Re: [microsound] audio software environments

[Kassen <kassen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Michael Wright

> Does audio software that requires high levels of user input produce
> musically more valuable results than those that require little?

I think there are some factors that make for a loose corelation between
those factors but certainly no causal relationship. In general I think more
intensive work by the composer will make the piece more satisfying for him
and that dedication and involvement might very well lead to musically more
interesting material. It need not be on the software level though, it might
also consist of a well thought out compositional idea or some special field
recordings.

>
> Do you favour speed of result over being closer to the machines
> language?

Certainly, as long as it doesn´t become a limitation. The faster the program
is to work with, the more likely it is to have limitations or
simplifications. If i run into those I´ll switch to something slower but
more detailed.

Without a doubt there are people that considder overcoming hardships it´s
own reward and to some it very well may be, for my time I´d like to have
some music. I think having complete control over the whole process can be
very valuable but in many cases the higher level tools do exactly what you´d
have home brew code do in which case writing the code makes little sense,
particularly if you *could* write that code.

>
> At what point does ownership stop and become more of a collaboration
> between the user and the software programmer?

That´s a good question. Probably at the point where one is for some reason
stuck with one program and it´s feature set. Since we can select what tool
we want most of the time and base that selection on how features compare to
what we want I don´t see this as a major factor most of the time, but it
might be interesting to give oneself a assignment to make a piece with a
new, unknown program, exploiting it´s typical features.

In the other direction. we might build or program a instrument, then have
others play this, for example as a part of a live performance. That
instrument might be made speciffically to do certain kinds of things,
limiting our press-ganged musician.

In some ways using a instrument build by others will be a colaboration but
it need not be preceived as such and even if it is, that might not be a bad
thing.

A while ago a friend of mine needed a simple lowpass filter for a live
performance so I build him construction in my Nord Modular that was present
anyway. I went slightly beyond the listed specs he needed, turned all the
features I had included off by default yet explained their workings. I could
include those as I know his work and how he works, thus predicting what he
might feel he needed during his set. That might count as a colaboration, yet
it certainly wasn´t limiting while I get the feeling you are implying that
situations that end up being colaborations between musicians and programers
have a strong component of being limiting.

There must be some violin builders that also play that instrument, how many
of those wouldn´t like to own a stradivarius?

>  Would you ever release a
> record that was created using e-jay, playstation music 2000 or
> garageband?

I´ve been looking at the PS2 bargain bins considdering exactly this, yes.
I´m very interested in how much the tools you use influence your sound. Once
I have my own tv again I might, I would only release it if it would be of a
certain quality but why not?

I wrote a article that deals with these questions in the other direction
(being large modular synths) which is available here;
http://www.cemstudio.com/vynalogica03.htm
and might be of interest if you are asking these things.

>
> At the other end of the scale, when does it start to become something
> that's more to with computers than music?

That´s a matter of personal perception, how you relate to computers and what
exactly "music" is to you. For me it would take a fairly long time for that
point to be reached and there is bad music in any genre.

> Do you think computer musicians are trying to widen the gap between the
> tools they use and that of the mainstream media?

Perhaps some are, perhaps others are actively trying to change what
"mainstream media" consists of. Me, I´ll have some nice music if i can find
it and hope to get some feelings of my chest. little else matters to me.

>
> In general i'd like to find out how much of peoples music is a
> consequence of the software they use?  Are any of you proud to have a
> certain softwares sound in the same way people are proud to use a 909,
> 303 etc?

No, I actively try to veil my sources, computers go through the old analogue
effects, analogue sources go through the computer.

>
> Your opinions are of great value to me with my research as well as my
> personal quest to find out what the hell this whole computer music
> thing is about,

Hope to have been of some help, feel free to quote this mail or the linked
article if that would be of use.

Yours,
Kas.




---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: microsound-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
For additional commands, e-mail: microsound-help@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
website: http://www.microsound.org