earsofapollo-blog

[earsofapollo-blog]

Tech Blog #7 The relationship between a performer and their electronics must be of the highest excellence. When performing live there must be some form of connection, and some examples that show that there is a relationship between performer and electronics is Grimes “Genesis” and Karlheinz StockHausen “Gesang der Junglinge” which showcase that connection. In Grimes’ piece “Genesis” she uses a keyboard, kit, mixer, and her voice into a microphone to construct her piece. With these instruments she was able to make an electronic piece and since it was able to loop back every sound heard. Relationship wise, the connection is there since the equipment is being the ground force for her piece and not just her voice, so it’s a give and take relationship that adds up. As for StockHausen’s piece “Gesang der Junglinge” uses some prerecorded sounds, different audio files, and some long and evolving sounds as well. There sounds like a relationship with the electronic devices used. In addition, the voices used do sound like they are prerecorded and not in a studio, but I would imagine that the performer had used them before thus making a good relationship. Overall, each performer/composer provides a strong relationship with their electronics. They make the piece distinctive and that it shows that it is their performance. This kind of performance with voice, instrument, and other use of live instrument would actually be an approach that I prefer in any of my compositions. This might become something to aspire to in any of my future performances.

[earsofapollo-blog]

Tech Blog #6 A piece of hard ware that I am exploring right now in my performance is the Buffer Groove. The Buffer Groove is a device on Max/MSP that can manipulate an audio file or audio sound and either replay it normally, slow it down by a large amount, or even change the quality of the sound completely. A great feature about this is that it can be put on loop until the sound either runs out or that t reaches a loop point. It’s set to binary code where 1 will make the Buffer Groove give an output of sound and 0 will stop it. The Buffer Groove functions in milliseconds meaning that it will stop and go based on the count of each millisecond indicating when the sound begins. Though there is a chance that when the Buffer Groove ends the sound that there will be a “click” to the file thus giving a sudden incompleteness to the sound being produced. Keeping all of these facts in mind, I would say that the Buffer Groove is an excellent piece of technology that I know will serve the performance well in any given factor, and that this device might indeed be useful especially when considering the final project of all the work I am doing.  

[earsofapollo-blog]

Tech Blog #5

           In many technologic pieces of music there is always some sort of organization to a piece and to some extent it will make sense, but in John Cage’s piece “Williams Mix” he uses a great amount of chance in his piece meaning either success of failure. How chance was used in John Cage’s piece is that he used over 600 recordings each one of a different but falling into the same category. When playing the piece it is sounded through 8 different types of speakers and 4 different recording tapes, so at that point it all comes down to a game of chance and if lucky, the piece will come out the way Cage wanted it. In addition, in spite of all of his partners who have been working with him, Cage did the editing and splicing himself so if anything went wrong it would only be him to have to deal with the situation. The reason behind why John Cage had decided to use chance on his piece instead of organization is that it would give a bit of an edge to the piece make it a bit more exciting to listen to and for John Cage a new unique style to experiment with making it seem exciting for him to create. In all fairness, I feel as though chance in a piece is both an incredibly risky and dangerous move, but if it plays out then the reward is of high greatness that most composers might actually follow in that direction.      

��9d(>

[earsofapollo-blog]

Tech Blog #4

           Electronic compositions of today can be described to some as simply using any sound that they find or any beat and plugging it into a computer, but for these three artists, Vladimir Ussachevsky, Jean Claude Risset, and Aphex Twin, their use of technology and electronic sound has a different use than expected. To begin, Vladimir Ussachevsky in his piece “Of Wood and of Brass” gives a different taste in the sound of the simplistic woodwind instrument and brass instrument by using reverb to contribute to the sound, adding different audio samples, inverting the sound of the instrument, and using the actual abilities and tone of the actual instrument with some long and evolving sounds that will compliment it. Next up is Jean Claude Risset and his piece “Mutations” and this piece sounds exactly as the title says, Risset is somewhat mutating the sound, transforming it to some extent, and of course using those same long and evolving textures, but Risset uses different types of audio files rather than using instruments uses sounds that would be found in different places like gongs, sirens, and other long and evolving sounds. Finally, there is Aphex Twin in his piece “Nannou” this is a piece that gives a somewhat electronic feel to the humble wind up music box, by taking samples of different music boxes and adjusting them to make electronic sounds, Aphex Twin actually gives this piece a tempo rather than in the other two pieces where it’s as if there is no marked time, in addition, Aphex twin uses only the sounds of the music box instead of multiple other audio sounds. For all of these electronic music composers, there is a high usage of technology in each Song and it plays a huge role in putting the piece together and giving that sort of unique feeling that each composer can provide, above all it is what holds each composer to their name and what elevates their music to new and exciting heights.          

�=��V�~f�

[earsofapollo-blog]

Tech Blog #3

           Edgar Varese, in his piece “Poeme Electronique” uses such a high and elaborate amount of sounds and technological advancements in his piece. Varese uses throughout the piece long and evolving sounds, those that are similar to Absynth, as well as different audio playbacks like bells, sirens, and other percussion instruments. In addition to that, Varese adds in sustaining and static sounds that can be generated through a computer or some form of electronic advancement. Varese also incorporates voice, in this situation in the form of Sprechstimme, speech singing. The piece doesn’t tend to have a rhythmic flow to it leading to the case that the piece was designed through the computer, and that silence plays an interesting role in the piece as well. Also, Varese incorporates samples of different pieces and that can only be achieved through technology with the addition of reverb in some of the samples. In fairness, this piece reflects Varese’s technique and that he would describe it as sounds of space and this piece certainly sounds space like to some extent. Varese had a deep interest in technological study in music since he was able to perform this on “425 speakers” and each speaker would play a different role in the piece. Varese has shown an extremely high importance in using technology for his music and uses that sort of technology as the base of his style and shows a well understanding of the futuristic style of the 20th century.

1�I� 

[earsofapollo-blog]

Tech Blog #2 In a time where technology is on the rise it leads to the ultimate question of “What are the  Beat DJ software applications in the world today?” That question is answered from Music Radar’s Si Truss and Ben Rogerson, and any DJ’s will want to consider using on of the softwares. To list only a few the first software to have would be Traktor Pro, this software is defined as “the gold standard in DJing” and I can only imagine why since it has a “Sample Deck, Remix Deck, Loop Recorder, High Quality Effects,  and impressive beat and key analysis algorithms” this software has everything that a DJ would certainly need. Next up is Ableton live, this software  has what is known as a “Session View- a brilliantly implanted and cleanly designed windows for launching sync’d, audio samples, MIDI clips and tracks” essentially this is what gives that “one-stop-shop” buy in for electronic musicians. One final software that could be useful is the Stanton Deckadance, however it is under the Gibson ownership, this software “features some great beat grid editing tools, a highly customizable interface and a great Smart Knob function, which allows macro-style control over multiple effect parameters at once.” Essentially, Deckadance is what could be considered a crucial element to modern day DJing, and in addition, the software can also be reached through the cell phone, but its more convenient to do it through the simple-user mapping. So these are essentially the main softwares that could help in DJing for any club and that could be potentially the better option for it, thought the list can continue and there are a lot more softwares, but these are some of the few that could be of some use.

[earsofapollo-blog]

           Tech Blog #1

           As someone who knows an essential amount of ideas about music technology, I feel as though I am able to comprehend the styles of making music through electronics. I have discovered through research that the elevation and the sound quality of electronic music has gone up significantly, and through Vogue Magazines “10 Technologies that Changed Music” it is going to help in deciding on what sounds I will use in the classroom. The ten technological items used in Vogue Magazine were the Phonograph, an invention by Thomas Edison that could allow performances to be fixed and returned, the Electric Guitar, any rock fans out there would know exactly what this is created by Les Paul back in 1941, Multitrack Recording, a type of recording that would free musicians from having to do or in studio performances, once again created by Les Paul, the Effects Pedal, that could cause phasing, distortion, reverb, and echo in a recording, an idea that was adopted by Jimi Hendrix, Synthesizers, that could mimic the sounds of an orchestra what were once too heavy and expensive now are smaller, lighter, and cheaper thanks to the companies of Moog and Buchla, Turntables, if anyone has been to a club or have seen a movie depicting this device, they will know exactly what I’m talking about, essentially it was once a playback device but in the 70s, DJs of dance and hip hop used it to show new ways of songs and would lengthen the songs by bouncing forward and back with the same copies of LP, the Walkman, created by Sony, which is like the great grandfather of the average iPod, it does exactly that only with cassettes, MIDI or Musical Instrument Digital Interface which is a type of technology that can hook up, synchronize, and play multiple instruments based on the performer, Auto Tune, which is super common in the music world today and it can alternate a person’s voice and adjust any off key singing, and finally the Personal Computer, this device is arguably more profound then Edison’s foil cylinder and can give an artist untold freedom that they deserve. So those are the 10 Technologic breakthrough that changed music business and it just so happens that I have access to some of them. So for any live performance that I do I plan on using MIDI, since I want to incorporate instruments over electronics, Synthesizers, for an assistance to synchronize my performance, and probably auto tune, to help adjust any of the mistakes that I might make in a performance. So if anyone plans on going into studying music technology or even the foundation of what makes a piece sound more electronic then anything, consider examining the 10 different types of technological breakthroughs that would change the music industry forever or even listen to any artists of today’s time to know what that feels like. ��