Category: Education

Emergent life, mind, and music

At the IRCAM Forum Workshops @Seoul 6-8 November 2024, composer Steve Everett presented a talk on the compositional processes he used to create FIRST LIFE: a 75-minute mixed media performance for string quartet, live audio and motion capture video, and audience participation.

FIRST LIFE is based on work that Everett carried out at the Center of Chemical Evolution, a NSF/NASA funded project at multiple universities to examine the possibility of the building blocks of life forming in early Earth environments. He worked with stochastic data generated by Georgia Tech biochemical engineer Martha Grover and mapped them to standard compositional structures (not as a scientific sonification, but to help educate the public about the work of the center through a musical performance).

Data from IRCAM software and PyMOL were mapped to parameters of physical models of instrumental sounds in Kyma. For example, up to ten data streams generated by the formation of monomers and polymers in Grover’s lab were used to control parameters of the “Somewhat stringish” model in Kyma (such as delay rate, BowRate, position, decay, etc). Everett presented a poster about this work at the 2013 NIME Conference in Seoul, and has uploaded some videos from the premiere of First Life at Emory University.

Currently on the music composition faculty of the City University of New York (CUNY), Professor Everett is teaching a doctoral seminar on timbre in the spring (2025) semester and next fall he will co-teach a course on music and the brain with Patrizia Casaccia, director of the Neuroscience Initiative at the CUNY Advanced Science Research Center.

Anne La Berge at the Cortona Sessions

A highlight of this year’s Cortona Sessions for New Music will be Special Guest Artist, Anne La Berge. Known for her work blending composed and improvised music, sound art, and storytelling, Anne will be working closely with composers and will be coaching performers on improvisation with live Kyma electronics!

Anne La Berge at KISS2017

The Cortona Sessions for New Music is scheduled for 20 July – 1 August 2025 in Ede, Netherlands, and includes twelve days of intensive exploration of contemporary music, collaboration, and discussions on what it takes to make a career as a 21st-century musician.

Anne is eager to work with instrumentalists and composers looking to expand their solo or ensemble performances through live electronics, so if you or someone you know is interested in working with Anne this summer, consider applying for the 2025 Cortona Sessions!

Applications are open now (Deadline: 1 February 2025). You can apply as a Composer, a Performer, or as a Groupie (auditor). A full-tuition audio/visual fellowship is available for applicants who can provide audio/visual documentation services and/or other technological support.

Generative sound design at University of West London

At the invitation of UWL Lecturer Charlie Norton, Carla Scaletti presented a lecture/demonstration on Generative Sound Design in Kyma for students, faculty and guests at University of West London on 14 November 2024. As an unanticipated prelude, Pete Townshend (who, along with Joseph Townshend, works extensively with Kyma) welcomed the Symbolic Sound co-founders to his alma mater and invited attendees to tour the Townshend Studio following the lecture.

After the seminar, graduating MA students Vinayak Arora and Sabin Pavel (hat) posed with Kurt Hebel & Carla Scaletti (center) and Charlie Norton (distant upper right background)
UWL Professor of Music Production Justin Paterson and Trombonist/Composer/Kyma Sound Installation artist Robert Jarvis discuss the extensive collection of instruments in the Townshend Studio

It seems that anywhere you look in the Townshend Studio, you see another rock legend. John Paul Jones (whose most recent live Kyma collaborations include Sons of Chipotle, Minibus Pimps, and Supersilent among others) recognized an old friend from across the room: a Yamaha GX-1 (1975), otherwise known as ‘The Dream Machine’ — the same model JPJ played when touring with Led Zeppelin and when recording the 1979 album “In Through The Out Door”. Yamaha’s first foray into synthesizers, only 10 were ever manufactured; it featured a ribbon controller and a keyboard that could also move laterally for vibrato. Other early adopters included ELP, Stevie Wonder and Abba.

JPJ recollects his days of touring with the GX1 and the roadie who took up temporary accommodation in its huge flight case, as Alan, two students, Bruno and Robert look on.
Charlie Norton with Alan Jackson (back), JP Jones (at Yamaha GX-1), Carla Scaletti & Kurt Hebel in the Townshend Studio
Alan Jackson and Pete Johnston pondering the EMS Vocoder
Composer Bruno Liberda (the tall one) with Symbolic Sound co-founder Carla Scaletti

 

Kyma developers visit DiGiCo

DiGiCo R&D staff with their flagship console

On Friday afternoon, 15 November 2024, Pete Johnston (software department) and Michael Aitchison​​​​ (head of R&D) invited Carla Scaletti to present a seminar on sound synthesis for the R&D team at DiGiCo.

Following the lecture, Pete Johnston (who routinely prototypes and tests new signal processing algorithms in Kyma first before implementing them on the embedded processors in the live consoles) led the guests on a tour of DiGiCo’s testing facility and answered questions about the fully redundant, live fall-back dual consoles and the on-call 24/7 worldwide user support that DiGiCo provides for their live pro consoles.

Matt, Carla, Alan, Pete, and Robin discussing Capytalk expressions after the lecture at DiGiCo

Kyma Sound design studies at CMU

Did you know that you could study for a degree in sound design and work with Kyma at Carnegie Mellon University? Joe Pino, professor of sound design in the School of Drama at Carnegie Mellon University, teaches conceptual sound design, modular synthesis, Kyma, film sound design, ear training and audio technology in the sound design program.

Sound design works in the spaces between reality and abstraction. They are less interesting as a collection of triggers for giving designed worlds reality. They are more effective when they trigger emotional responses and remembered experiences.

Abecedarian

Inspired by an ABCs of Physics board book he bought for his son at Powell’s in Portland, University of Oregon professor Jon Bellona became convinced that kids’ books should be for both kids and their parents.

Bellona’s new book ABCs of Audio Recording is an alphabet concept book for kids and their parents to learn more about audio production through straight-forward concepts, definitions, and images. [ed., my favorite entry is “Z for impedance”]

Dedicated to his sons, Peregrine and Ellery, Jon Bellona’s ABCs of Audio Recording is ideal for the children in your life (and the child in you).
 

New Kyma course offerings

There are so many ways to learn Kyma (the online documentation, asking questions in the Kyma Discord, working with a private coach or group of friends…). This semester there are also two new university courses where, not only can you can learn Kyma, you’ll also have a chance to work on creative projects with a composer/mentor and interact with fellow Kyma sound designers in the studio while also earning credit toward a degree.

At Haverford, Bryn Mawr, and Swarthmore, you can sign up for MUSC H268A Sonic Narratives – Storytelling through Sound Synthesis with Professor Mei-ling Lee.

In “Sonic Narratives” you’ll learn to combine traditional instruments and electronic music technologies to explore storytelling through sound. Treating the language of sound as a potent narrative tool, the course covers advanced sound synthesis techniques such as Additive, Subtractive, FM, Granular, and Wavetable Synthesis using state-of-the-art tools like Kyma and Logic Pro. Beyond technical proficiency, students will explore how these synthesis techniques contribute to diverse fields, from cinematic soundtracks to social media engagement.

2,332 miles (3 753 kms) to the west, Professor Garth Paine is offering a Kyma course at the ASU Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts in Tempe, Arizona.

From the course catalog: The Kyma System is an advanced real-time sound synthesis and electro-acoustic music composition and performance software/hardware instrument. It is widely used in major film sound design studios, by composers across the globe and in scientific sound sonification. The Kyma system is a patcher like environment which can also be scripted and driven externally by OSC and MIDI. Algorithms can be placed in timelines for dynamic instantiation based on musical events or in grids and as fixed patches. The system has several very powerful FFT and spectral processing approach which can also be used live. In this class, learn about the potential of the system and several of the ways in which it can be used in creating innovative sound design and live electronics with instruments. The class is focused on students who are interested in electroacoustic music composition and realtime performance and more broadly in sound design.

These are not the only institutions of higher learning where Kyma knowledge is on offer this fall. Here’s a sampling of some other schools offering courses where you’ll learn to apply Kyma skills to sound design, composition, and data sonification:

  • University of Oregon (Jeffrey Stolet, Jon Bellona, Zachary Boyt)
  • University of New Haven (Simon Hutchinson)
  • Indiana University (Chi Wang)
  • Zhejiang Conservatory of Music (Fang Wang)
  • Sichuan Conservatory of Music (Iris Lu)
  • Wuhan Conservatory of Music (Sunhuimei Xia)
  • Dankook University, Seoul (Kiyoung Lee)
  • Musikhochschule Lübeck (Franz Danksagmüller)

If you are teaching a Kyma course this year, and don’t see yourself on the list, please let us know.

Phantom of the Waltershausen organ

Franz Danksagmüller was in Waltershausen 25-28 August 2024 presenting workshops on how to integrate live electronics with the pipe organ. Here’s a photo of “the hand” controller designed by Franz, alongside an Emotiv EEG headband and Kyma Control.

Although from this vantage point, one might think that the organ loft is nearly paradisiacal…


…the organ builder took pains to remind the organist of the alternative (or at the very least, to have a laugh).