we are headed for a quantum shift in music control and composition very soon

i was gonna complain about how the new Jimmy Fallon show sucks ass, but browsing a few blogs (drunk of course) i have come to the realization that in the next 5 years music composition and performance will change on a drastic scale. yeah laugh at the drunk guy, but looking at things like Shiftables, the midi apps for the iPhone and iPod, and AudioCubes, it's easy to see the rapid miniaturization and affordability of touchscreens and accelerometers is going to revolutionize the digital music industry in a way not seen before. here are some examples of what i see headed our way:

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/457

i know things like Tenori-On and AudioCubes aren't anything new, but think about how we relate to things like midi controllers, and our children, or the next generation of music producers will look back at mouse control as a baby step on the way to true musical expression.

people use new interfaces to do exactly the same shit, story at 11

i want a touchscreen that lets me touch in three dimensions

motorola makes some crazy field-effect sensor chips that might work...

I want to make the same-old sounding 303 acid music that's been played out for 20 years, but do it with glowing cubes.

this is still style over substance, no different than when Jarre was doing his lazer harp in front of millions of people in the late 70s. I try not to get excited about these interfaces after i hear what type of music is coming out the other end, hehe

but i generally agree that other things in audio technology are going to cause a huge shift (physical modelling technology, being able to sample individual notes from polyphonic material ie Melodyne direct note access, Audioease speakerphone) not necessarily physical controllers.

Perhaps, but I still think its going to be the same in a way too. Composition is in many cases an art of emulation. Maybe in some ways these new controller technologies will assist more interesting compositions, but I think for the most part people will still be emulating existing styles of music, at least for a long time.

ages before i was born, my dad was contracted to build a "light organ" for kids. i've only seen photos and heard stories, but apparently you stuck your arms into holes to get this or that note, and what you did with your arm made it warble around. this was also in the 70s.

the difference between the 70s and now is raw computational power and the availabilty of software like Max/MSP. You can do what Jarre was doing with off the shelf shit for cheap if you're dedicated + smart enough. i'm sure that, back then, he had to drop significant bucks on it (presuming it was not faked). significant, as in, "could have bought a midrange ferarri instead." now you can do it for the price of a used Ford.

this doesn't mean that people are doing anything better with it, though. just that it's easier. :laughing:

touch screens are nothing new and have been used on DAW's for years, eventually we'll be waving hands around like Tom Cruise in Minority Report.

methinx we should be looking at better alternatives to MIDI rather than how fancy the interface is

Elektrons Monomachine is a leading example of the direction things should be going

and for the record Jarre's laserharp was more an extravagant stage prop until around 1990 when working ones kept fucking up on him

lol no

tb-303's and other vintage synthesizers continue to go up in price, this is a sign of people looking for the most recent and innovative interfaces for music making.

  Glass Plate said:

tb-303's and other vintage synthesizers continue to go up in price, this is a sign of people looking for the most recent and innovative interfaces for music making.

or a sign of the £ & $ going to shit

who makes good modular music with 4 people controlling just 10 objects anyway? unless they add more complexity it's just gonna be a very expensive way to play with presets... it would be cool if there was a way to arrange some blocks and group the arrangement inside one block, and then keep playing and building it up... or a reactable lego set... and a kid to play with it who doesn't want to make ambient kraftwerk music.

uhh thinking about this does make me want to buy a touchscreen just for patching things though.

  hahathhat said:

i want a touchscreen that lets me touch in three dimensions

 

motorola makes some crazy field-effect sensor chips that might work...

lots of people doing crazy wiimote hax for much cheaper

  Awepittance said:

this is still style over substance, no different than when Jarre was doing his lazer harp in front of millions of people in the late 70s. I try not to get excited about these interfaces after i hear what type of music is coming out the other end, hehe

 

but i generally agree that other things in audio technology are going to cause a huge shift (physical modelling technology, being able to sample individual notes from polyphonic material ie Melodyne direct note access, Audioease speakerphone) not necessarily physical controllers.

i have to agree here

i think artists should really be more concerned with the music they end up making with said devices rather than how cool they will look using one on stage

having that said i really want a (timbaland edition if i had the money) miko

simply because it could feasibly replace my laptop and both my midi-controllers + add tablet capabilities... thusly making it both easier to create music and easier to perform it.

i have to say seeing bjork with graham massey on the reactable was pretty fucking cool

that thing is sturdy; at the end of declare independence, he looked like he was slamming those blocks down pretty hard.

  soundwave said:

I had a feeling this would make it's way into this thread.

  Awepittance said:

but i generally agree that other things in audio technology are going to cause a huge shift (physical modelling technology, being able to sample individual notes from polyphonic material ie Melodyne direct note access, Audioease speakerphone) not necessarily physical controllers.

Indeed, a lot of those interfaces aren't new technology. It's people getting better at technologies that exist for a long time. I think experimental interfaces are great but new discoveries in audio technology is what's gonna change the music world.

I think all those interfaces are interesting, but it takes an interface that can be learned like an instrument (and people wishing to master it) that will show fruits for the labor and make it transcend being a flashy novelty. Computers keep getting smaller and more portable. As long as people can express ideas on the fly, that's really what it's all about more than any kind of smoke and mirrors interface.

Xenakis UPIC for the win btw.

(now Haswell & Hecker use it, fun stuff)

  kaini said:

i have to say seeing bjork with graham massey on the reactable was pretty fucking cool

that thing is sturdy; at the end of declare independence, he looked like he was slamming those blocks down pretty hard.

when i saw them it seemed a little bit more of 'hey look at what expensive gear we got' than the reactable having any interaction with the songs layers at all. but it was neat to see it in person.

  Glass Plate said:

Xenakis UPIC for the win btw.

 

(now Haswell & Hecker use it, fun stuff)

do you even know how it works??

(i don't either)

hehe not as bad as when Dr penison came into a thread and said 'all electronic music has already been done, stockhausen invented everything' <--- lol

there's a difference between "done" and "conceptualized." i'd say penison used one when he meant the other