This is a video of a exploded diagram I drew on SketchUp before starting to build the speakers for the platform exhibition. It also has some software synthesizer sounds created on my laptop.
Tony Andrews Interview
skip to 1:47
“All the other devices use a metallic compression driver so the thing that is making the sound is actually made out of metal and we make that frequency band with cone loudspeakers. In other words, paper is a much more organic, more friendly material and the speed of sound in the material is closer to what it is in air so the transition from the diaphragm to the air is allot smoother. I mean everybody knows what a dustbin sounds like. A metallic one or a oil drum; it’s not a great sound. Whereas organic things…well there are steel guitars but most classical instruments tend to be made out of wood. It’s some thing we like, and paper is just one step removed from wood really.”
Tony Andrews
Documentation of opera recording. With gratitude to Eric Terhorst (for sound), Pablo Mercado (camera), John Fernon (Opera Singer Nationale Reisopera). John sang bass and Ingret Van Ree sang alto accompanied by cello. Enschede Biannual, Pet Pavilion, ARE Holland Residency.
This work, ‘In Alto and Bass’ was recorded in Enschede Holland, (June 2015) together with two opera singers from the Nationale Reisopera. It was developed following a conversation with John Fernon (bass voice for the Nationale Reisopera) about the resonance of the body and overtones produced in the scull of gifted opera singers. The work re-contextualises Johan Wolfgand Von Goethe’s text appropriated from his theatre play, ‘Faust’ (1831).
After the piece was composed, together with John Fernon, it was recorded on an analogue Tescam 242 MKII Studio; John sang bass and Ingret Van Ree sang alto as well as playing the cello accompaniment.
For this exhibition I have re-develop the sound with a Bob Whitney Recording Studio Engineer at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, digitally mastered and restored the analogue sound recording. The sonically enhanced opera will be installed and played on SM108 near field studio monitors. The cabinets for these speakers I have built myself and then assempled the driver units and crossovers bought as a pacage from Wilmslow Audio. The build documetation I will posted at a later date.
