aisyalam

I picked up the “proofs” of the eBook this morning in Seri Kembangan, which look really good. I wasn’t actually expecting to receive them, but the timing was good because I was on my way to the meeting at the MSC Innovation Center and was able to do a brief demo of some of the work after I was asked what I was up to. I was pleased and relieved to see that all of the mechanisms worked, and learned this morning that at the very least the project serves as a reasonable introduction to my work.

After lunch I had a few minutes to quickly make some notes about the recordings and begin reviewing and selecting images to show with the poems next week. After that, the session in the audio lab was really productive. In less than 90 minutes we (Ajoi and I) were able to mix & master 10 different recordings/samples I had brought with me. The raw materials were almost good enough to present on their own, but some needed extension via looping and others were well served by the addition of various effects. Using the Sonar program, we “widened” the sounds using an “imager” and added some reverb, flange, and chorus to some other tracks—although not so much as to be even remotely obvious. I really wish I had Ajoi’s skills with the software, and could download them into my own noggin, but will instead have to figure it out for myself next winter after returning to the states. The recordings I made with Stella at MMU are really wonderful, and the ambient recordings in KL, Pulau Pangkor, and Lenbah Bujang also sound about as good as they possibly can. Without a doubt or reservation I’ll be using the materials in next week’s performance.

Now it is time to really focus on the event; I’ve been working on it for awhile now but need to spend the rest of the week tying up more than a few loose ends. The eBook is going to be delivered on Monday, so in a sense next Wednesday’s gig will be a launch party for it, even though none of the work it contains will be presented.