[ale] OT: Music Composition == Information Architecture Design

arxion arxaaron at gmail.com
Wed May 6 04:10:30 EDT 2009


On 2009, May, 06, , at 2:34 AM, Jeff Hubbs wrote:
> Fripp:
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSStufx6jYU

Well sure... there's Fripp... and his tape loops... circa 1974...
but that's WHY they call it "looping". While I agree that Fripp
RULEZ as the master of guitar electronica disciplines, he's just
one example among dozens I could name who have played with or
popularized analog and digital loop recording techniques over
the years.

I wasn't trying to imply Zoe was the first to use the technique
by any stretch, only using her as an example of how sophisticated
and accessible the tools have become with some of the newer personal
computer based recording tools and audio processing capabilities.
I also thought her comparison of using looping in her composition
process to her processes for developing software was interesting.

Of course, Fripp's main band over the decades, King Crimson,
RULEZ too. And Pink Floyd right behind them for pioneering work
with tape looping and many other analog electronica effects.
However, the first album to feature the electronica of the Moog
synthesizer as a musical instrument may go to the Byrds,
- the song "Space Odyssey" on the "Notorious Byrd Brothers"
album, 1967. (The song was inspired by the Arthur C. Clarke short
story "The Sentinnel", which later became the basis for "2001:
A Space Odyssey")

Have we gone far enough through the (original Arhur C. Clarke)
Star Gate now?  :-)

peace
aaron


> arxion wrote:
>> This Cellist, Zoe Keating, performed at Atlanta's EyeDrum Gallery
>> recently. Since then she seems to have become a bit of a nerd star.
>>
>> She uses a Mac laptop and some fairly state of the art commercial
>> music software to do live performance "layered looping".  Taking
>> the basics of multi-track recording further into the digital realm,
>> the technology allows her build complex pieces performed in real  
>> time,
>> in effect becoming a one person Cello orchestra one measure at a  
>> time.
>>
>> Wired just posted a some pixeo interview pieces with her where she
>> compares the music composing process to her day job of working with
>> information architecture design and web programming**:
>>
>> Abridged Interview:
>> < http://tinyurl.com/keatingintrvw3m >
>>
>> Full Interview:
>> < http://tinyurl.com/keating10m >
>>
>> Performance Piece:
>> < http://tinyurl.com/zkeatingplays6m >
>>
>> Article Reference:
>> http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/05/keating/
>>
>>
>> This all caught my eye because I'm a volunteer with Eydrum AND
>> I've recently taken to doing a little music composition in a similar
>> process.  I got a couple of cheap (~$50) Nano-Korg midi controller
>> devices as holiday gifts and have finally found some time to play
>> with them using Garage Band and it's nice library of instrument  
>> sounds.
>> Performing live with the velocity sensitive drum pads and micro  
>> keyboard
>> I've managed to quickly get up to speed and layer together a few
>> interesting little sketches that are evolving into actual songs.
>>
>> It's a lot of fun, so I'm looking to expand the tools and move  
>> this into
>> live performance. However, to keep things affordable I'll be doing  
>> more
>> with Open Source and GNU Linux solutions.  I'm happily finding  
>> there are
>> a plethora of OSS music & midi composition tools that would seem to
>> compare
>> pretty favorably to the commercial offerings. The one that seems most
>> interesting, though, is a a modular programable processing  
>> environment
>> called Pure Data.  The package is GPL, (fully) cross platform and  
>> very
>> mature, having also been forked into a psuedo-compatible (and  
>> expensive)
>> commercial product called Max/MSP.  Anyway, if a real-time graphical
>> programming environment for audio, video, and graphical processing
>> that runs well on GNU Linux sounds interesting to you, check it out
>> here:
>>
>> < http://puredata.info/ >
>> (also --
>> < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pure_Data >
>>
>>
>> peace
>> aaron
>>
>>
>> ** (sorry if the pixeo streaming is weak, but it looks like they're
>> using some M$ based crap service for distribution and its been  
>> sucking
>> out loud on my system; really bad audio sync, stutters and hangs and
>> frozen video all over the place. I had better luck with the direct
>> urls, but still...)
>>
>>
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