I’m presenting at the next NOTAM meetup, and I thought I’d check in and see if anyone wants me to talk about anything specific. I’ve been using SC for over 20 years. I use it in all sorts of different ways. I’m not an academic and don’t have a specialization. Amongst SC users, there is often a division of “artists” (who are a little shaky re: programming) and “developers” (who maybe are artists too but are less out in the field doing artist things). I’m kind of both. Definitely artist-first, but also a developer who has worked in enterprise software development for many years. I don’t have a comp-sci background, but I’ve been developing since I was about 7 years old (TRS-80, TI-99 4a, Atari 800XL, baby), so there are likely many concepts whose names and details escape me, but I can generally work them out once I’ve been introduced to them.
Some things that might be relevant:
- Xynthii. GitHub - mphonic/xynthii: A wicked modular synth with a matrix patchbay inspired by but not emulating the EMS Synthi A. Runs in Supercollider. The successor to 2006's Xynthi.
While I don’t think that a subtractive synth in SC is all that interesting a subject, things like trying to make an interface in SC that has some barely modern features and can be navigated by normies, plus trying to make installation not too painful for the latter, plus trying to organize code in a scalable way are all fairly interesting components of this project. I’m not saying that I was entirely successful in any of these areas, but the effort is something to talk about. - Peev and These are They. GitHub - mphonic/peev: infinite music designed to enhance fortitude and persistence in the digital environment and GitHub - mphonic/these-are-they: A maniachal machine that generates music from organized sound files
These are both generative “compositions” that were written quickly and somewhat sloppily (especially Peev) but that have made some people happy over the years. Peev is pretty much an open-and-let-it-go thing that seems to follow you on your machine (it hardly does, but the illusion is useful), while These are They is an experiment in making something like a score but for a skillset that is more oriented towards “producers” than instrumentalists. Both came at a time when I was heavily into Speculative Realism and the idea of conceptualizing things via “the world without us”. In many ways, I’m still into that. Fun stuff. - Other projects that aren’t 100% SC but use SC for significant tasks. This one uses sonification in a number of different ways (which I wrote a bit about here). This one uses Gendy5 to generate melodic patterns that I would never release except it was for one of those Covid “something to keep us calm” type online events. This one has a number of SC bits but is particularly framed by a 96-note-octave chord progression played on piano samples that required some funny wiring between SC and Reaper so that I could perform it with some expression.
And there’s likely more. If you know me you know that I also have a completely acoustic practice that doesn’t exactly sound acoustic, so there’s that.
What I don’t do with any regularity re: SC is live coding / performance, so I have very little to say about those subjects.
So, any input is welcome. Happy to talk about just about anything.