We were honored to be interviewed alongside BT by Justin Colletti of SonicScoop! Together we discuss the origins of Tails, reverb as a compositional tool, medieval music, BT’s original concept for the plugin, and how he uses it creatively. Toward the end of the video we also drop a few surprises related to future projects.
Special thanks to Plugin Alliance for making this happen!
I spent much of 2020 working on what would eventually become Silo. The project was an attempt to design a single instrument capable of creating the type of complex soundscapes used by composers such as Curtis Roads and Horacio Vaggione. While no simple effect will ever be capable of the meticulous design of such works, Silo’s unique focus on per-grain control of spatial position and reverb amount does seem to get closer to the heart of this musical style, and has now become a popular tool for many modern sound designers. It was a pleasure working with the graphic designer Daniel Glaser, who created the interface and visual concept.
Under the name “Echobit,” Brian Hansen and I have been performing immersive VJ sets and audio-visual experiments using the Oculus Rift. We apply audio feature extraction and MIR techniques in order to create rich, interactive visuals. Users are able to explore visual worlds while they react to musical material in real time. The visuals are also projected on the wall so that all audience members can all take part in the experience.
I believe it’s the first application of Virtual Reality technology as applied to VJing and music visualization in general.
It is built in OpenFrameworks using a custom system for generating audio-reactive geometry and GLSL shaders.
Last Saturday we showed Drip at the 2012 Soundwalk outdoor music festval in Long Beach, CA. The audience seemed to really engage with it and we heard lots of great feedback. In the past we’ve only installed it outside, so this was a pretty strange experience. A puddle quickly gathered on the floor and looked quite dangerous with all the power cables running everywhere, so a few people were too scared to go near it! Most just came right up and started playing though. This is one of the videos that was taken- unfortunately whoever shot it didn’t realize that the piece is a collaboration with Muhammad Hafiz so his name wasn’t included in the credits.
Here are a couple photos from the show:
A collection of recent cinematic compositions:
1. Tribute to Edward Artemyev
This composition is a study on the work of Eduard Artemyev, the Soviet composer who scored Andrei Tarkovsky’s film “Stalker.” I’m specifically trying to copy the mood of the film’s post-intermission opening sequence, for which Artemyev created a great mix of eastern and western musical identities. The video is a montage of scenes from the movie in chronological order (Tarkovsky’s cinematography never ceases to amaze me…)
2. Futuristic Mechanical Pop
[audio:http://www.amusesmile.com/Music/algodub4.mp3|titles=Industrial Getaway]3. Atmospheric Piano
[audio:http://amusesmile.com/old/sound/Geiringer.mp3|titles=Geiringer Hall]I created this piece in collaboration with the new media artist Muhammad Hafiz Wan Rosli this spring. It was featured in the UCSB Media Art and Technology Program’s “Bits and Pieces” Exhibition back in May and we’ll also be showing it on September 1st at the Soundwalk Festival in Longbeach.
This is a technical description from the Soundwalk proposal:
“Drip is an interactive sound sculpture consisting of 16 tuned metal bars hung from a 3” by 3” by 5” high (freestanding) iron frame. Attached to the frame above each bar are solenoid water valves that can be triggered by an Arduino microcontroller. As the valves are opened and closed, drops of water pass through them falling onto each of the sixteen bars. The resulting sound is acoustically amplified through attached piezoelectric microphones. This action of falling water produces rhythms and melodies which are sequenced in real time and which can be altered by the audience’s interaction via light sensors embedded in the piece. Since all sound is generated acoustically, viewers can also interact with the piece by directly tapping the bars or plucking the nylon wire that suspends them in the air. The resulting soundscape is something like a surrealist version of rain falling on a tin roof or a collection of gongs being struck in chaotic mathematical patterns.”
Music