Introduction

We'll discuss sound in broad terms and examine the roll digital audio systems can play in exploring sound. We'll examine how acoustic, electronic, and digital audio works, and we'll discuss different scales of time in sound. I'll also hear a little about what you are interested in and what you're working on, and go over the structure of the class.

Listening: 9 Beet Stretch.

Reading:

Time Scales of Music, Roads, Microsound (available online from MIT Press).

For review if necessary: How Digital Audio Works, pp. 8-21 of the MSP Manual (available from Cycling 74 online and included in most installations of the application).

Assignments:

1: Set up your sketch process - select a tool and create a space online for uploading your work; email me before the next class to notify me of what you choose.

2: Careful listening. Step 1 - listen out. Listen first to sounds near you, then proceed outward to the edge of your perception, attempting to hear sounds from as far away as possible. Step 2 - listen down. Find a repeatable sound, like footsteps, a keystroke on a keyboard, etc. Listen as closely as possible to this sound, attempting to perceive the sound not as a singular sonic "icon" but as a complex phenomenon with many components. Write down a brief account of your observations and be prepared to share them in class next week. Also, record a short sample (1-5 seconds) of the close listening, to present in class, and post it in your sketchbook.

Oscillations

This week we'll look in even more depth at basic waves, examining methods for generating waves from geometry (sine and cosine functions and their origin) and physics (springs and pendulums).

Listening:

Adam Asarnow

"Come Out" and "It's Gonna Rain", Steve Reich

Reading:

Chapter 1: Musical Sound Perception, and

Chapter 2: Acoustic Principles, Musical Instrument Design, Bart Hopkin, 1996. Available here via Google Books.

Assignments:

Find and use waves to generate sound. Basic oscillations in Max/MSP can be generated with the ~cycle object - which other ones can you find or develop? Push your waves into the extreme time and level domains discussed in the Roads reading (also note how the digital domain works with and against you in doing so).

Record 10 sketches and post them in your sketchbook. Place links to each sketch in the class wiki and select three for presentation in class next week.

Also - work in groups to find metal tubing (EMT works well and is cheap) and balloons (the long skinny kind work best) to build the balloon-mounted bar gongs detailed in the reading. We'll be doing this in class. We should ideally have 6 or so tubes of different lengths.

In class examples:

Waves examples (.zip)

Basic recording setup in Max

Combining Waves

So far our discussion of oscillations has focused on extremely simple "harmonic motion" - sine waves. Real sound is much more complex, but can be reproduced by a combination of these simple waves added together (although we might need an infinite number). This week we use MSP to experiment with this idea.

Listening:

Sarah Grant

"Lullaby for Sharks", Happy Apple

"House of Twang", Arnold Dreyblatt

Reading:

Addative Synthesis, Curtis Roads, Computer Music Tutorial (handout).

Assignments:

Create 10 sketches by combining sine waves. Control the sine waves over time to achieve timbral changes. Post the sketches to your sketchbook and include a link on the wiki.

In class examples:

Additive examples (.zip)

Intonation

The harmonics intrinsic to a vibrating string and other resonant phenomena give rise to a series of pitch intervals that can be expressed as (small) integer ratios: 2/1, 3/2, 4/3, 5/4, etc. One can construct a scale using these intervals and octave transpositions. However, the space between adjacent intervals will vary, which means transposing a pattern in a just intonation scale will result in an entirely new set of unique frequencies not in the original set. Primarily for this reason, in Western music there has been a gradual shift towards an equal tempered scale, in which the octave is divided into a number of equal intervals (12 is the most common). This allows for transposition of patterns (melodies, chords) from one frequency to another on instruments with a limited set of keys. However, the intervals in the equal temper scale at best approximate those "ideal" intervals from the harmonic series.

Listening:

Nancy Garcia

"International Date Line", Arnold Dreyblatt, The Adding Machine

"Mortuos Plango, Vivos Voco", Jonathan Harvey. From New Sounds on WNYC (43:50 into the program)

Reading:

Chapter 3: Tuning Systems and Pitch Layouts, Musical Instrument Design, Bart Hopkin, 1996 (handout).

Assignments:

Drawing on your addative synthesis work from the last class, experiment with different just intonation or equal temperament intervals and scales. Generate and post 10 sketches, with a link on the wiki.

In class examples:

Intonation examples (.zip)

Addative slides (.pdf)

Tuning slides (.pdf)

Modulations

The familiar musical phenomena of tremolo (modulating the volume of a sound) and vibrato (modulating pitch) become powerful sonic tools when the modulating frequency is in the audible range (> ~20Hz). Computationally simple systems (ie, fixed number of oscillators) can create extremely complex waveforms.

Listening:

Dean Gransar and Dave Gordon

Well Tuned Piano (excerpt), La Monte Young, available on New Sounds here. WTP discussion begins around 41:30; discussions of tuning throughout.

Mild und Leise, Paul Lansky, 1973. Explanatory text and mp3 available here.

Idioteque, Radiohead, live footage here.

Reading:

Modulation Synthesis, Roads, Computer Music Tutorial (handout).

Four Meditations, Pauline Oliveros, online here.

Assignments:

Create and post 10 sketches using modulation synthesis. Also post your patch and/or representative screenshot.

Drawing on your work from the past five weeks, create software for performing Meditation I - From Unknown Silences and Meditation II - The Tuning Meditation, by Pauline Oliveros. We will use the software live in class next week.

Examples from class:

Modulation Examples (.zip)

Noise Hunt

Listening:

Vaibhav Bhawsar

Ryoji Ikeda

Reading:

The Future of Music: Credo, John Cage, from a lecture in 1937. Reprinted in 1958 in Cage's book Silence (online).

Assignments:

Search for noise. Take any short sound (probably in .wav or .aif format, possibly others, but mp3 does not work well), and open it in a text editor such as BBEdit. You will see more or less garbage. Leaving aside the first hundred characters or so (which contain header information about the file) edit the file in any way you see fit. Cut and paste sections from one place to another. Rearrange lines. Reverse or sort sections of text. Munge it with a perl script. Paste in an email.

After each edit, save the file as a new .aif (or .wav) file and - after turning down the volume - audition it. Repeat: turn down the volume. The edited file is almost always much louder than the source. Some edits will have more interesting results than others. Many edits may have no result, or make your file unplayable - be persistent. Continue incrementally until the source material is unrecognizable.

Repeat until you have 10 chaotic messes to play in class next week. Enjoy.

Note: Please follow this method. There will be plenty of opportunities to make noise lots of other ways; but this way you have little or no idea what you're going to get, which is the point.

Examples:

quiet bass sound: original, modified1, modified2
random sines: orignial, modified
french: original, twelve edits later

Noise Math 1

Noise can come from all kinds of sources, both abstract and physical. We look this week at the relationship between random numbers and digital noise. We also look at two interesting equations - the logistic map and henon equation - that can produce behavior ranging from cyclic to chaotic. Our digital tools give us the ability to listen to any such equation.

Listening:

Michael Clemow

Rucyl Mills

Examples from class:

Noise Examples (.zip)

Reading:

Please refer to the henon and logistic equations on Mathworld.

Assignments:

Find at least three unique noise sources (math, recordings, etc.). Generate 10 sketches in which you explore noise in its various forms.

Noise Math 2; Particles 1 Images to Sound

This week we deviate to follow a thread raised in class concerning converting images to sound. We look at one of many possible ways to derive semi-noise from graphics and consider relationships (intentional and unintentional) across media.

Listening:

Mitch Said

Assignments:

Starting from scratch, create a work that uses an image as its input to create sound. Demo your patch in class in two weeks.

Image 2, Particles

Following up on the image discussion prior to spring break. If time allows we will also instroduce concepts of particles of sound.

Listening:

Syed Salahuddin

Xenakis, Concrete Ph, 1958

Assignments:

Prepare for in-class sketch performance next week. This week you will be assigned on of the following three images to serve as your score: John Cage's signature, a William Anastasi drawing (made on a subway trip to play chess with Cage), or this mushroom print.

The manner in which the image becomes the score is up to you, and can be automated or interpretive. Performances will be given as trios (1 player for each image). Prior to class post one sketch of a sample of your work.

Example from class:

Image to buffer (.zip)

Micro 1

In class performance.

Listening:

Dominique Ahkong

Assignment:

Create 5 sketches of extremely short pitched sounds. Play with the boundary of your ability to perceive the pitch of the sounds. Create 5 more sketches of sets of multiple short sounds (use those generated in the first sketches if you like).

Micro 2

We consider the effect of repetition on micro and meso timescales.

Listening:

Jody Zellen

Alvin Lucier, I am Sitting in a Room, 1969. (mp3 online here)

Group 1 (Sarah, Jody, Vaibav)

Group 2 (David, Rucyl, Michael)

Group 3 (Adam, Dominique, Syed)

Group 4 (Nancy, Joe, Sofia, Mitch)

Reading:

McLachlan, A Spatial Theory of Rhythmic Resolution (pdf online)

Assignments:

Create 5 sketches which use delays or repetitions on a scale of 1 - 250 milliseconds, and 5 on the scale of 250ms - 10 seconds.

Granular and feedback patches (.zip)

Nobuyasu Sakonda's Granular 2.5 (.zip)

Meso

In class, we will collectively construct an implementation of the cyclic arrays discussed in the reading, using delays and feedback.

Listening:

Sofia Paraskeva

Assignments:

Using the patch constructed in class, develop the rhythmic ideas from the reading or create rhythms of your own. Generate 5 patches of up to a minute in length.

Also, consider the formal structure of the piece "I am sitting in a room..." in terms of input, delay, feedback, filtering, and output. Identify the components in your digital tools that would be required to create a performance that is structurally analogous to the piece, either in part or in whole. Form pairs (or in one case, a group of three) to co-create the performance for the final week.

Macro

Listening: Joe Mariglio

Final Class