Message

Florian Grote and Andreas Otto from the German Pingipung label have been working at STEIM to develop a software instrument which is solely controlled by the sound of a cello. The tool, constructed in Pure Data, 'listens' to what the cellist plays and converts the rich amount of timbral and dynamic information to control data utilizing methods of pitch detection, volume-, and time-analysis. In this manner a duet of the mechanical and the digital instrument is evolving, capable of a variety of expressions; generating sounds that reach from a bleepy unisono voice to ambient pads and stumbling feedback-cascades. The digital instrument turns the cellist into a listener as well, thus human and computer logic as musical means control one another.

Working with Pure Data as an upcoming open source utility, the lecture of the two musicians will be discussing the programming methods transparently, including a multichannel live demonstration. The target of the project is to use the instrument for different kinds of compositions and to make it available to other musicians, on practically all instruments, on all platforms.