Oct 3rd, 2008
by pemungkah.
I wasn’t able to catch the concert live, but my laptop recorded it for me with Audio Hijack Pro - quite good for this kind of thing, by the way.
Listening later, this was quite an interesting DS. The choice to go for more long-form pieces led to stuff that was considerably more complex; you just need more ideas for longer pieces, which makes them much more interesting. There was also more room for soloists to stretch out and develop their ideas.
The inclusion of 3(!) P3 sequencers led to the jams dropping into a groove much more quickly than in previous years - this meant that both there was less noisescaping and that there were improvs that actually had an arc of development, making them much more satisfying.
Highlights: Tim Walters did some serious rocking out on the recorder. All of the guitarists were stellar. Way more percussion and percussion-driven pieces this year.
THe attendees are working hard to get a CD/DVD (not sure which yet - depends on how much music ends up at what the piece leader decides is releasable).
Posted in: concerts, review.
Sep 14th, 2008
by pemungkah.
Just got the first mails from folks at this year’s Different Skies. There are a lot of new faces this year; should be a very interesting year. Allen Goodman will be broadcasting on StillStream this week; I’m looking forward to hearing what comes out of the group this year.
I decided not to go this year; I’m hoping to take a real vacation for the first time in a long time soon, and taking an extra week of vacation is what I need to do this time around. I’m sure I’ll be returning, probably next year.
Posted in: concerts.
Jul 31st, 2008
by pemungkah.
So the site will look a little funny for a while, and links mey be broken. Teach ME not to log in every day and update WP the instant a new release is out.
Posted in: administrative.
May 2nd, 2008
by pemungkah.
I happened across Ken Restivo’s blog the other day (lots of good "math funk" there in Ogg Vorbis format), and was interested to note that he’s doing almost everything - recording, synthesis, mixdown, the works - on LInux, using free software.
Having listened to the stuff he’s got there and liking it quite a lot, I started investigating what I could get or get running on OS X to best take advantage of my now-aging iBook G4.
- Most of these use Jack to output audio, so JackOSX is a requirement. I’ve installed it from a pre-built package.
- Hydrogen, a very nice drum machine, is available via MacPorts. Outputs via Jack. Does not build properly. Grrr.
- He uses the specimen sampler, which doesn’t have an OS X port, so I’ll have to try porting that myself. Outputs via Jack.
- Ardour, which comes in a prebuilt OS X version, for audio recording. I’m trying the new native version of this. Seems fine.
- Rosegarden, for MIDI sequencing (should be buildable via MacPorts, but not sure if this is a native app or X11).
- Lilypond, for engraving
- There are several more tools he mentions: fluidsynth, PHASEX, nekostring, AMS, Jack Rack, SooperLooper, WhySynth (interesting because of its mention of the ESQ-1 as an influence) and Helix, all of which I need to investigate in more detail.
- I’ve put links to all this in my del.icio.us, and will keep updating those as I go along.
What I hope to do is put together a reference list of "useful free music software that will run under OS X". This is all part of my plan to hit Different Skies 2008 with my laptop, a USB controller keyboard, and the necessary gewgaws to connect me to the board (the FIREBOX; a teeny-tiny mixer to allow me to pull myself out of the mix for cueing, and to swap in the headphone output to the board if the FIREBOX cacks on me; and the necessary cables & c.). My aim is something that will fit completely into my carryon luggage so I can just walk in, set up, and be ready to go.
Posted in: software.
Feb 15th, 2008
by pemungkah.
In "Every User Lies" at the excellent Coding Horror blog, Jeff Atwood refers in passing to the concept of the "active user" - the person who immediately runs the software without looking at the manual at all.
In my trying out of various softsynths (most notably the WayOutWare TimewARP 2600 and the GForce Oddity and impOSCar), I’ve found myself doing that - firing up Garageband, and opening the plugin in a track, then just fiddling with the presets. By this point I know quite well that doing this with an analog synth with a screenful of knobs and sliders is counterproductive, but I caught myself doing it anyway.
So I decided that if I was going to have any kind of a meaningful interaction with the plugins, I was going to have to work through the manuals and see what there was to learn, whether I decided to buy them or not - and to avoid wasting money on something that didn’t fit my headspace (and earspace). Continue reading →
Posted in: essays, gear, software.
Feb 14th, 2008
by pemungkah.
From the Krakatoa entry on Wikipedia: "Biologically, the ‘Krakatau problem’ refers to the question of whether the islands were completely sterilized by the 1883 eruption or whether some life survived. When the first researchers reached the islands in May 1884, the only living thing they found was a spider in a crevice on the south side of Rakata."
Posted in: inspirations.
Jan 25th, 2008
by pemungkah.
I’ve added a new Wordpress plugin that will let me inline a player with MP3 links. Here’s a sample of a noise piece I made a while back using Thonk: Joe McMahon - An Ocean of Liquid Helium - click on the little speaker icon following the link to play the track.
Posted in: administrative, listening.
Jan 24th, 2008
by pemungkah.
I’ve started going through the various subpages in the site, cleaning them up to look better (all fixed text is so retro), and fixing lots of broken links. First up is the MIDI spec pages; I’ll be converting them over the next few weeks to look much better than they do now.
Posted in: administrative.
Jan 19th, 2008
by pemungkah.
Quite some time back, I found a scanned copy of the ARP 2600 User’s manual. I’ve always had a soft spot for the 2600, though I could never quite afford one; it’s always seemed like a great balance as far as analog synths go.In a recent fit of “my disk is too full”, I unzipped the file of scans and started reading. It’s really a very good introduction to the machine and how it works; I’ve actually started feeling like if I had one in front of me, that I’d be able to use it effectively. Continue reading →
Posted in: gear, resources, software, speculation.
Nov 5th, 2007
by pemungkah.
A quick overview of Pure Data, ChucK, Supercollider, Csound, and several other synthesis languages/tools I haven’t heard of before. Looks like it would repay some link-mining. [Edited 01/08 ... I forgot the link!]
Posted in: resources, software.