AE patches and cute squirrels

[Julian Knowles <j.knowles@xxxxxxxxxx>]

To add or put a slant on kim's post (and some others)

I think its an issue that the tools *mediate* the music. This is much 
more the case with certain software apps that tend to 
define/encourage certain pathways through processing and certain 
permissable parameter interactions and values. Quite a few software 
apps require some serious wrangling to produce 'uncharacteristic' 
sounds (even when you abuse them - eg feedback /self oscillation in 
grm - you are still feeding back a *grm algorithm*). It is certainly 
something which is always in my mind when working in these 
environments.. especially as i (like many others i suppose) consider 
my sounds to be characteristic of/idiosyncaratic to my practice. The 
logical outcome for many people wrestling with these issues is to 
write their own code (or externals as was suggested). Several people 
i know have recently begun to do this after a long time 'wrangling' 
other people's apps.. This is a big gig for a musician who has never 
coded before. Of course theoretically environments like MSP offer 
huge flexibilty, although as was stated, many stick to modified 
presets (demo patches or patches by other users) as they baulk at the 
huge work involved in building sophisticated and musical patches from 
the ground up. It is worth noting however, that a filter design has 
'a sound' - digital filters and analog filters alike.. You tend to 
need a selection (or you can write your own god forbid)

As regards the 'flatness' issue, i think this is more a by product of 
contemporary real time processes - people are more inclined to feed 
multiple signals out of patches and record real time stereo outputs 
than to track up things in isolation and 'mix' them in a traditional 
sense.. The foreground/background spatial depth thing is more of a 
mix process presupposing isolation between sounds... Good high 
quality ambiences and reverbs are dsp expensive, so the tendency is 
to not cook the CPU with this stuff when you need it for 'slicing and 
dicing'. After so much lush, detailed, spatial music, i find 
flatness/bluntness refreshing at times..

anyway, just some random thoughts


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J u l i a n  K n o w l e s
Lecturer/Co-ordinator Music Technology
Course Co-ordinator Electronic Arts
School of Contemporary Arts (Music), University of Western Sydney
Social Interiors web: http://www.geocities.com/socialinterior