There’s a feature in 4Quarters where one can access the ‘low shelf’ filter, and as it is currently set, one can isolate and amplify a narrow frequency band so that it is much louder than any other sound playing.  Check out Ed’s son going to town with it.

As a side note, having just returned from the conference, it was a stellar experience.  There’s such a wealth of knowledge and a lot of really great people, all geeking out together.  Really fun.  I was impressed with how well it all went.  Kudos to Asha Srinivasan, Ed Martin, and the rest of the crew that put it together.

Thanks for your interest in my upcoming installation at SEAMUS 2012. If you’re familiar with TouchOSC and know how to transfer files onto iTouch/iPhone, then you can download the custom layout here.  If you’re not familiar with the app, I have step-by-step instructions below.

(Unfortunately I have not yet been able to include other apps or mobile platforms reliably, but hope to expand compatibility soon.  If you want to participate but do not have an iPhone/iTouch, or if you do not wish to spend $4.99 on this app, there will be a devices on hand at the installation to use.)

2. Download TouchOSC Editor to your desktop or laptop (you can get it here for a Mac, here for PC, and here for Linux).

3. Download this custom layout, which is a zipped .touchosc file.

4. Transfer the file 4Q_SEAMUS_2012.touchosc  from your desktop/laptop to the iTouch/iPhone.  One does this by opening up the attached file in TouchOSC Editor, then transferring the file to the phone over a WiFi network (or one can use iTunes as well).  There’s documentation here explaining the process, and additionally here’s a YouTube video someone made explaining how to do it.

Once you have the file on your device, you’ll be set to go for the installation.  The first page of the file looks like this:

 I’ll help with connectivity at SEAMUS.  Let me know if you have any questions!

Of all the available OSC apps out there, I mainly use TouchOSC with Max. One of the main features I like about TouchOSC is the ability to create custom layouts and upload them easily to my phone. Unfortunately, this feature is currently only available to Apple devices, and Android users kind of get the shaft. I also like Control, but am still learning Javascript. In my experience Control has been a little bit buggy, but that could also be a result of my ineptitude.

Anyway, let me know if you have any questions. Here is the documentation for uploading TouchOSC patches over WiFi. Here is a video explaining how to do it.

And the TouchOSC Editor on this page (scroll down)

If you don’t have the CNMAT Everything package, you can get it here. We’ll make use of [osc-route] today. If you want to just grab this object instead of the library, here the mxo and help files.

The intent of this project is to create a scenario where non-musicians and musicians may use mobile phones to compose music as a collaborative group in real-time.  My specific focus is the use of OSC mobile apps and Max/MSP/Jitter to facilitate the use of mobile phones as controllers for shaping musical content. Mobile phones are compelling devices for composition for two main reasons: 1) they are small, increasingly powerful computers and 2) they are in the pockets of millions.

The first generation of portable mp3 players (including the iPod) was designed largely for isolated and passive listening. People still find ways for sharing music by sharing earbud headphones or by using docking stations, but as consumer devices they are largely geared toward simple playback. Mobile phones are now flexible and powerful enough to be used for active music making, but this practice has yet to be fully embraced. I aim to develop a second-generation use for mobile devices, geared specifically toward social rather than solitary interaction with music, and meant to promote creation instead of passive consumption.

The overall architecture of the software/hardware environment makes use of Max/MSP as the main software environment plus iPhone/Android serving as controllers, sending user input via OpenSoundControl.  The main sound source is a series of pre-recorded audio files that is then available for real-time playback, looping, and rapid file selection.  Up to four simultaneous layers of sound are possible, establishing a networked ensemble. Additional control parameters include volume, panning, and various EQ filters.  These tasks may be parsed out to multiple individuals, forming teams responsible for shaping sounds in each layer.

The next stage of design will focus on an extension of control parameters to be ready-at-hand for an embodied performance, with special attention drawn to physical gesture modeling.

As the development of the software matures and the practices of the users can be assessed, the format will hopefully adapt to accommodate greater numbers of participants, with increasingly diverse assignments or roles.  These roles may involve controlling multimedia, including but not limited to video manipulation, lighting, and multi-channel output.

Here’s a few of my music technology students working with 4Quarters. Here we were experimenting with an overall plan to move as a group from one set of sound files to the next. Synchronicity is a problem, but I think it can be worked out with practice. This is a first run with four people together.

You’ll see some other features briefly, such as panning and EQ. Here volume is controlled by accelerometer (along the Y axis). All these players are using custom layouts I designed in TouchOSC.

In order to get these files on your iPhone, you’ll need to:

1) purchase and download TouchOSC
2) download TouchOSC Editor on your computer, available here (scroll down the page to find it).
3) open the custom layout files (in 4Q_TouchOSC_Files.zip) from within TouchOSC Editor, and use the sync feature with your phone and your computer both being on the same network. Documentation here.

Android users: it looks like there’s no good way to get these files to your computer. I’m looking into developing custom layouts using Control instead. It’s free on both iPhone and Android. Stay tuned…

In 1888 Edward Bellamy wrote Looking Backward: 2000-1887, a novel with a Back-To-The-Future plot.  A young Boston gentlemen is mysteriously transported from the nineteenth to the twenty-first century.  I haven’t read it, but found Emily Thompson* quoting from it in an explanation of the demise of Victorian parlor playing.  The quote of interest, which I’ll share, is extremely prophetic, especially for 1888.  The scene involves a twentieth-century hostess and Mr. West, the protagonist.  The hostess asks whether Mr. West likes music, and then asks whether he’d like to hear some 21st-century music:

“Nothing would delight me so much as to listen to you,”[he] said. “To me!” she exclaimed, laughing. “Did you think I was going to play or sing to you?. . . Of course, we all sing nowadays as a matter of course in the training of the voice, and some learn to play instruments for their private amusement; but the professional music is so much grander and more perfect than any performance of ours, and so easily commanded when we wish to hear it, that we don’t think of calling our singing or playing music at all.” (click here to see the chapter online)

It goes on to describe how they select music from a card that Mr. West described as having the ‘largest programme of music I had ever seen,’ being ‘as various as it is long.’ This of course, evokes something like an iPod, tablet computer, or one of those silly DirecTV music menus, and is a pretty slick prediction in its own right.  But I’m way more interested in the expectation for performance.

Pretend you’re in a regular social situation in your home with friends.  In that setting, how many friends of yours, if you asked, would be willing to perform music?  It could be anything: either singing, playing the piano, the guitar, or whatever.  I’m guessing that if anything, it would make for an awkward proposition unless you happen to have a particular friend who is an artist or socially acknowledged musician.  This notion of ‘play something for us’ is fading.  In this clip from Mad Men, set in the early 1960s, Joan is pressed upon by her husband to play the accordian, and a guest says ‘it’ll be like the olden days.  We used to sit in the parlor after supper and my mother would play the piano while we read.’  So it was old school fifty years ago.

1941 RCA Victor Model V-215 Electrola - 'Magic Brain' ... not all that different from iTunes 'Genius'

Way back in the Victorian era, it was expected from anyone in the bourgeois or the middle class should be able to play the piano or to sing.  It was a coercive expectation for females in particular (think about any Jane Austen novel: if someone is playing the piano, it’s most often a female.  We can also see that coercion vividly in the Mad Men clip). According to Thompson, the rise of the professional had an influence on the diminishing status of the amateur musician.  In the latter half of the 19th century, there was a steady rise of professional music organizations.  Also, virtuosos like Liszt, Paganini, and others made for spectacular if not frightening entertainment.  But keep in mind that amateur musicianship most often occurred in private, in the home.  The reason for the demise of parlor musicianship is not because of travelling virtuosos, or even the Feminist movement.  It is mostly a result of the record player becoming a domestic necessity.  Why take the time to play the piano after dinner when Rachmaninov can be heard playing it that much better?

At the time of Bellamy’s writing, Edison’s phonograph had already been around 10 years.  But its use wasn’t entirely determined, and the focus for technological advancement centered around fidelity, as in faithfulness to the sound source.  At first Edison thought it could be used in a business setting, kind of like a security camera or a way of keeping the minutes of a meeting, envisioned to stimulate morality and efficiency.  Eventually phonographic music caught on in the 1890s by being used as a jukebox, and the devices proliferated in hotel lobbies and saloons across the U.S.  Says Thompson:

As the phonograph took on the role of a purveyor of music rather than simply a transmitter of words, standards moved beyond audibility and intelligibility. “Quality of tone” was the new criterion, and advertisements began increasingly to point to “the sweet tone for which the Edison is famous.” In 1896 the Edison phonograph was first offered for sale to the public, and as early as 1900 it was recognized as “a familiar object in our modern home life.”34 The phonograph was not just situated in modern home life; it played a role in defining that modernity, by being put to use in ways that distinctly changed the prevailing culture of music in the home.

Bellamy then must have been noticing the progress of these recordings, and have envisioned a time when all music was done professionally.  In so many ways he’s spot on — a lot of people find pleasure in learning to play an instrument, even if it’s for private enjoyment, but most music that most people here is created professionally (or is it?).  Of course, Bellamy couldn’t have predicted the democratization of recording tools and the means to publish online, nor could he have foreseen the resurgence of the amateur with such things as YouTube, mashups, or pirated editing software.  The thing I like is that Bellamy foresaw the passive musical listening experience, and the sharing of music through choosing from a menu.  For better or for worse, for most people that’s really how it is these days.

In my previous post I talk about the emerging role of sound-giver, a type of musician who doesn’t need to be proficient at any ‘musical’ instrument in order to take part in the joys of sharing music and demonstrating taste.  In the imagined scenario of asking a friend to play music in your home, I’d bet that you’d feel more confident asking friends for recommendations of songs to play, and chances are someone will have something to share.  Assuming a reliable Internet connection, being able to hear it probably won’t be an obstacle either.  The new expectation is that there is proficiency with the computer, iTunes, or the mobile device.  It’s a bonus if someone wants to whip out a guitar and do things old school.

1916 Victrola Ad in Saturday Evening Post

So the new parlor music is the playlist, and to be honest, I see many parallels from the Victorian era (and the early 20th century for that matter) with the present.  Most of the time in social settings, particularly in the home, music is not intended to grab all the attention, but to fill the space, set a mood, and allow something else to happen.  Or is it?  How do you listen to music in the home?  Is it social or private?  Is it played while working out, while cooking, or do you give music your whole attention?

*Emily Thompson, “Machines Music, and the Quest for Fidelity: Marketing the Edison Phonograph in America, 1877-1925,” The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 79, No. 1 (Spring 1995), pp. 131-171.