VAST

VAST is an American alternative rock band based in Seattle, Washington. The acronym VAST stands for Visual Audio Sensory Theater and is the main creation of singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jon Crosby. The band is signed to 2blossoms, an independent record company created by Crosby himself.

VAST's sound is identifiable as ambient electro-rock with considerable industrial and acoustic influences, usually made with Crosby's traditional acoustic guitar, electronic instruments and processing, drum-driven tracks, and heavy bass. Vocally similarities range from classic rock to post-grunge. In recent years, however, VAST's sound has been more identifiable with acoustic rock in releases such as April and Me and You.

History

Early years

Crosby's musical endeavors began at a young age of 13, where he was noted in Guitar Player Magazine as a promising guitarist of the future. He often recorded home demos with nothing more than a guitar and a drum machine, sometimes a bass player with him as well. He nearly signed onto a guitar-based label Shrapnel, but turned it down to work on his budding songwriting skills. Crosby eventually left Rancho Cotate high school in Rohnert Park, California, to do home study and begin his own band, which he dubbed VAST. Much like fellow alternative rock/industrial band Nine Inch Nails, Crosby was the only member but found a touring band who knew the songs well enough to play with him live.

Sound effect

Sound effects (or audio effects) are artificially created or enhanced sounds, or sound processes used to emphasize artistic or other content of films, television shows, live performance, animation, video games, music, or other media. In motion picture and television production, a sound effect is a sound recorded and presented to make a specific storytelling or creative point without the use of dialogue or music. The term often refers to a process applied to a recording, without necessarily referring to the recording itself. In professional motion picture and television production, dialogue, music, and sound effects recordings are treated as separate elements. Dialogue and music recordings are never referred to as sound effects, even though the processes applied to such as reverberation or flanging effects, often are called "sound effects".

History

The term sound effect ranges back to the early days of radio. In its Year Book 1931 the BBC published a major article about "The Use of Sound Effects". It considers sounds effect deeply linked with broadcasting and states: "It would be a great mistake to think of them as anologous to punctuation marks and accents in print. They should never be inserted into a programme already existing. The author of a broadcast play or broadcast construction ought to have used Sound Effects as bricks with which to build, treating them as of equal value with speech and music." It lists six "totally different primary genres of Sound Effect":