topologies/surfaces/oblique angles/installed parameters
for 2-channel computer-generated tape
Michael Hamman
NEUMA 450-92
Neuma Records
71 Maple Street
Acton, MA 01729
USA
PROGRAM NOTE
topologies/surfaces/oblique angles/installed parameters
represents an experiment in integrating sound synthesis practice
with algorithmic composition. Ordinarily, in conveying
messages, we make use of codes. Communication can occur
when encoded messages are decoded. When the context for
communication focuses on the primacy of a message's content,
the coding processes which transform it into something
meaningful are invisible: the message - as a conveyer of
meaning - obtains privileged status.
Occasionally, however, a message can be framed such that it
turns toward and concerns the code itself.
topologies/surfaces/oblique angles/installed parameters
attempts to explicitly analyze algorithms commonly used to
encode desired messages within the cultural framework of
digital sound synthesis. Resonators, filters, reverberation
algorithms and physical model components are dismembered
and reassembled according to composed logics which only
obliquely reference the utility normally assigned to them by
sound synthesis practice. Meanwhile, other aspects of digital
computation - previously discarded as disruptive factors in the
communication of synthesized meaning - can function within
the range of an algorithm's output.
Sound computation and composition was performed with a PC-
based signal processing system developed by the composer.
Final editing, mixing, and recording were accomplished using a
MicroTechnology desktop audio system on a 486 PC.
Here is a short exerpt. It is an .mp3 file, so you will need WinAmp, or some other .mp3 player. Click HERE (Size=284,684 Bytes) and the file will download and begin playing on your MP3 player.
Alternatively, if you have
Audioactive Player installed on your system, you can listen
to the .mp3 file streamed (you won't have to wait for the file
to download). Click here to begin streaming
the example.
DISCLAIMER: Note that this is a one-channel file with artifacts introduced during sample-rate
conversion and conversion to MPEG.
NOTE: BE SURE TO TELL THE
BROWSER TO "OPEN" THE FILE, RATHER THAN "SAVE"; OTHERWISE, IT WILL SAVE THE .MP3 FILE TO YOUR HARD DISK AND NOT PLAY IT.