the residual effects of DSP tools (or, microsound is not a gear list!)

[Sean Cooper <scooper@xxxxxxxx>]

before we get too far down the road of tek, let me just remind everyone
that microsound isn't a gear list, and that kim's original question about
hardware and software had more to do with the way technologies tend to have
certain specific effects -- cultural, aesthetic, and so forth -- that stem
from their formal potentialities. this is a sort of mcluhanist observation
-- that the technologies available to people for purposes of communication
say more about them than the content of those communications ("the medium
is the message"). 

the limitations of this viewpoint are fairly self-evident, but i still
think it's a fascinating question. an obvious example of this concerns
taylor deupree's notion of "microscopic sound," to which this list's name,
in part, makes reference. the ability to access and manipulate minute
parameters of sound that dsp tools make possible is having certain
identifiable effects upon the music being made with them (particularly in
the context of experimental music). a sort of taxonomy of those effects as
a function of specific aspects, functions, possibilities, etc., of dsp
tools would be an interesting direction in which to take this discussion.

i'd also be interested to hear some first-hand accounts of how these
changes are manifesting in the aesthetic development of indivdiual
musicians on this list (for instance, in the movement from analog to
digital tools and production environments). as a fan and occasional music
writer, i've followed the compositional shift of several artists on this
list from analog to quite commitedly digital, so i know there is much to be
said on the topic. how have your compositional methods, interests, habits,
etc., changed as a result of this shift?

sc

onnow: neina : formed verse (mille plateaux)