more awesome sound-making stuff from cameras ..

[Peter Korsten]

Martin Naef schreef:

> I think you're missing an extremely important point: Expressivity. What 
> you describe is how music is written on a sheet of paper. Play it 
> exactly as written, and it will be soulless (anybody else here collected 
> general midi files at some point in their life?)

Well, yes, granted. I was thinking more specifically about putting 
little cubes on top of a display and turning them around. Or video 
capture; I mean, I saw that over 15 years ago and not much has changed 
since then, except that you can run it on your own PC instead of 
requiring a full-height 19" rack.

> So one very important part of the interpretation of these notes, pauses 
> and sound effects is the performance. Traditional instruments are 
> extremely expressive because of the nuances and the very intimate 
> control that is possible. Electronic instruments, however, are still 
> essentially stuck with the keyboard+slider input metaphor that works for 
> some sounds, but doesn't cover a very wide range. Until we find new 
> interfaces, electronic instruments will never be more than a piano with 
> a strange sound.

You're going to have this problem anyway with electronic instruments, 
except when there's a direct physical connection between what your hands 
(or feet, or whatever) do and the sound that is produced. So you don't 
have the problem with a theremin, but you do have it when the movement 
of your hands has to be interpreted first, before a sound is produced.

The reason, I suspect, that the keyboard interface was chosen, is that 
it comes directly from organs, and whatever lies in between. It's a 
proven interface. It also gives you lots of polyphony and you can't play 
an off-key note.

> Mind you, I'm not easily excited by yet another noise source (the 
> example shown is rather boring in my opinion), but unless we experiment 
> in all different directions, electronic instruments will never mature.

Well, personally, I would like to narrow it down to 'all *sensible* 
different directions'. A lot of the stuff I see here has a high gadget 
value, but very little in terms of musicality.

Especially those cubes do *nothing* for expression. They just sit there. 
You can't put emotion into a performance (for want of a better word) by 
turning them in a particular manner.

I'm all in favour of finding new ways to improve a performance, to be 
able to do with a synthesiser what you can do with a violin or a flute. 
But expression should be taken as a starting point, not how cool it 
looks or that it uses hardware X or that it only costs $50.

Multi-touch: good idea, but what use is it if you can't give expression 
by pressing a bit harder, or wiggle your fingers? You just need a very 
large, pressure-sensitive, multi-touch capable ribbon controller. Then 
at least you can put expression in.

- Peter