Hello list,
Thanks to Olaf Matthes' objects Shout*~ , I have done a PD patch which allows three different groups of musicians to play together on the Internet at the same time from different locations. Besides streaming in and out, the patch records the bands on a tempo and re-synchronizes the incoming streams. Delays take part in the musical composition: the idea is that even if the 3 streams are not played-back like in real conditions, the music that comes out still makes sense as it is synchronized. Another feature of the patch gives the possibility to hold incoming streams during <n> bars, the way they can be played-back at a precise moment in the playing. This allows the three groups of musician to play with a structure (and different notes).
A demonstration will involve musician David Kristian from Montreal, and the band VoodooMuzak split in two halves: bass and drums 1 in London and bariton and drums 2 in Biarritz (France). In London the gig will take place on the Sunday 6 and Tuesday 8 July at Common Wealth Conference Center in Kensington High Street during the London College of Music and Media end of year showcase. You are welcome to come. It is a free entrance. The three different compositions will also be broadcasted for Internet audience.
Delays due to CPU performance, connexion speed and network congestion have never been considered as creative tools in previous attempts but rather as drawbacks of today technology. The main purpose of the project is precisely to give those technical features a particular artistic role within the musical composition process. Computers become a medium rather than a tool. Having said that, I still have to defend the artistic concept behind it:
- I have so far been told that it was more a technical project (looking
at PD) than an artistic one. That reminded me some discussion few weeks ago that triggered different thoughts about PD from the list' s users.
- Also, I have been told that the interest of such a project could only
be profitable for musicians not for listeners. I have planed to set up an installation for the showcase which allows users to listen -from a location of their choice to 3 different streams coming as well from locations of their choice. This will be a simulation which will hopefully help people to find a proper interest in that system of playing /listening music.
I would really like to know what do you think about it. If you think this is more a technical project rather than a artistic one, in either case I would very much like to know your argument.
Thanks a lot.
Alex PS: more info there: http://www.idoia.com/tvu/VMN.pdf