool that can coax so many different sounds and feelings and emotions and chords and sensations and tones from the solid (or hollow) body.
We spent the beginning of the year setting up the studio as we wanted things to be changed around for us for the New Year. A passing thought we had that shaped its self into a reality is the idea of being able to plug guitars into the bus anywhere and have them DI’d and set to record.
Ryan and Hans spent an evening soldering and setting up the http://www.avid.com/US/products/PRE"> Avid PRE to be a DI pre for the bus just by patching.
I had a nice view of the campus most of the day from my view in the middle studio just out the front window, I had little to no intention of moving from my spot. Joy enthralled me when I realized that they are remote controllable through http://www.avid.com/US/products/family/pro-tools">Pro Tools.
Sunshine enjoyed from inside the bus.

exibit 2: sunshinebusfine

I learned about audio
And the protagonist of “The Marriage Plot”
And my own personal love of not only guitars
But suit jackets
And MIDI controllable PREs.

Near Year’s Honours

2012-01-31T04:37:51Z

When the New Year begins and the bus staff returns to the bus, it is a kind of a celebration. The bus exists as our home, the bus exists as our place of work and the people at the bus exist as our friends, so the return in the parking lot in Burbank served as a time of celebration. It was quickly back to work though for us. One of the reasons for this celebration is due to that the fact that the start of the New Year and the end of the break from the previous year is when new technology gets installed on the bus.
This is all worth noting but it is not nothing to note that it is a few weeks into the New Year and there have been no signs of activity on the blog. There is a reason for this. We got our selves a new toy to play with, though I believe it would perhaps be two toys.
The first being the Newtek Tricaster and the partner in its crime being the satellite dish on the bus powered by Todo Cast. With the combination of these two technologies, I may present to everyone a new and exciting facet of the Lennon Bus.

Lennonbus Live!

On this site, we are going to be showing of live broadcast of concerts that the bus does, Lennonbus Live sessions and many other things. We got the chance to break in the Tricaster at NAMM with a Lennonbus live session, concerts at the Wanna Play stage and an amazing live concert headlined by Bootsy Collins.

exhibit 1: Lennon Bus at Namm 360 view

This is our first foray into the field of live broadcast. Where it will go from here, we can only assume good places. With the bus having a history of doing Warped Tour, SXSW and other festivals, we really have the chance to crank out some fab live footage from the bus.
As we work on what could be the next Lennonbus Live video, go to the site and watch any of the videos that are archived on the site right now.
Go!

Getting Technically Creative with iPad Wireless Control

2011-11-14T19:20:42Z

Hello all! It’s been tooooo long since our last chat! Warning: excessive use of exclamation points may be used throughout this piece as we have just turned the bus into the wind and are heading west. Final Destination: California aka HOME!! The Lennon Bus has officially ended its 2011 tour and will be heading into the shop for repairs and upgrades while the crew trains for 2012! To say we’re excited to see what next year brings with the production of a Lennon Bus Europe would be a massive understatement.
Moving on… to continue from our last discussion, we ended on integrating Sibelius and the Scorch app with your songwriting communication. And before that we provided you with a method to capture that initial inspiration with the Garageband app. The next step? Getting your composition to become truly immortal! One of the beautiful things about recording a song is the realization that by storing it in a digital format (or analog if that’s your style) you are in fact creating something that will last longer on this planet than you will. A weird thought, yes, but its something that many artists don’t realize and often forget. After you’re gone and this recording is something you’ve left behind, what do you want people to think and feel after hearing it?
I digress. As you may already know, there are multiple DAW’s these days to capture a performance with, but the industry standard worldwide is Avid Pro Tools. Now when it comes to using Pro Tools, it is a known fact that until you reach a certain level of comfortability with the program it is a rather technical operation to run. Compare that to writing, arranging, and performing a song, which is an extremely creative operation. I’m no expert on neural processes but I’m quite positive that the creative and technical portions of your brain function on complete opposite sides. It’s so hard to combine the two! And when trying to record and perform at the same time you need to limit the amount of switching as much as possible. This is where the AC-7 Core app from Saitara Software comes in. This app allows you to control Pro Tools from the safety of your iPad, with movable faders and knobs for adjusting levels, pans, mutes, scrubbing, and full transport control. Imagine you are laying down a guitar track in the best sounding corner of the room, your computer is at the other end, and you couldn’t move if you wanted to as you’re surrounded by microphones. Load up AC-7 on the iPad and your wireless control of Pro Tools is good to go! Or perhaps you are recording a band, but you’re the only engineer. As you walk back and forth between the control room and the studio, you move mics around in the room and record their various locations, playing back on the fly to find the best sound. Endless possibilities! And when it comes down to it, anything that furthers your knowledge of recording and Pro Tools will in turn allow the program to cease as a technical process and allow it to become the amazing creative instrument that it truly is.
Just to clarify, magic is in fact not real (although Santa Clause DOES exist) so the app doesn’t automatically connect to your computer upon opening. However, the setup whether on Mac or PC is very easy and Saitara has down a wonderful job of supporting the software. I’ve included a video of how to setup below, along with a specific setup for Pro Tools below that. Enjoy the app everybody and cheers to all!

What Wonders We Witnessed When We Went To South Beach: 2011

2011-11-07T13:22:58Z

How was your weekend? Was it well?
Over the weekend, we at the Lennon Bus had quite a bit going on.
We really did!
Our tour season is winding down with only a few more days to go before we begin the trek back to California and what could be a more strange and fantastic way to end the year besides being in South Beach in Miami. The weather is not too far off from San Diego in the summer time, so I felt rather at home. Palm trees were abound and adorable pups scrabbled around s the bus sat parked on the beach front by the Betsy Hotel. Tours were given both days but the highlight of it all was the unveiling and birthing of the Wish Tree that will be on permanent display here in Miami. The amazing photographer Rob Zuckerman was there to make portraits of the first 100 people that hung their wishes.

“Wait, one second.”
Yes?
“Make portraits? That is a strange phrase." Let me explain.

This was a phrase that Rob used when he was taking portaits that evening. Something that he had said that had failed to cross my mind was the way we use language when talking about photography. TAKE portraits. SHOOT pictures. CAPTURE photos. It is all very aggressive and a proactive alteratation of our discourse can alter the way the entire action of photography is seen. MAKE portraits together, not SHOOT them.

“Ahh, okay.”
Anyways…
At the ceremony, the excessively talented bassist Kate Davis played her rendition of imagine for the crowd and recorded a version of it on the bus that near brought us all to tears. We’ve got to say “salutations and thank you” to Young Arts for helping us set this musical aspect of the ceremony.

“And now?" Now we get ready to head back out west for the winter and prepare for the next year.

Beam Me Up - Video Light Painting in Motion

2011-11-01T18:49:51Z

A really cool looking visual effect is light painting.

In photography, the effect is achieved by using a slow shutter speed, but recently, I wanted to obtain the same effect in video. Turns out it’s a bit more complex than changing your camera’s shutter speed, but if you use Apple’s Motion, the effect can be done quite easily, in just a few steps.

STEP 1
Import the footage that you want to use for you video light painting and title the group subject.

STEP 2
Create a new group and title it null object. Create a new shape, I’ve chosen a rectangle, but it really doesn’t matter. What does matter, though, is to make sure that it has no fill and no outline, basically making it a ghost shape.

STEP 3
Track your ghost shape to whatever you are going to use to do the light painting with. In this case, I’ve decided to use my subject’s fingertip.

STEP 4
Wherever you want your subject to start light painting, add a particle emitter, the one that I’ve decided to use is the Magic Dust emitter as I have found that it gives you a pretty good place to start.

STEP 5
Add a match move behavior to your particle emitter and use the ghost shape as its source.

STEP 6
In the inspector for the particle emitter, change the life parameter to 10 and the speed parameter to 0.

STEP 7
Under the particle, change the random motion amount to 0.

STEP 8
Change the gravity parameter to 2.

STEP 9
This is personal preference in terms of what thickness of light you are going for, but for this, I’ve changed the scale over life to about -55 for the scale at start of life and -25 for scale at end of life.

STEP 10
This is also a preference depending on what color you want your light to be, but here I’ve changed my light to a blue-ish gradient in my inspector.

STEP 11
Add a gaussian blur to your light, making it look more natural. The amount should be either a 1 or 2.

THAT’S PRETTY MUCH IT!!!
YOU SHOULD NOW HAVE SOMETHING THAT LOOKS A BIT LIKE THIS:

Codecs: Part II

2011-10-25T05:48:53Z

In my last blog post we talked about some basic video codecs and their history. This time we’re going to talk about a couple of popular post-production codecs, Apple ProRes and Avid DNxHD.
Last time we talked about capture codecs like DV or DVCPRO and delivery codecs like h.264. The two codecs we’re talking about today are post-production codecs. ProRes and DNxHD aren’t codecs used in cameras and they aren’t what you’d post to the web, burn to a disc, or send to someone for viewing. They’re used during the post-production portion of the workflow. These codecs are capable of virtually lossless quality at high bitrates (for online editing) or very good quality at lower bitrates (for offline editing). They use algorithms that are very easy for modern computers to decode to minimize the impact on the computer’s CPU, resulting in the computer being able to devote more of its resources to FX processing than to playback of the raw video clips. Post-production codecs are also designed to maintain the integrity of the video when multiple processes like FX, keys, and composites are layered. This is something the more heavily compressed capture and delivery codecs usually fail at.
There’s a correct tool for every job. When you’re editing and finishing a video, the correct codec is probably a post-production codec like ProRes or DNxHD. So do yourself a favor, and transcode to it before you begin working in your editor; you’ll get more power out of your editing system, fewer headaches and higher quality. All at the expense of minimal time transcoding (a good time to make a fresh pot of coffee) and some extra file size (quality hard drives are affordable these days).

The Theory of Making Music Videos- Part 1 (Pre Production)

2011-10-17T19:35:12Z

So we on the Lennon Bus produce a TON of music videos and we do it in a very little time frame. This is why it is so important to have a set method for production, with a check list of points that one must hit to make the whole production run smoothly.

In any production, the process is split into 3 major steps:

The first step is the “Pre-Production Phase.” Here the artist or students brainstorm on the concept for the video and create a basic shot list for the camera man and director to start thinking on a technical level of how to best compose the shots. These ideas are then put into motion by storyboarding. Storyboarding can take a few different forms. Typically we have one or a couple of the students, who are not working on the audio portion of our project, to go scout locations in the area. This can be anywhere. It is usually done by sending a student out with a digital photo camera and having them take pictures in each location. In our case though, since we don’t have a car, we are typically limited to our immediate area. We gather all the photos and make a story board, or sequence of shots or locations that are going to be the story or scenes in the video.

So, when making decisions on shots, you need to factor in “the Look” and also “the Gear” that it you will need to haul around, to get the look. Pre-Production is a very important step that helps you sort out any potential problems that you may run into while on location when resources are limited. It also gives you an assessment of what gear to equip yourself with. For instance inside locations typically require more lighting and maybe lighting accessories such as light gels, which match the color of your lights with the pre existing rooms lights. (better said through a wiki link or a litepanels.com link than taking the time to explain) Outdoor settings are typically more forgiving when it comes to lighting, but present their own sets of challenges. (explain the challenges or drop this phrase)

So, with all of these factors in mind, you need to make a gear list of all the items you may need, including “the Extras,” like extra batteries for the camera’s, extra storage media, gels, a bumpin audio playback device for those dance videos, tripods, etc. All of these are very important to make your life as easy as possible when shooting on location. As with many things, the most important thing is to BE PREPARED!!! Rain or shine, pay attention to the details and make sure you cover all your bases.

Avid Scorch: An Insight Into Burning Away Wasted Time

2011-10-11T01:41:20Z

Chapter two! As you may remember from my last post we focused on the iPad app known as Garageband. This provided an easy and efficient way for beginning or mobile songwriters to get their ideas out. So at this point we have your song, which you can now travel around listening to. You enjoy it more and more every day and it’s mixed just the way you like. A great point to be at but there’s one problem: it’s exclusive to one person… yourself! You’ve just realized you want to share this song with your friends who also play instruments with the intention of seeing how they could contribute to the components that make up your song.
Option 1: You gather your friends together and explain to each of them the melody, the chordal movements, the arrangement, the key and tempo. All the while doing your best to translate for each specific instrument. Unfortunately you keep hitting snags whenever a particular question arises regarding a part of your tune that wasn’t properly communicated.
Option 2: Utilizing an iPad equipped with the Avid Scorch app in conjunction with Avid Sibelius, you create a notated document of your song also known as a score or sheet music. This score has all the notes written out for each instrument with clearly indicated sections for your arrangement i.e. intro, verse, chorus, bridge, etc. You now have an exact representation of the song within Sibelius, which you can then upload to Scorch and have your song right on the iPad in front of you.
Hold on a sec… I can hear the questions coming through the computer at me right now. “But Hans!” you ask, “what if every member of this unique and awesome band lacks their own iPad to view this beautiful score I’ve created?! Why don’t I just print it out directly from Sibelius?" Keep calm little one. This is where the Scorch app truly shines. You not only have the ability to have Scorch play the score for you with the option to solo various sections, but you also have the ability to transpose to any key you want. Vocalist not feeling the key you’ve written the song in? Transpose the score to fit his or her range. Bassist confused about a line? Isolate the part and have the player hear it directly. Any trouble from there and you can just hand the musician the iPad to see for themselves what ultimate confusion busting looks like! On top of all this, you have the ability to mix the song on the fly to your taste. All while staying in the comfortable space you are jamming in as opposed to crowding around a computer. Gotta love technology.
And now for my favorite part: dissecting what the main thing wrong with option 1 was and how we can incorporate its solution into what we do on the Lennon Bus. Lets use Math as our analogy. Mathematics is referenced as the one true universal language as it does not rely on any syntax derived from French, English, Spanish, Latin, etc. It is its own language autonomous of any region or country that can therefore be spoken worldwide. Music notation is the exact same. Having your notated song in Scorch you are now able to take this score to any musician in the entire world and have them immediately recognize how your song is played. This cuts the time passed from explanation to understanding by a significant degree. Everything we do in our recording sessions on the bus has to be done in an equally efficient manner. When students or artists come together to record a song, so much time can be wasted trying to communicate how the song is played. Especially when dealing with a pre - written tune i.e. recording a cover. Having Scorch handy on the iPads with the quick option of loading up the sheet music and playing that song back, transposing that song on the fly if needed, soloing certain sections for better clarity, the list goes on. In the end the result is a HUGE time saver. And that, my friends, is absolutely invaluable whether you’re on a bus or not.

Below are some pics highlighting various functions of the app. I’ve also included a tutorial of Sibelius should you choose to dig deeper into your musical notation endeavors. Enjoy learning one of the few universal languages around!

Photography in My Eye: Part 1: Glass

2011-10-03T15:52:43Z

Photography, to me, is a means in which I can alter the way I remember things. I can see things a certain way with my eyes and thus my memories are formed but my eyes always see things the same way. If I change the lens of a camera and take a picture, or edit that picture in a certain way, then we can really alter our memories of reality. A day that you saw in one way will look different in your mind when you look at the photos you have taken as the camera saw something different than you. Not better, not worse, but the camera can make subjects pop, it can blur out buildings, it can zoom across a field.

So I want to start a blog series explaining how I use photography to remember things and what it means to me as I go around the country and also how it can help you change your world.

With each of these lenses, the first set of number reference the aperture of the lens while the second set of numbers is the zoom of the lens. We will get into the specifics of zoom and aperture in another blog post, but for now, we can see some photographic evidence of how each of these numbers react to one another and how each of different types of glass shape how a picture can be taken.

The first is the Sony Wide 4.5-5.6/11-18, the “wide-angle lens.” If you notice for this picture, there is a bit of curving on the picture on the outside-edge. What I did was open the aperture all of the way and zoom out as much as I could. We use this lens very frequently on the bus as we can get in close to get wide shots of the situations we find out selves in.

Second is the Sony 3.5-6.3/18-250, the “zoom lens.” While the most the wide angle lens could zoom in was listed as 18mm, the most that this lens can do is 250mm. What this gets you is a strong ability to see zoom in on things further away. For concert photography when you are not in the photo-pit, this lens helps us get solid picture from far away.

Third, we have the popular Sony 2.8/16, the “fisheye lens.” This lens functions similar to the wide-angel lens in allowing us to get wide shots while we stand close to the subject, but takes it a step-further by embracing the image distortion. See how the lines of the horizon get pulled a bit and the clouds bend? The joy of embracing image distortion!

Fourth is the ultra-clean Sony 2.8/100, the “macro lens.” Like the fisheye, the macro cannot zoom in from the set focal length so the strength of this glass is based around the ability to take pictures in a unique way. With the macro, we can get close shots of small objects that then appear larger than they did in reality. Tight, close nature shots are always a powerful part of this lens.

Last is an exciting and unique lens, the Sony 135 STF lens. STF stands for “Smooth Trans Focus” and I’ll write a blog getting into the capabilities of this lens but for now, we will just get into the basics. To quickly sum up the lens, it can pull of really amazing bokeh shots. See how the blur of the object in the foreground and the background and soft are providing a nice framing for the rock-pile that is in focus? Bokeh, okay! Again, we will get into this lens later on with a blog post based just around it.

That was a lot of information, I know, I know. But for now, take that in and think about the fact that just by changing the lens on the camera, you can alter the way your pictures are taken and the way reality is perceived by you for the moments you are holding the camera. I’ll follow this up with some more information about photography in a bit but in the meantime, if you have any questions about these lenses or anything photography related, leave a comment or shoot me an e-mail and I’ll write up another blog post answering your question.