Vickery, L. (2020). Notational strategies for integrating live performers with complex sounds and environments, Tenor2020 , Hochschule für Musik und Theater, Hamburg.
This paper describes strategies for integrating live performers with complex “extra-musical” sounds and environments through extended traditional and proportional notations. The subjects of the works discussed include Animals (wardang [2019], kurui[2018]) and environments (rising water [2018],willsons downfall [2018], njookenbooro [2018]) . The techniques include spectrographic transcription, audio processing, extended forms of notation and spatial audio.
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Vickery, L. and James, S. (2020)The Decibel scoreplayer as a portable medium for spatial performance (in review).
The Decibel ScorePlayer is an iOS application for the presentation and network-synchronised scrolling of musical scores and audio on multiple iPads. In the ScorePlayer, formatted scores (.dsz. files) can be networked if they have the same file name and are of the same format (in this case “scrolling”), however the audio file embedded in any instance of the .dsz need not have the same name. Therefore, the number of channels of audio is only limited by the number of iPads in the network. The ability to pair with Bluetooth speakers provides an extremely portable option for multichannel audio in site-specific performances, particularly when utilising battery operated devices. In recent performances by the new music ensemble GreyWing, the ScorePlayer has been used in this fashion to perform works by in site-specific and small-room concert locations, and also as a source for multiple click-tracks over headphones.
In this paper we explore the practice of diffusing multiple channels of audio using the Decibel ScorePlayer. In particular, we examine how well the platform performs for the purposes of multichannel audio synchronisation. The potential obstacles to precise synchronisation include the iPad response time, the reliability of UDP packets,audio clocking jitter, and Bluetooth latency. The implications of these findings will be discussed in terms of the suitability of such a system for a variety of spatial audio scenarios, and how the variance in latency and audio synchronisation can be approached meaningfully, by embedded such variables into the creative design of new works. | |||