Nodal @ HandsFree 3 @ Guildford Lane Gallery

Dear Students

I’m performing some improvsed computer music on Wednesday night using Nodal. There will be some interesting and talented people playing – it would be nice to see you if you can make it.

Peter Mcilwain

Hands Free III – 17/03/2010

Hands Free is a night about software doing things. Musicians and programmers come together in duets between instrumentalists and pieces of software, along with other experiments in autonomy.

This month we have works by Peter McIlwain, Mark Pederson, and Isambard Khroustaliov, who will be delivering a live system from the UK, and performances by Brigid Burke, Adrian Sherriff and Melike Ulgezer.

Works

Mark Pederson: Invisible Territory, generative music work (with performance by Adrian Sherriff)

Peter McIlwain: live performance using Nodal

Isambard Khroustaliov: Axiom, generative music work (with performance by Brigid Burke)

Mark Pederson: Fragments of Sainthood, generative music work (with performance by Melike Ulgezer)

Ollie Bown, Ross Bencina, Brigid Burke, Adrian Sherriff: Double Prosthetic Duo, improvisation.

Details

Date: 17th March 2010.

Location: Guildford Lane Gallery, Guildford Lane, Melbourne 3000.

Time: doors 6pm, music 7 – 9pm.

Entry: free / donations.

Sonic Art (Nodallic Trousers) – Vince, Timothy, Shannon

I’ve been busy with other things this weekend, and as such haven’t had a chance to post about this little remix that you all heard at the workshop on Thursday.

A brief look:

After serious technical issues, we started again. The plan was to work with the same basic form that was recorded by Saska and I along with the nodal material early on in the semester, but to have the nodal material enter fugally. This material was transformed with pitch and humanising and such.

We then layered further material – trombone, piano chords, bass, synth stuff, in a way that seemed to have structure. This was modified with pitch correction, reverb and a few other bits and peices that I don’t remember.

As the texture thickens we wanted to thin it out and then build it up to a final crescendo, which uses the piano arpeggiations that were recorded, which is pitch shifted with delay to create a downward harmonic progression despite the increase in volume.

Over all this works well, but more time would have allowed better creation of depth as it is currently a bit flat.

I think the other two from the group should add their piece to this write up, too.

The file is in the shared files thingy on Box.net.

About the naming convention: you think of something better.

-VG

Sonic Art Remix

http://www.box.net/shared/50vim4g8sc

Simple enough concept.

focused entirely on the audio content. Bass plays a looped ostinato throughout, piano makes sweeping, panoramic quasi-granular gestures while the various aspects of the drum kit change from organic performance to loops. Trombone provides some foreground however nothing particularly melodic – I would probably like to put a voice over the top to hold it together.

Favourite part would be when the signal picked up by the overhead mics start looping out of phase — big fun.

Overall quite chilled and subtle, hopefully not too monotonous.

Tom.

Sonic Art 15-05-09

Another quick remix. I have uploaded it to box.net, in the usual folder. 2009-05-25_etcetc is the file.

What I was going for this week, more than last week, was more of an atmosphere. Lots of reverb and delays. I changed the tempo down to 64bpm, which posed only one problem – but it was a major one. What do I then do with all this recorded material at 80bpm? Solution? Cut it into small enough chunks and it doesn’t matter what the tempo is. Just throw it in willy nilly. A little prominent is the trombone with all manner of effects. Tim will probably kill me. I think it sounds much prettier now (hardehardehaa, just kidding Tim).

All the bass and drums are actually nodal tracks, amazingly enough. It starts and ends with the timing track triggering autobeat-thing. I’ve forgotten it’s actual name. A looping pitched down section of one of the piano chords is constantly under everything, from a bit way in. Its got lots of effects going on, was only going for the atmosphere.

I was trying to super boost a section of the piano chords that didn’t have any piano playing, just to get the noise of the room and grain of the recording, but all I got was people talking…

Enjoy, or don’t. I’m not a fan, and it’s incredibly static for the whole thing. Needs lots more mixing, lots less monotony.

Saska