August practices… good work Nick.
in September nobody practices?
best
s
On 8/31/06, Nick Collins <nc272_at_cam.ac.uk> wrote:
>
> Dear all,
> I thought I'd make a quick report after practising live coding
> (with SuperCollider) every day for the month of August. The code archive
> is
> here and I've also rendered a few mp3s just to give some idea of how it
> sounded (there is a lot more material to convert here, but at least you
> can
> hear a few moments):
>
> http://swiki.hfbk-hamburg.de:8888/MusicTechnology/815
>
> Main discoveries (initial thoughts, I haven't looked back through the
> sessions extensively at this point):
>
> 1) It's very tiring, particularly after a day of computer based work. It's
> not relaxing/alternative stimulation, and for that I miss piano/violin
> practice, which I forsook while I've been doing this.
>
> 2) Quality varies very much, often correlated to what time of day I might
> have been doing the session, but also based on the theme I choose for the
> day. One week I challenged myself to explore the 3x+1 problem, and the
> negotiations with the algorithmic theme probably became more refined as
> the
> week went on, though still varying in their musical effectiveness because
> of the further issue of psychological mapping etc. I found myself choosing
> between musical output and mathematical thinking. (perhaps there is a way
> to have one person map while another explores the maths?)
>
> 3) If I chose a tough theme, there would be a break at the start of the
> set
> while I tried to get some basic functions coded- sometimes 5 minutes
> before
> any sound! All the sessions were from scratch live coding, so either a
> forgiving connoisseur audience, a duet partner, or cover material for the
> early stages would help in dramatic presentation.
>
> 4) However, I could often reach a critical point of complexity and
> breadth
> of material where unexpected and interesting results would flow, and there
> were enough voices to play with to maintain a musical exploration
> simultaneous to the algorithmic exploration. The Aug 4th session is a good
> demo of this happier state.
>
> 5) I got better at it, by introducing various shortcuts, by having certain
> synthesis and algo comp tricks in the fingers ready for episodes, and just
> by sheer repetition. I did try to use jitlib a few times, perhaps
> successfully on one occasion, though the habits of jitlib actually
> interfered with my standard non-jitlib habits, so I'd need a month on
> jitlib alone to cover that properly. I was happier without it (sorry
> Julian, though I did use Tdef every day!) just in the way that you get
> used
> to your own way of working, even though it might not be the best general
> approach.
>
> Ok, enough from me, getting this out of my system. Now it's someone else's
> turn for September? I'd be curious to hear other people's impressions
> after
> they try this sort of exercise, feel free to email me off list, or post
> for
> everyone on list.
>
> best
> N
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Received on Tue Sep 05 2006 - 16:13:53 BST