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Chapter 17. Meeting 17, Interfaces: Live Electronics and Circuit Bending 17.1. Announcements • Due Thursday, 12 November: Sonic System project Draft Bring prototypes, sketches, ideas to class for discussion • Bring laptops for more work with PD and Martingale • Quiz next Thursday 17.2. Motivations for Live Electronics • Music as performance and theater • Cage’s observation on the problem of speaker music (Holmes 2008) • Engaging and extending improvisation 17.3. Listening: David Tudor • Tudor began working with Cage and Cunninghnam in the 1950s developing live electronics for dance • David Tudor, Rainforest, 1973 • A series of pieces beginning in 1978 • Sounds are played through transducers affixed to solid objects; objets filters and project sounds, as speakers; contact mics on objects are used to amplify sounds sent to conventional speakers (Collins 2009, p. 48) 383Image removed due to copyright restrictions. "Circuit diagram for "Rainforest IV."See: http://www.getty.edu/research/conducting_research/digitized_collections/davidtudor/zoom/grl_tudor39l.html. • David Tudor, Pulsers, 1976 • Manipulation of feedback (Holmes 2008, p. 187) 384 • David Tudor, Toneburst, 1975 17.4. Listening: Gordon Mumma • 1950s: Gordon Mumma, with Robert Ashley, begin staging weekly performances of live electronic music at the Space Theater (Holmes 2008) • 1961: begin ONCE festival of contemporary music, continues until 1965 (Holmes 2008) • 1966-76: Robert Ashley, Gordon Mumma, David Behrman, and Alvin Lucier form Sonic Arts Union (Holmes 2008) • Gordon Mumma, Hornpipe, 1967385 • “The cybersonic console monitors the resonances of the horn in the performance space and adjusts its electronic circuits to complement theses resonances”: a form of feedback (Holmes 2008, p. 390) • A long tradition of works for solo instrument and live electronics • Do we hear interaction, or cause and effect? • Do we hear a duet, a solo, or something else? 17.5. Listening: Robert Ashley • Narrative and storytelling music in multimedia • Robert Ashley, Automatic Writing, 1974-79 • Released in 1979 • Compared to minimalism, called text-sound composition • Closely miked spoken voice performing involuntary speech • Idea of four characters: two vocal, two instrument (2008, p. 392) • Robert Ashley, The Wolfman, 1964 • Employs slow, modulating feedback controlled by a vocalist’s mouth (2008, p. 186)17.6. Ensemble-based Live Electronics • Ensembles of live electronics performers, sometimes mixed with acoustic or conventional electronic instruments • 1960s: Musica Eletronica Viva (Holmes 2008, p. 963) • AMM: touring group of jazz and electronic musicians (Holmes 2008, p. 963) • SuperSilent 17.7. The Isolation of the Input Interfaces • The modular synthesizer integrated sound production, sound design, and input interfaces • Modular synthesizers explored modular input devices: keyboards, modulation wheels, buttons, sliders, and knobs • With the establishment of a common control language (voltages, MIDI, OSC, etc.) input interface 386 devices are decoupled from sound production devices 17.8. The Controller • Input interfaces as a modular component separate from sound producing components • Input interfaces make no sound: they only provide data output • Input interfaces may use voltages, MIDI, OSC, or other languages to communicate to sound producing entity • With a common input language many input interfaces become interchangeable 17.9. The Parameterization of Musical Events • Western notation began parameterization of sound-events into discrete symbols • The modular synthesizer suggested the description of musical values in isolated units • Synthesis and processing parameters: envelope shapes, filter frequencies and shapes, processing parameters • The use of controllers forces explicit parameterization17.10. Mapping • Translation of one sequence of values to another • May involve scaling and shifting values • One-to-one map from one range to another; map from one type of scale to another scale • Example: 0, 1, 2, 3 (integers) to C, C#, D, D# (pitches) • Example: .25, .5, .75, 1 (unit interval floating-point values) to pp, mp, mf, ff (dynamic symbols of Western notation) 17.11. Mapping Input Data to Musical Parameters • Each input type is (often) applied to a single parameter 387 • If the input has multiple two or more dimensions of control, each dimension can be applied to a different parameter • Musical mappings are aesthetic, creative choices 17.12. Models of Traditional Instruments: Piano • Keyboard controllers without sound sources and the keytar • 1980: Moog Liberation (14 Lbs)Courtesy of Roger Luther (http://www.moogarchives.com). Used with permission. • Roland AX-7 (6 Lbs) 388© Roland. All rights reserved. This content is excluded from our Creative Commons license. For more information, see http://ocw.mit.edu/fairuse. • C-Thru Music Axis 64 389 Courtesy of C-Thru Music Ltd. Used with permission.Courtesy of C-Thru Music Ltd. Used with permission. 390 Courtesy of C-Thru Music Ltd. Used with permission.Courtesy of C-Thru Music Ltd. Used with permission.YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7OeRkXWTtQ) 17.13. Models of Traditional Instruments: Guitar • Conventional guitar used as a MIDI controller YouTube Video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTjoy_CQn1g) • Casio DG 20 391Courtesy of Uncyclopedia User:Kaiser SmaYouTube Video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpdq-Anid-U) 17.14. Models of Traditional Instruments: Aerophones • Example: Yamaha WX5 392© Yamaha. All rights reserved. This content is excluded from our CreativeCommons license. For more information, see http://ocw.mit.edu/fairuse. • Example: Akai EWI 4000s 393 © Akai. All rights reserved. This content is excluded from our Creative Commons license. For more information, see http://ocw.mit.edu/fairuse. YouTube (http://youtube.com/watch?v=N4Ex1sC4xMc) • Example: YamahaBc3a394 Single parameter breath controller © Yamaha. All rights reserved. This content is excluded from our Creative Commons license. For more information, see http://ocw.mit.edu/fairuse.• Example: Morrison Digital Trumpet 395 YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxLlym502bI) 17.15. Models of Traditional Instruments: Percussion • 1988: Akai MPC60 © Marshall Morrison


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MIT 21M 380 - Lecture Notes

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