12 transformations of acoustic bass flute and bass clarinet recordings were created using various audio processing ideas I've been exploring. The transformations were then edited leaving the most interesting outcomes still in their original temporal position - and therefore all relating back to the source acoustic recording (see right). The audio was mixed down and a score was created from a sonogram of the resulting track. The initial idea was to construct a notated score from the sonogram. The process involved annotating the sonogram as a MIDI-layer in Sonic Visualiser and then exporting the MIDI-file and audio to Finale notation software for score editing. | patchwork of recordings of audio transformations |
between-states audio sonogram (detail)
score created in Finale from MIDI-annotated sonogram (detail)
Unfortunately in this case I was unable to develop a satisfactory accommodation between the degree of detail in the score and the scroll-rate required to read it: if it was over-detailed it had to move too quickly to accurately read. For the first performance a simplified sonogram score (below) was used with a pitch-guide fixed at the left of the page. The pitch-guide replaced the single-line "playhead" that is used in most scrolling scores in the Decibel Scoreplayer. I had used the same approach to read Percy Grainger's Free music in the mac version of the score player (and this had later been coded into the iOS version by Aaron Wyatt. The pitch-guide had the advantage of providing more detail to the performers more "morphological" information about the sonic shapes and could also be scrolled more slowly than a conventional score. However in this version each player was allowed to choose which shape they would render with their instrument.
simplified sonogram score (detail)
The (possibly) final version of the score identifies sounds to be performed by each performer (bass flute - red, bass clarinet - green) and contains text annotations and hue variations to represent different timbres. Since the parts are more defined the full (unsimplified) sonogram is able to be re-added giving the performers a greater indication of the context in which their sounds are heard.
annotated sonogram score (detail) "pitch-guide" to the left