Metatrombone

Here is a little beat I created recently using my homemade instrument as a sound source and exploring my previously discussed cut-up technique with Mobius and Bidule.



What is significant with this recording is that I varied the pitch on the playback of my sound source using my flight-simulator joystick.  This opens up some interesting possibilities, since I could easily hack my joystick to create my very own music controller.
Using the game pad’s electronics as an interface to the computer, I intend to replace the pads, buttons and joysticks with various sensors and triggers that I will install on my trombone.  My aim is to gain access to some of the powerful sound processing techniques that I have learned over the summer, and deploy them live to extend the range of performance of the trombone.
In doing this, I’m following in the footsteps of Nicolas Collins, whose excellent book Handmade Electronic Music: The Art of Hardware Hacking is the definite guide to making things go beep. His book is mostly devoted to creating unique electronic instruments, but a later chapter discusses transforming a game controller into a custom computer music controller.
Collins has also built a novel electronic musical instrument from an old beat-up trombone.

His “trombone-propelled electronics” is certainly an interesting approach, but quite far from what I intend to do.  For one thing, Collins is not a trombone player and uses the horn (equipped with sensors) as a controller and as resonator, since the speaker is placed above the mouthpiece and the sound travels through the instrument before exiting from the bell.  In fact, this is something that Collins exploits very well in this composition when he uses long notes and moves the slide around so that different partials are emphasized by the instrument.  Regardless, what I find most inspiring are the visuals: the trombone full of sensors that captures performance information (the placement of the slide, for instance) that is used to modulate the parameters of effects and settings.  Also, that keypad is pretty slick.

Another source of inspiration is Matthew Burtner’s Metasaxophone. 

The idea of using sensors placed on an instrument to enhance its performance is definitely what I’m looking to do.

New composition

Here’s a new musique concrète composition I’ve put together using only sounds from my previously discussed home-made instrument.  It’s not much, but you can dance to it…



My next musical project is an album of electro-acoustic music based on scenes from horror movies.  I’ve personally been marked by a series of traumatic horror scenes in my youth, and I’m sure I’m not the only one.  The idea is to create each songs using sounds made from objects found in the scene in question.  I’m hoping that tying my songs to some emotionally charged memories will help them succeed and provide some thematic unity to the whole work.  I’m open to suggestions, if you want to nominate your favourite scene.

Intuitive drawing with Alchemy

Lately, I’ve been exploring alternative drawing software. There seems to be no shortage of sketching software that seek to replicate the traditional paradigm of pen on paper. But why? Thankfully, some new sketching software is challenging that paradigm and allow us to explore all the possibilities of drawing with a computer. One software I’ve been messing around with is Alchemy.

Alchemy is a free sketching software that lies comfortably on the far side of the experimental spectrum (see demo video). Using this software, it’s very easy to create weird shapes with natural and  spontaneous motions. I view it as a discovery tool for shapes. One of the artists involved in the development of Alchemy compares it to fishing. You cast out your net and gather up all your new shapes. Since everything drawn with Alchemy can be exported as vector graphics, you can easily bring those shapes in you graphic editor of choice for further manipulation (again, that demo video is very convincing).
Here are some examples of drawings I quickly made with Alchemy (less than a minute).

I love the simplicity of some of these drawings. It reminds me of shadow puppetry or inked line-art from a comic book page. Actually, I’ve been thinking of ways to make a comic strip with art created in part using Alchemy. Overall, my impression is that it’s a resourceful software that may prove quite useful.
First, Alchemy can be used to create some intricate panel borders. That level of detail (and symmetry) would take me hours of work and would probably not feel as spontaneous.

I can also use it to create abstract background elements and textures of all sorts. Any of these shapes could become Photoshop brushes or patterns..

It’s also a fun way to quickly create some weird characters.

The major hurdle facing the adoption of Alchemy for comics is the difficulty of reproducing scenery and characters with this experimental software. Maybe I haven’t mastered its interface yet, but I have the impression that, in certain modules, repeating a given brush stroke will never quite give the same result. This makes it very difficult to tell a story, since every panel will show different places and different characters. It’s not impossible; in fact this type of panel transition is what Scott McCloud called Non-Sequitur in Understand Comics. In even my limited exposure to Manga, I’ve seen entire pages that make use of only this type of transition.
While this type of transition certainly has a place in comic books, it might prove difficult for an entire story. I think a better option would be to reuse the same drawing several times in different panels. There are at least four ways to do this.
First, I could reuse the same image by cropping close to an element of the drawing, bringing the reader’s attention to a single aspect of the drawing per panel.  Second, the entire drawing could be segmented by the panel borders. This technique is often used to great effect by Joey Comeau and Emily Horne to create A Softer World.  Third, the image could be used for a single panel comic.  Fourth, the image could be repeated to show a camera movement past an object, which is what I’ve done below.

Learning stuff online

The web is a great resource when it comes to learning stuff. Google has become my default reference library for everything from DIY projects to black holes. But as much as I like the immediacy of information that the web provides, the lack of coherent presentation and the ease with which one enquiry can lead to another is not always conducive to in-depth learning. One of my defining traits as a person is that I find everything interesting. The web’s very structure panders to my tendency to follow every thread to its next logical point. Anyone who’s spent any amount of time on Wikipedia going from one article to the next (starting with Pluto and ending with spaghetti) will know what I mean.
One strategy I’ve developed over the years to make sure my focus stays in one place long enough to learn something is to take a course.  I’ve taken a number of courses (university and otherwise) in a number of subjects and I will continue to do so.  A course brings me the structure I would otherwise lack.  Scheduled class time and assignments deadlines ensure that I will put in the work, do the reading and show up to learn…  otherwise I could easily get interested in something else (or, worse, spend my time writing poetry).  I find that the time requirements for a single course are usually manageable and allow me plenty of free time to explore other interests as they arise.
This summer I’m taking my first online course. It’s a course in electro-acoustic composition from Simon-Frasier University.  Here is the first composition I produced for this course:



It’s more of a study than a full-out creative outburst…  but I still like it.  I made used of my previously mentioned loop-making technique to create this song using only vocal sound source.
This online learning experience has been very positive so far. In fact, I’m thinking of taking more online courses in the future.
One concern I have is getting my money’s worth. The web is notorious for education scams luring suckers to spend good money on digitized copies of public domain books. Although I think I’m a rather sophisticated web reader and I wouldn’t fall for most of the scams out there, I’m sure there are sophisticated thieves devising sophisticated scams. In the words of an old friend who has since disappeared: just because you’re paranoid, it doesn’t mean that they’re not out to get you.
Another issue is finding courses.  It’s easy enough to find courses on topics that already interest me.  For instant, I was able to find the following music courses without too much trouble:
Music for the Media
Sound Design for the Electronic Musician
Sound Design
All expensive, but certainly interesting.  The web page for the second one features an endorsement apparently from the professor of my current course. 
But, what about all the stuff out there that might interest me, even though I don’t currently know that it does/might/will?  What am I missing out on?  How do I discover more online courses on topics I’m not even looking for?  Do I have to read through every university website?  Maybe.  I can also use Einztein.
Einztein (http://einztein.com/) is a directory of freely available course materials from universities worldwide.  Browsing through Einztein, I’ve created a shortlist of 27 courses that I’d like to take on subjects as varied as Astronomy (outside the solar system), Navigation, Calculus, Information, News writing, Filmmaking, Photography, contemporary arts, jazz composition, typography, ear training, screenwriting and more (including furniture making).
What materials you get vary from course to course and from university to university.  Sometimes, you get only a syllabus, a reading list and assignments.  Sometimes, you get video of every lecture.  You never know what you're going to get.  It’s like a box of chocolates.  For the mind.
The course I’m most excited about is one on Douglas Hofstadter’s Gõdel, Escher, Bach from MIT.  I can’t wait to read that wonderful book once again with the aid of someone who’s put considerably more time than I’ll ever have learning the concepts it presents.  Good times.