I have been working on a number of analysis/synthesis projects of late. One is a flute synthesis project in conjunction with Donnacha Dennehy. This will be based on a spectral dynamic synthesis model which has already been used for the trumpet. Andrew Horner and I recently published an article on a version of that model (Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, Vol. 43, No. 10, October, 1995). Another is a project to analyze percussion sounds with new commands installed in SNDAN, our analysis/synthesis package. The idea is to be able to measure individual modes of instruments such as chime, timpani, and cymbal. This project is in conjunction with a doctoral project by James Irwin Jr., who is simulating drum sounds on the computer using a physical modelling approach. Still another project is to finish a study of listeners's abilities to discriminate data reductions on musical instrument sounds, a collaboration with Stephen McAdams and Suzanna Meneguzzi at IRCAM in Paris. The aim of the study is to provide hard data on the degree to which timbral quality is sacrificed when one synthesizes with certain simplified, efficient models as compared to a very accurate additive synthesis model for musical instrument sounds. An example of a simplified model is one which assumes that all sine components of a sound are in an exact harmonic series. In addition, I am working on finishing new release versions of Music 4C and SNDAN; the plan is that the releases will occur before the start the Spring semester.
In the fall of this year, I completed Implosion for Vibraphone and Tape. This composition was commissioned by Professor Scott A. Wyatt in celebration of the University of Illinois School of Music Centennial Celebration. This composition was recorded by Geoffery Brady, a Madison, Wisconsin area percussionist. The recording was made in the School of Music's recording studio, and was edited by Rex Anderson.
Currently I am working on my doctoral piece, OPpenheimERA, which is a dramatic work for large chamber ensemble, voices, and tape. The tape part, which is being realized in CMP is being generated through the use of m4c, and Professor James Beauchamp's monan / addsyn software system. This fall, the soliloquy for tape that ends the first act was premiered at a concert comprised of works that were realized in CMP.
In the summer of this year, a compact disc of New Music for the Piano, played by Camille Goudeseune was released. This recording contains my compositions Fantasia #1 and Where Do We Go From Here? This recording also features works by CMP users Linda Antas and Donnacha Dennehy, as well as pieces by David Bohn, Peter A. Botian, Timothy J. Bowlby, and Camille Goudeseune.
Recently I've been developing an addition level of moduals for the CASPAR ear training program, which was developed by Brett Terry, David Berk, and Ryan Thomas. This addition level drills the student on melodic twelve-tone rows.
This semester my work has been to expand my knowledge of usage of the Buchla, mixer, and processors in Studio A. This has been accomplished through completing a study of approximately 4 minutes. In doing this study, I attempted to create and record all of my events as stereo events formed from usually two operators controlled by some sort of sequence. I particularly suggest recording events like this, because in editing you can use all of it as is, or use one of the halves of it, or mix it to one channel (which adds a bit of depth to your stereo field), or whatever. I spent much time in Studio E experimenting with playlists and whatnot, as well as using basic concrete techniques, to try to toy with how these things can be used, and how, when used on a multiple layer level, they can be made into something more than just random sound events moving left and right.
I've been working this semester in Studio A on a 4-channel, 4-minute piece. It's only a tape study actually. By doing this study, I hope I can get familiar with the equipment in Studio A. All the sound sources are realized from Buchla. By working with 4 channels, I can learn how to do multiple track recording. Through this study, I try to create a sense of larger space and have conversation among channels.
In Studio C, I have been working on the commission piece. It's a piece for live vibraphone and tape. Through this piece, I try to maintain the identity of the live vibe, and at the same time to create the ambiguity between the "real" vibe and the "synthesizer" vibe to some degree in some sections. This paradox can, hopefully, be resolved by means of chosen timbre and the connection between sections.
In Studio D, I am learning the Kyma system for sound producing, sampling, synthesizing, and processing. For me, it's a very complicated system, but interesting. I am basically going through the Tutorial and still need to work on some more next semester.
I'm also working in CMP this semester by taking two classes, one from Professor Beauchamp and one from Professor Tipei. I've been experiencing some very basic C programming and learning M4C, Notepro, Scorpro, DIASS, SCORE, and some Sound Applications on the Next. I've only done a few short exercises in CMP this semester. I'll continue to work there next semester.
It was with great relief that I first began working in Studio A this semester. My most recent experience with electronic music had been in a studio at another school [names have been omitted to protect the innocent] which was primarily designed for MIDI. I have found that MIDI makes it simple to do anything a composer wants, as long as one learns to want only simple things. My work at the time was always a compromise between my imagination and the capabilities of the studio--even more so than in other environments. Thus my point of departure this semester was to begin with some of the same source sounds I had used before, but to realize a piece that is much closer to my original intentions.
My primary source sounds are the recordings I used last year to realize the airplane propeller parts in a performance of Antheil's Ballet Mechanique. My premise for the piece is one of timbral change so gradual that the listener doesn't quite notice. Sounds in background and foreground go through a gradual process of transformation, but near the end the listener realizes (hopefully) that the sounds have changed completely. My intent is to accomplish a sort of percep tual bait-and-switch.
My time in Studio A has been spent learning the ins and outs of the equipment (this is my first semester at the University of Illinois) as I work toward the completion of a piece scored for clarinet and electronic tape. The piece utilizes material from Mozart's Clarinet Concerto in an attempt to create an interesting juxtaposition between "old" and "new." At the outset this borrowed material is strongly distorted both acousticall and compositionally. As the piece progresses the Mozart reference become increasingly clear (but not TOO clear!).
Working with Sound Designer II, SoundHack, and HyperPrism, I have utilized digital timescaling in an attempt to create viable electro-acoustic "environments" intended to form the backbone of the tape part. This process can sometimes be problematic due to the often jagged and abrasive nature of sound realized using extreme digital time dilation. Subsequently, the real challenge existed in striving to transform these sometimes disagreeable sounds into something much more acoustically satisfying. Using analog filtering from the Buchla and some carefully layered digital effects from HyperPrism, I believe this process has been successful. Hopefully a future audience might agree!
Since this is my first semester working in the Experimental Music Studios, and my first semester as EMS Operations Assistant, my first concern was becoming familiar with the facilities and equipment in the various studios. In addition, I have been working weekly in both Studios A and D.
Much of my time in Studio A has been spent experimenting and familiarizing myself with the Buchla and Roland synthesizers and with the signal processing software available on the computer. I have begun a composition for processed voice and sounds from the Buchla, tentatively entitled The Truth of Suffering. I have spent a large portion of the semester making precompositional decisions, exploring various methods of processing the voice, and generating source sounds on the Buchla. I have mixed my first sketch of the piece, and I hope to complete the entire composition in the spring.
In Studio D I have been working primarily with the Kyma system. I have found it to be an exciting, powerful, and flexible tool for various kinds of synthesis, signal processing, digital recording, etc., but I have found that with all of its flexibility comes complexity and a steep learning curve. I have completed nearly all of the tutorials, and I am looking forward to beginning a composition with it next semester.
Jeu de l'oie (The Game of Goose) was commissioned by Scott Wyatt for the University of Illinois School of Music Centennial Celebration. Based on chance operations derived from the Game of Goose, Jeu de l'oie is constructed from 63 pitch/timbre events and Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky text. The final mix of Jeu de l'oie is pending.
=46rom beginningless time is a new composition which is being choreographed by Jane Hawley and programmed the first week of February at Beloit College in Beloit, Wisconsin. The tape is under construction in the Experimental Music Studios and in my home studio. Mostly concr=E9te sounds are being processed with SoundHack. It is in three sections:
I. release from the inner and the outer compulsion II. the crying shadow in the funeral dance III. the backward glance, towards the unseen future
What Are You Thinking?, a 17 minute composition for two-channel tape alone, is still under construction.
On January 13, Is Performance Group, will be performing at the Indianapolis Art Center. Pieces to be presented include: ...in the pursuit of happiness (for performer, stereo tape and slides), Departure and Arrival (a video in collaboration with Charlie Simokaitis) and excerpts from Enigmatic Game (Stereo tape and soprano).
In June, also in Indianapolis, "Is Performance Group," will be presenting and being presented in two weeks of shows that will take place simultaneously in three venues, linked by video and broadcast simultaneously on the Internet. This project is coming together with the assistance of two Indianapolis-based organizations, Susurrus and Saints and many other individuals and is in the planning and fund raising stage. This will be a major event for Indianapolis and the entire arts community!
All of the work in the Experimental studios this year has been directed at completing Moth to Flame, a work for flute and 2-channel tape. I spent the first part of the year on sound design using the Ensoniq SQ and TX81Z synthesizers in Studio C. During this time I wrote the flute part and most of the tape part. This was later loaded into Finale and exported as a MIDI file from CAMIL to Studio C. I also used the program MAX to create numerous MIDI files that comprise the ending of the piece.
Meanwhile in CMP I put together flute samples that I had gathered from flautist Karen DeWig using Music 4C sample "instruments" and Notepro. Many of this samples were also created by using various features of the program Soundhack as well.
Most of the summer and this semester were spent on sound design, processing, editing, and trying to make gestures more interesting and lively. It was also a challenge to get the synthesizers to handle the large number of MIDI events per second that comprised some of these MIDI files. Finally, all of the tracks were moved to Studio A where they were mixed down to ADAT and later mixed down to two channel DAT tape. During this process Hyperprism was very helpful in mixing, editing and processing.
Later in the semester the flute part was recorded in the recording studio with Rex Anderson as engineer. Karen DeWig did a wonderful job with the flute part and it is my hope that she can perform it live sometime in the spring of 1996. I would like to thank Jim Bohn and Donnacha Dennehy for their help in the recording of this piece.
I have been working on two short compositions in the Experimental Music Studios, each of which is a specific realization of the same material. That is, I have been working with different approaches to sound processing.
The basic material is constructed from four layers of sound (foreground, close midground, far midground, and background) of four channels each. This allows both placement of the sounds within specific environments, and motion of the sounds within the performance space.
Some of the sound material for the composition was created by the Buchla synthesizer, starting with a two - channel recording made by altering settings in "real-time". This material was then sampled using the Buchla synthesizer 's envelope generators, controlled by both sequencers, to produce unpredictable patterns of fragmentation of the sound. This process also produced panning between two channels. I made two samplings of the same material, again in "real time". Combining the two samplings allowed the fragments of the basic material to move among four channels.
This procedure was applied to most of the other basic material, which included concrete sounds taken from sound effects CDs. One prominent sound, which was substantially altered using Sound Designer software, was made by a nickelodeon, a kind of coin-operated, non-electronic, mechanical piano. The alteration of this sound included reorganization as well as time scaling and transposition. In addition, I used animal, bird, and insect sounds. These sounds, as well as the nickelodeon sounds, were combined through convolution (using SoundHack), to produce continuous sounds of up to one minute. This continuous sound was used as contrasting material to the fragmented sounds, but was also fragmented itself.
In both pieces the motion of sound created through panning and sampling within the performance space remains essentially the same. In Study A, sounds shift abruptly between foreground and background locations (or midground and foreground, etc.). In Study B, these shifts are intended to be continuous, with sounds moving gradually towards the foreground, or into the background.
This semester has been extremely busy with teaching courses, revising all technology courses being taught within the Labs, investigating new equipment for the studios, and redesigning of Studios E and D. In his spare time, Professor Wyatt has almost completed a new work for mixed chorus, percussion, tape, and live processing, titled A Time of Being. The tape portion of the work combines processed text, pitched material, as well as non-pitched material. The pitched material was designed on the Kurzweil K2000 and Yamaha TG500 synthesizers, and the non-pitched material was recorded in Studios A and D and later processed with HyperPrism. Portions of the text were modified with KYMA and Hyperprism. The work is dedicated to the memory of the vicitims of the Oklahoma City bombing, and will be premiered in Birmingham, Alabama on the one year anniversary of the bombing.
Professor Wyatt is producing another CD (Music from SEAMUS, volume 5), and has remastered all of the works to appear on the CD in Studio A. The CD should be available in late January or early February.
Professor Wyatt has also been heavily involved with budget concerns for CMP and the EMS Labs, and has met several times with the EMS Labs User Advisory Committee in determining what equipment will be purchased for the studios. Equipment prices were obtained from eleven vendors, purchase orders have been completed, and plans are now being made for the complicated installation process which is scheduled for the spring semester.