Symbolic Sound KISS2012

"KISS2012: real time, reel time, sound and Kyma

Sound designers to converge on St Cloud Minnesota for over 24 hours of lecture/demonstrations, 9 hours of hands-on workshops, and 3 nights of live music, cinema and improvisation

CHAMPAIGN, ILLINOIS, June 26 - The fourth annual Kyma International Sound Symposium (KISS2012) - to take place September 13-16 at St Cloud State University School of the Arts in St Cloud, Minnesota - will include over 24 hours of technical sessions presented by Kyma experts, 9 hours of hands-on labs, and evenings filled with live music and live cinema showcasing some of the most outstanding work created in Kyma this year.

Since the inaugural symposium in Barcelona in 2009, KISS attendees around the world have benefited from the extensive technical training, aesthetic inspiration, and opportunities for collaboration that KISS is known to deliver. This year, more than 100 sound designers, composers, performers, filmmakers, game designers, authors, audio engineers, educators, and students are expected to participate in KISS2012.

"The dual nature of this year's theme - reel time || real time - has attracted an incredibly diverse group of people! It's just a great learning opportunity for everyone involved." - Scott Miller, professor of music composition at St Cloud State University School of the Arts and host of this year's KISS.

Throughout the four-day event, sound designers will be able to explore the latest innovations, features, and capabilities of the Kyma Sound Design Language and learn how to optimize their work flow so they can create amazing new sounds for film, games, music and more. Kyma practitioners are invited to bring their own Sounds to the labs where they can work with Kyma developers and fellow Kyma practitioners to enhance their results.

"One of our passions is to partner with Kyma users to help bring their creations to life. There is no better way to maximize your Kyma skills and discover new collaborative opportunities than by participating in the Kyma International Sound Symposium." - Carla Scaletti, president of Symbolic Sound Corporation, co-host of KISS2012.

If you are obsessed with sound - whether a novice seeking to kickstart your career, an expert looking to take your mastery to the next level, or someone who's simply curious about sound design and Kyma - KISS2012 is your chance to immerse yourself in sound and ideas for four intense and inspiring days and nights.
The deadline for discounted registration is August 10, 2012: http://bit.ly/J7URvC


[Photo Credit: Adam Studer]

Keynote speakers, expert presenters, and topics

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Symbolic Sound Releases Kyma X.82

Update: some pics & video added

"KYMA X.82: A SYNTHESIS ENGINE FOR ALTERNATIVE CONTROLLERS & INTERACTIVE SOUND DESIGN
New software features twenty-one new keyboard-controllable morphing synthesis algorithms, support for 14-bit MIDI controllers, polyphonic aftertouch, & publication of the Kyma OSC protocol for third-party developers

Champaign, Illinois - November 21, 2011 - The culmination of two years of research and development, Kyma X.82, a new software update for the Kyma X/Pacarana sound synthesis engine, is specifically designed to take advantage of the expressive capabilities and extended control offered by today's new crop of alternative controllers and cutting edge musical interface designs.

The recent explosion of interest in new musical interfaces and alternative controllers for sound design and music has created a need for sound synthesis and processing engines that can take full advantage of the increased bandwidths, higher resolution, lower latencies, continuous pitch and velocity values, and subtle expressive capabilities of these new controllers. Symbolic Sound has a long history of support for alternative and extended controllers in Kyma X, and Symbolic Sound's newest release, Kyma X.82, introduces several additional features to support these innovative musical interfaces and alternative controllers.

Features in Kyma X.82 include over 20 new morphing sound synthesis algorithms, support for 14-bit MIDI controllers, and the publication of Kyma's OSC protocol to support and inspire future developments of new instruments and controllers that can exploit Kyma's responsive, high-resolution sound synthesis and processing algorithms in a seamless, plug-and-play manner.

Whether you are a sound designer performing expressive creature voices to picture, an electronic musician performing live on stage with alternative controllers, or a composer using physical controllers to create dense multi-layered textures of sound in the studio, you will be able to take advantage of Kyma X.82's ease of parameter-mapping, low latency, high-resolution parameters, and legendary sound quality. Additional features of the new release include enhanced multichannel panning and effects, higher quality spectral analysis, and a 40% speedup in the software executing on the host computer.

Sound and Video Examples

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Tesla Coil Music - "Risky Business: A Tribute to Nikola Tesla"

YouTube Uploaded by marksmartus2 on Sep 27, 2011

"'Risky Business: A Tribute to Nikola Tesla' for electroacoustic music, Tesla coils, and live Continuum performance. Performed as the last piece of the University of Illinois New Music Ensemble (http://www.glennweb.net/somsite/ensembles.php#newmusic) Concert at Krannert Center for the Performing Arts (http://www.krannertcenter.com/) on September 26, 2009. Continuum and tesla coil parts composed by Mark Smart (http://www.marksmart.net/). Electroacoustic music parts composed by Scott Wyatt (http://ems.music.uiuc.edu/people/wyatt/), director of the University of Illinois Experimental Music Studios (http://ems.music.uiuc.edu/). Tesla coils built by Steve Ward, Jeff Larson, and Terry "Dr. Zeus" Blake (http://www.mastersoflightning.com/). Tesla coil synthesizer control system designed by Steve Ward and Mark Smart. Mark Smart performs on the Continuum Fingerboard designed by Lippold Haken (http://www.hakenaudio.com/Continuum/). The piece was the recipient of a University of Illinois College of Fine and Applied Arts 2008 Creative Research Award."

Richard Lainhart - Bellingham Electronic Arts Festival Lecture & Performance

Slideshow of Richard Lainhart's lecture at the Bellingham Electronic Arts Festival (BEAF), Friday, May 6, 2:PM PST, 2011 (mentioned in this post). Below is a video of the Buchla and Haken Continuum portion of the lecture followed by a performance of Olivier Messiaen's Oraison written for the ondes Martenot at the 48:00 mark (see this post for the original version and this post for another performance by Richard). You will notice Richard makes references to earlier parts of the lecture. These included his training on the CEMS modular synthesizer system and the ondes Martenot (don't miss this post and this post on the CEMS). See the labels at the bottom of this post for more info on each. I will upload those videos at a later date. They were background to Richard's experience with early modular synthesizers and controllers that eventually lead him to the Buchla and Haken Continuum. It was a great lecture and I hope you enjoy it. Be sure to bookmark this one. I also want to thank Richard Lainhart for doing lectures like these. They are a rare treat.


YouTube Uploaded by matrixsynth on May 19, 2011

The following is a full transcript. BTW, if anyone is interested in transcription services, let me know.

"RICHARD LAINHART: BUCHLA AND HAKEN CONTINUUM LECTURE

Speaker: Richard Lainhart
Lecture Date: May 6, 2011
Lecture Time: 2:00 p.m. PST
Location: Western Washington University
Event: Bellingham Electronic Arts Festival 2011 (BEAF)
Length: Digital AVI recording; 57 minutes 32 seconds

[Beginning of recorded material]

Richard Lainhart: Okay. What I want to do now is actually talk a little bit about the system itself here and about the design of the system and explain what's actually happening here and why it's designed this way, and again, my focus on, on expression. So this is, as I mentioned, this is the Buchla 200E. This is a current electronic music instrument that is still being made now by Buchla. Don Buchla again was a contemporary, or is a contemporary of Bob Moog, and he took a very different path than Moog did. And one of the reasons I think that Moog's instruments became so popular, of course the Mini Moog was like the first real break-out electronic music synthesizer, was that Moog's instruments had keyboards on them. They had black and white keyboards. And you could use them to play, you could use them to play rock and roll with them basically because you could plug them into a really loud amplifier and it could be louder than a guitar. And it could be a bass, you know, it could be louder than a bass and all that sort of stuff. And of course a lot of, you know, a lot of wonderful music was made with that instrument.

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Haken Continuum Meets Tesla - Risky Business, Moog, The Cars Let's Go

Tesla Coil Music - Island at the Center of the World - Part II: The Strangers

YouTube via marksmartus2 | January 22, 2011 | 0 likes, 0 dislikes

"Recorded live in Urbana, Illinois on March 7, 2008. This outdoor concert was part of a student-run open house for the College of Engineering at the University of Illinois. Tesla coils were used to create musical pitches via a control system designed by university student Steve Ward. Two coils were used. The right coil is playing a prerecorded Midi track, acting as the bass, and the left one is performed live as a lead sound via the Continuum fingerboard. In spite of the frigid temperatures (4 degrees Fahrenheit, 26 mph winds), the concert was well attended and was voted the most popular event of the open house.

This is the second part of a prog-rock piece by Mark Smart about the history of Easter Island."

Tesla Coil Music - "Risky Business: A Tribute to Nikola Tesla"

marksmartus2 | August 10, 2009 |

"This piece was composed by Scott Wyatt and Mark Smart and was performed during the SEAMUS (Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States) conference at Sweetwater Sound in Fort Wayne, Indiana on April 18, 2009."

Tesla Coil Music - "Let's Go" by The Cars

marksmartus2 | May 02, 2009 |

"This tune was was played as an encore to "Risky Business: A Tribute to Nikola Tesla" (also on YouTube) at the 2009 SEAMUS conference at Sweetwater Sound in Fort Wayne, Indiana on April 18, 2009. Credits: Tesla coil parts arranged by Mark Smart; coils built by Steve Ward, Jeff Larson, and Terry Blake; control system designed by Steve Ward and Mark Smart. The video was made by jenaber27; I just added some of the original Cars track to balance the sound."

Rudolf Haken "Quinquagenarium" - Continuum Fingerboard, Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra

YouTube via DidelphisVirginiana — March 09, 2010 — "Quinquagenarium for orchestra and Haken Continuum Fingerboard, composed by Rudolf Haken for the 50th anniversary of the Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra, Feb 19th 2010, Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, University of Illinois. Conductor Steven Larsen. Haken Continuum sound setup and performance by Mark Smart. Continuum invented by Lippold Haken. Harpist Shirley Blankenship. Audio Engineer Jon Schoenoff. Director of Cinematography Kristen Johns. Video editing and design by Rudolf Haken. Videographers: Dave Cohen, Kevin Coulton, Lippold Haken, Megan Johns. Thanks to Armgard Haken for the name "Quinquagenarium". Program notes and sheet music at http://www.rudolfhaken.com
Haken Continuum site: http://www.hakenaudio.com
Mark Smart site: http://www.marksmart.net
Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra site: http://www.cusymphony.org
Kristen Johns video site: http://www.youtube.com/champaignunder...
Krannert Center site: http://www.krannertcenter.com/
The Champaign-Urbana Symphony is in residence at the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts, University of Illinois."

Roland TB-303 Owned by DJ Mickey "Mixin" Oliver

via this auction

"This machine was owned by legendary DJ Mickey "Mixin" Oliver. He was the first to use this machine in electronic music by making acid tracks. He is also known as one of the creators of House Music. Chicago recently named a street after him for his contributions to Dance music. The London Observer named him one of the ten most influential DJs of all time."

It's not clear if the seller means this specific 303 was owned by DJ Mickey "Mixin" Oliver or he just owned one in general.

Update: according to Wikipedia, the first to use the 303 in house: "The first acid house records were produced in Chicago, Illinois. Phuture, a group founded by Nathan "DJ Pierre" Jones, Earl "Spanky" Smith Jr., and Herbert "Herb J" Jackson, is credited with having been the first to use the TB-303 in the house music context (the instrument appeared as early as 1983 in disco via Alexander Robotnick)."

Sal Mar Performances

YouTubes via ZanterM

"I took this video in April of 2004 at "New Directions in the Study of Musical Improvsation: An Interdisciplinary and Intercultural Conference" hosted by the UIUC Musicology division. It features David Rosenboom, dean CAL Arts [Music School], playing the SAL MAR for the first time in 20 years ; the culmination of the efforts to revive this amazing instrument! Viva la Sal! Viva la SAL MAR! MZ"


picture of David Rosenboom with the Sal-Mar Construction as restored by engineer Greg Danner, University of Illinois, April, 2004. via AudioLemon.

You can find additional posts featuring the Sal-Mar here.

Wolfram Tones

I missed putting a post up on this when I first saw it as I thought it was just a site to make ringtones. Turns out you can do that and a lot more.

"WolframTones works by taking simple programs from Wolfram's computational universe, and using music theory and Mathematica algorithms to render them as music. Each program in effect defines a virtual world, with its own special story--and WolframTones captures it as a musical composition."

via Doktor Future:

"I've used Mathematica for about 15 years now and have even used it as a synthesizer ala csound and even metasynth. It has functions built in for convolution, FFT's, and all sorts of stuff. Want an oscillator? just make a matrix with SIN's. It plays audio too. It can also be used to read and write MIDI! Not too shabby for a 'math' package :)

Here's a list of some of the 'notebooks' you can download to do this sort of stuff: link

(the list is interesting, but you need Mathematica to do anything in it)

There are few programs in the world as comprehensive as Mathematica. I went down to Champaign Illinois and visited their HQ in fall of last year.

Oh, and here's a really dull help file that shows you how to make a scale, and do stuff like play a perfect 5th.

link

It's texty, not sexy :)"

Mark Pulver's Time - The Olde Days

Click here for a 7.25M mp3 Mark Pulver sent to AH. Below are the notes on the track also sent to the list after quite a few people asked. I asked Mark if I could put this up and he say yes. It's a fascinating piece. Thanks Mark!

"The track was done in 1979 (possibly early 1980) and is called "Time". The setup was the SIUC (Southern Illinois University - Carbondale) music lab - which is sadly no longer there.

The lab was "cool" in the sense of what a lot of us olde tymers here would consider cool. Homebrew quad system, _PLATE_ reverb, modified Hammond tank reverb, upright piano with the back torn off for access to the harp ("prepared piano" for you olde folkes), an AKS, a bunch of tape decks, microphones, patch panels and... a nicely outfitted Moog modular. It was a System 55 with an extra top cabinet, two voice keyboard and a ribbon.

ahhh... my first love. :)

When I showed up, I brought along my (then brand new!) Rev 2 P5 and a MXR digital delay. The MXR was the first digital piece in the lab. :)

Anyway.. "Time" is around 25 tracks of stuff... noises, pads, pans, textures, etc. About 80% of what you hear as polyphonic is - it's the P5. The other 20% is multitracking from the Moog, or a single big honkin' multi-oscillator/multi-output patch.

"highlights" (ewww!) might include the constant atmosphere that's walking around left & right sides. That's the Moog driven by the 960. A killer combo that I DEARLY miss - the aural effect of the sequence changing is actually just from starting/stopping/triggering the 960 at different points or with different filter accents, speeds, etc. It's the same sequence.

There are a couple of big poly slides into oblivion - that's an old trick on the P5 (set unison, set glide, hold a note, kill unison, hit a chord - I think that's how it worked).

The ambience is generally the hacked Hammond tank, though the MXR is in there as well, usually _after_ the tank so that you get the smear.

Compression is courtesy of analog tape. The levels were pretty hot during some of the "tracks"... saturation is king. Digital today can't really touch something like this.

The piece used to be longer - about 11 minutes. I dunno that I still have that version. The front end was a bunch of babble over noises... nothing really exciting.

-------- start of typing while listening

The "Pink Floyd" sounding leads are all P5... The chordal undertone is P5. The airyness is courtesy of the Moog's fixed filter - VERY underutilized module. The "noise sparkling" that flutters around on top of the ping-pong sequence is P5.

If you can't tell, there was no "composition" to the piece. It's all vamping. I don't really remember where I started - if I had to guess it would be the P5 poly work... that was what I was into during that time.

The rushing and noise swirls to the end are both the Moog and P5. If it sounds deep and "OMG!" that's the Moog. That ringing tone is all Moog.

One thing about the bouncing around at the end and at a couple of spots in the middle... If you listen to it on speakers, and put yourself in the point of an equilateral triangle (based on the distance between the speakers) then you should be able to pick out a hidden 3rd channel. Along this time I was doing some work with burying a track by flipping it's phase across the L & R channels. if the L/R level is the same, and if you're at the point, then the track disappears. Move your head a bit and it'll show up.

Yes, this has been done a lot, but remember - this was 1979. :)

Anyway.. It's nothing big, but it's in there. I have NO idea how compressing this into MP3 would whack this around.


Oh! Love the tape noise at the end? There're a LOT of bounces in here with no noise reduction.

---- end of typing while listening ----


I think that's about it. Basically, the gear was minimal, it was just the right gear for the track - and the time. Putting this to tape helped a LOT, there's no way it would sound this "warm" (oh Gawd, not THAT word!) today.


fwiw, and I've said this before, THIS marks the time in my head that I'd love to get back to musically. I've never had more fun or been more satisfied than during this time.

... but, I've never been able to find it again. sigh.


Thanks for listening - and thanks for the comments!"