I Don't Get It

The listening component of forum isn't working for me at the moment. I don't get the reasoning behind playing Mr. Bungle. There may be a link with Stockhausen, but it appeared pretty thin and the commentary/explanation given was minimal. I listened, but did not know what to listen for. What do I take away? I don't always get a lot out of listening to the electronic composers, but I understand their significance to the EMU. Karlheinz Stockhausen is intruiging. I like 'Mikrophonie', but don't get into 'Gesang'. The short wave radios and national anthem ideas behind 'Hymnen' work, but I think I was irritated by the earlier playing of Mr. Bungle.

Mr. Robert Chalmers in all his lawyerly smoothness (or some of it) presented a fast, but informative discussion on copyright law and its application on music and technology. It was far from comprehensive, as areas of law that came up in the discussion prompted him to indicate that we would not want to go there. He even gave us some websites that he recommended to stay clear of. At least I know where to start searching if I have copyright issues. Copyright appears to be very convoluted indeed. The issue of when copyrighted materials become public domain is going to keep popping its head up in decades to come. The discussion prompted a number of hypothetical scenarios. So, I guess some students may be testing the waters to see what actually is possible.

Mixing is a very appropriate topic at this time of the semester and one that not even the nice Mr. David Grice can completely cover in an hour class. Another hour probably would not be enough. However, the basics were laid, and with my recording session coming up in the not so distant future, some important information was presented that will help with the recording process. It will also help with the pre- and post-production stages. A reinforcement of some suggested microphone selections was particularly useful.

Again appearing last is the Creative Computing section of the blog. I'm not in any way undermining the value of this class like I did with the listening class. However, there was no class this week and subsequently no materials presented. I do still need to provide a code example when I get a number of hours free to work things out: ... and here it is:

(
 //New Synth
 SynthDef(
 \newSynth,



{
 //Arguments
 arg    carrierFreq    = 110,    //Frequency of carrier
     carrierVol    = 1,        //Mul
     filterRq        = 0.4,    //RLPF...reciprocal of Q
     modFreq        = 220,    //Frequency of modulator
     dur            = 3,
     legato        = 2;
 
 //Variables
 var    carrier,
     env,
     modulator,
     modfilter;

 //UGens
 modulator    = SinOsc.kr(
     freq:    modFreq,
     phase:    0,
     mul:        1
     );
 carrier    = SinOsc.ar(
     freq:    carrierFreq,
     phase:    0,
     mul:        [carrierVol * modulator, carrierVol * modulator]
     );
 modfilter    =    RLPF.ar(            //RLFP=>resonant low pass filter
     in:        carrier,
     freq:    XLine.kr(
                 start:    8000,
                 end:        650,
                 dur:        7),
     rq:        filterRq
     );
  env        =    modfilter * EnvGen.kr(Env.perc(0, dur*legato), doneAction:2);

                               
 //Output
 Out.ar(0, env);
 }
 ).load(s);
SynthDescLib.global.read
)
 //Pbind sequencer
(    Pbind(
 \instrument, "newSynth",
 \carrierFreq, Pfunc({rrand(55, 440)}),
 \dur, Pfunc({rrand(0.5, 7)}),            //Makes sense to have dur before legato
 \legato, Prand(#[0.1, 0.5, 1, 1.5], 8),
 \filterRq, Pseq(#[0.4, 0.1, 0.9, 0.6], 2)).play
)

REFERENCES:
Grice, David. 2006. Mixing. Tutorial presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, 16 May.

Harris, David. 2006. Listening (8). Workshop presented at the Electronic Music Unit, EMU Space, University of Adelaide, 18 May.

Chalmers, Robert. 2006. Law, Music and Technology. Presentation presented at the Electronic Music Unit, EMU Space, University of Adelaide, 18 May.

Albums that made this blog possible:
'Where'd You Go EP' by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones,
'Live from Toronto: Songs in the Key of Eh' by the Mad Caddies.