Category Archives: Electroacoustic

musica elettroacustica

nayral-ro

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Un altro lavoro di ::vtol::

The orchestra consists of 12 robotic manipulators of various designs, each of which is equipped with a sound-transmitting speaker. The manipulators, combined together, form a single multi-channel electronic sound orchestra. Due to constant displacement speakers in space, changing direction of the sound and the algorithms for generating compositions, the orchestra creates a dynamic soundscape. In order to interact with the orchestra, controller Leap Motion is used, that allows to control robots and sound by simple hands gestures in the air – similarly to conducting an orchestra.

The project is based on the idea of a combination of modern music, computer, interactive and robotic concepts and approaches for the creation of works of art. In many ways, it is inspired by well-known works that were presented in the recent past, such as Pendulum Choir (2011) and Mendelssohn Effektorium (2013). However, Nayral Ro is different from these projects in many ways. Its algorithmic system, in which sound and musical composition are being produced, is real time, and the acoustic environment also changes simultaneously with the process of creating the musical piece. Also, the whole process is completely subordinated by the “conductor”, so this a role is similar to such of a composer, performer and operator at the same time.

Creation of more sophisticated versions, more subtly revealing the potential of Leap Motion for tuning to the movement and changes in sound, is being planned for the future development.

Metaphase Sound Machine

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Questa splendida e inusuale macchina sonora è stata progettata e costruita dal media-artist russo Dmitry Morozov (aka ::vtol::).

The Metaphase Sound Machine is a kind of homage to the ideas of the American physicist Nick Herbert who in the 1970s has created both Metaphase Typewriter and Quantum Metaphone (a speech synthesizer). These were some of the first attempts to put the phenomenon of quantum entanglement in practice and one of the first steps towards the creation of a quantum computer. The experimental devices, however, had not confirmed theoretical research, and Herbert’s obsession with metaphysics resulted in the publication of several of his works on the metaphysical in quantum physics, that have led to a serious loss of interest to the ideas of quantum communication. One day, in a course of his experiments, Herbert has hacked into an university computer trying to establish a contact with the spirit of illusionist Harry Houdini at the day of the centenary of his birth.

In his device Herbert in order to achieve a quantum entangled state used as a source radioactive thallium, which was controlled by the Geiger radiation counter. The time interval between pulses was chosen as conversion code. Several psychics had participated in the experiments. They tried to influence the endless stream of random anagrams arising from a typewriter or cause “the ghost voice” to be heard out of metaphone. Scientists also have conducted sessions to bring about the “spirit” of a colleague who had recently died, and who knew about this typewriter. In 1985 Herbert wrote a book about metaphysical in physics. In general, his invention and articles quite severely compromised the ideas of quantum communication in the eyes of potential researchers and by the end of the XX century no any substantial progress in this direction was observed.

The Metaphase Sound Machine is an object with 6 rotating disks. Each of the discs is equipped with acoustic sound source (a speaker) and a microphone. Each of the microphones is connected via computer and the rotary axis to the speakers on the disks. Also in the center of installation a Geiger-Mueller counter is set, that detects ionizing radiation in the surrounding area. The intervals between these particles influence rotation velocity of each of the disks. Essentially the object is an audio- and kinetic installation in which a sound is synthesized based on feedbacks, produced by microphones and speakers on rotating discs. Feedback whistles are used as triggers for more complex sound synthesis. Additional harmonic signal processing, as well as the volatility of the dynamic system, lead to the endless variations of sound. The form of the object refers to the generally accepted symbolic notation of quantum entanglement as a biphoton – crossing discs of the orbits.

Dmitry Morozov

Un altro video sullo stesso soggetto.

::vtol::

Treatise da Tempo Reale Electroacoustic Ensemble

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Tempo Reale Festival 2012
RUMORE ROSA Il paesaggio delle voci

MUSICA COMUNISTA
Salvatore Miele, coordinamento e live electronics
Francesco Casciaro, oggetti sensibili e live electronics
Daniela Cattivelli, campionatore e live electronics
Andrea Gozzi, chitarra elettrica e live electronics
Damiano Meaccii, regia del suono

Cornelius Cardew
Treatise, per ensemble elettroacustico
(prima esecuzione a Firenze)

Arras

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Barry Truax – Arras (1980) – for four computer-synthesized soundtrackstruax

Author’s notes:

Arras refers metaphorically to the heavy wall hanging or tapestry originally produced in the French town of the same name. The threads running through the material form both a background and, when coloured, a foreground pattern as well, even when they are the same thread. In the piece there is a constant ambiguity between whether a component sound is heard as part of the background texture, or whether it is heard as a foreground event because, in fact, the frequencies are the same. The listener can easily be drawn into the internal complexity of the constantly shifting pattern, but at the same time can sense the overall flow of the entire structure.

Arras is a continuously evolving texture based on a fusion of harmonic and inharmonic spectra. The large-scale structure of the piece follows a pattern of harmonic change going from closely spaced odd harmonics through to widely spaced harmonics towards the end. Each harmonic timbre is paired with an inharmonic one with which it shares specific harmonics, and with which it overlaps after each twenty-five second interval. This harmonic/inharmonic structure forms a background against which specific events are poised: shorter events, specific high pitches which otherwise would be imbedded in the overall timbre, and some percussive events. However, all frequencies found in the foreground events are the same as those in the background texture; hence the constant ambiguity between them.

Arras received an honourable mention in the computer music category of the 1980 International Competition of Electroacoustic Music sponsored by the G.M.E.B. in Bourges, France.

Arras is available on the Cambridge Street Records CD Pacific Rim, and the RCI Anthology of Canadian Electroacoustic Music.

More technical notes here.
Listen to Arras excerpt.

Androgyny

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Barry Truax – Androgyny (1978) – a spatial environment with four computer-synthesized soundtracks

Author’s notes:

Androgyny explores the theme of its title in the abstract world of pure sound. The piece, however, is not programmatic; instead, the dramatic form of the piece has been derived from the nature of the sound material itself. In this case, the sound construction is based on ideas about an acoustic polarity, namely “harmonic” and “inharmonic,” or alternatively, “consonance” and “dissonance.” These concepts are not opposed, but instead, are related in ways that show that a continuum exists between them, such as in the middle of the piece when harmonic timbres slowly “pull apart” and become increasingly dissonant at the peak intensity of the work. At that point a deep harmonic 60 Hz drone enters, similar to the opening section, but now reinforced an octave lower, and leads the piece through to a peaceful conclusion. High above the drone are heard inharmonic bell-like timbres which are tuned to the same fundamental pitch as the harmonic drone, a technique used throughout the work with deeper bells.

The work is designed to sound different spatially when heard on headphones. Through the use of small binaural time delays, instead of intensity differences, the sounds are localized outside the head when heard through headphones. Various spatial movements can also be detected, such as the circular movement of the drones in the last section of the piece.

Although not intended to be programmatic, the work still has environmental images associated with it, namely those suggested by the I Ching hexagram number 62, Preponderance of the Small, with a changing line to number 31, Wooing. The reading describes a mountain, a masculine image, hollowed out at the top to enclose a lake, a feminine image. The two exist as a unity. Thunder is heard close by, clouds race past without giving rain, and a bird soars high but returns to earth.

Androgyny is available on the Melbourne album Androgyne and the Cambridge Street Records CD, SFU 40.

Production Note:

The work was realized with the composer’s POD6 and POD7 programs for computer sound synthesis and composition at Simon Fraser University. All the component sounds are examples of frequency modulation (FM) synthesis, generated in binaural stereo, with time differences between channels. However, considerable analog mixing in the Sonic Research Studio at Simon Fraser University produced the resulting complex work.

Listen to Androgyny

Phantom Terrains

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Streams of wireless data surge from internet exchanges and cellphone relays, flowing from routers to our devices and back again. This saturation of data has become a ubiquitous part of modern life, yet it is completely invisible to us. What would it mean to develop an additional sense which makes us continuously attuned to the invisible data topographies that pervade the city streets?

Phantom Terrains is an experimental platform which aims to answer this question by translating the characteristics of wireless networks into sound. By streaming this signal to a pair of hearing aids, the listener is able to hear the changing landscapes of data that surround them. Network identifiers, data rates and encryption modes are translated into sonic parameters, with familiar networks becoming recognizable by their auditory representations.

The project challenges the notion of assistive hearing technology as a prosthetic, re-imagining it as an enhancement that can surpass the ability of normal human hearing. By using an audio interface to communicate data feeds rather than a visual one, Phantom Terrains explores hearing as a platform for augmented reality that can immerse us in continuous, dynamic streams of data.

Below the map is an audio recording of part of the same walk, as heard through the Phantom Terrains sonification interface. The sound of each network is heard originating from the router’s geographical location, producing clicks whose frequency rises with the signal strength — akin to a layered series of Geiger counters. Routers with particularly strong signals “sing” their network name (SSID), with pitch corresponding to the broadcast channel, and a lower sound denoting the network’s security mode.

Autotune 4’33”

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C’è anche questa versione di Matthew Reid che è abbastanza interessante. Reid ha eseguito il brano filtrando il microfono con un equalizzatore regolato in modo da rinforzare le frequenze di risonanza della stanza. Di conseguenza si è prodotto un feedback.

La registrazione è stata poi passata in Autotune che ha intonato tutti i feedback, sia il bordone del secondo movimento che i vari suoni del terzo. In un certo senso è una versione elettroacustica del brano.

BEASTmulch

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super-collider

BEASTmulch is an AHRC (Arts & Humanities Research Council) funded research project exploring approaches to large-scale multichannel electroacoustic composition and presentation, lead by Scott Wilson along with Jonty Harrison and Sergio Luque at the University of Birmingham.

BEASTmulch System is a software tool for the presentation of electroacoustic music over multichannel systems. Designed primarily with a classic ‘live diffusion’ model in mind, it is nevertheless flexible enough to be adapted for a number of purposes, and can support input and output configurations of arbitrary complexity (i.e. live inputs, soundfiles with varying numbers of channels, etc.).

The software has numerous features (e.g. realtime reconfigurable routing, channel processing, automation, etc.), incorporates various standard and non-standard spatialisation techniques (VBAP, ambisonics, etc.), and adapts easily to both small and large (i.e. > 100 loudspeakers) systems.

BEASTmulch System is the software component of the BEAST concert system.

System Requirements: Mac OSX 10.4 – 10.5 (10.6 compatibility forthcoming).

BEASTmulchLib is a SuperCollider class library designed for use in the creation, processing and presentation of complex multichannel signal chains. Objects include sources, matrix routers and mixers, and sound processors and spatialisers. The latter are based on a simple user-extensible plugin architecture. Many classes have elegant GUI representations.

The library also includes classes which represent a variety of different controllers, including MIDI controllers, GUI Faders, EtherSense, etc., and provides support for controller automation (i.e automated mixing and diffusion).

It supports a number of common spatialisation techniques, such as Ambisonics, and includes SC ports of Ville Pullki’s Vector Base Amplitude Panning (VBAP), and the Loris analysis resynthesis method. It also supports some idiosyncratic techniques, such as Spatial Swarm Granulation, and provides utility classes for Speaker Array balancing and visualisation.

Currently the library is not fully cross-platform: GUI classes and UGens are OSX only.

Site is here.

Trans und so weiter

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Questo film, è stato girato nel 1973 da Gérard Patris per la Zweite Deutsche Fernsehen (Seconda Televisione Tedesca) nel corso delle prove e delle esecuzioni di alcune opere di Stockhausen per i Recontres Internationales de Musique Contemporaine di Metz.

Si possono vedere estratti di Trans, Mikrophonie I, Zyklus, Refrain, Kontakte, Am Himmel Wandre Ich, Ceylon con la partecipazione e la direzione dall’autore.

Il film è in tedesco, comunque le parti musicali costituiscono la maggior parte del film e sono interessanti anche per chi non capisce la lingua.

The Berlin Wall of Sound

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SoundCloud ha pubblicato un post commemorativo per il 25mo della caduta del muro di Berlino.

Dal punto di vista musicale non è particolarmente significativo (è un collage di suoni e citazioni), ma probabilmente non era questo lo scopo. Il post, invece ha alcuni elementi interessanti sotto il profilo formale. Innanzitutto la durata: 7 minuti e 32 secondi è il tempo impiegato dal suono per percorrere i 155 km della lunghezza del muro. Poi i commenti, che sono 107, ciascuno con il nome di una persona morta nel tentativo di oltrepassare il muro (dovrebbero essere 120, forse qualcuno è collettivo).

 Marking the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

The Berlin Wall of Sound is an acoustic reconstruction of the Berlin Wall.

Its duration of 7:32 minutes reflects the time sound needs to travel the 155 kilometres length of the Berlin Wall. Its sound wave’s shape mirrors the wall of concrete and its watchtowers. There are no comments – the tags depict the victims and mark where they were killed.

The Wall of Sound is not easy to bear. But 27 years locked behind the concrete Berlin Wall were unbearable.

Back in 1989, SoundCloud’s headquarters would have been part of the Death Zone next to the Berlin Wall. We dedicate the Wall of Sound to the 120 women, men and children, who lost their lives in their attempt to live in freedom. We will not forget.

Major original quotes used:

Walter Ulbricht (former leader of the GDR and responsible for the construction) saying a few days before the construction started: „Nobody has the intention to raise a wall“

Heinz Hoffmann (former GDR secretary of defense): „To those, who don’t respect our border – they will feel the bullet.“

Erich Honecker (longtime and most powerful leader of the GDR) celebrating 40 Years of the GDR in 1989: „The German Democratic Republic will exist another 40 years and beyond.“

Alla fine, comunque, devo dire che, se da un lato un muro che cade fa sempre piacere, non concordo con la retorica semplicistica che circonda queste commemorazioni, secondo la quale noi abbiamo la libertà mentre loro erano un regime oppressivo.

La pagina originale è qui.