UPSI Digital Repository (UDRep)
|
UPSI Digital Repository (UDRep)
|
|
|
| ||||||||||||||||
| Abstract : |
| Although technologies have rapidly advanced in the modern world, musicians and music scholars rarely understand new technologies and hence cannot comprehend the impact of recording technologies on their careers. Recordings of ethnic instruments that are available in the marketplace today show various types of timbre determined by different sampling rates, choice of microphone placements and acoustic environment. In many cases, the timbre produced in recordings of one ethnic instrument called sape is highly diversified. Music recordings available for ethnic instruments such as the sape of the Orang Ulu, Kenyah and other ethnic groups were manipulated either through the sound of the instrument itself or through the original recording that was extracted from various recording mediums, or recorded in a “mock-up” context created by producers. The effects of all these manipulations have misled listeners into thinking that what they are hearing are the original sounds of instruments such as sape. This situation is similar to a live performance. Many audience members are unaware that the final acoustic outcome for the audience is not only the sound produced by the instrument but also through the main speaker monitors of a performance venue. Local folk music instruments such as sape are traditionally played in a rural and/or communal setting with its unique sound environment. This contextual sound environment however tends to be ignored in the sound reinforcement of live performances as well as in audio recordings. All of the above affects the quality of audio recordings. The intention of this article is to compare, analyse and review the quality of audio recordings of sape from various perspectives, including wave analysis and audio signal audibility. This article suggests for a more advanced sound preservation approach through a constructed scheme for recordings. |
| References |
1. Bradley, K. (10 October 2012) interviewed at the 43rd Annual Conference of International Association of Sound and Audio Visual Archives, India International Centre, New Delhi, India, ARCPA:1590. 2. Bradley, K. (2008). Physical problems, sonic implications: A discussion of the ethics of preservation treatments and audio recordings. Musica/Tecnologia, 2, 35–47. 3. Bradley, K. (Ed.). (2009). Guidelines on the production and preservation of digital audio objects. Auckland Park: International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives (IASA). 4. Chan C. J. & Musib, A. F. (2010). Timbre change of sape and the use of sound reinforcement device. Paper presented in the International Music Conference of University Malaya, Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia. 19–20 October 2010. 5. Galvin, A. D. (1962). Five sorts of Sarawak and Kalimantan Kenyah song. Sarawak Museum Journal, 6 (19-20), 501–510. 6. Gorlinski, V. K. (1988). Some insights into the art of sapé’ playing. Sarawak Museum Journal, 39 (60), 77–104. 7. Gorlinski, V.K. (1989). The sampéq of the Kenyah of East Kalimantan, Indonesia: A case study of the recreational music tradition (Unpublished M.A. thesis). University of Hawai'i, Honolulu, United States. 8. Gorlinski, V. K. (1992, July 16–17). Why women do not play sampé’: Some comments on gender relations and the plucked lute of the Kenyah and Kayan. Paper presented at the Workshop on Music Research in Southeast Asia, University Kebangsaan Malaysia, Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia. 9. Gorlinski, V. K. (1995). Songs of honor, words of respect: Social contours of Kenyah Lepo’ Tau versification, Sarawak, Malaysia (Unpublished doctoral thesis). University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, United States. 10. Hopkin, B. & Scoville, J. (1996). Musical instrument design: Practical information for instrument making. Tucson, Arizona: See Sharp Press. 11. Jähnichen, G. (2011). Turning audiovisual archives into scientific assets. Journal of Knowledge Management Practice, 12 (3), 139–146. 12. Jähnichen, G. & Musib, A. F. (2013). Social scientists as users: Searching for recorded sound in its environment – Cases from Borneo. IASA Journal, 40, 44–54. 13. Musib, A. F. (2010). Electronic music practice through sound synthesis — case study: Varèse's Poème Électronique. In G. Jähnichen & J. Chieng (Eds.), Preserving creativity in music practice: UPM book series on music research 3 (pp. 71–88). Serdang: Universiti Putra Malaysia Press. 14. Musib, A. F. (2011). Sound print as an identification tool. In G. Jähnichen & J. Chieng (Eds.), Music and memory: UPM book series on music research 4 (pp. 157–170). Serdang: Universiti Putra Malaysia Press. 15. Musib, A. F. (2012). Back to reality complex: Preservation methods of sound production and its environment in the digital era. In Loo F. C., Loo F. Y & Md. Nasir Hashim (Eds.), Essays on world music and its preservation: University of Malaya Book Series on Research in Musicology 5 (pp. 42–56). Stuttgart: Lambert Academic Publishing. 16. Musib, A. F. (2013). Noise most wanted. In G. Jähnichen & C. Meddegoda (Eds.), (music ˄ dance) ∈ environment: UPM book series on music research 5 (pp. 217–230). Serdang: Universiti Putra Malaysia Press. 17. Nathan, D. (2010). Sound and unsound practices in documentary linguistics: Towards an epistemology for audio. In P. K. Austin (Ed.), Lectures in language documentation and description, volume 7 (pp. 264–284). London: School of Oriental and African Studies. 18. Nathan, D. (2006). Thick interfaces: Mobilising language documentation. In J. Gippert, N. Himmelmann & U. Mosel (Eds.), Essentials of language documentation (pp. 363–379), Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 19. Prattis, I. (1963). The Kayan-Kenyah “Bungan cult”. Sarawak Museum Journal, 11 (21–22), 64–87. 20. Schouten, J. F. (1968). The perception of timbre. In Y. Kohasi (Ed.), Reports of the 6th International Congress on Acoustics, GP-6-2, 6 vols. (pp.35–44, 90). Tokyo: Maruzen; Amsterdam: Elsevier. 21. van den Hul, A.J. (n.d.). Company Profile. Retrieved from http://www.vandenhul.com/company-profile?page=p&id=1 22. von Hornbostel, E. M. & Sachs, C. (1961). Classification of musical instruments: Translated from the original German by Anthony Baines and Klaus P. Wachsmann. Galpin Society Journal, 14, 3–29. 23. Whittier, H. L. (1978). Concepts of adat and cosmology among the Kenyah Dayak of Borneo: Coping with the changing socio-cultural milieu. Sarawak Museum Journal, 26 (47), 106. |
| This material may be protected under Copyright Act which governs the making of photocopies or reproductions of copyrighted materials. You may use the digitized material for private study, scholarship, or research. |