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Filename: southbank_edit.mp3
An edited version of a live recording, made using a Max patch built from scratch in about an hour. Third-party VSTs are used as sound generators. Note events are stochastically generated.
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Filename: SKAM_Saturday_short.mp3
Duration: 1:18
Recorded: 23 October 2008
Instruments: 3 synths, percussion
Comments: Instead of using proprietary 3rd-party VSTis, this live recording uses synthesis in MaxMSP alone. MIDI events were generated by me in Deviate, then sent via network to Alex — who has built a whole lot of neat synths and effects — and the resulting audio was captured as separate streams.
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Filename: krafty_deviate_ds_Nov09.mp3
Duration: 1:48
Recorded: 10 November 2008
Instruments: 4 synths
Comments: Autobahn + Europe Endless: 4 melodic voices, analog-style synths, major tone maps, and an eight-dotted delay. The bass changes from a low-high to a high-low sequence about 3/4 of the way through.
A mawkish article appeared in the Guardian today about Emily Howell, David Cope’s new EMI-like program. Mark Lawson retreads a lot of old arguments about whether machine-created art is actually art, and how Cope’s contribution to Emily Howell factors into consideration.
Those arguments aside, my own view is summed up nicely by commenter speedkermit.
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speedkermit
22 Oct 09, 10:13pm (about 7 hours ago)
I don’t see a conceptual problem with arguing that David Cope is the author of this music. He wrote the software with a particular outcome in mind and has created something that produces almost infinite variation, some good, some crap I should imagine. A lot of experimental artists define their role as merely setting the parameters of their music then allowing the results to surprise them. The composer Terry Riley did something similar on ‘In C’, by laying a set of loose rules for his musicians who were then allowed to apply them as they saw fit. Cornelius Cardew produced bizarre graphic scores such as ‘Treatise’ that could never be interpreted the same way twice. There isn’t much difference really.
At the moment Emily sounds like a formulaic prototype, but I don’t see the need to fear that machines might one day be the equal of human musicianship. I quite like the idea of having my own sound-droid who belches out originals on demand.
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Incidentally, I wonder what Lawson’s own compositions are like.
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Filename: dualshort_deviate_ds_Aug09.mp3
Duration: 1:48
Recorded: 30 August
Instruments: 4 synths, percussion
Comments: A more standard 4/4 recording influenced by old-school English techno (LFO particularly).
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Filename: risc3short_deviate_ds_Aug09.mp3
Duration: 1:42
Recorded: 18 August
Instruments: 4 synths, percussion
Comments: This started off as a recording after Plaid’s ZN Zero (Greedy Baby, 2006), which is apparent from the sound of the bass, heavy use of reverb, and the 5/4 time signature. Then I decided to see if adding swing would work (it did) and from there the project kind of took its own direction. Most interaction consisted of changing density, voice transposition, part activation, and note regeneration. Bar transposition values remain the same throughout, and no pattern restarting is used. There are often three simultaneous melodic voices active, and generally there aren’t many errors or wrong notes.
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Filename: risc3_deviate_ds_Aug09.mp3
Duration: 7:42
Recorded: 18 August
Instruments: 4 synths, percussion
Comments: The complete version of the above. There are some ‘wrong’ notes around 0:37, which were quickly corrected. The evolution from 5:00 to the end is quite nice.
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Filename: palmy_deviate_ds_Jul09.mp3
Duration: 2:34
Recorded: 13 July 2008
Instruments:4 synths, percussion
Comments: An excerpt from a longer recording (around 10 mins). Again, quick setup/record. 7/8 time signature, no pattern restarting, vaguely Plaidlike. Lots of pitched content here – at 0:53 an audible transposition change occurs. The melodic material is then brought in little by little (so any unexpected/wrong note events can be filtered out or regenerated) until 2:27.
Ge Wang, creator of the Smule ocarina iPhone app, is the major featured article on today’s Sydney Morning Herald website.
