The Echo Chamber

JustSteveKing

14:20

Has anybody played with LMMs at all? I am trying to figure out if it is a tool worth using for creating audio clips and samples for the web

AJ Henderson

15:05

@JustSteveKing I have not used it, but it appears to be more an open source version of something like Acid

rather than a sound design tool

looks more targeted at synthesizer/loop music production

JustSteveKing

16:02

Ahh ok, I am having a play with it at the moment

AJ Henderson

cool, let me know how it turns out. Like I said, I've not actually used it, I've only looked at the screen shots and gone "hmm, it looks a lot like this class of software"

JustSteveKing

I am trying to fins an open source tool to help me with sound creation if I am honest

You can tell it is open source

but the things you can do seem reasonable

AJ Henderson

have you looked at Audacity?

JustSteveKing

I have it open at the moment :)

I am using a mix of LMMS and audacity right now

I am new to the audio world really - so trying to find my feet

AJ Henderson

yeah, Audacity is a DAW which is the most common type of tool for recording and mixing and manipulating sound. Synth/loop software is more about using audio in patterns and pitch shifts and such to make music from samples

a fair number of concepts carry from one to the other though

JustSteveKing

16:08

Ah ok! That makes alot more sense! What I am trying to do is make little audio clips to be used in an app for notification sounds

AJ Henderson

and knowing both classes of software certainly doesn't hurt, but if I'm right about the purpose of LMMS then it will be of only limited usefulness for sound design, particularly once you get comfortable using DAWs

DAWs are by nature a bit more complicated

JustSteveKing

What are SAW's??

*DAW

AJ Henderson

DAW is the class of software that Audacity is part of

digital audio workstation

JustSteveKing

Ahh I get you

(Thank god for google)

AJ Henderson

Audacity, CuBase, ProTools, Audition, etc

JustSteveKing

16:09

I used cubase alot a few years ago

It appears to have changed drastically since 2006 lol!

AJ Henderson

and then you have your loop/synths like Acid, Sonar and if I'm correct LMMS

JustSteveKing

Yes it does appear to fit into that category :)

More for looping and manipulating as you go than actually creating

AJ Henderson

and then you move from that in to the even more live edit DJ and VJ related systems, but I don't know much about those

which is kind of funny, because I know recording, I know loop/synth and I know live sound

but somehow I never touched DJing or VJing

JustSteveKing

So where should I be looking for my task at hand?

AJ Henderson

I'd focus on learning Audacity mostly

JustSteveKing

16:13

I am a total novice when it comes to audio, i used to record with cubase but didnt know what I was doing

What I intended to do was to record a noise (for example popping noise) then cut it strip it and add effects until it sounds how I want it to.

AJ Henderson

though you may need some synth stuff as a source to bring in to audacity

JustSteveKing

Will audacity allow me to do this?

AJ Henderson

yeah

that would be something you would do in Audacity

JustSteveKing

Thank you :)

That helps!

AJ Henderson

I'm not that familiar with the limitations of Audacity, but that is a DAW type of task

I use Audition primarily

JustSteveKing

16:15

I have been asked to "master audio engineering" by my boss ...

AJ Henderson

and have used CuBase fairly extensively in the past

and dabbled with Protools a little

JustSteveKing

however all I need to do is know the principles behind sound design and how to create something

I opened up cubase and was a little lost, protools would be well out of my league. I am a developer - not an audio engineer lol!

AJ Henderson

and when it comes to actually doing the sound manipulation stuff though, you are probably best to ask some of the other people more about that. I don't do a whole lot of actual designing particular sounds. I do much more on the recording and live audio side of things

ironically, I'm a developer by day as well

JustSteveKing

Could you point me in the right direction to read up on the psychology behind sound design / audio?

I need to understand it to the same level as I do visual design

AJ Henderson

but I have a dual major in electronic arts and CS and have been doing A/V stuff at a professional level with varying degrees of regularity for the last decade and a half or so

JustSteveKing

16:17

so that I am doing it right

I think I will stick with developing - audio seems like a tough cookie to crack!

AJ Henderson

@JustSteveKing that's exactly why I'm a full time developer

I could work twice the hours for half the pay

and that's not exagerated

JustSteveKing

I have a friend who works as a recording engineer in London, but I dont think its something I could do.

AJ Henderson

I have friends that are full time in the industry that work some of the same conferences I do and they often are working 80 hours a week and making half as much per year as I do

JustSteveKing

I will stick with code :)

AJ Henderson

and I can buy gear faster than them because my side jobs are pure profit

JustSteveKing

16:20

Always a bonus :D

Is there such thing as sound psychology?

AJ Henderson

if they get $1000 for a job, $950 of it is living expenses, if I do the same job for $600, I can buy $600 of new gear

JustSteveKing

like color psychology - but for audio?

AJ Henderson

@JustSteveKing several different variety

JustSteveKing

Where can I read up / learn about it alittle?

AJ Henderson

psychoacoustics is one interesting field, though it is more about how we actually hear than what it says to us

JustSteveKing

16:22

ahh :/

AJ Henderson

but that's how a lot of compression and stuff works by discarding parts of the sound that don't matter

JustSteveKing

So work reading into anyway?

AJ Henderson

there is also certain types of sounds that do elicit particular emotions, but again, that's going more in to the sound effect design side which I know less about

I'm not sure what the term for that is

but I do know it is a thing

JustSteveKing

I would post on the sound design site as a question - but I think I would get marked down for not being a real question or off topic :(

AJ Henderson

@JustSteveKing I think asking about what the field is called is on topic

it's specific and answerable

and as far as I know it isn't a dupe

JustSteveKing

16:30

I will ask away and hope for the best :)

AJ Henderson

I certainly won't be mod-closing it and I don't think either of the other two would

even our over-zealous close voters are primarily for things that are more recording or music related, where as this is much more a question about something up their alley

JustSteveKing

Excellent :) I will craft up a question straight away :)

I have asked the question :) lets hope no one kills me for it!

1

Q: Sound Psychology an explanation

I am trying to work on covering sound design the same way I would approach anything visual. With Visual Design there is a vast amount of things to go into, such as Color Psychology With Sound Design I am trying to find information or advise on something similar such as Sound Psychology. I am n...

asked :)

AJ Henderson

@JustSteveKing I made one little modification

asking for general advice is a bit broad, asking for where to find resources and what it is called is less so

basically, if it is a thing, we can't cover the entire thing in one question ;)

JustSteveKing

16:46

That helkps :) I was struggling to word it while asking for an answer and not a link.

Thank you :)

AJ Henderson

people underestimate how hard it is to ask good questions

but I think you did a really good job of describing what you were looking for

honestly, it's one of the better questions I think we've had lately

in terms of how it was asked

JustSteveKing

I try and ask it as best I can, however posing it as a question can be difficult

AJ Henderson

@JustSteveKing there is a reason that network wide I have probably around 4000 to 5000 answers and only about 20 or 30 questions

JustSteveKing

I am slowly learning how best to ask questions - but each site seems to have its own way of asking lol!

AJ Henderson

@JustSteveKing yes and no

JustSteveKing

16:53

Mind you I was using askUbuntu for years before realising I was on Stack Exchange

AJ Henderson

there is a lot of consistency between them, but it can look a little different as to how on-topicness works

product recommendations and subjectivity are the main areas of variability

but even that is relatively consistent depending on the type of subject matter

arts by nature are more subjective

so we have to allow more good subjective questions

JustSteveKing

I tend to stick to stack overflow as I am mostly on about programming now adays

AJ Henderson

ironically, I barely even have 500 rep on SO

even though it has more than half my questions asked network wide

too hard to find questions to answer that someone hasn't already answered well

JustSteveKing

I have just breached 200 lol! Only been using SE for about 2 months though

askUbuntu for about 3/4 years

mainly searching and not asking though

AJ Henderson

yeah, I used SO, SU and SF for years without realizing they were the same company

then I discovered SE and from there, IT Security, then Photography, then AVP which split to Video Production and Sound Design, and then Moderators when it started

those are my main 5 that I actively participate on

JustSteveKing

16:57

IT security has its own?? I have been looking for one! I was sticking to /r/netsec on reddit because I couldnt find one lol!

AJ Henderson

yeah, sec.se is actually really, really good

our chat room forced Poodle to be revealed early

JustSteveKing

niice :D

I will go and join quick :)

AJ Henderson

we were discussing what it could have been and our top user, a Canadian cryptographer by the name of Thomas Pornin independently identified the vulnerability from the scraps of rumors floating around

JustSteveKing

I have noticed all the smart unheard of people tend to hang around on Stack Exchange somewhere

Its like a university library

AJ Henderson

yeah, I have actually had Eric Lipert answer some of my programming questions

of course, I then proceeded to get in an argument with him on Sec.SE

that was fun

JustSteveKing

17:00

hahaha!!

AJ Henderson

particularly considering he was actually wrong

JustSteveKing

is that the information security SE?

AJ Henderson

yeah

we call it Sec.SE (sexy)

JustSteveKing

Or is there one more targetted at web securtiy?

*security

Ahhh I like it :D

AJ Henderson

it's a bit of an oddball because it is technically called IT Security, but as a practical matter, we cover all security because you can't really seperate IT security from normal security

the one important caveat I will give on the scope is that Sec.SE isn't implementation related, we are concept related

ie, how do I configure my snort rule to do X is off topic

that's a server fault question

figuring out what the rule should do is on topic though

given a particular threat and use case

it's a subtle but key distinction

but we end up doing a whole lot of migrations to SU and SF

if you like chat, The DMZ is the main security chat room as well

and it is quite active, though not always security related discussion

it's not as badly off topic as The Bridge or ELU's chat room, but it can get rambunctious at times.

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