Re: [microsound] gear questions: unfortunate newbie pandering

[Derek Holzer <republikasleazka@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

scott,

here are some pieces of gear, in no particular order, that get plugged into 
glitch-head laptops:

mixers:
not all the sounds are going to come out of your laptop. espc if you work 
with MAX, you will want to plug things in as well... bring the outside world 
into your box. mixers provide a way to keep the signals you want to process 
in your laptop level. if you want to work with microphones, you will need a 
mixer anyway... dynamic microphones (ones w/o batteries, mostly, also 
contact mikes) need serious gain before your laptop will 'hear' them loud 
enough. also, if you want to use any external effects, a mixer is essential. 
i recommend a small behringer eurorack. fennesz uses one with 10 tracks in 
(2 mono mike channels with gain, and 4 stereo inputs), 2 racks out and one 
effects send/return, i think. mine is twice as big. (no, i never use them 
all...)

continuous midi controllers:
are you a keyboard player? if so, MAYBE a keyboard controller will do you 
good. if you want to play piano at your gigs, that is. if not, or you aren;t 
planning on impressing people with your best bach, skip the keyboard and get 
some rotary knob continuous controllers. doepfer makes a good 16 knob 
controller, and also a monsterous 64 knobber that monolake uses with his max 
patches. peavy also, and a few others. native instruments has a great list 
of all of them:
http://www.nativeinstruments.de/index.php?technisch_us
continuous controllers are built for everything from tweaking synth filters 
to toggeling between samples in a sampler object or presets in a module. 
much more versitile than an old-fashioned keyboard. or maybe i'm just jaded 
that some people actually know how to play them.

other interfaces:
sick of watching people (like me) 'just twiddle knobs'? different types of 
midi controllers are also out there. vladislav delay used a midi octo-pad 
drum kit to trigger samples and change program parameters when he made 
'anima', for example. this is especially cool for something like MAX, where 
you design your own instrument. why not design your own controller as well? 
look up 'i-cube' for starters. it allows light, pressure, bend, and other 
tactile and physical sensors to control midi data. then think up something 
we've never seen before. (a punching bag interface? a 3m tall joystick in 
the middle of the stage? )

sequencers:
in my quest to escape the mouse, i've looked into attaching external 
sequencers to a computer, partly for the big rubber buttons, and partly for 
the extra CPU power i get if i don't have something like cubase or logic 
running in the background. i won't be using it for sending notes, probably, 
but rather to send program change messages to switch between presets or 
samples in a module. also, if you have a partner or three, you can send them 
the exact same timing information, and keep your sets totally in sync. just 
a thought.....

software:
i'm not into mac, so i can't tackle this one. if you had a PC, a few things 
come to mind (Audiomulch, PD/GEM...) but you have that covered with 
soundhack and max/msp, i gather. this is something for you, though.... midi 
ox or hubi's loopback: allows midi apps to talk to each other inside your 
machine. if you don't want to use an external sequencer, this can get MAX 
and cubase shaking hands. these are PC programs, but maybe there is 
something like this for a MAC, too. (maybe MACs are so godlike that they 
don't need this kind of app. in which case, suggestion is retracted...)

nuts and volts:
***soundcard with multiple ins and out: look for ASIO drivers to reduce 
latency (ie amount of time between when you tell your machine to process 
something and when you hear results), and 'full duplex', to be able to 
process incoming sounds at the same time you are playing outgoing sounds. 
there's quite a bit of ascii spilled about soundcards already. i won't 
respill it here.
***midi port: some soundcards have a midi jack or three. most don't. midiman 
makes cheap and durable usb midi interfaces. shop around.

another note on controllers:
remember that whatever controllers you use, you will be designing your 
patches and onscreen interface around them, and ultimately your sound as 
well. if you have a traditional piano-style keyboard, not only will you do a 
lot of mousing around, but you will also be importing some very antique 
notions of music making into a place where they might not need to be. if you 
have some other kind of interface, it becomes part of your process. "how do 
i incorperate/(un)learn/master/improvise with/etc  the  drum-pad/punching 
bag/joystick/lightsensor/etc?" becomes just as important as the sounds you 
are making.

success!
derek



----Original Message Follows----
From: Scott Handley <thesubtlebody@xxxxxxxxx>
Reply-To: microsound <microsound@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "\[microsound\]" <microsound@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [microsound] gear questions: unfortunate newbie pandering