Max Mathews, electronic music pioneer, RIP

Alesis Releases A MIDI/XLR iPad Dock (Rhymes Not Included)

stuff to blog about

Tom Dowd:  http://www.thelanguageofmusic.com/

You can blog about this… Look it up, watch the movie (Tom Dowd and the Language of Music).  Pay particular attention to the part with Eric Clapton and Duane Allman, where Dowd is talking about Layla and how it was recorded.  Give a quick little review of it.

Key Kit MIDI awesome-ness

http://nosuch.com/keykit/index.html

register and download keykit for MIDID awesomeness


pp

King Crimson and the Mellotron

I did a little more reading on the Mellotron, as I was a little confused in class. It sounds like the idea is actually pretty straight-forward: a sampling machine that uses 8 second recordings of instruments and beats, divided into two keyboards (lead instruments such as flutes, horns, strings on right; prerecorded beats at left). The Mellotron has been used by influential and especially Progressive Rock bands, such as the Beatles (not Prog rock) in "Strawberry Fields", The Moody Blues, Yes, Genesis.

The use of the Mellotron, now that I know what it sounds like, is very evident in King Crimson's "Court of the Crimson King". The main "movement", which is repeated over and over is dominated by the Mellotron sound (after the words "in the court of the Crimson King"), along with the keys in the "lighter" part of the song. Though the aim of the Mellotron was to emulate other instruments, it's sound is actually quite distinct, often sounding roughly like an in-home organ with some other tones on top of it.

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to several of King Crimson's songs. I had never heard of them before our class when Professor Pagano introduced them, but I can see why Wikipedia credits them as being one of the "foundational" progressive rock groups. The group, though somewhat amorphous in it's makeup and styles, seems to be pretty cutting-edge since it's inception in 1971. With a comeback in 1981, and again in 1994, King Crimson keeps reinventing it's sound. Apparently, in the 21st century, the group has turned more to the use of drum n' bass style loops and incorporated the use of midi into it's compositions.

sound design page

http://durkkooistra.com/2010/11/21/10-free-massive-patches/

Software Analysis Project Assists

If you choose the Pure Data program as your Sound Design program analysis be sur ethat you download and evaluate the pd patches located here

Download tarball of all files

they are offered free of charge for download and help with the realization of many of the topics we cover in class and enable you to create sounds in pd.

FYI- A "tarball" is the unix version of a zip file.

Meetings with Pat

Hello everyone.

Please make an appointment to see me with Wendy

send an email to me and wendy to set your appointment, preferably before next class so i may help you craft the specifics of your final, review your progress with ableton, MIDI and your review of the 70s groups that used the Mellotron [predecessor of samplers]

Also let me know if you need any extra help with pro-tools.

pp

Final Paper

Software Analysis Selections:  Between now and the final, Pat will let you and demand of you a software analysis.  You will use / can choose to do a 2-week analysis (4 pages written, 6 pages if you use any screenshots), not of Ableton, but of pro tools, pure data, Max MSP, Supercollider, Audiomulch, or Csound or Chuck.  You will present some sounds from it

Final Project Possibilities

So here are the basic notes I took on all of the final project:

The surround sound project:  Record sounds (in whatever way you decide), make a software assessment, make sounds with a software of your choosing (you can use PD, Supercollider, Reason, Nuendo, Cecilia, or anything else… just so they’re mono sounds), need at least 10 different sounds.  Save all of those sounds in their raw form on the USB you were given.  You can also get 3-5 sounds from an online repository (freesound, ubuweb, the back door google trick), mix it in pro tools into 5.1, spit it out to right, left, center, right stereo, left stereo and LFE.  Six different sound files.  You will encode it to AC3, and then you will burn it to DVD.  Then you will present that work at finals.  If you would like, as a portion of this, you can take 3-5 minutes of a film or video you’ve made, or animation you’ve created or like, or some old silent film… pick from the public domain, a silent film, etc.  (Look up the Dhali film with the eye squirting and the razor blade).  Present it… Pro tools will accept .mov files.  Need 10-15 different tracks in a surround sound environment, put it on a dvd, pop it in, see it in the Rev in surround sound etc.

Synthesizer project:  A historical conceptuality.  You can make three 5-minute pieces with sequential circuits pro 1, or spend time using the TX81Z modules.  Make 3-5 minute patches.  Export fade-ins, fade-outs, etc. with pro tools, save the patches in the proper format so Pat can dial them in and play them.  Record them into Audition, transfer them to pro tools and mix them down.  Present the patches.  Maybe have some fun with it and put them in surround sound.  Need to be at least five layers of sound (five mono tracks, drones, sequences, filters, etc.)

Theater Project:  read script, meet with director, make a cue sheet and tech it so that… say they want crickets… you find cricket sounds if they want them.  Find them, download them, record them if you have to.  Sonify the play.  Make all of the cues, design the sounds, use Ableton, Pro tools, SFX (cueing unit, cool software).  Go through the script with a highlighter, get a budget and have them order stuff.  Record sounds (like chamber music), get all the sound effects, know how to position them… SFX us a cueing unit that is like Ableton, but dumbed down for theater people

Audio Tech Show:  you are required to be there for one of the shows.  You need to stream audio, do live mixing, wireless mics, document the show, make a dvd of the show, learn how to mix live (pro tools 8), learn how to bus, mix and send out a stream (stream going to the HD, the house and the internet.  There is a talkback afterward.  The only way to learn how to do it is to do it.  There are two more shows on Friday, one at 7:30 and one at 10:30, so if you want to do this as your project, you’ll be there  for the whole thing.  Thursday, Pat will be there to make sure there’s documentation to pro tools, to the internet, etc., make sure it works, then Friday is the test

If you want to do an acoustic ecology project, you need to make at least 25 sounds of your environment.  They get trimmed, edited, geotagged, uploaded, and then there has to be something written about it, like a blog related to it or something, maybe a map so that if you highlight over it you can fuse it with google earth or google maps, but design audio for digital map, meaning geotag it.  Where exactly are you?  Go somewhere and geotag.  Document it on a blog, bring in all of your files, your blog, the 4-page software analysis, all of the sounds developed with it, then the 2-page post-mortem, etc.

Missing Pen Drive

Hey did anyone find a SanDisk black, 2 GB pen drive? It has a password you're required to put in before you can use it on a PC, and won't work on a Mac. =( Let me know.

NIN Bush of Ghosts Remix

I was going to post this last week when I created it, but thought I would have more time to make others...Anyhow:

I created this remix by using files made available on NIN and bush-of-ghosts.com. I used the drums and piano recording from NIN's "10 Ghosts II" and the man chanting/singing from Eno and Byrne's "A Way of Life". The background, "droning" synth sounds also came from Bush of Ghosts. The samples sort of just worked together, without too much editing, except for speeding up the man singing, which I think gives it the "crackling", slightly distorted sound it has. The whole piece reminded me of a haunting, mystical experience on the Sahara desert, so I added in the wind sample using a Freesound file. I think the result is quite spooky and interesting!

Reznor BushofGhosts remix by alexahenderson

Game Sound Effects 1

I've recorded and processed some sound effects for my video game project. These sounds will all correspond to ambiance or specific effects in the lobby of a building.

Car Beep:
Car-beep-loop by mcindafizzy

Door Handle Pull:
Door-handle-pull by mcindafizzy

Elevator Bell:
Elevator-bell by mcindafizzy

Elevator Running (Loop):
Elevator-running-loop by mcindafizzy

Chainlink Fence Rattle:
Fence-rattle by mcindafizzy

Running Footsteps:
Running-loop by mcindafizzy

Fountain (Loop):
Fountain-loop by mcindafizzy

For all but the fountain I just did noise cancellation on the clips. For the fountain I slowed it down, de-amplified it, applied a slight echo (that isn't even noticeable), and boosted the bass.

Japan quake seismic wave data, "sonified"

I found an interesting article on Japan's earthquake tragedy that happened a few days ago. Apparently someone was able to "sonify" the waves and make a sound clip out of it. Here's the link to the website.

  Earthquakes off the east coast of Honshu, Japan - Friday March 11, 2011 by Micah Frank

Manifesto of Futurist Musicians and False Dilemma

For me this reading was highly reminiscent of my first encounter with Walter Benjamin in a film theory class, which I may have mentioned before. The teacher introduced the reading with a statement along the lines of "We are going to be reading Walter Benjamin, and he is completely wrong for the most part, but we are going to read him anyways."

Now of course I understood it as "he is wrong, but people used to think he was right, so we are reading it because we are trying to understand the way things came to be."

Aside from strong language that in my opinion is tinged with arrogance, Pratella employs the logical fallacy "False Dilemma" aka "False Dichotomy" liberally throughout the Manifesto. A definition of which maybe found here: http://www.unc.edu/depts/wcweb/handouts/fallacies.html. In sum, it is when "an arguer sets up a situation so it appears as though there are only two choices and then eliminates one of the choices." Pratella's version simply put would be something like "School, traditionalism, publishers, imitation or learning from the past bad, they supress innovation, everything outside of that good."

What I find funny is that he himself went to a conservatory, and while he sought to distance himself from academia, it seems to me that academia is the realm that "preserves his legacy."

While I completely agree that he is correct in promoting the importance of innovation and I'm happy that he was innovative, I feel that his words cannot be taken at face value and I find it all rather foolish to be completely honest (which is of course my opinion). Another example of false dilemma would be something like "Tigert Hall is in bad shape. Either we tear it down and put up a new building, or we continue to risk students' safety. Obviously we shouldn't risk anyone's safety, so we must tear the building down." In my opinion the prior example can be used as a metaphor for Pratella's way of thinking in which publishers and the elements of traditional music, etc. are the building. But of course there is another alternative, which is the option of repairing the building. Now I don't think that one option is better than the other (creating traditional music and going to school or being innovative), i.e. tearing it down or repairing it, but I do think it is silly to vehemently suggest that one is, which is what Pratella does…which is narrow minded…which is not very innovative...

Because ultimately I feel that there's no need for those "opposing sides" to be enemies, or to even be labelled as divided. Often times and especially in the arts, you don't have to destroy the traditional to be innovative.

Seriously, his language is so strong that I feel like a publisher and some traditional composer must have killed his father and sold his mother and sister into slavery, and this is part of his great revenge story. Which by the way I picture him writing this in Samurai garb with a katana on his side. Thank you Sansho the Baliff.

Supercollider Execute Command

For my Windows people I just wanted to let you know that in Supercollider to execute a line of code in the scripting window, you can press CONTROL+ENTER - that is, control and the return key that you normally use to go to the next line.

The tutorials make a big deal about using the "enter" key on your numpad - but these tutorials are all talking about Mac commands and I found that the numpad "enter" key doesn't actually execute code on PC.

You might also feel a bit more comfortable with your Supercollider setup after watching this 60 second introduction (just to see how the windows are supposed to look). As an aside, I only had 1 mini-window for the localhost server, even though the video shows 2.

SIGNS OF LIFE Dates

Hello Everybody :)

Signs of Life dates are slated for April 11 - 15 :

Mon, the 11th - Tues, the 12th, 6-9pm : Rehearsals

Weds, the 13th, 6-9pm : Dress Rehearsal

Thurs, the 14th - Fri, the 15th, 6-11:30pm : Performances (2 a night)

Ableton question

I'm working on mixing one of the tracks of "Bush of Ghosts". When I load the tracks into Audacity, the tempo remains the same and all tracks start at the same time. This has no impact in the tracks being out of sync. However, when I load the tracks into Ableton for some reason I'm losing the sync and all tracks start randomly creating a bit of a mess. I don't know if this is clear enough, let me know if you need me to clarify the question or if you can help. Thanks!

Five Things to Do

Here are the very basics of what we NEED to get done:

remix is due when you return

vst plugins – installing the vst’s (mdsp site has some awesome plugins, one is called fire, one called greed, etc… they have instruments, a scan synth, a bunch of cool, different things)

check out supercollider

read and comment (futurism thing)

listen to king crimson, genesis or moody blues and comment

 Here is the stuff in more detail:

2 questions pertaining to ableton

Do the remix from Bush of Ghosts… Use elements from it as your source material, and make it your own.  Add to it.  Put in your own guitar or something

Reconstitute a midi sequence

Find and post VST plugins.  Find them, and link them up on the blog

Download noatikl and read the demonstration.  Check it out, figure out how to route the output of noatikl into ableton (extra points).  This introduces you to the concept of generative music

Figure out how to use your IAC bus for mac.  Input, IAC driver, IAC bus, track, sinc and remote on ableton… all of these should be checked on

Start recording some generative sequences

Listen to in the court of the crimson king (king crimson), foxtrot (genesis), days of future past (moody blues, knights in white satin) and comment on each

Find .AU or .VST plugins, and figure out how to get them to show up inside of Ableton.  Go to preferences on Ableton, go to file folder (live preferences for mac users, then file folder), and uncheck analysis file (unless you’re doing a live performance).  Sample editor (browse) and pick something like audacity.  Go down to plugin sources and check “Use VST Plug-in Custom Folder” on, and put the folder on your desktop, and browse for it

Mac users go live cut… mdsp.smartelectronix.com

Get and try supercollider

Extra credit if you do a wounded CD project… write on a CD with a felt tip pen or sharpie, scratch it intentionally, wash it, use a chemical on it, and see what happens to it.  What does it sound like?  Does it play?  Have something happen to it.  Maybe record some of your music with Ableton, put it on a cd, wound your cd, and put it back onto Ableton:  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oval_(musical_project))

Read luigi resolo’s manifesto of futurist musicians and comment on it on the blog (http://www.unknown.nu/futurism/musicians.html)

Livecut for MAC

http://mdsp.smartelectronix.com/livecut/

READ AND COMMENT

http://www.unknown.nu/futurism/musicians.html

GLITCH FOR WINDOWS

http://illformed.org/plugins/glitch/

http://www.performing-musician.com/pm/oct08/images/BooksDVDs_02_Mellotron.jpg

KOAN

http://www.intermorphic.com/tools/noatikl/doc/noatiklUG_general_4.html

Digital Discussion

I am hoping someone can friend me correctly either on ichat mac people or skype [everyone] so we can have a digital discussion with me in atlanta. I purchased the overpriced internet in the hotel for the express purpose.

friend shreeswifty on skype
shreeswifty@aol.com [i think for ichat]

Exporting WAV of MIDI

How did everyone else export their MIDI songs as WAV files? I tried going through the File menu but all I get out is a .wav file playing a single instrument sound...

Midi remixes

I chose Beastie Boys and Bach's Simple Fugue from Art of the Fugue. See if you can tell them apart!

Midi Sequence Remixes

This week I have been busy trying to get comfortable with Ableton. I do not like this program for my limited knowledge base! First, I attempted to remix a song by Radiohead and I found the cadence to be slightly off with every beat I tried to match to parts of the original sequence. I thought I might try "extracting a groove" using the software, but the file got corrupted, so I moved on.

After that, I moved onto using the Slayer midi sequence Pat downloaded in class. I liked parts of it, very "crucial" sounding. The sound made me think of an explicit rap song by Mobb Deep, "Shook Ones II", which I loved when I was 19 (I must admit I still love the original, which I am posting for comparison). I was able to find an acapella version of the rappers on Youtube and rip it to Audacity. The result is a cohesive product, but be forewarned that lyrically it is uncomfortable to listen to.

MobbDeep ShookOnes Slayer remix by alexahenderson



I then took the idea of remixing parts of a midi sequence with original verse. I like the drive of the Eurythmics "Sweet Dreams" song and so I used this for the base of the second midi remix I am posting. The instruments and melody sound very soulful and mournful, so I decided to experiment with using lyrics taken from a news article about something tragic. I have a little more posted on my SoundCloud account about it, but that's the gist. The lyrics remind me of the "cut up method" that William S. Burroughs and the beatnicks used to create strange and (hopefully) interesting combinations of lyrics quickly. I am also adding the disclaimer that I am fairly embarrassed to have my voice on the track without everything being perfectly planned and executed, but whatever...

InternationalBlues_remix by alexahenderson

4 Questions:

1. In Ableton, how do I use the Send/Receive // A Return/B Return?

2. What are the MIDI channels and how do they relate to Stereo Channels in the Ableton interface?

3. Does Surround sound always have to be through a proprietary entity such as Dolby/AC3 encryption, or is this just a high standard? I was unclear how the two correspond..

4. Is Ableton as good for producing beats as Reason?

A couple more MIDI Ableton mixes

Cliffs of Dover MIDI 2 by bpokorny1

Cliffs of Dover MIDI 1 by bpokorny1

And there we are... let me know which one you think is better

Ableton MIDI Files

Here they are... Let's see if I can get these to work this time...

Whiter Shade of Pale MIDI by bpokorny1

Still Loving You MIDI by bpokorny1

In case they didn't, feel free to check out my soundcloud:  http://soundcloud.com/bpokorny1

Reconstituted MIDIs

Here's my 2 reconstituted MIDIs. I used Ableton's instrument library and used the Phaser, Compressor, and Vocoder effects.

  Sledgehammer by lobochristian

  In the air tonight by lobochristian

FIRST ABLETON ASSIGNMENT

find 2 midi sequences -- reconstitute them with new instruments

find 2 VST or AU plugins

assign them to a track

EXPORT your MIXES to .wav files

upload them to soundcloud

Why MIDI Has 128 Notes

I direct you to:

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5106758/why-does-midi-offer-127-notes

Klaus Schulze

Briefly a member of Tangerine Dream and Ash Ra Tempel, Klaus Schulze was a German electronic music composer who put out more than 60 albums over five decades during his solo career.  When listening to his music, I noticed that it was very repetitive, but that didn't quite matter.  Almost like ambient music, it's something that I don't really get tired of.

Gaussian... Weibull... What? HELP ME SOMEBODY!!!!

I'm crossing my fingers that these will work...

<object height="81" width="100%"> <param name="movie" value="http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F11029310"></param> <param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param> <embed allowscriptaccess="always" height="81" src="http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F11029310" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="100%"></embed> </object>  <span><a href="http://soundcloud.com/bpokorny1/rewinding-robot">Rewinding Robot</a> by <a href="http://soundcloud.com/bpokorny1">bpokorny1</a></span>

<object height="81" width="100%"> <param name="movie" value="http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F11029407"></param> <param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param> <embed allowscriptaccess="always" height="81" src="http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F11029407" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="100%"></embed> </object>  <span><a href="http://soundcloud.com/bpokorny1/goofy-ghost">Goofy Ghost</a> by <a href="http://soundcloud.com/bpokorny1">bpokorny1</a></span>

<object height="81" width="100%"> <param name="movie" value="http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F11029441"></param> <param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param> <embed allowscriptaccess="always" height="81" src="http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F11029441" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="100%"></embed> </object>  <span><a href="http://soundcloud.com/bpokorny1/whining-whales">Whining Whales</a> by <a href="http://soundcloud.com/bpokorny1">bpokorny1</a></span>

<object height="81" width="100%"> <param name="movie" value="http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F11029550"></param> <param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param> <embed allowscriptaccess="always" height="81" src="http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F11029550" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="100%"></embed> </object>  <span><a href="http://soundcloud.com/bpokorny1/bush-of-ghosts-remix">Bush of Ghosts Remix</a> by <a href="http://soundcloud.com/bpokorny1">bpokorny1</a></span>

And just in case they didn't work, here's the link to my soundcloud...:  http://soundcloud.com/bpokorny1

Synth Experimentation

Jon and I experimented with the synth a little bit and recorded some sounds.

Angry Dog Sound
synth-Angrydog by mcindafizzy

Creepy Sound
synth-Creepy by mcindafizzy

Energy Field
synth-Jumps by mcindafizzy

8 Bit Nintendo Race Car Sound
synth-Race-car by mcindafizzy

Yoshi Getting Blown Away
synth-Yoshi-wee by mcindafizzy

Moog/Scott

Watching the Moog documentary and then reading the Raymond Scott really showed how early electronic music started. Although, I feel that if Scott had been born in the future, he would be the guy who created the robots that eventually enslave us. The man seemed like a robot himself, not having man human interactions but focusing all his attention to things he could control and automate. This may have been detrimental to him social but has been our boon in the advances of electronic music. I wish the documentary had covered more about Moog's relationship with Scott, It would seem the complimented each other well, even with Moog being much younger.

Ableton Questions

My four questions about Ableton:

1. Getting things to fire at different times throughout a piece at regular intervals?

2. I still get confused on manipulating sounds and recording them then having them return to what they were before. I guess is there a real time editing set of controls?

3. As a journalism major I have a hard time finding a practical use for dj software? Ideas? uses?

3. Is there a way to link the midi from ableton to something besides PD to use as a firing mechanism for video?

Bush of Ghosts, Ubu, Ableton Questions and Guassian/Weibull

Bush of Ghosts
The Bush of Ghosts stuff has been very interesting , although it's taking me awhile to try an play with everything and make something out of it. I like the idea of people that used something they found and put together and giving it back, to bad they didn't give back all of it. This style of music isn't really my bag but it's interesting to here what other people with the inclination can do with it.

Ubu Stuff
I downloaded A turban throat chant and a radio opera by Dave Soldier and partly narrated by Kurt Vonnegut, who is by far my favorite author. I think given time something interesting can be made out of it. The radio show is kind of satirical, it's all sing-song and kind of random. It's making fun of world war two somehow, but it's funny.

Gaussian/Weibull recordings

Weibull by m.tripp

Guassian.violin by m.tripp

So, as far as Live goes... I feel like I have been able to solve most of my problems. (I have worked in logic for a few years and pro tools, so a. live wasnt a major stretch)

Pat probably the biggest issue i had was with multi sync of midi instruments. Hooking up an electric drum set as well as 2 keyboards all by midi so that 3 players can run a VST at the same time. (midi instrument) Also I had trouble rewiring ableton back into Logic as a master slave relationship. I think I got it figured out, but I have issue when I load he programs in different orders... the rewire gets confused.

Also Pat, If I'm running some heavy duty VSTs with several major effects on multiple channels through busing, what are some setting changes I can do to help my CPU run smoother? changing sampling rate etc...

Sorry if to late of a post for questions. Most of my A Live stuff i figured out on my own...

-Tim

Assignments for this week

These are my two Cecilia Gaussian/Weibull distribution assignments. I used a cello sample and applied a Phaser and MultiModeFilter effect to each.

  Cellos Phaser by lobochristian

  Cellos MultiModeFilter by lobochristian

I also read a bit about indeterminacy. Indeterminacy in music can be defined in two ways: composition indeterminacy and performance indeterminacy. In composition, the musical piece is determined by chance, I'm not really sure if this also includes random notes, tempo, etc. or if the composer chooses a scale, pitch, tempo and improvises. The second, performance indeterminacy, is when the performer decides how to deliver the work. Wikipedia uses as an example two lectures given by John Cage in which he would read short stories (Pat referred to these in class) in exactly one minute. Therefore, depending on the length of the story, Cage would read the stories extremely fast, at a normal speed, or really slow. I found a video of one of these lectures in which Cage is accompanied by David Tudor who performs random sounds simultaneously. I found the video to be fairly interesting. I'm not really sure what to think of Tudor's random sounds played in the back. It seems that Cage and Tudor intended for the readings and the sounds not to be related when this was recorded.

 

I was also assigned to write about Katsunori Ujiie. I can't say I found much information about him except the fact that he's a sound engineer, composer, arranger, and keyboardists who has helped to develop many presets and styles for different Yamaha products. He has a couple of videos online of him describing different Yamaha synthesizers and explaining some of the effects (turn on CC for English subtitles)

Here is my strings with Guas. Blur. This one reminds me of passing cars.

I put a little verb on there, some eq, about 75% wet/dry and finished off with some mild compression.





Here is my cello with Weibull

My ubuweb sound is a little strange. someone mashed up the greatest hits cd from the carpenters and put them all in song, and by mashed up i mean played them simultaneously. A little hectic but lets be real, who has time to listen to all of the carpenters... lets knock it out in one easy sitting...

http://mediamogul.seas.upenn.edu/pennsound/authors/Davis-Brian/Greatest-Hit/Davis_Brian_Joseph_my-little-danish-friend_2005.mp3

My second i like a lot... it reminds me of a musical- kind of reminds me of West Side story "officer Crumpkey" song (spelling)
Check it out...

http://ubu.artmob.ca/sound/furious_pig/Furious-Pig_I-Dont-Like-Your-Face.mp3

Here's my bush of ghosts remix:





Also I couldn't for the life of me find any D. Diaz when it came to synth sounds- (from the presets of A. Live Arp mod) I found a one, daniel diaz. Professor of computer science in France, but i dont think thats him.

Quiz Thursday

Hey guys.  I don't personally know what will and will not be on the quiz, but here are some things that I am going to try to think about:

Iannis Xenakis (came up with granular synthesis)
granular synthesis
Dennis Gabor (initially responsible for the development of granular synthesis)
The Work of Art in the Mechanical Age of Reproduction
          (http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/benjamin.htm)
plunderphonics
DAC = Digital to Analog Converter
The Nyquist Frequency is 22050.  CD quality is twice the Nyquist Frequency (44100)
Just Intonation (operates the same way as memory in computers)
LFO = Low Frequency Oscillator (basically a clock)
Lucky Man by Emerson, Lake and Palmer (1972) = the first time a moog synthesizer was used musically
          in a song
The three pillars of sound design:
          1.  The physical elements of sound
          2.  Mathematical
          3.  Psychological
Remember how to calculate tones (Ex.:  the 7/4 of a 256 tone = 7 x 256 / 4)
John Chowning (discovered the FM technique in 1973.  This technique was later commercialized by
          Yamaha)
ADSR = Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release
Convolution (creating a sense of space)
William S. Burrows (coined "heavy metal")
The four basic elements of synthesizers = oscillators, filters, envelopes and amplifiers
Bicycle Built for Two (done by Max Matthews, was the first musical computer composition)
60Ghz is the fundamental frequency
The big four = Lamont Young, Terry Riley, Phil Glass and Steve Reich (minimal modern music
          masters)
Terry Riley's In C was the first minimalist music composition
First real electromagnetic music was in 1948

These are just some things that I'm gonna focus on a bit when reviewing.

Historical "Ghosts"

The chapter on Robin Rimbaud, aka "Scanner", was mildly interesting. His statement: "My work has always explored the relationship between sound and architectural space and the spaces in between information, places, history, relationships, where one has to fill in the missing parts to complete the picture." seems to sum up the ideas behind his work for me. I looked up some more information about the Scanner and his career and he entered into his later status as dance music innovator through other "avante garde" music styles and experimental film soundtracks. I was first exposed to the Scanner in a documentary I watched about electronic music about 8 years ago but I wanted to find some examples of his work to refresh myself. I couldn't find the "Esprits de Paris" he writes about in the chapter but he has some good work that I did find. His work is more cohesive as "traditional" dance music than many of the experimental musicians we have read about in Sound Unboand, and really quite good...





I also looked up "the cut up method", and William S. Burroughs, who popularized the technique. The cut up technique is achieved literally by taking works and cutting them up, reassembling in new ways. I am posting a 7ish minute clip from a movie of Allan Ginsberg interviewing Burroughs, which demonstrates the cut up method and has some interesting visual "mashup" techniques also. This is a literary technique that I had not heard of previously and it certainly ties into the music technique of sampling other people's work and recombining to make something new and different. The passage that Burrough's reads over the clip is quite intersting, though gritty, and is a "portal" into the historical flavor of "beatnickery" and the mindset that accompanied this brand of artist. The somewhat morbid, angst-ridden, junkie-punk lifestyle seems to lend itself well to the literary style of the cut up...

What to do this week

Here are the list of assignments

The following must ALL get done:
Cecilia - get, find or make a violin, cello or guitar sound... any strung instrument, really.  Apply an effect/distributor (gaussian, weibull, etc.)
Download Ableton demo (Ableton Suite) - come up with four questions between now and next Thursday. Post them on the blog
Bush of Ghosts:  Blog on Bush of Ghosts.  Log in and join the site (http://bush-of-ghosts.com/remix/bush_of_ghosts.htm).  Download one of the two songs and remix it as your own.
Ubuweb - find two sounds that "strike you," and blog on them.  Save the sounds to your memory stick
Read Chapter 12
Blog on the person assigned to you (for instance, mine was K. (Klaus) Shulze)
Come in this week and work on Sequencers

Blog on at least two of the following:
Indeterminacy
Cut-up method
Steely Dan sex toy
Sample and Hold
ARP (Arturia ARP synthesizers)


Things to remember:
Quiz/Test next week (Know your vocab!)
ADSR
The four elements of synthesizers

If you have any questions, feel free to shoot me an e-mail:  bpokorny1@ufl.edu

for Ipad users out there- how to wireless sync your ipad to your DAW for midi controller/ interface. awesomeness!!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fndBzk6C5g

ARP 2600

Hey guys.  If you run or can run Windows, I found a mock ARP 2600 that's free to download and use.  I have yet to try it, but if any of you think you wanna use it, you can find the download here:

http://freemusicsoftware.org/category/free-vst/arp-emulator

Sound Unbound Ch18: Raymond Scott

Socially awkward and preferring to work with machines, Raymond Scott sure had the personality of a genius. I think its almost sad though how much of his life he spent creating machines that would have been insignificant to construct with even an early computer. Scott spent time building various contraptions to vary voltage and keep time - both are functions easily provided by computers.

I do think its interesting that Scott, in the early 1900's, was working toward a goal of melding the human mind with a machine. Obviously this is a goal that receives a lot of work today - especially to help subjects who have lost limbs, eyesight, hearing, etc.

I also got the impression that Scott was a bit of an egotist. It seems like every idea he had he ran down to the patent office. Then when he actually built something significant he worked his name in there. Then, at the beginning of the chapter Scott mentions feeling bad about keeping his work on the first "synthesizer" so private....yeah now that its far too late to capitalize commercially and all he can hope for is public recognition, he wishes he had gone public at the onset.

Impulse Tests

I recorded myself saying "Sally sells sea shells down by the sea shore" and convolved (convoluted?) with a few sample impulse files. I was very dissatisfied with most of them - the samples I tried sounded like they were in either one category or the other: echo-y or limited frequency as from a radio. I have samples of both here.

Factory Hall
Sea-shells-con-factory-hall by mcindafizzy

Large Hall
Sea-shells-con-large-hall by mcindafizzy

Medium Cave
Sea-shells-con-medium-cave by mcindafizzy

Radio
Sea-shells-con-radio by mcindafizzy

Walkman
Sea-shells-walkman by mcindafizzy

Moog Movie Link

Does anyone have a link where I can watch the Moog movie for free?

Tim Difato_ convolution, vocoder

Here are a few things_ with a cave and Dome and a siren vocoder with a human count down

Moog on Netflix's Watch Instantly

FYI for those of you who have a Netflix account, you can find Moog's documentary on Watch Instantly.

Cecelia Convolusion and Vocoder sounds

I am using the computers at the NAVE as my Mac is awaiting a larger hard drive that I need to install. Since the machine here does not have Stuffit downloaded, I was not able to use the awesome (looking) files on www.xs4all.nl/~fokkie/IR.htm#PCM60. I was able to find a few usable .wav files from www.cksde.com/p_6_250.htm . Below is the best of the convolution reverbs I was able to put together, using an impulse file called "Dubstep". The rest were underwhelming...

Convolve dubstep by alexahenderson

There was a bit of reading on the site I got the impulse file from and it made a little clearer what happens when you convolve a sound. Cksde.com states that a Convolution "multiplies every sample in one wave/impulse by the samples contained in another wave form".

An impulse response file is "the data by which every other sample in your waveform will be multiplied."

As Pat said in class, the best impulse files are short, full spectrum sounds, such as a snare drum.

I also put together two files for Cecelia's Vocoder module. It is a guy speaking on a radio for the input, pushed through a police siren. I added the Stochastic Generator for some wackiness...

Vocoder Stochastic by alexahenderson

Cecilia's Convolve Module and Vocoder Clips

These are my clips for the convolve assignment. For the first one I used a "trig room" impulse and the second one a "cathedral" impulse. Here's a website I found with cool impulses in case you are having trouble finding them online.

  TrigRoomConvolution by lobochristian

  CathedralConvolution by lobochristian

Also, here's my Vocoder clips. For the first one I used a drum loop and a synth sound. The second one is a bell and water splash sounds.

  Vocoder1 by lobochristian


  Vocoder2 by lobochristian

Raymond Scott

I enjoyed this reading a lot. Once again, just like others like Glass, Xenakis, and Reich, I am so impressed by what Scott was able to accomplish so long ago. It almost feel that he was able to predict the future; especially in terms of technology and music. I really liked how the author used correspondence Scott kept with friends. It gives a nice insight to the things he was experiencing and his relationship with Bob Moog. I Googled his Circle Machine invention and found this website where someone else recreated it. Watch the video, it's pretty cool stuff. Also, I was a little disappointed to see that Scott was such a perfectionist and disliked improvisation; however, I see him more of a pioneer and inventor rather than a musician. I believe we owe Mr. Scott a lot of the electronic equipment we have today. After more than 60 years we still reference him for patents on new equipment, that's impressive.

Raymond Scott: Superhuman

The chapter on Raymond Scott is a hit to the ego. As the creator of technologies such as the Orchestra Machine, sound effects generators, and the first multi-track tape machines, among others, it seems as though Scott was the pioneer inventor of the electronic music apparatus which others, such as Bob Moog, later refined and made (more) famous. It is interesting to learn how the inventors borrowed and added onto each other's ideas. For example, Scott's keyboard synthesizer, the Clavivox, incorporated the technology of the theramin, which Bob Moog built as a hobbieist when he first met and began working for Scott in the early '50's.

Next Week

Quiz next week
watch moog movie
impulse files- experiment with impulse response
convulsion sounds (2)- sound cloud (record your voice speaking for convulsion)
class books
vocoder sounds (2)
read chapter 18-

Midi stuffs

So something I've been thinking about getting is a MIDI guitar I found a while back... But then I though hmm... I already have three guitars, and as much as I would love to get this, I don't have THAT much money, and I don't have any space.  I still think it's a really cool thing, though, and is definitely worth mentioning.  So here's the link to the MIDI guitar:

http://www.thinkgeek.com/electronics/musical-instruments/d37d/

Check out the video on the site.  I know I'm probably going to get one some time in the future.  It's just a matter of when.

Max Matthews' "Bicycle Built for Two"

First computer composition on 1961 (?). It is based on Formant Synthesis

http://stage.itp.nyu.edu/history/timeline/bicyclebuiltfortwo.html

Anybody want a Theramin?

Well... I'll go ahead and be really corny and say:  Thera we are...

http://www.amazon.com/Theremaniacs-Kit-Theremin/dp/B0013MER30/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1297349326&sr=8-1

Moog Movie Link for tomorrow

http://www.veoh.com/search/videos/q/moog#watch%3Dv18896084Hz3egqSP

Dr. Robert Arthur Moog and Leon Theremin

In researching there two individuals I realized that they are two people I shoud've heard of a long time ago. Specifically Theremin as he developed interlace, which has been essential to video recording for many years now, although progressive scan has certainly taken over.

I found it interesting to learn that Bob Moog had his Ph. D in engineering physics, and also that he started his first company at the age of 19 creating Theremin kits. (Coincidence? I think not.) All in all I found it very revealing that these "fathers of electronic music" and the effects of their discoveries reach far beyond the realm of music.

Finally since we were asked to post some interesting synth music, I decided the "uber macho" (almost silly macho given their hard core eyeliner) Feuer Frei by Rammstein would be an interesting example of what perhaps maybe considered an atypical use of synth.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHUsIU161w4

(Note: Please don't fail me Pat for posting Rammstein)

Hawkwind

I did some brief reading about the theramin, the instrument invented by Leon Theramin in 1928. The post on Wikipedia named several sci-fi sound tracks that the instrument is used on, as well as concert music from the avante-garde and new music genres, and by the psychedelic rock group, "Hawkwind". I looked up "Hawkwind" and they DO incorporate lots of synthesized sounds into their music. The Wiki post names them one of the earliest "space rock" groups, forming in 1969 in England, and notes the work as a precursor to punk rock.

Cecilia Tracks

I'm not really sure what's going on with SoundCloud. I have uploaded my tracks but they are all stuck in "Preparing for transcoding". Anyways, here they are in case the problem is fixed. I'll check tomorrow morning...

  4Delays by lobochristian

  Harmonizer by lobochristian

  Phaser by lobochristian

  ResModes by lobochristian

  StochGrains by lobochristian

My Favorite Techno Artists

We were supposed to blog on some artists that use synthesizers in their work. I'd like to mention my two favorite techno artists: Tiesto and Moby.

Moby's style (if you discount Moby's actual singing) often involves repetition of short, unvaried vocal samples. Consider the following examples:

Moby - Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad


Moby - Flower


This style that Moby uses reminds me a lot of "Its gonna rain" - id say Moby seems to represent a coming of age with regard to the sample repetition started by "Its gonna rain".

Tiesto's style is what I consider to be more of a mainstream, commercial techno sound. Tiesto features longer and more complex vocal tracks than Moby as well as a faster paced tempo, and use of (what sounds to me to be) some sound effects based on granular synthesis.

Tiesto - I Will Be Here


Tiesto - In My Memory

Technology and the composer reaction

It's seems like it's an ongoing theme to write these essays using extra words when not needed. I thought the reading was a bit long and hard to follow. It took me a few days to get through but I finally finished it. I liked the enthusiasm the author shows for technology and his proposals to encourage people to exploit it. I think I understand when Pat asks us to compare and contrast this reading to "The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction" because I feel Brun's take is completely opposite to Benjamin's. I think Benjamin is opposed and dislikes the fact that much of the art value is lost when using film and other artistic methods. On the other hand, Brun seems a bit frustrated by the lack of use of technology in the arts. Once again, I am impressed by the revolutionary ideas these authors had back in the days.

Synth Scheduling

Everyone

I am still waiting for a final word regarding WHEN the swipe will be fixed for CSE413. I will email our Director and see if he can get any answers that i am obviously not able to generate.

Lokesh, Digital Worlds Liason to Ernest@CSE said something like 4 WEEKS before it was fixed and that is just NOT acceptable. We need to have you all able to access the lab in the evenings and i cannot be giving out my only NON COPY UF keys for this project. With that in Mind we will test and run Cecilia for ALL students again. This will give everyone some time to catch up on blog posts and have the program running as expected. I have helped Matthew & Christian get their version of cecilia running on Windows7 and I am hoping Jon And Andres will have theirs operable PRIOR to class or come see me on Wednesday morning or tomorrow AFTER i return from the MD. I have torn a ligament in my knee so i have to get an MRI Tuesday afternoon.

I will also have the moog movie for us to watch on Thursday! So we'l have some fun with that too.

Be seeing you

pp

drum machine thread

HERE POST COOL LINKS TO DRUM MACHINES

http://www.ordrumbox.com/download.php

http://www.hydrogen-music.org/

Cecilia4 installation on Windows 7

We got Cecilia4 running on Windows today. Here's a quick overview on the things we installed. Let me know if you have any questions.

1. Head over to this website,download the "ActivePython-2.6.6.18-win32-x86" file (direct link to file) and install
2. Then head over to this website,download the "wxPython2.8-win64-unicode-2.8.11.0-py26" file. (direct link to file) and install. Make sure you check the "Compile Python .py files..." box.
3. Head over to this other website,download the "numpy-1.5.1-win32-superpack-python2.6.exe" file (direct link to file) and install
4. Head over to this website,download the "pyaudio-0.2.4.py26.exe" file (direct link to file) and install
5. Head over to this website,download the "Csound5.11.1-gnu-win32-f.exe" file (direct link to file) and install. Make sure when you install this file to not change the environment for all users when promted!
6. Finally, head over to this website, download the "Cecilia_4.01_setup.exe" file (direct link to file) and install.

You should be able to run Cecilia4 now, load files, and run the modules (I haven't tried most of them but I will soon). Let me know if you have any comments or questions.

I hope this helps,

Christian

Cecilia stuffs

So here's my cecilia stuff...  Basically it's just the first five on the page (8 bit bomber through space bubble)

http://soundcloud.com/bpokorny1

Walter Benjamin and Film, Theater

From what I remember, when we read this essay in film classes we were never really told to look at it a certain way, but the conclusion from the subsequent discussion was always that it cannot be taken as anything other than his perception on film at the time, and given his political environment, and that for the most part he is "wrong." However he cannot be totally wrong, it is art, and it is said that art is what you see in it, at least partly. Beauty also is in the eye of the beholder, so what may seem normal and even expected to most of us (cuts, close-ups, slow motion...) may be something that turns turns others away.

In fact Benjamin was right about one thing, his quote from Paul Valéry, that "we must expect great innovations to transform the entire technique of the arts, thereby affecting artistic invention itself and perhaps even bringing about an amazing change in our very notion of art.” Although it hasn't changed the entire technique of the arts, at least not directly and not for every art, these mechanical innovations have indeed brought about and amazing change in our very notion of art, not by any means changing those we already had, but in creating new ones to add to them.

My classes have mostly disagreed with his take on actors, maybe it was the quality or style of films at the time, or the stage training that seems to emanate from some actors of the era, but films take you into an even more personal level, putting you in the most intimate of positions unlike a play ever could, showing things you'd probably never see in a play, and some you'd never catch (such as the imperfections revealed in close-ups). I love theater and go to plays whenever I can, but I see it as a different art and appreciate it for what it is, which is in a different manner than that in which I appreciate film.

Films are also able to take us to fantastic worlds thanks to its ability to make us so willingly suspend disbelief, something a bit harder for stage productions precisely thanks to the editing Benjamin so profoundly dislikes, but this is more easily done now than in his time.

So-Unb-und-ound.

When reading Reich and Miller I couldn't help but to think how different their thought processes were. At least from their writing, it seems that Reich prefers a step by step approach, recognizing problems, pondering solutions, and implementing them. While Miller does the same thing, he draws a hundred parallels, compares them to his problem, and from them draws his own solution. This is a reflection of their times, and with that, their approach to music. Reich the innovator, finding ideas and thinking of solutions, and Miller the sampler, plundering and borrowing to create his own masterpieces.

One thing that bothered me when doing the readings was with what decisiveness and brevity Reich spoke. It was almost as if his reaction to writing an introduction was that he expressed about writing for the opera, "No. I didn't have any sympathy for..."
However when reading chapter two I was unsure as to whether I'd found relief in reading someone that appears to be ecstatic about the subject, or dumbfounded with the speed at which Miller jumps from one thing to another, to draw the readers' attention to details he probably knows, and make his answers set an example for sampling itself. After reading I was glad to have done so, and see where he was going although I admit having to reread quite a few sentences throughout the chapter to ease my confusion as to what he was getting at.

I particularly enjoyed the comparison to architecture Miller employed, that buildings "are nothing but correspondences between relationships... from...ideas drawn people working, living, and breathing together to create a structure." By quoting Sullivan's famous detail concerning architecture, "form should follow function," adding to that Goethe and Shelling's "architecture is nothing but frozen music," to reveal epiphany-like that if reverse-engineered, music is liquid architecture, and thus sound becomes unbound. In that brief portion of a paragraph (although he built on it for over a page before), Miller has presented us with something we're familiar with; buildings, and architecture, has sampled other ideas; FTP servers, Sullivan, Goethe and Shelling's, and drawn out a simple, quintessential conclusion: there are no limits to what you can do with sound, and nothing should limit you. A conclusion people may take for granted, but it is not the conclusion alone which makes this section so excellent, is the fact that on the way Miller has showed his audience how to do it.

Walter Benjamin

Whenever I read Walter Benjamin I always recall what my film theory teacher said the first time I was introduced to "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction", which was basically along the lines of "Walter Benjamin is totally wrong concerning films, but we are going to read this anyways" except in a much more tactful way. ( Perhaps an example of this "The stage actor identifies himself with the character of his role. The film actor very often is denied this opportunity.")

When I read this particular piece the fact that Walter Benjamin is very much a product of his political enviroment. And why wouldn't he be? He was German-Jew living during the time of Hitler's regime. I find the piece more interesting when placed in its historical context.

Chapter 1

After reading and rereading chapter one, I'm still a little lost on what Riech is trying to get across but I do like that he acknowledges people being just as creative as him on thwir power books. If he can realize that this is where the future is headed, then other should be able to also. I looked up some of the stuff he mention and what we listened to in class and found it to be hit or miss for me. The loop stuff for me just kind of grates on my brain but the phase music I find to be almost hypnotic. Music For 18 Musicians is by far my favorite, right along with Clapping Music. I didnt understand his need to break away from technology several times when he could do the same thing just in a more efficient manner. For a guy who cut tapes and made loops, it would seem he wouldnt mind what technology and synthesizers could add to his works.