In a follow up issue published last year, they published a letter to the editor that Bob wrote in response to my review. He objected to some of my review methods and offered some factual corrections.

As academics often do, I wrote a response to the response in an effort to continue the dialogue about the following questions: What role does criticism play in electronic and computer music? What expectations should we as practitioners place upon such criticism? What is the right balance between objectivity and subjectivity?

If you are not an ICMA member, you can read my original review at this link to the post on my blog. Bob’s letter will require a login to the ICMA website to get the PDF of the 2009-2010 issue. My response to the response is available at the Array Blog or at the direct link below.

If you travel over there and have an opinion on the matter, please comment! I think this is an important discussion on the role of criticism and I would love to hear more voices on the matter.

• Nathan Wolek’s response to Bob Gluck – Array Blog

Array

EXCERPT – In Altered Realities, Erdem Helvacioglu has found a balance between guitar and real-time processing that results in a cohesive disc with moments of true beauty. The titles of the tracks are visually suggestive and offer vaguely poetic extensions of the disc’s title. Names such as “Sliding on a Glacier” and “Shadow of my Dovetail” betray nothing of the musical mood, the programmatic intent or the creative inspiration. They are almost interchangeable on a disc that has no lyrics or program notes, but maybe this betrays Helvacioglu’s aesthetic intent to create a compact disc that plays like an extended composition as each track flows effortlessly into the next. Because the disc works so well as a unified whole that unfolds its macroform over the course of 53 minutes, it makes little sense to isolate the tracks from each other and talk about them as individual compositions. So instead my review will focus on the connective elements that Helvacioglu uses throughout the disc: his method and materials.

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EXCERPT – Bob Gluck’s new compact disc Electric Brew features an eclectic mix of influences. The backbone of the disc is formed by four original compositions that were inspired by and use motifs from famous jazz compositions by Miles Davis and his collaborators, namely Joe Zawinul and Dave Holland. In addition, Gluck offers up two additional interludes that he describes as “collages” formed by editing together several live performances of his original compositions. Gluck mixes these jazz references with his eShofar, a twenty-first century take on an instrument typically used in Jewish religious ceremonies, and Stravinsky’s infamous Rite of Spring. Unfortunately, these varied influences often yield muddled results.

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ABSTRACT – Granular processing is a computer music technique that manipulates “grains” of sound to produce a variety of effects. Grains are produced by multiplying short segments of digital audio, typically lasting between 10 and 50 milliseconds, with an amplitude envelope of equivalent length. Software designed to produce granular processing effects often requires the user to manage multiple parameters that lack a clear connection to the audio output. A better understanding of how listeners perceive the processing output should yield insights into how the user interface could be simplified.

A series of three experiments was designed to investigate how listeners perceive differences between granular processing examples. Stimuli were produced using specific program settings to process two distinct sound sources. In each experiment, at least twenty participants were asked to rate the similarity of each possible pair of stimuli including identity pairs that existed among these stimuli. The author then used multidimensional scaling (MDS) to develop a graphical representation of the perceptual organization exhibited by participants.

Differences between stimuli included the processed sound source and settings for the grain duration and grain period parameters. Visual analysis of the MDS solution showed that participants clearly distinguished between the two sound sources. Processing descriptors based primarily on the review of literature were tested for correlation to the MDS dimensions. This analysis revealed the significance of three processing features: (1) a base-2 logarithmic scaling for differences in grain duration, (2) the minimum and maximum boundaries for randomized grain durations, and (3) the mean value and total deviation for randomized grain periods.

Between-subject variables relating to experience with electroacoustic music were also examined. However, the results of this secondary inquiry were deemed inconclusive overall based on the relationship between participants’ responses to pre-experiment questions and a priori operational definitions.

The findings were used to inform the design of a new graphical user interface (GUI) for granular processing. The resulting GUI helped to verify this study’s conclusions by successfully demonstrating their practical application to software development. The GUI features unique controls for managing randomization and a feedback display for monitoring differences between the control input and audio output.

EXCERPT - The third and final day of concerts for the SCI Region IV conference started after a paper session with an afternoon concert featuring several works for interactive electronics and various forms of new media.

Overall, the pieces and performances of this final conference day were well worth the trip many made to be present.  They showed the great variety of musical styles being explored by SCI’s members and reaffirmed the organization’s commitment to ensuring the performance of contemporary music by outstanding musicians at its annual conferences.

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ABSTRACT - Since the generation of granular textures was first automated using a computer (Roads 1978), granular synthesis has grown to become a popular tool for creating new sounds in electro-acoustic music. Many effects can be achieved through the granulation of sampled sound including time compression (Jones and Parks 1988) and expansion (Truax 1990) independent of pitch alterations. Such effects can be created using Cycling74’s Max/MSP software, allowing them to be utilized in real-time. However, the software does not include sufficient externals to meet the efficiency and flexibility needs for creating such effects. This paper details a collection of externals and abstractions for Max/MSP that the author has created with the aim of meeting these needs.

• Download PDF file – 132 kb