Category: Video

Tobias Enhus featured in Studio Magazine

Tobias Enhus‘ Santa Monica California-based film-scoring studio is featured in the November 2013 issue of STUDIO magazine. You can get a preview of the article through this video in which Enhus gives a demo tour of his unique collection of gear (including a rack with three Pacaranas) presented in Swedish and the universal language of audio gear, all to the soft accompaniment of the glassy, metallic, vocal, analog electronics that have become his signature sound. Near the end of the video, Enhus does an impromptu performance with Max Mathews’ Radio Baton controlling vocal resynthesis in Kyma!

When not composing for film, television, games & advertising, Tobias Enhus enjoys a bit of cave diving.
When not composing for film, television, games & advertising, Tobias Enhus enjoys a bit of cave diving & sleep walking.

The article describes how Tobias was born in Sweden and began by following in his father’s footsteps as a construction engineer before changing course to follow his true passion: music and sound design. Now he is a successful film composer and sound designer in Hollywood, and he has what he describes as a real monster in his sound design studio: “This is my audio playground,” Tobias says, referring to his Kyma system, the programming language considered by some to be the most powerful sound design tool available. Enhus’ Kyma system (his 3-Pacarana rack is among the world’s largest sound computing clusters), along with his Synclavier and analog synthesizer modules, have laid the technical foundation for Enhus’ successes in Los Angeles; his composing credits include the films Narc and the soon-to-be-released feature film Sisterhood of Night, the television series Top Gear and video game Spiderman 3, as well as sound design and music composition for numerous ads for companies like Mercedes and Coca Cola.

The article is full of photos, anecdotes, advice, and insights on the life of a professional composer and sound designer in LA. And it’s an inspiring story for anyone who feels they are expected to take one path in life and is seeking the courage to risk it all in order to follow their dreams.

Peter’s People: Creating the Dream

The little village of Petersburgh, NY, nestled in the hills and mountains of eastern Rensselaer County, New York, has long been known for the rugged beauty of its landscape.  What is less well known is that this setting has, over the years, attracted a unique mix of independent artists and visionaries, individuals who have had a lifelong dream and realized it.  From disciplines as diverse as music, painting, master masonry, sculpture, jewelry and metal sculpture, ceramic pottery and more, artists are thriving in this small village.

Peter’s People — Creating the Dream by musician/video artists Barton and Priscilla McLean, is the story of eight such artists and musicians living and working in Petersburgh.

Barton McLean’s score for the film, based on musical materials from the artist/musicians featured in the video, was produced entirely in Kyma using the Timeline. McLean pioneered the Synthi 100 and Fairlight CMI in the United States, and has subsequently gone through numerous studio incarnations centered on the Moog, Arp, EU, Serge, and now, Kyma. The husband and wife composing duo have produced CDs on the labels EM-Japan, Folkways, CRI, Centaur, Lousiville Orchestra, Orion, Opus 1, Advance, Parma/Naxos, and Innova.

International touring and media artists in their own right, the McLeans chose in this film to focus not on their own work, but on the many other talented and successful creative dreamers they found, including a world class bagpiper who founded a school in Petersburgh, a master award-winning stone mason whose unique stone work has graced buildings and landscapes from Atlanta to the Adirondacks, a watercolor artist who appeared in “Oprah” magazine and has published a definitive book on watercoloring, and several others.

Time Dilation

Edmund Eagan has posted his new video work,  Time Dilation as an example on the Haken Audio site. Time Dilation is a glimpse of what life will look like in the future, when Internet-connected heads-up displays explain and analyze everything we see.  The video work includes a single take capture of a live performance of Eagan using the Continuum to control Sounds organized on a Kyma Timeline.  Other Kyma elements include:

• The time structuring of Kyma Sound elements

• The overall time of the piece, which is variable due to the extensive use of the Kyma WaitUntil sound. (Eagan writes that he found this “a very useful tool for interactive improvisation, and a nice way to create localized time dilations.”

• The selection and editing of Continuum Internal Sounds via Midi commands sent back to the Continuum from the Kyma timeline.

• The processing and mixing of a blend of Kyma Sounds and Continuum Internal Sounds.

In addition to the Continuum as a control device, Eagan also used the Pen page of the Kyma Control app running on an iPad.

Time Dilation is a free download, available in a large and a small version (Eagan strongly recommends the larger version):

http://www.hakenaudio.com/Continuum/html/examples/ex268.html

Ethereal Mbiraski

Yasuski (aka Yasushi Yoshida) has just posted a series of videos of his handmade Mbiraski instrument processed live through Kyma and his Audio Hologram (a 3D performance space of his own design).  Etheral, calming, and deceptively organic, it’s the perfect music for a summer day.

Here’s one where Yasuski goes Medieval on us with a closer view of the Mbiraski and Delora Software’s vKiP controlling Kyma from an iPad:

And another where the Kyma processing almost sounds like frogs on hot, humid summer night:

Sounds of ISAM

Electronic musician/DJ/producer, Amon Tobin, provided a sneak peak at how he made some of the Continuum-controlled Kyma Sounds that he used in his new album ISAM (scheduled for May 2011 release). According to Tobin,

I feel like [Kyma] was made for doing what I love doing.

FM Slide-whistle

Jean-Edouard Miclot’s “Field and Toys 2010” is an entertaining and enlightening video starring the sound designer in a variety of intriguing, and often amusing, sound-recording scenes. At around 4.40 you can see Jean-Edouard controlling Kyma with the audio output of a slide whistle and a Wacom Tablet.

Field and Toys 2010 is an entertaining and enlightening video starring sound designer Jean-Edouard Miclot in a variety of intriguing, and often amusing, sound-recording scenes.  With sound sources ranging from wolves to whoopee cushions, from commuter trains to exploding condoms and shaky springs to seaplanes (not to mention several mysterious sound-producing toys), this video is chock full of ideas for sound design sources.  And at around 4.40 you can see Jean-Edouard taking it a step further by controlling a Kyma frequency modulation Sound with the audio output of a slide whistle and a Wacom Tablet.