Reviews
[Editor’s note: Selected re-views are posted on the Web at mitpress2.mit.edu/e-journals/ Computer-Music-Journal/ Documents/reviews/index.html. In some cases, they are either un-published in the Journal itself or published in an abbreviated form in the Journal.]
Publications
Gareth Loy: Musimathics: The Mathematical Foundations of Music, Volume 2
Hardcover, 2007, ISBN-10 0-262-12285-5, ISBN-13 978-0-262-12285-6, 576 pages, 362 illustrations, fore-word by John Chowning, appendix, notes, glossary, references, index of equations and mathematical for-mulas, subject index, US$ 50/UK£ 30.95; available from The MIT Press, 55 Hayward Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142-1493, USA; telephone (+1) 617-253-5646; fax (+1) 617-258-6779; Web mitpress.mit.edu or www.musimathics.com/.
Reviewed by Mark Ballora University Park, Pennsylvania, USA
Since the advent of publications like
Computer Music Journal, writers have attempted to democratize the mysteries of digital signal processing (DSP) to musicians. It is an abstract subject, and each writer uses his or her wisdom and unique understanding of it to suggest intuitive approaches, bypassing much of the background and theory with which electrical en-gineers are more intimately familiar. Although a number of effective texts have come out in recent years, now Gareth Loy’s Musimathics, Volume
2 may take its place as one of the essential DSP texts for musicians.
Chapter 1, “Digital Signals and Sampling,” begins with an example
of tidewater levels. The simple prob-lem of measuring them leads to a discussion of continuous vs. discrete measurements, lowpass filtering, sample and hold, and slew rates. The concept of aliasing is explained with another intuitive example: observ-ing a marked spoke on a spinnobserv-ing bicycle wheel illuminated with a strobe light. From this familiar and intuitive analogy, readers are quickly treated to the level of thoroughness and precision that characterizes the book throughout as an equation is derived that relates actual and ap-parent frequencies for any sampled waveform.
A few points may alarm novice readers. Functional notation, f (x), is relied upon but not explained. At the same time, the floor function appears, but is explained only in a footnote in the back of the book. Lastly, when aliasing is introduced, it is given the synonymous term “foldover,” but the reason is not given for another six pages. The intimidation factor could have been lessened easily enough with a simple reassurance like “for reasons that will be explained presently. . . ”
Thus, the same caveat from my review of Musimathics, Volume 1 (in CMJ 31:4) applies: This is not a casual read for novices; beginners will likely benefit from guidance from someone with more experience. Still, this book is unmatched for wonderful real-world analogies that instantly put things into perspective. A few examples are included here by way of illustration:
If we think of a sample sequence as a “dehydrated” version of the original analog signal, we “rehy-drate” it to recover the original analog waveform using digital-to-analog conversion. (p. 20) Distortion, like a fun house mir-ror, disarranges the proportions of the signal being recorded. (p. 35)
After another familiar analogy of mixing apples and oranges (p. 51), Chapter 2, “Musical Signals,” introduces readers to the world of complex numbers. The unit circle, Taylor series, and Euler’s formula are introduced one by one. This series of introductions leads to circular motion, phasors, and projections. Anyone who has not had the “wow” moment of seeing a helix advancing like a propeller, with orthogonal projections creating real and imaginary functions, will experience this moment of enlightenment here. The point is further reinforced by il-lustrations of a hypothetical sine and cosine machine consisting of a motor, two arms, and a rotor, each arm tracing the motion of a phasor. These graphical illustrations are brought full circle (as it were) when they are shown to illustrate Euler’s identity. Through some asides, Mr. Loy references demodulation as a result of multiplying signals, and shows how the Hilbert transform is at the basis of envelope followers and frequency detectors. These asides are not as detailed as the rest of the text, begging the questions of whether it is worth
it to bring these topics up if they’re not to be covered as thoroughly as everything else. In the same way, linear function graphs could be better explained, though they are examined again in the next chapter.
Chapter 3, “Spectral Analysis,” explores the Fourier transform. In one of the friendliest introductions to the subject I’ve seen, Mr. Loy’s introduces an analogy of a “frequency detector” that multiplies a test signal and a probe signal. (Though at the risk of nitpicking, quadrant multiplication is used but not explained.) The analogy leads to the continuous Fourier transform and its inverse to the digital versions: the DFT, IDFT, and windowing. The FFT is presented in a brief overview as simply a more efficient version of the DFT, which is covered exhaustively.
Chapter 4, “Convolution,” applies the same level of careful, detailed explanation to the non-intuitive process of convolution. Extensive examples explain the mechanics of the process and the components of the convolution equation, assuming no prior knowledge on the reader’s part.
The next topic is filtering. Whereas other texts may devote entire chap-ters to finite impulse-response (FIR) filters, infinite impulse-response (IIR) filters, transfer functions, and the Z transform, these are all just sec-tion topics in the 67-page Chapter 5, “Filtering.” Although thorough, this concise treatment of the subject may serve some readers more than others. FIR and IIR filters are defined a few pages before the subject of how they process samples in the time domain, where the two terms are clarified by the base case example of a single impulse input signal. By the same token, the Z transform broadens the coordinate plane be-yond the unit circle. We are led to believe that this will be significant,
but it is some ten pages before we find that the transform leads to an ability to factor polynomials and find filter poles. As in Chapter 1, some indication of where these ten pages are leading might help keep readers oriented.
In Chapter 6, “Resonance,” Mr. Loy takes an advanced look at a topic covered in Volume 1, Chapter 8, “Vibrating Systems.” After defin-ing the three characteristics of vibration—displacement, velocity, and acceleration—Mr. Loy finds a common element for all of them in that they are all derivative aspects of displacement. This leads to an introduction to differential calculus and the formulation of the derivative,
dy/dx. One could quibble with Mr. Loy’s description of this notation, as he doesn’t explain that the letter
d stands for delta (), commonly
employed in mathematics texts to symbolize a change in a quantity, but abbreviated as such because in earlier times the Greek character delta was not available on typewriters. But Mr. Loy compensates for this slight oversight by explicitly explaining the sometimes speculative nature of mathematics via the concept of
ansatz, a term sure to be included in a future version of Trivial Pursuit if it hasn’t been already. Following this introduction to derivatives, first- and second-order differential equations are used to describe the behavior of oscillating objects. This chapter breaks in theme from the first five in that it does not cover a topic related to digital audio. Perhaps this topic would have been better suited for Volume 1, although Mr. Loy does rely on complex numbers, phasors, and exponential functions, topics that seem more naturally suited to this second volume.
Having armed readers with fun-damentals of calculus, Chapter 7, “The Wave Equation,” takes up
this foundational equation, going over it piece by piece. My review of Volume 1 noted that, in contrast to what is typical for musical acous-tics texts, Mr. Loy does not devote chapters to the workings of musical instruments, but rather slips them in within other contexts. This chapter provides another such context. After his exposition of the wave equation, he applies it to concrete examples. The eigenvalues, or spectrum, of a vibrating string are examined, reveal-ing why strreveal-ings are able to support all harmonics. Also covered are striking points and plucking points, and how the plucking points, striking points, size (of a piano hammer), or hardness (of a percussion mallet) determine the spectrum of a vibration string or membrane.
The workings of string and wind instruments are discussed further in Chapter 8, “Acoustical Systems,” but only after underlying theory has been examined. Ohm’s Law of electricity is adapted to describe acoustical current. The different forms of impedance are covered, such that the same equations and princi-ples may be used to describe the ratio of air pressure to volume velocity in air, the ratio of voltage to current in electricity, and the relationship of force to velocity in a string. The same nature of impedance is then applied to reeds or a musician’s lips to create sound from wind or brass instruments, respectively. The chap-ter concludes with an introduction to scattering junctions, which are the basis of upcoming discussions of linear prediction and waveguide synthesis.
Chapter 9, “Sound Synthesis,” introduces an alternative to the stan-dard unit generator flowchart (used by Max Mathews and his successors) so that time may be included as a factor. After wavetables are covered, Mr. Loy moves to amplitude, ring,
and frequency modulation. Never before have sidebands been covered with such loving attention to detail, as earlier discussions of complex math, spectra, and convolution are combined and shown to be the basis of these spectral duplications. Less effective is the following section on waveshaping. The term “reflect-ing function” is substituted for the more familiar “transfer function.” Although this is a sensible enough substitution, it puts this text at odds with others to give an alter-nate name to such a common term. The illustration of the waveshaping process is also misleading, and may cause confusion in readers learning about this area for the first time. Waveshaping is followed by vocal synthesis principles, and its imple-mentation through linear predictive coding (LPC) and waveform formant function (FOF) generation. Granu-lar synthesis is touched on with a description of basic principles but without much on its parameters, al-though Mr. Loy does refer interested readers to the authoritative texts on the subject by Curtis Roads. In an unusual move for a chapter on sound synthesis, Mr. Loy then proceeds to a discussion of room acoustics and how simulations of performance halls can be achieved with delay lines. This leads to the final section on physical modeling, beginning with the Karplus–Strong algorithm, then moving to waveguides that model plucked strings, clarinets, and bowed strings. Here is where the acoustics textbook descriptions of musical in-struments are most missed, as these background topics would have been helpful preparation for this section. As it is, some readers will not have a solid sense of what exactly is being modeled.
Chapter 10, “Dynamic Spectra,” is the culmination of everything that preceded it. Starting with the
Heisen-berg Uncertainty Principle and its relevance to spectral analysis (the tradeoff between time and frequency resolution), Mr. Loy takes us through a series of attempts to reconcile this conflict. The Short-Time Fourier Transform (STFT) is viewed through three lenses: a sequence of windowed Fourier transforms, a demodulating lowpass filter, and a bandpass filter bank; all three are shown to be differ-ent ways of describing the same thing. This is followed by a discussion of the phase vocoder, which is described as one of the more promising devel-opments currently evolving in com-puter music. The chapter concludes with a discussion of improvements and elaborations on the Fourier transform, including the wavelet transform and psychoacoustic audio encoding.
The epilogue serves as a capstone to Mr. Loy’s enlightened insights, underlining the profound beauty of being able to unite the rational and the intuitive, the fixed and the temporal, through the study of the connections between mathematics and music.
As stated earlier, all authors of musical DSP texts make their own decisions about what shortcuts to take, bypassing DSP theory in an effort to get to the material that is directly relevant to artists. Thus, different books’ approaches will resonate with different readers. Mr. Loy’s treatment reinforces many of those taken in my favorite texts (which he references), but in some areas his treatment is overly concise, and is likely to be more useful as a review of the material than an introduction to it. Mr. Loy’s two volumes are going to hold an important place in my library, and will likely be the first books I pick up when I need to review these topics. But I will hold on to the rest of my favorite DSP texts as well.
Andrew R. Brown: Computers in Music Education: Amplifying Musicality
Softcover/hardcover, 2007, 10 0415978513/0415978505, ISBN-13 9780415978507/9780415978507, US$ 36.95/100, 360 pages, 68 figures, preface, glossary, Web and print references; available from Routledge, Taylor, and Francis Group LLC, 270 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016, USA; telephone (+1) 212-216-7800; fax (+1) 212-563-2269; Web routledge-ny.com.
Reviewed by Matthew McCabe Gainesville, Florida, USA
In Computers in Music Education:
Amplifying Musicality, Andrew R. Brown explores the methods by which computers can enhance music-making and aid in the development of musical intelligence. Although Mr. Brown’s discussions primarily target elementary-through high school– level music educators, the materials presented are of great interest to me as an instructor of undergraduate university students. The wide range of computer skills possessed by incoming college students make this book apropos at the university level as well. Teachers-in-training may not have sufficient exposure to technol-ogy during their education studies to keep pace with the rapidly-advancing skill sets necessary to implement ef-fective technology-enhanced learning when they leave the academy. To this end, the text has the potential to act not only as an aid to teachers on the job, but also to students preparing for a career, or indeed, as the author notes, to parents, administrators, and seasoned professors alike.
The first section of the book, “Context,” consists of three chapters.
In Chapter 1, “Ways of Making Music with Technology,” Mr. Brown admits that although computers are “the most visible technological change with which we are currently engaged . . . the full impact of their influence is yet to be understood” (p. 3). This poignant truism funnels into another statement that will undoubtedly resonate with many readers: “The impact of technologies in turning musical ideas into musical realities depends as much on attitudes as it does on equipment” (p. 3). A tripartite view of computers (that they can act as a tool, medium, or musical instrument) lays the foundation for much of the book. This view is solidly underscored through the ideas of Marshall McLuhan and the author’s notion of “amplification”: that the nuances of musicianship can be brought into focus effectively through technology-enhanced teaching.
Chapter 2, “Philosophical Con-siderations,” continues with these themes, and adds the notion of technological invisibility to the dis-cussion. The ideas of John Dewey and McLuhan abound in the chapter, providing a way of stepping back and examining what is really being discussed. As many of us are aware, technology’s ability to hide its in-ner workings, create metaphors for physical-world objects, and obfuscate the complexity of our activities create many challenges. Mr. Brown notes that technology will also act to rede-fine musicianship, and an awareness of this is critical before attempting to tackle more specific issues like hardware and software.
Chapter 3, “Brief History of Music Technology,” bears similarity to other texts on the same subject, though Mr. Brown expands slightly by covering pre-electronic technologies such as harps, drums, and the advent of music printing (p. 32). A quick progression from these advancements all the
way up to current electronic music technology is codified by the notion of “layers of persistence”: that certain themes reappear while others remain transient (p. 37).
The second section of the book, “Production,” reflects the first third of Mr. Brown’s tripartite tool-medium-instrument model. His cov-erage of audio recording in Chapter 4 is brief in its presentation but up-to-date, with mentions of spatialization, effects, and emerging media. The discussion of the educational applica-tions of digital recording (p. 54) offers idea-generating material to teachers, and offers examples such as recorded portfolios and the use of recordings as assessment tools.
The coverage in Chapter 5 of mu-sic publishing software discusses not only the computer’s ability to provide common-practice music notation tools but also examines how instruc-tors might use these tools for learning purposes. This section also contains a valuable discussion on how to choose notation software and hardware.
Progressing further, the coverage in Chapter 6 of MIDI sequencing software presents an interesting com-parison: that the MIDI sequencer is the musical analogue of word pro-cessors. The comparison is apparent through a short history of sequencers and several select screen captures of Apple’s GarageBand software, ar-guably the most accessible software package of its type currently in exis-tence. More importantly, Mr. Brown devotes several pages to the making of music with a sequencer, touching on the realms of arranging, produc-tion, composiproduc-tion, performance, and even analysis. The author’s empha-sis that sequencers represent music “as a series of sound events” (p. 79) calls to mind the idea that students should be encouraged to go beyond the functional realm and be asked to use the sequencer for artistic means.
The chapter’s closing sentence again rings true: “There is sure to be a useful application of the sequencer in every musician’s life” (p. 79). Mr. Brown opts not to offer specificity in this realm, likely because of the abundance of available sequencing software.
The final portion of Section 2 covers deeper topics that reflect more recent advances in music technology, particularly with regard to compo-sition. The chapters on algorithmic composition and sound synthesis dis-till these areas into their constituent parts, and offer examples of both the processes involved and sub-types of each. Code samples of Max/MSP and SCHEME are included, as well as simple schematic diagrams. The breadth of the notes in these two chapters is distinctive, with a great variety of synthesis toolkits, editors, languages, and environments indexed at the close of each chapter.
The third section of the book, “Pre-sentation,” addresses the remaining two-thirds of the “tool-medium-instrument” paradigm. Chapters 9 and 10 present Synthesizer Perfor-mance and Live Electronic Music, each with a brief historical context, as viable educational media. Most importantly, Mr. Brown provides cri-teria for choosing synthesizers for such a use, noting the importance of platform flexibility. Examples of syn-thesizers in the context of composi-tion, solo performance, and ensemble performance are also discussed. The author introduces the synthesizer be-fore live electronics with good reason: It is the only device in the world of music technology that was specif-ically designed for music-making (because laptops, turntables, etc., are co-opted from other domains). Much of the discussion in these chapters includes popular music, which shows Mr. Brown’s willingness to explore variety and provide broad tools to the
teachers to whom he is speaking. That being said, experimental art music is included, particularly in Chapter 11, “Interactive Computer Music,” where an all-star list of electroacous-tic musicians exemplify composers working in the genre. The chapter covers every aspect of interactivity, including computer listening, human input, MIDI, remote control, etc.
Chapter 12 takes a slight turn and begins with coverage of computer-based presentation of musical mate-rials. Few stones are left unturned in this section, with compact informa-tion on audio data storage including MP3 and the open-source Ogg Vorbis, visualization of sound and MIDI, music fonts, and video. Music’s con-tinuing entry into the technological realm is explained through HTML, rich-media word processing and pre-sentation softare, podcasting, and the ever-present CD and DVD formats. As Mr. Brown notes, the wide array of media formats available make teach-ing and learnteach-ing with technology an “opportunity for explicit connec-tions to be made between different knowledge representations” (p. 159).
To further this point, Chapter 13 addresses “Music for Visual Nar-rative,” covering the relationship between sound and image, and some of the issues at hand when producing such materials. In film, for example, the tightly knit relationship between sound and image make this topic increasingly appropriate in music education. Mr. Brown also comments on theatre and dance, collaborative efforts among the performing arts, and the overarching issues present in each. Chapter 14 takes a deeper look into “rich media environments,” offering a glimpse into a field that is only beginning to emerge. As sound capabilities come to previously silent formats such as PDF and the Web, “there is likely to be an increasing need for musicians highly skilled in
rich media sound design and produc-tion” (p. 184).
Chapter 15, “Music distribution in the age of the Internet,” is a cor-nerstone chapter. As many musicians know, familiarity with internet tech-nologies is becoming increasingly important in the lives of student and professional musicians alike. Mr. Brown’s coverage of this topic is bal-anced and complete, and offers clear explanations of ownership, rights, and legal issues without taking sides. The differences between physical distribution and file distribution are covered, as well as the phenomena of internet radio, YouTube, and Wikis.
The fourth section of the book, “Reflection,” unifies the preceeding 15 chapters. Chapter 16, “Computers and Music Research,” offers a glimpse into current computer-based research techniques. Internet search, online data collection, cooperative projects, copyright, censorship, and the wealth of “bad information” online are all addressed well. Chapter 17, “Music and Sound Analysis,” takes the approach that computers can offer unique opportunities for theory and sound research, offering pattern recognition and statistical analysis in a fraction of the time it would have formerly taken. Mr. Brown’s example of The Rite of Spring in MIDI “piano-roll” format (p. 225) is a striking graphic, as is the spectrogram of the same piece (p. 229).
The next four chapters speak di-rectly to issues present in music education. Chapter 18 addresses mu-sicianship and aural skills training, a cornerstone of any music education program. A wide range of software is available in this realm for all ages, and Mr. Brown touches on problems and issues related to each.
Chapter 19, “Assessment,” discusses how the computer can be used “throughout the learning process to provide feedback and
support” (p. 249). This section gives teachers a look into possibilities they may not yet have tapped, including electronic submission of assignments, automated assessment, and management of information.
The look at “Administration” in Chapter 20 approaches the computer again as a tool, offering insight into the use of the computer for doc-ument preparation, presentations, multimedia, web authoring, and plan-ning. Chapter 21 addresses the task of “Setting Up a Computer Music System.” Mr. Brown’s writing here is concise and ordered: He covers choos-ing equipment, computers vs. digital music appliances, physical space is-sues, support equipment, ergonomics, and security. The issues presented in this chapter are potentially the most valuable in this section. Again, the author leaves no issue unaddressed, and even suggests in the chapter’s closing teaching tips: “Use interested students to help you keep up to date with trends in computing” (p. 285).
One of these trends is covered in Chapter 22, “Distance Learning and E-learning,” where Mr. Brown not only covers what is possible given these technologies, but also the is-sues present when implementing and using them. His stance that “most student e-learning resources should enrich face-to-face musical interac-tions” (p. 291) is well put, given the young age and largely experimental nature of such technologies.
Chapters 23 and 24 cover the in-tegration of new technologies and future directions. As Mr. Brown notes in the first pages of the book, and here restates, changing attitudes among students, staff, and teachers is the most critical element in adopting music technologies for educational purposes. These changes, as he here writes, can be an evolution from, or an addition to, methods already in place. The traditional curricular design of
“read-write-listen-perform” is chal-lenged: “The technological changes of the twentieth century severely test the validity of these divisions” (p. 300). The author here searches for a deeper purpose: to create a multi-faceted, meaningful engagement with music. His philosophical model (pre-sented on page 300) addresses both these aspects of meaning and the activity at hand: “selector,” “appre-ciator,” “explorer,” “director,” and “participant,” interacting with music on “cultural,” “social,” and “per-sonal” levels. In this way, Mr. Brown takes issue with the status quo, and, as a whole, the philosophies put forth in the closing chapters of the book ef-fectively further the ongoing dialogue about how best to structure music education curricula given current and forthcoming technologies.
Much of the information contained in Computers in Music Education may not strike the average CMJ reader as novel or exciting, but given the in-creasing presence of technology in our music programs at all levels of educa-tion, this text certainly presents itself as a solid starting point for educators to go beyond established methods. The included reflection questions, teaching tips, and suggested tasks in each chapter are purposeful and logical, and the wealth of information packed into this single book could be used to restructure almost any music area, including composition, theory, history, and existing music technology courses.
Although the opening chapters offer much rhetorical ammunition for music technology advocates, it is the philosophical models and commen-tary that make Computers in Music
Educationinvaluable. Collating such diverse material into a single volume is quite an accomplishment, partic-ularly given the breadth and depth of the material here. If there is one criticism to be made, it is that several
glaring spelling errors, most notably “electroacoutsic” (electroacoustic, p. 10) and “recoded” (recorded, p. 202), mar the surface of what is an excel-lent resource. With the rapid pace of technological change, this text will surely end up in multiple editions. Mr. Brown’s keen sense of technol-ogy’s place in our musical world and solid philosophical convictions are present throughout. Space should be made for this book on the shelves of every musician who teaches classes full of young people.
Recordings
Dexter Morrill: Music for Stanford
Compact disc, Centaur Records CRC 2732, 2006; available from Centaur Records, Inc., 136 St. Joseph Street, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70802, USA; fax (+1) 225-336-9678; World Wide Web www.centaurrecords.com/.
Reviewed by Michael Boyd Greenbelt, Maryland, USA
Dexter Morrill has been active in computer music for nearly 40 years. In the early 1970s, he established a mainframe computer music studio at Colgate University in collaboration with John Chowning and Stanford University, where he had previously studied composition. About this process, the composer writes, “[o]ur studio at Colgate was in many ways a satellite of the larger Stanford system, so I could go back and forth and work at ease” (all quotations from the composer are taken from the liner notes for the disc). Mr. Morrill’s music is significantly influenced by jazz. In the late 1950s, he studied trumpet with Dizzy Gillespie and
arranging with William Russo, and more recently authored a book on Woody Herman for Greenwood Press. These two often-discrete musical interests, computer music and jazz, cross-fertilize in Mr. Morrill’s music; he has, for example, collaborated with prominent jazz artists such as Stan Getz and Wynton Marsalis. As a researcher, he has focused on the analysis and synthesis of instrument tones. Commenting on this, the composer writes, “I became good friends with Jean-Claude Risset whose brilliant analysis work formed the basis of what I tried to do. My work in trumpet tone research and phrasing analysis were efforts to make some kind of contribution.”
As alluded to in the previous paragraph, Mr. Morrill’s computer music work has been conducted regularly at both Colgate University and Stanford’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA). Music for Stanford, the subject of this review, documents his compositional activities at Stanford between 1973 and 1995, covering a significant portion of the composer’s career. The music found on this com-pact disc is aesthetically diverse and has been written for a variety of media ranging from tape alone to tenor
saxophone with tape to soprano with radio baton, electronics, and tape.
Getz Variations(1984), the first composition on Music for Stanford, is a piece for tenor saxophone and tape that Mr. Morrill wrote for Stan Getz; this recording features the famous saxophonist in a live outdoor performance at Stanford. J. Bradford Robinson and Barry Kernfeld describe Getz at Grove Music Online as “one of the supremely melodious improvisers in modern jazz. His style was deeply rooted in the swing period. Drawing his light, vibrato-less tone and basic approach from Lester Young, he developed a highly personal manner which, in its elegance and easy virtuosity, stood apart from the aggressive bop style of the late 1940s and 50s (grovemusic.com/).” Getz’s inimitable sound and style clearly served as Mr. Morrill’s aesthetic foundation for this composition.
Commenting on this collabora-tion, the composer writes, “My main concern in 1984 was how to have computer-generated sounds fit with a fabulous Jazz improviser (Stan told me early on that if it was all notated, I should get someone else to ‘read it’). . . [I]n the Spring of 1984 I decided
to have him make short recordings of improvised ideas.” Mr. Morrill also “recorded some ‘walking bass’ lines. . . and some simple brush and cymbal sounds.” He then “gener-ated some accompaniment music at CCRMA, using John Chowning’s voice program, David Jaffe’s plucked string program, and several of Bill Schottstaedst’s programs. Finally, [he] drew small snippets of sounds from an old Woody Herman LP of Stan’s solo on Summer Sequence IV, which [he had] always felt was the greatest seven bar solo ever recorded. All of this ac-companiment material was used in the final ‘tape,’ along with some of Stan’s own improvisations. . . edited
and cut into small sections.”
The first movement of Getz
Vari-ations, Echoes, foregrounds the live saxophonist over a resonant, atmo-spheric background that is static overall but internally mobile and emulates the warm, resonant charac-teristics of Getz’s saxophone timbre. The second movement, Quartet, evokes the character of a jazz combo. In this movement, Getz performs alternately lyrical and virtuosic ma-terial, accompanied by bass, cymbal, and modified saxophone sounds. The accompaniment is initially sporadic and largely imitative of the jazz quar-tet medium, but increases in density and divergence from traditional jazz conventions as the movement pro-gresses until the end, which sounds like a distorted reflection of a jazz quartet. The Lady from Portola, the third movement, features a more traditional form and exploits Getz’s lyrical playing along with synthe-sized guitar and vocal sounds. The final movement, Windows, begins with a variety of fragmentary ma-terial: short saxophone motives, oscillating rhythmic figures, and sweeping organ-like sounds. The short sax motives, forming both part of the tape and performed live by Getz, increase in density, creating a complex polyphony, until a computer-generated organ enters which accom-panies Getz’s lyrical playing for the reminder of the composition. Com-menting on Getz’s performance of this movement, the composer writes, “[t]o this day I cannot understand how he could improvise such fabu-lous counterpoint on the first try in concert.”
The next two compositions on the disc were produced in the mid 1990s and feature unique electroacoustic instruments/interfaces. Sea Songs (1995) is a set of four short songs written for soprano Maureen Chowning, radio baton, electronics, and tape on texts about the sea by
Ezra Pound, Agha Shahid Ali, and Yvor Winters. Discussing this work, the composer writes,
Max’s Radio Baton is a fascinat-ing controller. . . I decided to have
Maureen Chowning wave the ba-tons as she sang, changing the quality of her voice, which was picked up by a vocal microphone and sent to the Digitech proces-sor. In addition, I made some accompaniment music with syn-thesizers, and pre-recorded this material so she would have some ‘stable’ music to perform with. The accompanimental sounds are generally instrument-like, for example synthesized keyboard and mallet percussion sounds, though inharmonic electronic sounds tend to prevail in the second song. Com-menting on the role of the singer as it relates to the live electronics, Mr. Morrill writes,
[t]he songs are all notated, but there is a real element of im-provisation for the singer, who must shape her own vocal sounds as she sings. The piece is much more difficult to perform than it might appear, since many of the sound processor ‘effects’ produce a strange vocal pitch and may also degrade the clarity of dic-tion, even though the melodies are conventional and quite tonal.
Salzburg Variations(1994) was created for composer and cellist Chris Chafe, who performs this composi-tion on a celletto, an electronic cello of his invention that interfaces with a computer. The composer writes that this piece “features [Chafe’s] electronic celletto, some prerecorded sounds as an accompaniment, and some EMu Morpheus sounds which were produced by MIDI controls from his celletto, using a pitch tracker.” This composition has a diverse sound
world and a feeling of spontaneity, both arising from the fact that Mr. Chafe’s performance is completely improvised and that the Morpheus unit’s output was somewhat unpre-dictable. The result is a richly varied work that ranges from dense, noisy textures to sparser, lyrical moments.
The final two compositions found on Music for Stanford date from earlier decades. Quartet (1985) is a three-movement composition for vi-olin, cello, and two-channel tape, the latter of which takes the place of the second violinist and violist in a string quartet (during performance the loud-speakers are placed to physically occupy the spaces typically filled by these instruments). Commenting on this setup, the composer writes, “[m]uch of the computer generated sound is kept to single voices—one for each speaker, and the idea was to compose a chamber work, not a large ‘sound piece,’ as is so often found in computer music.” This configu-ration indeed creates an interesting dynamic: a tension exists between the “real” string instruments and the computer-generated sound which is generally, though not always, “string-like” throughout the piece. In the first movement, In Proportions, the effect is subtle; this movement sounds as though it could be scored for a string quartet, though at times a slight tim-bral deviation is perceptible between the violin/cello and computer. Solo, the second movement, is composed of entirely computer-generated sound based on a thirteen-part division of the octave. This timbrally varied movement shifts freely between mo-ments that evoke string instrument gestures and those that diverge signif-icantly from that paradigm. The final movement, Polytime, returns to the aesthetic of the first movement where the four parts are generally charac-terized by string-like timbres, though this movement at times provides
more striking timbral and gestural divergences that recall similar mo-ments from the second movement. The disc ends with Chowning (1973), a brief, charming composition that is rhythmically active and features short, inharmonic sounds created with John Chowning’s frequency modulation algorithm.
Music for Stanford presents a striking overview of Dexter Morrill’s electroacoustic work from the past 35 years. Chowning demonstrates some of the composer’s earliest work in the electronic medium, while
Sea Songsand Salzburg Variations represent his work with unique electronic instruments (interfaces).
Getz Variationsand Quartet present interesting perspectives on the traditional jazz and string quartet genres, at times nearly aligning with convention and at other moments distorting the expected soundscape significantly. Mr. Morrill’s music is engaging and this compact disc serves as a welcome introduction to his electroacoustic work.
Agostino Di Scipio: Paysages historiques: musique
´electroacoustique 1998–2005
Compact disc, 2006, Mn ´emosyne LDC 278 11 30; available from Mn ´emosyne Musique Media, Place Andr ´e Malraux B.P. 39, 18001 Bourges Cedex, France; telephone (+33) 2-4820-4187; fax (+33) 2-4820-4551; electronic mail administration@ime-bourges.org; Web www.imeb.net/.
Reviewed by Stephen Lilly College Park, Maryland, USA
Music always bears audible traces of the composer’s relationship to society. (p. 23)
This quote, taken from a 2005 in-terview with Agostino Di Scipio (Christine Anderson, 2005, “Dynamic Networks of Sonic Interactions: An Interview with Agostino Di Scipio,”
Computer Music Journal29/3, 11–28), was made in reference to the non-neutrality of technology in artistic endeavors. It is clear from the compo-sitions and writings of Mr. Di Scipio that his outlook on this subject, re-jecting the traditionally passive view of one’s compositional environment, has been influential in the develop-ment of a characteristic style that embraces both interaction and explo-ration. This quote, however, has a particular resonance for the compact disc currently under review in that the works presented therein constitute a more overt approach to sociopolitical commentary. The six compositions on this disc challenge the roman-ticizing and commercialization of Western culture as well as the tech-nology engendered by it. This unifies the works on the disc, making it more than just a sampling of Mr. Di Scipio’s recent acousmatic compositions.
Paysages historiques: musique ´electroacoustique 1998–2005 is
the 25th volume in the Chrysop ´ee Electronique series, which show-cases works commissioned by and realized in the studios of the
Institut International de Musique Electroacoustique de Bourges (IMEB). The centerpiece of the disc is Mr. Di Scipio’s Paysages historiques, a series of four compositions each named for a significant urban center of Western civilization and culture: Rome, Paris, Berlin, and New York (both Paris.
La Robotique des Lumi `eres and
New York. Background Media Noise
were commissioned by IMEB). Mr. Di Scipio focuses on one feature of each city that has been distorted by commercial interests—specifically location, ideals, history, and the media, respectively—but as musicol-ogist Makis Solomos points out in his introductory liner notes, Mr. Di Scipio’s approach is not a “politicized music,” which directly posits an ideology. Instead, commentary is presented both referentially, through the composer’s choice of sound sources, and symbolically, by means of his compositional process. Fur-thermore, as Mr. Di Scipio himself is quick to point out in the liner notes, “these are not soundscape works, but conceptual compositions leaning on sound and timbre as the only medium to comment on the facts and events.” Although it is his intent to present more than just a new or recreated sonic environment that makes these works more than just soundscape compositions, it is Mr. Di Scipio’s emphasis on sound and timbre as opposed to the more conventional methods of pitch-based composition that has distinguished his work from many of his contemporaries: “I try to minimize any sense that the way pitches are organized is the musical structure per se. My attention is more focused on timbral, textural constructs, noise transients, etc.” (Anderson 2005, p. 20). For example, in his Audible Ecosystemic works, sound, rather than the traditional score, is the principle means of communication between performer,
environment, and digital processing (see A. Di Scipio, 2003, “Sound Is the Interface: From Interactive to Ecosystemic Signal Processing,”
Organised Sound8/3: 269–277). On Paysages historiques, the best example of the importance Mr. Di Scipio places on sound and timbre can be found in the second work on the disc, Paris. La Robotique des
Lumi `eres. The source sounds are all taken from a collection of his-torical recordings of socialist texts and songs (Anthologie sonore du
socialisme 1789–1939, published by Fr ´emeaux et Associ ´es), which includes, among others, the procla-mation of the Paris Commune, the anthem “L’Internationale,” and a song, in French, by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill. The composer subjects these recordings to a system of recur-sive processing (with the exception of
Untitled, this same system is used in the composition of all the other works on the disc). The sound materials are analyzed to generate control signals for digital signal processing (granular synthesis, automated micro-montage, and simple filtering). Thus, the sound is “not only the raw material, but also the very generator of controls driving the processing methods to which it is subjected” (liner notes). This scheme is then reapplied to the output, and the final piece is then edited together from all the various stages (after one time through the system, after two times through the system, etc.). For Paris, most of the source mate-rial is rendered unrecognizable by “innumerable automated recursive transformations” (liner notes). In the composer’s view this symbolizes the blind and uncritical application of En-lightenment ideals. The symmetrical form that Mr. Di Scipio constructs for the piece supports this, giving the impression of an automated pro-cess continuously restarting. What is most striking about Paris, however,
is that the human voice, although distorted by granular fragmentation, time stretching, and pitch shifting, can still be identified as a human voice even though the original songs and sentiments are, for the most part, unintelligible. In addition to the preservation of vocal quality, the re-duced frequency content and scratchy artifacts associated with the original recordings can also be identified. In fact, when less-processed fragments are actually heard, such as the instru-mental sounds toward the end of the piece, it is difficult to discern from which composition each has been taken or even the instrumentation, but the fidelity of the original sources is still very clear. Moreover, the vari-ability of abstraction in Paris is one of the most exciting aspects of this work: Some fragments are on the verge of being tangible words; some fragments are only vaguely human; some frag-ments are left with only traces of the recording process; and still other fragments seem wholly divorced from their sources. Structurally, this vari-ability runs contrary to the symmet-rical layout of texture and dynamics, making Paris all the more engaging.
In Berlin. Bad Sampling and New
York. Background Media Noise, the third and fourth pieces, respectively, the source sounds are more obvious (especially due to the use of recordings featuring the iconic voices of John F. Kennedy, in the former, and George W. Bush, in the latter). The social commentary of these works, how-ever, is as much technological as it is political. The processing of vocal frag-ments in Berlin is designed to emulate the unique qualities of digital audio technology, especially the behavior of dysfunctional equipment—like the skipping of a cheap CD player. Unlike
Paris, the listener can clearly discern the speakers (with emphasis on John F. Kennedy’s voice) and the occasional word (in particular, selections from
“Ich bin ein Berliner” and the word “freedom,” all taken from President Kennedy’s 1963 Berlin Wall speech). Additionally, the recording fidelity does not have the same signature as the historical recordings used in Paris, but there is a very effective illusion of the tape-hiss separating from the recording and achieving independence (both in terms of timbre and rhythmic articulation) that occurs over the first half of the piece (the piece, in fact, ends with just the tape-hiss). Once again the political commentary is more poetic than explicitly thematic. The program notes suggest that the aforementioned emphasis on the actual capture and playback of the recording is symbolic of the commer-cialization of history, specifically the Berlin Wall. In New York. Background
Media Noise, not only does one recog-nize the voices of figures like George W. Bush, but whole lines are discern-able. Accordingly, New York has the potential to project the most overt po-litical framework of all the Paysages
historiques, but Mr. Di Scipio quickly makes it apparent that the focus is not on the voices or what they are saying but rather on the media that disseminates them. The television broadcasts that constitute the source sounds are acoustically shaped by the hotel rooms within which the recordings were captured. As the processing slowly eliminates intelli-gibility, this coloration becomes the thesis. Poignantly, the composition does not overtly confront the ideas or actions of an iconic political figure, but rather, it highlights the observer, the hapless victim of inundation by media’s omnipresence.
The first work in the series, Roma.
Linsieme di Cantor, is unique in that it does not reference the cult of per-sonality to represent its urban focus. Instead, the source is the city itself as captured in a soundscape by Michael R ¨usenberg. An early version of Roma
(entitled Paesaggio scalare n. 1) was included on a 1998 Artelier Music release entitled Roma: A
Sound-scape Remix, which, along with Mr. R ¨usenberg’s original soundscape,
Roma Modulare, contained five other reworkings by artists whose styles are associated with the electronica and/or free jazz genres. Unfortunately this CD is not currently available, but a 2000 review in The Wire de-scribed Mr. R ¨usenberg’s original work as a blend of “churches, traffic and people” creating “[a]mbient music with a more directly human reality” (B. Duguid, 2000, The Wire 195). The reviewer also indicated that Mr. Di Scipio’s contribution was the most radical transformation of the orig-inal soundscape. Challenging the romantic conception of Rome, the composer strips the original recording of any distinguishing features, thus transforming the “eternal city” into the “every city.” One of the primary processing algorithms he uses to alter Mr. R ¨usenberg’s soundscape is based on the Cantor set. In mathematics, the Cantor set is produced by recur-sively erasing the middle third of a line segment (the first execution results in two line segments one-third the length of the original segment; the second execution erases the middle thirds from both of the remaining seg-ments; etc.). After an infinite number of recursions, all that remains is a frac-tal collection of line segments. Mr. Di Scipio’s implementation reduces the Roman landscape to an incessant, slowly evolving, grainy texture punc-tuated by louder and more temporally compressed gestures. As the com-poser describes it in his liner notes, the underground or background sonic shapes emerge from the “postcard” fac¸ade of Rome, and thus Roma
Mod-ulareis effectively reduced to sounds that could have been derived from any industrialized urban or suburban environment.
The final two works on the disc,
Untitled (sound synthesis, October
01)and eBss (e-Book Sound
Supple-ment), are not focused on famous
locales as are the pieces that make up Paysages historiques, but the sub-texts reveal an equal degree of social awareness. In fact, both pieces evoke a poignant awareness of technology.
Untitledis the more subtle of the two and the work that I wish to discuss in some detail.
Untitledis the only work on the disc consisting entirely of synthesized sounds. The composition is a result of Mr. Di Scipio’s innovative approach to non-standard synthesis that utilizes a system of nonlinear dynamic modeling called functional iteration synthesis, where the generation of samples is based on the behavior of a nonlinear equation evaluated recursively (the composer has written extensively on this subject; see A. Di Scipio, 2001, “Iterated Nonlinear Functions as a Sound-Generating Engine,” Leonardo 34/3: 249–254). There is nothing overtly political or ideological about this piece, but the composer politicizes it both in the liner notes and elsewhere. In the liner notes, Mr. Di Scipio places the listener in the context of the com-positional process, which took place during the first weeks of the United States’ war in Afghanistan, suggesting that these events influenced the composition. Unlike the other works on this disc, where the source ma-terial and processing are themselves symbolically linked to commentary,
Untitledexhibits a more tangential relationship. Mr. Di Scipio delivered a thought-provoking interpretation of this work in the aforementioned
Computer Music Journalinterview: [Untitled] presents the listener with abrasive sound textures that largely take on the spectral coloration of the loudspeakers
used to listen to them. In this sense, it points the listener to the nonneutrality of loudspeaker technology, turning a problem in high-fidelity engineering into an element of musical experience. (p. 22)
For those unfamiliar with the work of Agostino Di Scipio, this compact disc will serve as a great introduction to his delicate sound world and dis-tinctive approach to granular synthe-sis based on recursive processing and, in the case of Untitled, his approach to direct sound synthesis. Fans of his live electronic work (such as his Au-dible Ecosystemic project, recorded on H ¨orbare ¨Okosysteme: Live-elektronische Kompositionen 1993– 2005and released by Edition-RZ in 2005) will find his approach to acous-matic composition equally engaging and brilliantly incisive, not only be-cause of the parallels between the two repertoires but also in their contrasts. Furthermore, this attempt at socially conscious composition, with regard to each piece individually and also to the entire collection as an electroacoustic concept album, sheds new light on one of the age-old artistic issues: artistic validity vs. political acuity.
Products
DaevlMakr.Plugs Audio Software Effects
US$ 36; available from DaevlMakr Media, P.O. Box 8541, Emeryville, California 94662, USA; electronic mail v@daevlmakr.com; Web www.daevlmakr.com/.
Reviewed by Jared Dunne Denver, Colorado, USA
DaevlMakr.Plugs, by DaevlMakr Media, is a suite of audio software effects plug-ins developed in the Max/MSP environment. They are aimed mainly at audio artists who like to radically transform their sound palette. There are a total of 18 plug-ins in the suite, nine of which could be considered the main effects. The other nine effects are single-channel plug-in replicas of their bigger counterparts. The single-channel plug-ins offer a lighter CPU hit. The suite operates as VST2, AU, and RTAS plug-ins within a Windows XP and Mac OS X audio host application. Like all plug-ins developed within the Max/MSP environment, end-users will need to have the Pluggo Runtime package, version 3.6 or later, installed on their system. Pluggo Runtime is freely downloadable from the Cycling ’74 Web site (www .cycling74.com/downloads/pluggo).
To get the DaevlMakr.Plugs effects running on your system you need to download the demo package from the DaevlMakr Media Web site. Follow the onscreen instructions for installation. The demo limitation of the plug-ins is an audio drop-out and a pink noise burst every 18 seconds. Upon purchasing the software, you’ll no longer have the audio disruptions. Once you’ve made the purchase, you will receive an activation code.
Figure 1. Screenshot from DaevlMakr Triptych effects plug-in.
Navigate to the folder where you installed the plug-ins and there will be an “Activate Daevl.Plugs” program. Run this program, then copy and paste your activation code when prompted.
I won’t be covering the single-channel versions of the plug-ins, because they have, for the most part, the same functionality as the other set.
Triptych is a plug-in that of-fers three graphic multi-band filters with time-shifting and feedback (see Figure 1). The source frequencies are separated into three different chan-nels using subtractive multi-band and drawable filtering. The filter source is then fed into a delay with adjustable feedback control. The delayed signal is then time-shifted relative to the original audio signal.
Triad offers three pitch-class filters, each with selectable “Q” settings, cross-channel frequency modulation, and overdrive. The source audio is first filtered into three channels determined by pitch-class. These three different frequencies can be altered by their own “Q” set-tings. The “Q” setting determines the strength of the filter on the pitch-class-centered frequencies filtered by note. Post-“Q” frequencies can then have further frequency modulation, overdrive, and panning applied per
Figure 2. Screenshot from DaevlMakr Sixcylinder effects plug-in.
channel. The signal is then fed through an equalizer.
Cerberus feeds the source audio into three different channels and passes them onto their own net-worked delays. You can choose a percentage of the channels to be fed into the delay network. Frequency modulation distortion can be applied on each delay. After the delay and distortion, the signal can be split again and time-shifting can be applied to the second audio stream in 50/50 balance with its source. Panning per channel is also offered.
Triphase offers three phase delays in serial, parallel, or hybrid config-uration, with selectable rate shape and master phase inversion. The au-dio source is first affected by phase notches of the sine, triangle, saw, and revsaw variety. You can choose the rate at which the phase notches sweep through the spectrum. The frequency range of the sweeping phase notches can also be controlled. You are then able to determine the percentage of the phase delayed signal to feed-back into the delay. A master phase inverter caps off the signal chain.
In the words of Vlad Spears, the developer of the plug-ins, the Six-cylinder effect is “three dual-mono amplitude oscillators, in a cat’s cra-dle delay network” (see Figure 2). The source audio is fed into three
amplitude modulators. You can choose among sine, triangle, and sample-and-hold as the wave-shape that oscillates the amplitude of the source signal. The amplitude oscilla-tion frequency can also be adjusted. The signal is passed through a “wob-ble” unit which allows you to control the range of random instability in the frequency rate, which is triggered by the peaks in the source audio. The amount of “wobble” frequency can be controlled by portamento time, in milliseconds. The delay unit allows you to independently control the left and right channel delay times in milliseconds. The “detect” unit allows you to control the peak detec-tion strength which triggers random frequency “wobbles.”
Hilbertspace gives you three Hilbert-Transform ring modulators in a dual mono delay network. The source audio is sent into three independent ring modulators. You then have the option to toggle the ring modulator’s sideband. The signal is sent into stereo delays, controllable in milliseconds. In the manual, Mr. Spears further explains this effect: “[T]he signal is split after the ring modulators, with the split routed to a stereo delay. The amount of the delayed signal passed on to the next ring modulator is determined by send. The send on delay 3 routes
back up to delay 1 in a circulating network.”
Noise is an effect that replaces the source audio with pitched/filtered white noise and a variable strength envelope follower. The source audio is replaced by enveloped pitched and white noise. You have three channels of pitched noise and a single channel of white noise. On the pitched noise channels, you can control the base frequency of the pitched noise. On the white noise channel, you can choose between a high-pass and a low-pass filter, and you can set the base filter frequency for the chosen filter. All of the channels are passed through a “wobble” section that provides the range of random frequency sweeps in Hertz. The “wobble” in the pitched noise channels is created in the center frequency of the noise itself. The “wobble” in the white noise channel manifests in the cutoff frequency of the high-pass and low-pass filter. You can control the duration of the random frequency sweeps, in milliseconds, by tweaking the “porta” control. The “slide up” option allows you to control the attack lag time of the envelope follower in milliseconds. The “slide down” gives you control of the decay lag time of the envelope follower in milliseconds. Lastly, the “detect” unit triggers random frequency sweeps based on the peak detection strength.
Cubedriver is a delay-looped bit-crusher, a pitch-shifter with an en-velope follower. As explained in the reference manual, this effect “places a bit-crusher and pitch-shifter inside a stereo delay loop. When feedback rates on the delay lines are high, the audio is re-pitched and re-crushed on each new trip through the loop. An envelope follower brings the output back into shape through the re-application of the source’s envelope.” The user can control the strength of the sampling rate destruction.
The “wobble” unit in Cubedriver allows the user to control the range of random instability in the sampling rate as a percentage of the available rate. The “gens” unit creates random generators for sweeps through the instability range. The duration of ran-dom cubing sweeps can be controlled with the “porta.” The bit resolution can also be manipulated. In the delay section, the delay time and feedback can be tweaked independently for the left and right channels. The lag time for the attack and decay can be determined with the “slide up” and “slide down” controls. The “detect” determines the random triggering of cubing sweeps, based on the peak detection strength.
Threep is an effect that gives you three channels of pitch-shifters with variable strength instability in a delayed network. The source audio is fed into three pitch-shifters, where the user is able to determine the transposition amount. Control of the width of the random transposition range can be set via “range.” “Porta,” in this case, determines the duration of the pitch sweep in milliseconds and specifies the time until the next sweep. Per-channel panning is also offered. The delay unit allows the delay time to be tweaked before the pitched networked signal is rolled back to the top of the network.
The graphical user interface of all these effects is best described as simple and functional. No fancy graphics. This provides a very intu-itive and simple experience. The user can focus on sound-shaping instead of head-scratching.
The MIDI implementation of the plug-ins are outstanding. Every parameter is “visible” and can be assigned to external controllers, control change numbers, MIDI low frequency oscillators, etc. The ease of setting up these controllers depends on how your host application handles MIDI assignments.
Like the user interface, the ref-erence manual is simple and to the point. Each effect has a brief expla-nation of its function. An overview is also given so that the user has a defined understanding for each ef-fect’s signal flow. DaevlMakr goes a step further by including an ex-tremely helpful “exploration” section for each effect. Because these aren’t your average-every-day effects, these hints and tips are indispensable when trying to get the most out of each module.
If I had to make a negative point about these effects, it would that they are quite processor-intensive. This is especially evident when you start to chain the effects together. However, this is to be expected since each effect combines so many different operations. This gripe is nearly moot when you consider the fact that DaevlMakr has included single-channel versions of each effect, which significantly reduce the CPU load.
It is refreshing to see the standard delay, filter, equalizer, pitch-shifter, ring, and frequency modulator effects combined in such creative and orig-inal ways. Take Triad’s equalizer. It goes far beyond the normal five-band unit. The “detect” triggers random
gain variations for each of the five bands. “Range” controls the range of random variation around the center gain values which are triggered by the audio source’s peaks through the “detect.” “Porta” determines the duration of the random gain varia-tions. Each effect also has a mixer to control the output volume of each channel. Depending on your taste or mood, you can use the mixer to produce full-on head-wrecking effects or subtle droplets of texture. Another nice touch is the “rand” toggle that is present in each effect. This allows you to randomize every parame-ter of the plug-in, providing a nice starting point for creating your own presets.
I have not had any technical problems with the plug-ins, or issues of compatibility, but if a problem arises, support for registered users is conducted via direct electronic mail. See the Web site for details.
DaevlMakr describes its effects bundle as an “audio transmogrifica-tion suite.” Seeing that transmogri-fication means “shape-shifting,” “morphing,” and “transforma-tion,” I would say these effects are aptly named. This is a great suite of plug-ins for the audio ex-perimentalist. This is a testament to the developer and the capabili-ties of Max/MSP as a development environment.
The DaevlMakr.Plugs suite of effects are available for download and purchase from the DaevlMakr Media Web site for US$ 36, payable through credit card, bank account, or Paypal.
