25 Apr 04 / music requests

So, my friend Keith requested that I put some old mp3s up this site. It's hard for me to turn down a music request, so here it goes...

The Garage Project was an EP of sorts that I recorded over the course of a few weeks during the summer of 2000. For a month or so, my parents' garage was occupied by a drumset, some guitars, and random collection of microphones. All twelve minutes of it was recorded and mixed with a $40 mixer, a beat-up Sony laptop, and a collection of free and cheap software.

It seems like ancient history now, but feel free to give it a listen and let me know what you think.

25 Mar 04 / upcoming performances

Last semester, I created an interactive video performance system (using Max/MSP and Jitter) that responds to audio input for a jazz duo here in Pittsburgh. It started as my final project for Roger Dannenberg's computer music class here at Carnegie Mellon, but it has taken on a life of its own.

Here's the announcement: we'll be playing two gigs at the Distillery Jazz Festival in Toronto. I'll bring my tech toys, and Lee and Ravish will improvise up a storm.

Here are the dates:
Friday, May 28 - 11:00pm
Saturday, May 29 - 2:30pm

Lee Robinson - saxophone
Ravish Momin - drums
Jesse Kriss - interactive performance system creation

24 Feb 04 / Why We Don't Need Grey Tuesday

I should start with this: I think Danger Mouse is brilliant, and I'm no fan of EMI. And as much as I like to see someone taking action in this age of questionable copyright enforcement, Downhill Battle is a bit misdirected.

Yes, the RIAA takes part in some questionable activities. Yes, major labels screw artists day after day. But there are limits to fair use, and there are laws regulating the use of copyrighted material.

One of Downhill Battle's war cries is "EMI isn't looking for compensation, they're trying to ban a work of art." This may be EMI's intent, but here's the thing: try as they might, there is no way that EMI can keep people from listening to The Grey Album.

Thousands of people have already heard The Grey Album, and EMI can't take it from them. There is no way to keep them from sharing it with their friends.

So what can EMI do in this situation? They call their lawyers. They write cease and desist letters. And that is exactly what they should be doing. There is no way EMI can let this go, simply because of the precedence it would set. It is their right and their duty to try and protect their property.

So they fight. And they will win any debate about commercial distribution, but they will never be able to ban The Grey Album.

I'm all for supporting Danger Mouse and passing on the word about his work of art, but if Grey Tuesday is a protest, what are we protesting? Danger Mouse's case is a cause for celebration -- it shows how impossible it is for a major corporation to eradicate a work of art.

In my mind, Illegal Art has exactly the right stance. Art that infringes on copyrights is still art. It should be available to the public. Read about it, download it, share it with your friends. But it's not about fighting the record labels. It's about making art that matters regardless of what the labels think.

[update: Lawrence Lessig weighs in]

13 Feb 04 / catching up

I hate to just repost links that are making the blog rounds, but some things just need to be shared.

1. Forget iTunes and Winamp. Show me a visualization of musical structure.

2. If you haven't heard Ghetto Pop Life, you really need to. Then check out Danger Mouse's Grey Album.

3. iTunes social networks?

4. It looks like Technics and the iTunes music store can finally play together.

Also, here's another sneak preview from Information Visualization as Art Practice. There's a lot to tweak still, but I figured I'd post it anyway. (I know, I know...I still haven't posted my last assigment.)

7 Jan 04 / more wireless fun

Wireless is the new black. Here's an interesting project:

CodeBLUE: A Bluetooth Interactive Dance Club System [pdf]

Also, feel free to leave comments...

6 Jan 04 / game controllers as instruments

I've been intrigued by game controllers for some time now. There's something very satisfying about hijacking them for musical purposes. As it turns out, there are a number of tools that make this fairly easy (like max/msp and junxion). Also, you can get a Playstation -> USB adapter, which will let you use any number of cool PS2 controllers.

After a bit of research, I ended up with the Logitech Cordless Wingman. It's a PC/Mac controller with 11 buttons, two analog joysticks, an 8-way D-pad, and a mini fader for throttle control. That's a ton of input possibilities, and my computer can be way over on the other side of the room.

This controller will be put to good use shortly...there'll be more updates as the projects develop.

24 Dec 03 / wireless midi

Here's a new product that has some interesting applications: a wireless midi system. This means as long as you have a way to power sensors and convert them to midi, you can lose that annoying tether cable.

Apparently, it's got impressively low latency -- about 2ms. The only problem is that it looks like you can only use one transmitter per receiver. Hm...

23 Dec 03 / city as instrument

I was looking at the papers presented at the last NIME conference, and I came across this one: the urban environment as a musical interface.

Even with all the new technology we've seen in recent years, the basic musician-instrument relationship really hasn't changed that much. Yet. The idea of an explorable evironment as a music controller is, I think, pretty neat. It starts to seriously break down the standard ideas of musician, audience, and performer.

For more on NIME '03, check out Eric Cook's recap.