Press Release

York United Kingdom, 17th June 2003. Ambrose Field's One hell of a place to lose a cow, a music work created entirely from sound-design materials is honoured to receive the Studio Music PRIX from the 2003 Bourges International Competition. The Bourges Festival is one of Europes' prestigious forums for new creative audio work, hosting an international creative compeition and festival encompassing 16 broadcast groups from 11 European countries.

What does it sound like? High octane designed sounds meet severely processed rock guitars in a large stadium. Whilst you're not looking, you're whisked off on a journey taking in both familiar and exotically remote spaces and places. Strap yourself in, you're in for quite a ride!

How was it made? Extensive location recording was undertaken, combined with processing and manipulation. We visited welding-shops, underground caves, battle re-creations and army training facilities specifically to capture the more unusual sounds present in these environments. Surround microphone techniques were used, and new methods of selecting sounds from the recorded panorama were developed specifically for the piece. High resolution multichannel recording in the field was accomplished on Nagra-D systems, the large dynamic range available permitted the extensive manipulation of the recordings in post-production. The Nagra machines proved an equal match for the harsh environments which they were used (particularly in the inhospitably cold underground caverns at Inglebrough, Yorkshire UK ). Often, it was the smallest details in the original recordings that were to become the most impactful moments in the work.

Surround recording with the Nagra-D and AMS ST250 in a welding-shop.
Photo: Matt Paradis. Field assistance from Dave Malham

Mixing in Dolby ®Digital Surround EX™: Why use EX on this project? Most of the work was originally written for a demonstration at the Los Angeles Audio Engineering Society Convention, 2002.

The surround mix is very important here, aiming to bring you, the audience closer to the reality of events and assist you in feeling a real part of the action. This also needed to be true for spaces that were not real: careful planning of the soundfield was required to maintain the illusion. The surround capture of materials from the outset has resulted in environments being spatially detailed and diverse. However, care does need to be taken with this approach as much creative control is required to isolate sonically interesting parts of the recorded soundfield.

Using Dolby ®Digital Surround EX™ as the final mix delivery medium enhances audience envelopment that is so crucial to this work. You need to believe that you're there, in the arena with the performers ready to be transported to another space or environment. In addition to the benefits of an extra rear channel (which permitted some amazing spatial moments), EX is advantageous as a delivery medium in that you gain better presentation of materials in the side-channels, as their image is no longer tied to that present at the rear of the auditorium. The result is a highly enveloping experience when coupled with a well designed sound-scape. EX definately took audience envelopment to a new level in this work.

The audio world of One Hell of a Place to Lose a Cow relies on a balance between real, recorded materials and processed, transformed sound. Computer processing techniques such as granulation, spectral filtering and compositing were used alongside some (high quality) analog studio treatments to generate a sound world that was simultaneously reminiscent of both 'future' and 'past'. The result has an attitude and lot of impact without sounding like 'bad digital', or being too reminiscent of the processes which created the sounds. This was an important factor in making the final environments believable for the audience.

What about the title? Bryce Canyon, Utah. Amazing shapes called 'hoodoos' rise up from the arid landscape. With a bit of imagination, you can turn them into anything you like. People are reported to have seen Queen Elizabeth, alligators, Chinese walls, Cathedrals and even London's Tower Bridge from which the rock formations take their name. The 'rock formations' in One hell of a place to lose a cow (the musical work) have certain similarities. The phrase itself is attributable to Ebenezer Bryce, who on seeing the canyon, couldn't imagine grazing his bovine herd in such an inhospitable location.

Acknowledgements
I'd like to thank:

The kind folk at Dolby San Francisco for helping me on the demonstration at the 02 LA aes in the first instance. Nagra Kudelski USA and UK for high resolution field recording of materials. Harman International: JBL for providing the replay system at the LA convention centre. The University of York UK Department of Music. Special thanks to Dave Malham and Matt Paradis on location. Waves processing.