...::::MY NIME::::...

My concept for a New Interface For Musical Expression stems from my love of analogue synthesizers, tactile interfaces that provide haptic feedback, and sustainable technology.

One of the biggest problems that I have with typical NIME projects is that they are borne out of a non-musical interest, or an otherwise untraditional approach to interface design. While I firmly agree that the avant-garde-esque attempts to nullify musical traditional and the typical interfaces defined by the industry are important, I also in contrast maintain that sometimes, there are certain designs that work because there is not a simple or elegant way to design it better with much drastic variation. Why design a wearable suit of sensor based piano keys that runs from your head to your feet, when there is no easy way to play it?

Another problem that I have with many NIME projects is their implementations of software. A case can be made that Max/MSP & Jitter are a useful software package for extending the functionality of computer-human interfaces. In other words, one could plug a bunch of physical sensors into a computer, and by manipulating those sensors in the real world, custom soft-synths can be dynamically controlled.

The main problem that I have with this, is that there are many conventions of software synthesis that are modeled derivatives of real electronic synthesis. Not surprisingly, a hand full of projects I was subjected to at the 2007 NIME conference in New York this summer, used very complex sensor based data, interpreted by a microcontroller, interpreted by the computer and then used in Max/MSP to manipulate several sine waves, or trigger an underwhelming number of samples.

Unfortunately, the amount of difficulty surrounding the A/D conversion and interpretation in the software generally has some margin of error in flux, which always makes these kinds of sine wave projects kind of "warbly" sounding, while the sample based projects seem to skip around without notable connection with the interface. In some cases, the advantage of using physical hardware to do the same thing is that you instantaneously become unteathered from the computer, and the reliability of dedicated hardware eliminates the "warble" and the jumpiness or unintentional retrigger of samples.

Furthermore, while I love the sounds such as those found in Native Instruments "FM7" just as much as the next trance happy candy raver, there are fundamental aspects of the software that reflect the nature of the physical electronics that they are designed to model. Without a solid understanding of how the actual thing works as opposed to the soft thing, its difficult to make modifications and understand what's really happening.

To make a bad analogy, I can't expect that a graphic designer could actually understand what LEADING is, unless they have a reasonable understanding of LEAD typesetting. That's not to say that every graphic designer using a typeface in Photoshop should run out and buy a Vandercook printing press any more than someone making techno in Reason should go out and buy a Buchla. The point I'm trying to make is that if you want to use a nail gun to put a nail in a piece of wood, you'd better damn well understand how to use a hammer.

*I should note here, that I love Max/MSP, Photoshop, Live, FM7, and my software usage includes a whole lot more, but I think that as in any expressive or creative arts context, that if the designers are using the tools, they should be held responsible for doing compelling work using said tools and should be pushed to the limits of what is available to them in order to maximize their effects. I think specifically when it comes to NIME, that while Max/MSP is a fantastic and incredibly robust tool, that it is often quickly adopted by people interested in NIME just because its what everybody else in the community is using.

After all that being said, My NIME is a synthesizer. Or a series of synthesizers. Or perhaps a better way to put it is, a modular synthesizer. Or better yet, a series of modules for a modular synthesizer that are not necessarily housed together. The idea I am really talking about is a wireless modular synthesizer. Said synth, is comprised of the typical things you would expect from a modular synth. Oscillators, Gates, FIlters etc. However what sets this synth apart is that its modules can rout to one another via wireless mesh networking. Now, we are not talking purist analogue synthesizer here, we are talking about sending analog values as digital packets over an ID'd Xbee network. On of the greatest advantages of this is the spatial orientation of the modules. In other words, the sound outputs are built into each module, so the physical arrangement plays a specific effect in the sonic soundscape. Also each module can be powered in a variety of ways, including solar.

*I want to say here that there is nothing sustainable about a synthesizer, and in fact it is probably unlikely that one would be using a synthesizer in the sun, however it is my belief that any electric powered device should be designed with alternative options for off-grid supplementation in order to offset coal dependency. It just so happens that the kinds of things that I am interested in building would likely be tools for making sounds, while any designer has a responsibility to make their projects as sustainable as possible. Another way in which I hope to implement sustainable design is through electronic recycling. Any way in which I can recycle parts to make this piece come together I intend to do so.

This is the 4093 circuit as shown in the diagram below with two main Oscillators, each with inputs for variable resistors (one of which is an LFO). On the other side there are two alternate LFO's each also with inputs for resistance. The oscillators are being used together for additive synthesis. The first of which is shown here as an on board LED that blinks at a photocell. The photocell is also capable of detecting any other light source such as a laser. The second Oscillator input comes from the XBee Radio and (not shown), each of these inputs can be used to Amplitude Modulate the Sum of the two main Oscillators, and at a high enough frequency becomes additive as well - giving the main LFO a powerful timbrel effect.


link to larger version of image


This is a circuit diagram of an R/C NAND gate (otherwise known as a schmidt trigger) being used as an oscillator with one square wave amplitude modulating or gating another square wave and an optional third and fourth gate that are switchable in the cascade. The diagram depicts third gate uses a photocell to measure resistance while the fourth gate uses signal coming over RF to a Xbee radio to determine the resistance.

::::Manifesto::::

Music is an inherent and distinct part of our society that usually is defined by individuals or groups expressing emotions or concepts sonically.

As sound makers, humans have voices and limbs to do their bidding. From there humans have honed the ability to develop tools with their minds, hands, and more recently with man-made machines to augment and assist their ability to make sound. starting with acoustic instruments like animal hides stretched over resonance chambers to make drums and eventually evolving to more complicated mechanism driven acoustic instruments like pianos & clarinets. By this time, the evolution of musical tools had evolved from very simple tools to highly advanced ones which required the craftsmanship of highly skilled builders and technicians. The level of skill required to develop one of these lofty manmade instruments often created a rift between those who manufactured the tools and those who actually used them. Also, the social conventions of music evolved along side with the development of the tools and for a long time limited the use of such tools to society's elite and musically accomplished. As tools continued to evolve in addition to the continuing abundance of existing instruments, all of that started to change. There was a time (in the average modern middle class American houshold) where there was a piano in every living room, and was used as the families primary form of entertainment.

The following advent and implementation of electric instruments started a new revolution. Eventually tools were inexpensive enough that anyone could afford them, and simple enough that anyone with proper motivation could learn how to use them. From there it was only a matter of time before it didn't matter that anyone knew how to play, it was a matter of getting noticed by the companies that had formed to "represent" musicians by recording their work and releasing duplications to the general public over the radio airwaves and with phonographs.

Comparatively it was a short amount of time before recording and duplication techniques became so accessible that anyone could make their own record and distribute it over the internet. The massive commodification of tools for music technology that has seen the privileged parts of our society through the last couple of decades has made drastic changes to what has been called the "Record Industry" for most of the 20th century and beyond. The DIY sensibility of bands like FUGAZI have bled into every genre.

It brings our digitally infused culture to a crossroads where our tools are so diverse and so simple to make that we have the opportunity to de-centrilize the industry and return it to that immediate relationship between the expression and the tools that defined the tribal advent of music itself. As musicians and designers exist within the timeline of a culture obsessed with "planned obsolescence" technology, we are surrounded by electrical objects. With a menial understanding of electronics, things that we find in our "throw-away culture" can easily be repurposed to make new and interesting tools.

i have to reblog this from musicthing because its the awesome. pretty sure that's quincey jones and herbie hancock in the synth studio. this is the kind of shit that makes me so into electronic music. i almost can't stand it.

Logic



as for software, which is not exactly modular sythesis ~unless you consider modular synthesis modeling.... i admittedly love Logic Pro. yup, the formerly Emagic-now-Apple software, is probably my favorite for making "songs" as well as sound design. I found this pic after following up on a scary post from Ars Technica about there not being any Logic Pro version 8, and while I am scared about that, I am really happy about this picture.

i bought the best album i think i've ever bought today.

tristan perich released a record [of sorts] on Cantaloupe Music, called 1-BIT MUSIC. and yes it is exactly what it sounds like, music made from digital squarewaves cycling between values of 1 and 0, the faster the oscillation, the higher the frequency (pitch) this musical programming style is characteristic of many "nintendo core" musicians, coined that way thanks to the low bit rate capabilites of early digital game consols like nintendo, atari, and even commodore 64. the thing that makes me so happy about tristans release is that, he not only makes the music by actually programming the notes, he burns the tracks not onto a cd, but onto an atmel atmega8 microcontroller, which is soldered to a battery, an on/off switch, a track advance button, and to volume pots which control the individual L/R output volumes of the headphone jack also soldered onto the chip. what's more is that the entire circuit is glued into a cd case.

i started this blog because i wanted to talk about electronic music, but i didn't have any good material to talk about. hence this is my first post.

for more information, check out

tristanperich.com
cantaloupemusic.com
onebitmusic.com