EMUSIC-L Digest Volume 39, Issue 04 This issue's topics: Announcements and miscellany 93 Symposium Call CCM Graduate Program Greek Computer Music Conference Hopeless improvisation pulsar TNR Newsletter - A Public Announcement Your EMUSIC-L Digest moderator is Joe McMahon . You may subscribe to EMUSIC-L by sending mail to listserv@american.edu with the line "SUB EMUSIC-L your name" as the text. The EMUSIC-L archive is a service of SunSite (sunsite.unc.edu) at the University of North Carolina. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Thu, 23 Apr 1992 11:41:44 EDT From: NBZAH@CONNCOLL.BITNET Subject: 93 Symposium Call CALL FOR COMPOSITIONS AND PAPERS The Connecticut College Center for Arts and Technology, in conjunction with the departments of Music, Studio Art, Art History, Dance, Theater, English, Mathematics/Computer Science, Physics, Physical Education, Psychology, and Linguistics is pleased to announce the fourth symposium on The Arts and Technology, 4-6 March 1993. The Symposium will consist of paper sessions, panel discussions, an art exhibition, and concerts of music, mixed media works, video, dance and experimental theatre. Selected papers will be published by Connecticut College Press as Proceedings and will be available at the symposium. Papers: A detailed two page abstract including audio-visual requirements should be sent to the address below no later than 15 September 1992. Approved abstracts will be notified by 15 November 1992. Finished papers must be submitted in camera-ready form by 15 January, 1993. The Symposium encourages research presentations and demonstrations in all areas of the arts and technology but is particularly interested in receiving papers concerned with Interactivity, Virtual Reality, Cognition and the Arts, Applications in Video and Film, Experimental Theater, The Compositional Process and the Speculative Use of Technology in Education. Other topics should include but are not limited to , acoustics, artificial intelligence, psycho-acoustics, vision and imaging. Compositions: Works for instruments and tape or tape alone are being solicited at this time. Available instruments are: flute (doubling on piccolo), oboe, clarinet (doubling on bass clarinet), bassoon, trumpet, horn, trombone, percussion (two players), piano, and strings (2,1,1,1). Works should not exceed 15 minutes in length and should be submitted with accompanying score, where appropriate, before 15 September 1992. We are especially interested in receiving a number of interactive performance compositions and video works. Dance compositions are also encouraged, as are, experimental theatre works using "new technology." Tapes for selection purposes should be on cassette, or 1/2 inch VHS. Tapes for performance should be 15 i.p.s. stereo or quadrophonic, or DAT. Video works should be 3/4 inch Umatic or 1/2 inch VHS. A self addressed, preposted envelope should be included for the return of materials within the U.S.A. Foreign materials will be returned at our expense. Send all materials, before 15 September 1992 to: Dr. Noel Zahler, Co-director Center for Arts and Technology Box 5632 Connecticut College 270 Mohegan Avenue New London, Connecticut 06320-4196 Internet: nbzah@mvax.cc.conncoll.edu BITNET: nbzah@conncoll ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 1 Apr 1992 10:51:57 -0800 From: CCM Community account Subject: CCM Graduate Program The Mills College Center for Contemporary Music (CCM) offers programs in composition, electronic and computer music systems, and recording engineering to undergraduate women and graduate co-educational students. In the context of an experimental music composition program, the CCM provides hands-on training in computer music languages, software synthesis, multitrack recording and synchronization, MIDI instrumentation and control, and digital audio technologies. The Electronic Music emphasis is a track in the undergraduate Music major program at Mills, with courses also available to the student body at-large. Graduate level courses are offered as part of the MFA in Electronic Music and Recording Media degree, as well as to students pursuing the MA in composition. These are generally two-year programs. Applicants are still being accepted for the Fall 1992 semester. For more information contact the Office of Graduate Study at (510)430-3309, the Admissions Office at (510)430-2135, the CCM at (510)430-2191, or CCM director Chris Brown through email (cbmus@mills.edu). ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 22 Apr 1992 22:07:18 PDT From: Conrad_Geiger@NEXT.COM Subject: Greek Computer Music Conference For those planning their international travel this summer... conrad Just a final reminder for people wishing to participate in the Delphi conference this July: The Center for Contemporary Music Research (CCMR) of Greece and the European Cultural Center of Delphi announce A COMPUTER MUSIC FESTIVAL/CONFERENCE and a CALL FOR PAPERS Festival information -- Location: Delphi, Greece Dates: July 1st - July 6th 1992 Guest composers and researchers: Ianis Xenakis, Paul Lansky, Roger Reynolds, Tristan Murail, Jean-Baptiste Barriere, Brad Garton, Perry Cook, Chris Chafe and the UPIC research team. The festival/conference will take place at the European Cultural Center of Delphi located near the ancient Temple of Apollo. Papers and presentations will be given at the facilities of the Center during the morning and afternoon hours. Each evening a concert featuring works by the guest composers and their computer music centers (Columbia, IRCAM, Princeton, CCRMA-Stanford, UCSD, CCMR) will be presented at the ancient stadium of Delphi. ------------------- Call for papers: 15-20 papers will be accepted for presentation at the conference. For all people presenting papers accommodations and board will be provided free of charge by the European Cultural Center of Delphi at the facilities of the Center. Papers covering most aspects of contemporary computer music production and research will be considered. Please send a one page abstract to: Thanassis Rikakis 703 Dodge Music Department Columbia University New York, NY, 10027 Deadline: April 23 1992 All participants will be notified by May 1st 1992 For more information write to the above address or to the following e-mail addresses: kysme@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu than@woof.music.columbia.edu ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 21 Apr 1992 12:33:14 EDT From: "Joseph D. McMahon" Subject: Hopeless improvisation nick@dcs.edinburgh.ac.uk writes: > ... I've never improvised live before; it could be interesting. > Needless to say, all the current instruments on the market (except > perhaps the JD-800 and its ilk) are hopeless as improvisational > tools... I think I've finally gotten my finger on *why* timbral improvisationalists find current synths useless - it's a right-brain/left-brain phenomonon. The user interfaces of most (nearly all) current synths are designed by digital engineers, who think in terms of easy-to-digitize and easy-to-implement interfaces from a production point of view. This leads to the "a-few-buttons- and-a-slider" interface to the timbral guts of the machine. This leads to a single interface being required to perform many different functions; some are a wide sweep, while others are a narow band, but both have a representation as exactly the same, according to the interface. Worse, the interfaces are *modal*; the "I'm-sorry-you-can't-do-that-here-BEEP" type interface which is very frustrating to someone who wants to just DO what- ever operation, not remember where to go and then do it. If you are editing the envelope, you can't simultaneously tweak the LFO modulation level and waveform. Adding insult to injury, some are even *hierarchical*, requiring a shift from "messing with the sound" to "messing with the machine" and back again. Traversing hierarchies, comparing numbers, and reading displays are all heavy left-brain activities. For me at least, sound design is an intuitive and experimental, wordless activity: very right-brain. It is certainly possible to shift back and forth between the two modes, but it is difficult to do quickly. In general, synth user interfaces force this upon you. Conversely, a CV machine used pots and patch cords because *they* were easy to implement with the technology. Ask me where the modulation knob was on a MicroMoog, and I can tell you it was on the top row (of two), and was on the left of the oscillator frequency knob. But I don't remember what it was labelled, or whether the wording was above or below the knob. It was operable by "muscle-memory". You didn't read all of the labels and say, "Well, here's the modulators sub-panel, and then here is the filter cutoff control." You just reached and got it. *That* is the strength of a lotsa-knobs interface, the ability to change any parameter at any time without having to switch from right-brain to left-brain mode. It lends itself to associative memory, rather than "lookup" memory. Digital synths encourage the creation of sounds by programming and pre-planning, and are capable of excellent results. However, it is more difficult for a typical digital synth to create a useful patch from scratch without detailed checking of all the parameters. A lotsa-knobs interface allows the basic parameters of a patch to be checked at a glance (if you know your synth well). This is the kind of interface to the timbres that an improvisationalist needs to be able to continue to improvise music and sounds at the same time. The increasing of the "bandwidth" of the front panel decreases the amount of brain "processing power" that needs to be devoted to the decoding of the user interface. --- Joe M. ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 8 Apr 1992 14:00:00 CST From: "JOHN S. CONRADER" Subject: pulsar Hi, I saw a post not too long ago about someone looking for info or albums from a group called Pulsar. I dont remember if it was on this list or not, but I got a list of CDs availible from ranjit@genesis.synopsys.com and it included two from Pulsar [Holloween, and Pollen]. Just send a email to ranjit to get the listing. Hope this helps. -John :) CONRADERJ@h8700a.boeing.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 30 Apr 1992 12:47:00 N From: "OUT, OUT - YOU'LL NOT FEEL THE FALL-OUT..." Subject: TNR Newsletter - A Public Announcement TNR Newsletter - A Public Announcement DISCLAIMER: this is NOT a commercial advertisement; also, we apologise to all those who already subscribe to the newsletter and who may get multiple postings through different lists. ***************************************************************** Keywords: * Newsletter * FREE Subscription * Independent Labels * Reviews * Mail Order * Send Your Music! :) TNR - The Noisy Room is an independent label based in Italy. We issue a newsletter every three months, and an experimental "issue 0" was released in March. In June the first "real" issue will be available, and we offer you a FREE subscription. The newsletter is typeset and distributed EXCLUSIVELY via ordinary mail, NOT e-mail. We deal with independent acts, and issue 1 is made of 12 pages of reviews, info, ongoing projects, etc. The newsletter is issued in two versions: the I version (in Italian) for the domestic audience, and the E version (in English) for the rest of the world. Thanks to issue 0, we have received a lot of most interesting material from everywhere, and we were honestly surprised by the warm response of people. The upcoming number was literally made by those artists who sent in their material for review, distribution or attention. Heartfelt thanks! We would like to stress that you can get our newsletter FREE since we would like to reach as many people as we can - of course we will send you our catalog along with it, but you WON'T have to spend a dime if you don't want to... there's no trick! So, how do you subscribe? You can do this through e-mail. Send your requests to one of the following addresses: OLIVOTTO@ITNCISCA (Bitnet) olivotto@itnvax.cineca.it (Internet) Of course, you can also send your request through ordinary mail (address at the end of this message), but e-mail is faster and easier to handle. REMEMBER TO LIST YOUR FULL SNAIL-MAIL ADDRESS! You will be added to our mailing list at once and receive the newsletter until you decide to unsubscribe. Also, if you are an independent musician, or know independent acts who may be interested in sending their material for review, distribution, help contacting ventures in Italy/Europe, we'll be happy to help. The more subscribers, the more lively the newsletter will be, of course: and we would like you to know that in the next issue you will read reviews of NINE acts (7 USA, 1 ITALY, 1 BELGIUM) who got in touch with us through our very first attempt - "issue 0". And, also, some of the reviewed material is available through our own mail order service, so don't miss this chance. The TNR newsletter is already available in several public libraries (music section) in the States and covers several subjects: from reviews (styles: ALL, from electronic to country, passing through dance and progressive) to discussions about the "indie label way of life". You will also find out addresses to contact the acts we review. Last but not least, you will be constantly updated about TNR's own productions. And all this doesn't cost a single cent... So be sure not to miss it!!! OUR ADDRESS IS: ATTN: Marco Olivotto TNR 16, Via dell'Abetone 38068 - ROVERETO (TN) ITALY ---> FAX: (+39)464-421433 Thanks a lot! P.S.: Spread the voice and forward this message!!! ----------------------------------------------------------------- Reserved to those who want to send their music: We only accept COPYRIGHTED material, for obvious reasons. All supports are welcome. TNR claims that no commercial use of the music will be made, and copyright laws won't be infringed. We don't have any prejudice towards any musical style, though we reserve the right not to review offending or immoral material. In any case, international copyright laws apply. ------------------------------ End of the EMUSIC-L Digest ******************************