Archive for the ‘Teaching music technology’ Category

Teaching @ Kingston University, London

October 9, 2006

Well, today was my first experience of teaching at a University (or any school for that matter!). I gave a presentation to the Digital Media MA students about Electronic Music Interfaces. This included demonstrations of ReBirth, Reason, Ableton Live, Reaktor, Bidule and Metasynth, along with a talk about the histories of Korg and Roland. It was a small group but they seemed enthusiastic and enjoyed playing with the software.
Let’s hope there’ll be many more like this in the future.

How should we create electronic music?

October 1, 2004

I’m no mathematician and don’t understand the principles behind many of the weird and wonderful programs like Metasynth, Supercollider, Soundhack etc. I simply gather the sounds that please me and the rhythms that excite me and try to throw them together. If I understood all of these mathematical principles, do you think I’d create interesting tracks? Maybe yes. I wouldn’t say my tracks now are brilliant by any means but they are what I want to make and listen to at the time they are made.

I liken my noise & music making to some kind of painting. I usually throw a large amount of ‘paint’ on the ‘canvas’ and watch while a great deal of it falls onto the floor. I then spread what remains on the canvas so that certain colours come through and others are obscured. Sometimes, points of light poke through. Sometimes the canvas is naked with blocks of black slammed down hither and thither (is ‘thither’ a real word?).

There are many canvasses lying in the dust on the ‘studio’ floor. One day I’ll blow off the dust and put them back onto the easel to see if I can rescue anything. Maybe the paint will still be wet in places. I suppose I could chip away at the paint and break a few bits off. Maybe I could leave empty patches or add a bit of new paint. Perhaps blend a new colour.

But then perhaps, one day, the brushes will be unusable, stiff or broken. In which case, I shall use my fingers and hands.

By the way, I don’t like using spray paint.


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