Reviews
Events
Music, Arts, and Technology.
A Critical Approach
International Symposium, Montpel-
lier, France/Barcelona, Spain, 12–15
December 2000
Reviewed by Lina Mercier
(translated by Daniel Sellal)
Montpellier, France
An international symposium on the
theme of Music, arts, and technol-
ogy: A critical approach was held
12–15 December 2000. The first part
(12–13 December) took place at the
Université Montpellier 3 in the his-
toric setting of Montpellier, France.
The second part (14–15 December)
took place at the Universitat de Bar-
celona in the cosmopolitan center of
Barcelona. The symposium was
jointly organized by Makis Solomos
and Roberto Barbanti (Université
Montpellier 3), along with Carmen
Pardo and Enrique Lynch (Universi-
tat de Barcelona). This multidisci-
plinary colloquium was instrumental
in bringing together people from dif-
ferent domains for dialogue and de-
bate. Among the people participating
were art historians and theoreticians,
musicologists, composers, artists,
and philosophers. The symposium’s
focus was highly relevant to modern
issues; a number of themes were ex-
amined, outlined below.
1. The interface between different
arts.
Technological advances have by now
affected all arts and this tends to blur
the frontiers between them. Images,
sounds, and texts are all binary infor-
mation as far as a computer is con-
cerned. This situation was discussed
for two half-days during the collo-
quium. A distinction emerged be-
tween the opinions of the
theoreticians and those of the artists.
Roberto Barbanti (Université Mont-
pellier 3), a theoretician, stated that
technological evolution in art has
shifted from being a media to being
an ultra-media, making technol-
ogy—or rather, technique—omni-
present. This phenomenon has led to
a reevaluation of the notion of time
in art, according to Mr. Barbanti.
Claire Fagnart (Université Paris 8)
has examined this problem in the
context of video art, with particular
attention to simultaneity; experi-
mental video has aimed at a total
form of art, an interactive and imme-
diate art.
Sven Sterken (Université de Gand)
discussed Iannis Xenakis’s Polytopes.
Sylvie Dallet (Centre Pierre Schaef-
fer, Paris) evoked Pierre Schaeffer
and his views on multidisciplinary
art and went on to state that techno-
logical development in art creates a
risk of confusion between reality and
virtuality. She proposed that this
quest for new techniques in art is
akin to both the Orpheus myth and
the Promethean temptation.
On the other hand, a number of
artists presented their multidisciplin-
ary work. Jacques Rémus (Ipotam
Mécamusique, Paris) talked about
sonic sculptures, outlining the his-
tory of the medium as well as his
own creations. Alain Bonardi (Univ-
ersité Paris 4) discussed interactive
opera, and André Serres (Paris) dis-
cussed a recent production which
blends music and light effects con-
trolled by a robot. Stéphane Barron
(Université Montpellier 3) presented
his web-based multimedia works. A
final intervention was made by a re-
searcher in computer science and
music, Laurent Pottier (GMEM Cen-
tre National de Création Musicale,
Marseille), who demonstrated a pro-
cess for intercepting bodily move-
ments by video and using the data to
trigger audio.
Events
2. Technique, technology, and ideol-
ogy.
A second important theme, ‘‘Tech-
nique, Technology, and Ideology,’’
was also discussed for two half-days.
It focused particularly on abuses con-
cerning technology. Jean-Marc
Chouvel (Université de Reims)
pointed out that change concerns the
instrument rather that the essence of
art, insisting on the fact that, as far as
art is concerned, ‘‘[technological] pro-
gress is defective if it doesn’t help us
to dig [even deeper] into ourselves.’’
Ricardo Mandolini (Université de Lille
3) said that, on the contrary, musical
thinking is transformed owing to this
change of instrument. He then focused
on ‘‘numerical ideology,’’ fearing that
expression might become standard-
ized.
Ray Gallon (Université Montpel-
lier 3) evoked the links between art,
technology, and economy. Martin
Laliberté (Université de Dijon)
looked at the origins of the concept
of ‘‘new technology,’’ which date
back at least to the beginning of the
20th century. Anne Veitl (Université
de Grenoble) talked about an ongoing
research project which concerns it-
self with the sociological study of
new technologies used in music; this
research alludes to a new trend
called ‘‘the sociology of innovation.’’
Philosopher Enrique Lynch (Univ-
ersitat de Barcelona) focused on the
notions of ‘‘medium’’ and ‘‘téchnè,’’
pointing out that the means tend to
become ends in themselves in to-
day’s art. Pierre Mariétan (Paris), on
the other hand, argued that advances
in technology not only constitute ad-
ditional tools which can conform to
the demands of composers, but
which could also be capable of stim-
ulating the creative process. Claudio
Zulián (Universitat Pompeu Fabra)
developed the idea that a form of po-
litical ‘‘resistance’’ should be op-
posed to commercialized
technological evolution.
91

3. Transformation of our perception.
The third theme of the symposium,
‘‘Transformation of Our Perception,’’
is also very important with regard to
the relationship between art and
technology. It engages the question
of change in our perception of the
world due to the omnipresence of
technology. However, there were
only three presentations on this
topic. Nelly Lacince (Université
Montpellier 3), looking at dance and
technology, discussed the danger of
losing the sensual, carnal dimension.
Pascale Criton (Paris), looking at her
own work as a composer, disagreed:
in the relationship between téchnè
and expressiveness, there is always a
direct link between a sonic dynamic
and a sensory engagement, even
when the sonic dynamic is infused
with technology.
Carmen Pardo (Universitat de Bar-
celona), taking Walter Benjamin’s
thesis (from his famous article ‘‘The
work of art in the era of technologi-
cal reproducibility’’) as reference, dis-
cussed the ‘‘aura’’ of the work of art.
She evoked the possibility of creating
92
a new type of aura which would be
specific to numerical art. She sug-
gested that we are now living the
moment when the distance between
an object and the perception of that
object is being recreated.
4. ‘‘Academic’’ art, ‘‘popular’’ art.
In modern times, the traditional
frontier between popular art and aca-
demic art is fading away, probably
because the two disciplines are in-
creasingly making use of the same
technologies. Four presentations
were made on this theme. Makis
Solomos (Université Montpellier 3)
discussed the existence of two tech-
nological paradigms: that of art mu-
sic (electroacoustic music), which
favors abstraction and listening, and
that of popular music (rock), which
stresses the importance of the instru-
ment and the gesture. He observed
that these two types of music tend to
converge owing to recent develop-
ments (a quest for gestuality in elec-
troacoustic music, an increasing
focus on listening in experimental
techno).
Amparo Lasen (London School of
Economics and Political Science) has
also noticed a recent trend towards
abstraction in techno music. Played
in raves (and on other occasions),
this music blends with dance and
light effects to the point where it ac-
quires a tactile dimension. But tech-
nology remains just a tool.
Emmanuel Grynszpan (École des
Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales,
Paris) also discussed techno music
and the role of technology.
James Harley (Minnesota State
University Moorhead), examining
the case of the ‘‘alternative’’ group
The Residents, questioned the evolu-
tion of some music infused with
technology: the tools can sometimes
substitute for musical originality.
The symposium also concerned it-
self with a number of other topics.
These included the analysis of elec-
Computer Music Journal
troacoustic works (Pierre Couprie,
Université Paris 4), the creation of
sonic spaces (Anne Sédès, Université
Paris 8), the notion of time in elec-
troacoustic music (José Manuel
Berenguer, Orchestra del Caos, Bar-
celona), the concept of ‘‘virtual’’
(Mihu Iliescu, Paris), the role of tech-
nology in vocal synthesis (Anastasia
Georgaki, Ionian University), and the
relationship between computer and
‘‘open’’ form in music (John Dack,
Middlesex University).
The proceedings of this sympo-
sium have been slated for publica-
tion by the Université de
Montpellier Press. For further infor-
mation, the symposium Web site
may be consulted (http://alor
.univ-montp3.fr/XXESUPV).
Publications
Daniel R. Raichel: The Science
and Applications of Acoustics
Hardcover, 2000, ISBN 0-387-98907-
2, xiv Ⳮ 598 pages, references, ap-
pendices, index; Springer-Verlag New
York, Inc., 175 Fifth Avenue, New
York, New York 10010, USA; elec-
tronic mail service@springer-ny.com;
World Wide Web www.springer-
verlag.com/
Reviewed by Nico Schuler
San Marcos, Texas, USA
Daniel R. Raichel’s textbook The
Science and Applications of Acous-
tics is an excellent introduction to
acoustics from an interdisciplinary
point of view. In addition, it may be
usable—because of its fundamental
approach—for mathematically well-
educated readers (who should specifi-
cally be knowledgeable in
differential and partial differential
equations). The book is indeed in-
tended for upper undergraduate level
courses, graduate courses, or for gen-
eral reference purposes in the areas
of science and engineering. However,
Mr. Raichel’s book can also function
as an excellent source for recording
artists, composers, and music theo-
rists (in the broad sense of this term).
The author, who is affiliated with
the Graduate Center of the City Uni-
versity of New York and the School
of Architecture, Urban Planning and
Landscape Architecture at CUNY’s
City College of New York, is well
known for pioneering studies on the
propagation of sound waves in real
fluids, underlying principals of ani-
mal echolocation, noise control stud-
ies, architectural acoustics, and
loudspeaker design. As author or co-
author of more than 100 publica-
tions, Mr. Raichel is one of the
leading scholars in the area of me-
chanical engineering, specifically
acoustics.
The Science and Applications of
Acoustics is published in a series on
Modern Acoustics and Signal Pro-
cessing by AIP Press (which now is
an imprint of the Springer-Verlag).
This series focuses on acoustics as a
discipline with an extremely broad
interdisciplinary scope, spanning
physics, electrical and mechanical
engineering, mathematics, oceanog-
raphy, psychology, music, speech
and communication, to name but a
few. Mr. Raichel’s book, then, must
keep this broad interdisciplinary fo-
cus as a general textbook for courses
in acoustics.
The text is structured such that
the first six chapters discuss funda-
mentals of acoustics: a short history
of the science of acoustics; funda-
mentals of acoustics; sound wave
propagation and characteristics; vi-
brating strings; vibrating bars; and
membranes and plates. The under-
standing of these topics is certainly a
requirement for the study of the fol-
lowing chapters, which focus on:
pipes, waveguides, and resonators;
acoustic analogues, ducts, and filters;
sound-measuring instrumentation;
physiology of hearing and psycho-
acoustics; acoustics of enclosed
spaces (architectural acoustics);
walls, enclosures, and barriers; crite-
ria and regulations for noise control;
and machinery noise control. The
book concludes with the following,
more specialized areas (that can,
when used as a textbook, be skipped,
depending on the main focus of the
course): underwater acoustics; ultra-
sonics; music and musical instru-
ments; and vibration control. At the
end of most chapters, references are
listed and practical problems are for-
mulated. Finally, Mr. Raichel in-
cludes three useful appendices in the
book: the physical properties of mat-
ter; Bessel functions; and Laplace
transforms for solving differential
equations. An index enables the
reader to quickly search for specific
concepts, terms, or names.
Most chapters are of interest to
musicians. Chapter 10, for instance,
gives an excellent introduction to
the physiology of hearing and to psy-
choacoustics—a must for everyone.
Chapter 11, on architectural acous-
tics, is also very important, because
any listening quality is greatly af-
fected by room surroundings. Here,
the author provides a thorough sum-
mary of the concepts of architectural
acoustics and their practical applica-
tions. And although only a few chap-
ters are of lesser interest to
musicians, composers, recording art-
ists, and so forth (the chapters on
machinery noise control, underwater
acoustics, and ultrasonics, perhaps),
the longest chapter of the book is on
music, specifically on music and mu-
sical instruments (Chapter 17). This
Publications
chapter covers general concepts of
musical notation and musical instru-
ments (strings, winds, percussion, as
well as electrical and electronic in-
struments), recording equipment,
and playback audio equipment. But
because of the general focus of the
book, Mr. Raichel does not go into
detail regarding different kinds of no-
tation (notations and concepts of
modern music or of music in non-
Western cultures) or different classi-
fications of musical instruments. In
addition, this discussion lacks expla-
nations of the relationships between
notation and actual performance.
Unfortunately, the chapter on music
and musical instruments does not in-
clude a section with problems (exer-
cises), no doubt as a result of
providing just a general introduction
to the musical concepts mentioned
above. The reader should keep in
mind, however, that the main focus
of the book is certainly not musical
acoustics and that the chapter on
music and musical instruments is di-
rected at anyone (including non-
musicians) who studies the
interdisciplinary field of acoustics.
The strength of the book in gen-
eral is, as mentioned above, its thor-
ough introduction to various
problems in acoustics, but also its
clear presentation with case studies
and examples, and, last but not least,
the reasonable price (US$ 69.95). A
few errors in the first edition (mainly
misprints in text and some figures)
should be eliminated with its second
printing in 2001. The book’s use by
musicians is encouraged because of
its excellent introduction to basic
concepts of acoustics.
Regarding his text’s mathematical
approach, Mr. Raichel states in the
preface that it was written with the
assumption that users ‘‘are suffi-
ciently versed in mathematics up to
and including the level of differential
and partial differential equations,
93

and that they have taken the se-
quence of undergraduate physics
courses that satisfy engineering ac-
creditation criteria’’ (p. ix). He also
urges that ‘‘laboratory experience be
included in the course (or courses) in
which this text is being used’’ (pp.
ix–x). Although the latter require-
ment is usually given for recording
arts curricula, the former require-
ment might not always be met by
many curricula with the main focus
on music. Nevertheless, because of
the necessity of setting higher stan-
dards for music courses and because
of a more interdisciplinary orienta-
tion in today’s music curricula, the
reviewer can only wish that this
textbook would also find its way to
music-oriented acoustics courses, to
be used in addition to one that is
more specifically oriented toward
musical acoustics.
Bob Starrett and Josh McDaniel:
The Little Audio CD Book
Softcover, 2000, ISBN 0-201-70897-3,
271 pages, illustrated, appendices,
glossary, index; Peachpit Press, 1249
Eighth Street, Berkeley, California
94710, USA; telephone (Ⳮ1) 800-283-
9444; fax (Ⳮ1) 510-524-2221; World
Wide Web www.peachpit.com/
Reviewed by Eric Strother
Lexington, Kentucky, USA
The Little Audio CD Book is de-
signed as an easy to understand in-
troduction to recording compact
discs at home. Bob Starrett and Josh
McDaniel take a casual approach to
explaining the processes, which
makes this a good resource for peo-
ple who are just learning to burn
their own discs.
The authors are thorough in their
coverage of the subject; this includes
the hardware and software required
to burn discs as well as sources for
audio content. Unlike other instruc-
tion books on this topic, they discuss
computer-specific hardware (CD-
recorder drives, hard drive require-
ments, and sound cards) and
non-computer hardware (cassette
players, phonograph styli, preamplifi-
ers, and standalone CD recorders).
Since a primary focus of the book is
helping people transfer their LP and
cassette collections to compact disc,
these non-computer hardware com-
ponents are important to consider.
They also try to address both
Windows-based (PC) and Macintosh
platforms, with preference for the
PC.
There are two negative aspects to
this book. First, it suffers from the
same problem that plagues the vast
majority of technology books in that
much of the information is already
becoming outdated. Despite this,
though, the basic content of the
book remains quite reliable and use-
ful. The second problem is the for-
mal structure of the publication,
which seems somewhat scattered. In
their efforts to completely cover the
subject they have chosen a good
macro-level organizational scheme,
but within that scheme they are
prone to digressions which can be
distracting to the reader. The authors
frequently dwell on side issues used
to illustrate the main points, such as
the frequent references to the process
of LP restoration in the hardware
section. This seems to be a result of
the casual nature of the writing and,
while distracting, fits the tone of the
book. One large-scale organizational
oddity is the separation of non-
computer-based CD recorders from
the other hardware chapters.
One feature readers might expect
is a CD-ROM containing some of the
software featured in the text. This
lack was initially disappointing to
me, but I think their solution is a
good one. Rather than adding a CD
of outdated software to raise the
price of the book, the authors point
the reader to the book’s Web site
(www.peachpit.com/littleaudio/),
which has links to a site where the
software can be downloaded.
The book is clearly for people with
little to very little knowledge of the
technology and processes involved in
burning a CD, and the authors give
an excellent overview of many of the
issues involved. The first chapter ex-
plains the differences between digital
and analog, the differences among
colored discs, what the ‘‘X’’ means in
‘‘4X,’’ and how the ‘‘X’’ speed trans-
lates into real time. Although some
would argue that people do not need
to know these things in order to
make their own CDs, these are is-
sues which can lead to confusion and
are often misrepresented. The clarifi-
cations are useful.
The second chapter discusses
where to find music on the Internet.
This, of course, raises the issue of le-
gal and illegal downloads. At the
time of writing the courts had not
yet ruled in the Napster case; the au-
thors make a point to mention that
whereas Napster (and other programs
like it) enables users to illegally
download music, they believe there

94 Computer Music Journal


are legitimate uses for the program
so that it should not be ignored.
They do give an overview of a few le-
gal Web sites for audio download,
both free and fee-based.
After presenting the hardware and
software concerns, the authors dis-
cuss the process of restoring and re-
cording LPs and cassettes. These
chapters are extremely well done.
The authors walk the reader through
the process, from setting up the nec-
essary equipment to performing
noise reduction techniques and split-
ting the tracks to burning the songs
onto disc. The chapters on copying
CDs and MP3 files presents the po-
tential problems with these seem-
ingly straightforward processes.
Chapters 11 and 12 discuss the
slightly more complex processes of
creating compilation CDs and En-
hanced CDs.
The final chapter is an overview of
the legal issues surrounding home
audio recording. The authors present
the legal issues in a conservative
way, erring on the side of protecting
the reader from copyright infringe-
ment. They also make a point to em-
phasize that the legal issues are
constantly being refined.
The Little Audio CD Book is a
wealth of information that I, as a
CD-burning neophyte, thoroughly
enjoyed. The technical terminology
is explained in terms which should
have meaning for the readers and the
processes are described in detail. Ad-
vanced CD makers will likely find
little use for it, but the majority of
readers will find a great deal of use-
ful information.
Recordings
Christopher Dobrian: Artful
Devices, Music for Piano and
Computers
Compact disc, EMF CD 018, 2000;
available from Electronic Music
Foundation, 116 North Lake Avenue,
Albany, New York 12206, USA; tele-
phone (Ⳮ1) 888–749–9998 or (Ⳮ1)
518–434–4110; fax (Ⳮ1) 518–434–
0308; electronic mail emf@emf.org;
World Wide Web
www.cdemusic.org/
Reviewed by Daniel Hosken
Northridge, California, USA
Artful Devices contains six pieces by
Christopher Dobrian, each of which
incorporates a substantial degree of
computer performance. The com-
poser states that ‘‘the intention is
not for the programs to emulate tra-
ditional musical behavior, but rather
to explore new musical possibilities
implicit in certain paradigms of com-
putation or computer decision-
making.’’ Although it’s not clear
what ‘‘traditional’’ behavior is
avoided (or at least not sought), each
piece does realize a different mode of
computer decision-making and sub-
sequent or concurrent computer per-
formance. Three of the works utilize
algorithmically generated scores
which are then performed by a
Recordings
computer-controlled piano or, in one
work, a Music-N-style software syn-
thesis language. The other pieces
each incorporate a live performer
who generates data for a computer
program to operate on. The perfor-
mance paradigms range from the
seen but unheard guitar-controller
performer to the traditional elec-
tronic concerto for MIDI-equipped
piano and computer-controlled elec-
tronic sounds. There is a sense of
play present in most of these pieces
and even the cover art playfully re-
veals the phrase ‘‘art vices’’ within
the title.
The first piece on the CD is En-
tropy, ‘‘performed by a Macintosh
computer playing a Yamaha Diskla-
vier piano.’’ In Entropy, ‘‘the algo-
rithm takes as its input a description
of some beginning and ending char-
acteristics of a musical phrase, and
outputs the note information neces-
sary to realize a continuous transfor-
mation from the beginning to the
ending state.’’ Although the com-
poser emphasizes computer decision-
making in the opening remarks of
the liner notes, what makes this
piece really work are the decisions
made by the composer about the pa-
rameters of each phrase and the suc-
cession of phrases. Mr. Dobrian
engages here in a kind of meta-
composition that is becoming a fa-
miliar paradigm not only in
algorithmic composition but also in
the ‘‘remix’’ phenomenon in popular
music.
The opening gesture of the piece is
one of scattered pointillistic notes in
a nervously varying rhythm that
builds from single notes to chords.
Those chords give way to wide-
ranging linear runs in a steady
rhythm which then dissolve, creat-
ing a cadence point before moving on
to the next phrase. This is a very sat-
isfying juxtaposition of materials and
the temporal scope of each phrase
95
component feels appropriate. Satisfy-
ing successions such as this one are
the piece’s strongest attribute. Al-
though it is possible to discern an
overall shape of sorts, with specific
gestures and phrases returning later
on in the piece, Entropy seems to
work best when one focuses on the
local changes on the level of the two-
or three-minute section, letting the
work flow by with a general appreci-
ation of the return of materials. This
is true of many works whose rhyth-
mic or harmonic grammar is deter-
mined probabilistically. This is not a
bad thing, but it does prohibit the
kind of motivic listening that one
usually engages in when experienc-
ing a work that sets out specific mo-
tivic or harmonic relations whose
manipulation and transformation be-
come the business of the piece.
The second and fourth tracks are
two versions of the same work, Un-
natural Selection, with the second
being approximately half as long as
the first. The separation of these two
versions by an intervening work is a
smart programming move as it forces
the linear listener to hear the second
version with fresh ears—this despite
the fact that the intervening work is
anything but a sonic sorbet!
The first version of Unnatural Se-
lection features the composer play-
ing a MIDI guitar providing
information to a genetic algorithm
which in turn improvises the
computer-controlled response. The
most interesting part of this perfor-
mance model is that the direct out-
put of the MIDI guitar is not heard,
only the computer’s response to the
generated data. Where pieces for
loudspeaker performance break the
traditional relation between physical
gesture and perceived sound by re-
moving the physical gesture of the
performer from the stage, this ver-
sion of Unnatural Selection in con-
cert would present the physical
96
gestures of the performer and poten-
tially only distantly related sonic re-
sults. Complicating this is the fact
that we are listening to the piece in
pure audio form on CD. With more
traditional recorded works, we can
imagine the physical gestures of the
performers from the perceived sound,
but here there is nothing in the
sound that allows us to mentally
generate the performer’s gestures.
You can’t play air guitar to Unnatu-
ral Selection! While this is not an in-
herent flaw, it does highlight the
cognitive complications of this art
form. Although program notes are of-
ten derided (‘‘if you have to explain
the piece, then . . .’’), they are essen-
tial in interactive computer music to
give the listener a framework within
which to appreciate the behavior of
computer and human performers.
Unnatural Selection begins with
high-register shimmering sounds
that are articulated by diffuse me-
lodic and rhythmic characteristics.
In fact, it’s initially quite difficult to
distinguish between rhythm and tim-
bre. These sounds develop into a
marimba-like timbre that is articu-
lated by an irregularly accented, fast
underlying pulse. As the register
drifts down to the lower middle
range, piano and drum machine tim-
bres are added and the harmonic ma-
terial becomes more traditional.
When the saxophone and bass
sounds are added one can, for a mo-
ment, imagine the gestures per-
formed on the guitar which might
produce such sonic output. A ‘‘drum
solo’’ is followed by the addition of
bell-like tones and less traditional
harmonic material with a continued
fast and irregularly accented pulse.
The register of the piece again moves
upward, and the fast pulse that has
been with us since the first few min-
utes of the piece dissolves into
‘‘quarter-note’’ pulses articulating vi-
braphone notes in a sea of glassy
Computer Music Journal
timbres. The pulses disappear and
the piece ends in a virtual standstill
on a lovely, if somewhat old-
fashioned, shiny timbre that is simi-
lar to the opening sonority without
the internal rhythm. The standard
instrumental timbres present in the
piece could be more closely con-
nected to the live performer than is
described here, but it is difficult to
tell from the CD alone. Despite their
inherent allusion to an unrelated in-
strumental world, these instrumen-
tal timbres don’t particularly offend,
with the possible exception of the
drum machine. At this point in time,
it is very difficult to hear canned
drum sounds as solid sonic citizens
of a piece like this. It might have
been less jarring to hear percussive
sounds that aren’t quite so imitative.
The piece has a clear overall high-
low-high registral shape that unfolds
at a leisurely pace despite the rapid
surface activity. As with Entropy,
the various sections of the piece
don’t provide much local motivic
material, just general statistical be-
havior. And again, this works quite
well if one is prepared to listen in
that way.
The second version of Unnatural
Selection gives a more readily cogni-
zable situation where an improvisa-
tion by Daniel Koppelman on a MIDI
piano provides the data for the ge-
netic algorithm. This version has a
similar overall shape and succession
of timbres but is compressed into
about half the time. The pianist’s
free improvisation frequently has a
jazzy flavor giving this version of the
work a different sort of feel and
rhythmic energy. The performer also
provides the kind of localized mo-
tivic material that is avoided in pre-
vious pieces on this CD. This is a
nice contrast to the unheard MIDI
guitar version, reinforcing the value
of including two versions of the
same piece. The saxophone and
drum machine timbres play a very
limited role here, which suits this
combination well. The long registral
arc of the first version is less clear
here but that is more than made up
for by the additional musical interest
of the piano improvisation. Mr.
Koppelman’s improvisation is well
structured in terms of texture and
rhythm and interacts quite nicely
with the program.
The piece that intervenes between
the two versions of Unnatural Selec-
tion is Line/Phase Minutiae per-
formed by computer-controlled
Disklavier. This eleven-minute piece
is an ‘‘assemblage’’ of one-minute
computer-composed sections. These
consist either of repeated notes in
harmonically related tempi, each of
which fades in and out, or of ‘‘florid
melodic figures’’ that were created
‘‘in real-time according to destina-
tion points indicated by the human
composer.’’ The limitation to the
two types of textures seems to be an
overly limiting factor in this piece.
For a few minutes, the succession of
one-minute fragments is attractive,
but the pacing of the juxtapositions
becomes too predictable and the al-
ternation of textures loses its inter-
est. There are, of course, variations
in register, tempo, and so forth, but
that doesn’t stave off the unfortunate
static quality of the textures. The
two versions of Unnatural Selection
feel very fluid and fresh by compari-
son.
Degueudoudeloupe is a six-minute
piece composed using algorithms
written in C and performed by cmu-
sic, a Music-N-style sound synthesis
program (running on a VAX com-
puter, no less!). The persistent, irreg-
ularly accented pulse that appeared
in the previous work is present here
as well. The timbres are largely per-
cussive and inharmonic and are less
lively and reverberant than the other
synthesized timbres on the CD,
which sound as if they were pro-
duced on commercial synthesizers.
This gives the piece its own timbral
space, but it feels a little too dry by
comparison. Degueudoudeloupe
sounds like a study and lacks some
of the lively drive of the other works.
Nevertheless, there is a discernable
shape and the work doesn’t overstay
its welcome.
The final work, There’s Just One
Thing You Need To Know, features
Daniel Koppelman, again on Diskla-
vier along with a Korg Wavestation
A/D controlled by Max. The com-
poser describes the ‘‘conceptual and
music theme’’ of the piece as ‘‘reflec-
tion.’’ The piano part requires sym-
metrical hand movement and the
music played by the computer is
‘‘symmetrical around a given pitch
axis.’’ The computer’s response to
the pianist is a mix of the techniques
used in the previous pieces ranging
from accompanist to improviser.
The work opens with glassy-
textured, filter-swept synthesized
sounds responding laconically to the
pianist’s few notes. This relaxed
sonic bath quickly turns to a more
tumultuous texture as the pianist
and synthesizer begin churning out
notes. As with the previous tracks,
the music here works by juxtaposing
phrases of opposing textures and mu-
sical activity. The chunks often
seem a little bit too short or too reg-
ularly paced, making it difficult for
the listener to identify an overall
‘‘sweep’’ to the music that the local
gestures and timbres would seem to
favor. Harmonically, the piece often
finds itself circulating through vari-
ous materials without a clear sense
of how these are operating structur-
ally. The piano writing is generally
quite satisfying and the restriction of
the music to symmetrical gestures
doesn’t seem to inhibit the pulsing,
syncopated gestures that characterize
most of the music on this CD. The
Recordings
sounds here are usually spacey ‘‘elec-
tronic’’ timbres that serve the work
just fine but are otherwise unexcep-
tional. In this piece I enjoy many of
the moments, but as a whole it
doesn’t leave a clear imprint.
Artful Devices is a disc of mature
works that combine to form a clear
picture of the composer’s musical
concerns in this genre. The per-
former–computer and composer–
computer interactions are clearly of
primary importance for Mr. Dobrian,
and these works present a wide vari-
ety of those interactions with a good
deal of musical success. Unlike
much computer music, the composer
doesn’t seem as interested in timbral
innovation—he appears content to
skillfully manipulate stock sounds to
form a coherent timbral shape for
each work while concentrating on
the musical structures generated by
the human–computer interaction.
Douglas B. Doty: Uncommon
Practice, Selected Compositions
1983–1995
Compact disc, Syntonic Records
SN63:32, 1998; available from Syn-
tonic Records, PMB 164 1039-L El
Monte Avenue, Mountain View,
California 94940, USA; telephone
(Ⳮ1) 650–694–4727; electronic mail
info@syntonic-rec.com; World Wide
Web www.syntonic-rec.com
Reviewed by Kim S. Courchene
New York, New York, USA
David B. Doty is a name familiar to
many experimental musicians and
all alternate tuning advocates and
practitioners. Author of the book
The Just Intonation Primer (San
Francisco: Just Intonation Network,
1993/1994), he founded the Just Into-
97
nation Network and serves as editor
of the journal 1/1.
This compact disc release show-
cases some beautiful music by a
skilled composer. With that said, I
cannot help but think of this disc as
a kind of ‘‘test run’’ for a formal real-
ization of the pieces. Have you ever
heard someone say, ‘‘That sounds
like MIDI’’—as if the Musical Instru-
ment Digital Interface were a type of
‘‘sound’’ and not a communications
protocol? Well, unfortunately, this
CD does indeed ‘‘sound like MIDI.’’
The compositions are interesting,
but it is impossible to forget that
they’re performed primarily on Ya-
maha FM synthesizers and an Alesis
drum machine (and a sampler, to be
fair). The grid of metric quantization
and robotic rubato also too often rear
their ugly heads.
As a fan of Mr. Doty’s book and
someone who writes for instruments
in extended just intonation, I was
greatly looking forward to hearing
this album. The compositions show
great potential and could be abso-
lutely stunning if played by a live en-
semble—perhaps an early music
ensemble or scordatura string quar-
tet. In Mr. Doty’s defense, the dearth
of ensembles willing to retune their
instruments or adopt alternate play-
ing styles almost necessitates hear-
ing one’s music in the MIDI world—
but not quite. Many just intonation
composers have dropped or avoided
MIDI instruments to realize their
music purely in the digital domain,
using software sound synthesis tech-
niques to correlate timbre and scale
(as suggested by William Sethares),
or by forming their own ensembles
or building their own instruments.
Some of the titles of the composi-
tions suggest an unfortunate naı̈veté:
‘‘Fake Irish Music’’ and ‘‘Fake Greek
Music,’’ for example. Is this intended
to be funny or tongue-in-cheek? In
an age of mass cross-cultural appro-
priation, though, it might be refresh-
98
ing to some that the composer
acknowledges this phenomenon in
titles of these compositions. (Mr.
Doty writes, for example, that in
Fake Greek Music ‘‘[a] group of re-
bettika musicians from the opium
dens of 1930s Piraeus somehow get
mixed up with a 1960s Los Angeles
garage band.’’) Or maybe it’s just
supposed to be cute. I’m not certain
of the overriding aesthetic intention,
and perhaps that explains why these
two pieces seem the least successful.
The highlight of the disc for me is
the 15-min composition entitled
Contrapunctus 1.01. The samples of
various Moeck recorders are actually
quite stunning and effectively used.
The composition wanders around
three-, five-, and seven-limit lattices,
and the movement among them is at
first quite striking, but with repeat-
ing listenings sounds very natural.
Other compositions on the disc in-
clude Dithyramb, Paradigms Lost,
Rituals and Ceremonies, and Bodhi-
sattvas in Berkley?—Mu!, a tribute
to the late just-intonation pioneer
Jim Horton (1944–1998).
In some ways, the music repre-
sented on this compact disc sounds
to me like Moondog in just intona-
tion (and I mean that in a good way).
Perhaps we will be fortunate to hear
the compositions performed by live
musicians some day.
David Mahler: Hearing Voices
Compact disc, Tzadik TZ 7064,
2001; available from Tzadik, 61 East
Eighth Street, P.M.B. 126, New York,
New York 10003, USA; electronic
mail tzadik@tzadik.com; World Wide
Web www.tzadik.com/
Reviewed by Steven M. Miller
Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
Because language and the human
voice have long inspired composers
Computer Music Journal
of diverse musical genres, it should
come as no surprise that they are the
common elements among the four
individual pieces on this disc. David
Mahler’s Hearing Voices uses lan-
guage and voice as basic elements
out of which to forge entirely new
sonic and textual worlds. It is a tour
de force of digital editing tech-
niques—often in micro-detail—by an
unsung master of analog tape music.
All four of the pieces included, The
Priest From Cape Breton, A Chorale
That Ludvig Lindeman Wrote, Wag-
nerian Opera, and Who I Just
Adored, take recordings of voices
from interviews with the composer
and shape, sculpt, and cajole the
voices into sonic flights of fancy.
Each of the pieces takes the voice of
a single artist as the raw material
from which the composer creates a
sort of homage to him or her, evok-
ing some element(s) that he finds sig-
nificant in their work. While the
second and third pieces focus on the
use of language, the first and fourth
explore more intimately the sonic
possibilities of the human voice it-
self.
Infused with his usual grace and
sense of gentle humor, the four
pieces on the disc represent the com-
poser’s first foray into digital record-
ing media. Like much of his earlier
analog tape music, these pieces rely
more on fine-scale editing and mix-
ing procedures than signal process-
ing. In fact, the only integral use of
processing is limited to the piece
Wagnerian Opera, in the form of
pitch shifting to delineate individual
characters created from a single
voice. In the liner notes, the com-
poser refers to this in terms of his in-
terest in ‘‘letting the digital medium
speak in its own voice.’’ While I’m
not sure that digital signal processing
is any less an accurate depiction of
the voice of the digital medium than
editing and mixing, it is, in any case,

the compositional voice of Mr.
Mahler that comes through loud
and clear.
The Priest From Cape Breton, fea-
turing the voice of dancer Sandy
Silva, creates a sonic evocation of
dancing feet from the words, phrases,
fragments, and phonemes of her nar-
rative description. Structured in ten
sections, the piece generally focuses
on the deconstruction of short
phrases, sometimes overlaid in shift-
ing layers, into small sonic kaleido-
scopes. A painstaking yet subtle
attention to detail is evident in the
multitudes of individual micro-edits,
creating shifting patterns of pho-
nemes, rhythmic ostinati, and tim-
bral variations. Taken as a whole,
the ten sections create a unified set
of textural variations on the dancer’s
voice while evoking the sound of her
feet.
In A Chorale That Ludvig Linde-
man Wrote, the voice of composer
Tom Peterson provides the timbral
material as well as the pitches—an
octave and a half of quarter-tones—
with which Mr. Mahler weaves me-
lodic fragments into and around the
heavily edited interview. Reflecting
the speaking mannerisms of the sub-
ject in the same quarter-tone system
which he himself has used exten-
sively for much of his own music is
a subtle stroke of brilliance which
Mr. Mahler executes deftly and with
his characteristic humor.
Populating an imaginary discus-
sion group on the subject of the title,
Wagnerian Opera creates a dialogue
among ‘‘historical’’ as well as make-
believe characters. All of the charac-
ters’ voices are constructed from the
voice and words of novelist Mathew
Stadler. Punctuating the conversa-
tion is the sound of a typewriter de-
rived from the novelist’s voice, as
well as the sound of an ill-fated bee.
Again, attention to detail in manual
editing and mixing procedures in
tandem with a keen appreciation of
language and humor creates a work
of quiet charm and technical virtuos-
ity.
The final piece on the disc, Who I
Just Adored, is the most abstract of
the four. Taking off from visual art-
ist Sherry Markovitz’s use of animal
imagery, the composer constructs a
faux soundscape of animals, insects,
and birds. With the only textual
content being names and descrip-
tions of various animals, the bulk of
the work is devoted to a shifting
field of ‘‘animal noises’’ set against
a changing pattern of location ambi-
ences. Perhaps due to the less con-
crete nature (pardon the puns) of the
piece, it is the least engaging of the
four. Clearly, interplay of language
and sonic texture is the composer’s
forté. This piece suffers, if only
slightly, from the lack of a narrative
text onto which the composer can
work his magic.
All in all, this collection of pieces
demonstrates that Mr. Mahler has
lost none of his skill, verve, humor,
and sense of artistic playfulness in
the move to digital media. While the
composer himself in the liner notes
admits to feeling more than a little
unease in the brave new world of
computer-based audio tools, the ac-
tual musical results show quite the
opposite. This disc is strong evidence
Recordings
of a seasoned composer having found
a ‘‘new voice.’’
Jon Rose: The Hyperstring
Project. The New Dynamic of
Rogue Counterpoint
Compact disc, ReR JR6, 2000; avail-
able from ReR, 79 Beulah Road,
Thornton Heath, Surrey CR7 8JG,
UK; telephone (Ⳮ44) 208–771–1063;
fax (Ⳮ44) 208–771–3138; electronic
mail megacorp@dial.pipix.com;
World Wide Web www.megacorp.u-
net.com/
Reviewed by Joseph Reinsel
Troy, New York, USA
This collection of works by Jon Rose
represents his thorough research into
the development of electronic perfor-
mance and composition with the vi-
olin. The software used for the
Hyperstring Project was developed in
collaboration with the Studio for
Electro-Instrumental Music (STEIM)
in Amsterdam. At the beginning of
the liner notes Mr. Rose states:
‘‘There are 3 primary controllers . . .
a sensor mounted on the violin bow
which measures the bow pressure; an
accelerometer mounted on the bow-
ing arm, measuring bowing arm
movement (and more importantly)
speed of movement; and foot pedals
which are played independently by
both feet.’’ From this technical de-
scription of his ‘‘extended’’ instru-
ment, Mr. Rose has created a lucid
and effective performance system.
This compact disc seems to be di-
vided into three sections divided by
two moments of silence on tracks 10
and 15. Mr. Rose’s compositional
style in these sets of pieces focuses
on expanding the violin within its id-
iomatic frame. He explores elements
of counterpoint and polyrhythmic
figures, which are manipulated by
99

means of the different controllers. I
think this is an interesting part of
Mr. Rose’s system because he is very
conscious of the sound of the violin,
and keeps the aural presence of it
throughout these pieces. The titles of
the tracks on the CD are engaging
too, including Siren, Broken Bones,
Schoenberg’s Bow, Reversed Spam,
Whipped Cream, and Spaghetti Ma-
chine.
Mr. Rose’s compositions on this
disc show his virtuosic technique us-
ing his violin and performance sys-
tem. With long, droning textures and
varied ostinati, he moves through
many ethnic styles. These range
from the whistling sound of a Bul-
garian kaval to the shimmering
strings of the Indian sitar to the poly-
rhythmic dance styles of the British
Isles. The compositions seem like
large broken machines which rotate
and move in unpredictable and inter-
esting ways—washing machines,
electric hand drills, industrial-sized
food mixers—all controlled by Mr.
Rose’s subtle movements and skilled
performance style.
Hans Tutschku: Moment
Compact disc, empreintes DIGITA-
Les IMED 9947, 1999; available from
DIFFUSION i MéDIA, 4580, avenue
100
de Lorimier, Montreal, Quebec H2H
2B5, Canada; telephone (Ⳮ1) 514–
526–4096; fax (Ⳮ1) 514–526–4487;
electronic mail info@electrocd.com;
World Wide Web
www.electrocd.com/
Reviewed by Patricia Dirks
Kitchener, Ontario, Canada
Hans Tutschku is a German com-
poser born in Weimar in 1966. He
has been involved in electronic mu-
sic and the creation thereof from an
early age. At 16, he joined the En-
semble für Intuitive Musik Weimar
and later accompanied Karlheinz
Stockhausen for three years to study
sound diffusion. Moment is a collec-
tion of electroacoustic compositions
by Mr. Tutschku. This compact disc
features the subtle blending of vocal,
instrumental, and environmental
sounds to create rich sonic textures.
Although all of the works on Mo-
ment were created to some extent
through computer programming, ma-
nipulation of recorded material, and
digital signal processing, it is Mr.
Tutschku’s precise craftsmanship in
compositional techniques that al-
lows the listener to hear only the
voice of the music he has created
and not the technology. It is both his
ease of knowledge and skill that al-
lows his passion and personality to
be present in his compositions. His
accomplishments have been ac-
knowledged worldwide with numer-
ous awards and honors for his works.
Since 1997, Mr. Tutschku has held a
teaching position at IRCAM (Institut
de Recherche et Coordination Acous-
tique/Musique).
In the composition extrémitiés
lointaines (1998), the composer takes
the listener on a sonic journey
through Asia, Singapore, Indonesia,
the Philippines, and Thailand. Re-
cordings of various cities, churches,
temples, and children singing can be
heard in this soundscape. In the crea-
Computer Music Journal
tion of this composition, Mr.
Tutschku used real-time granular
synthesis to divide and reorganize
the sounds to create new sonic rela-
tionships among the sources.
Throughout extrémitiés lointaines
the composer is vigilant in maintain-
ing connections to the specific cul-
tures from which the sound sources
originated. It is this passion and
dense compositional structure that
creates the intensity of this fascinat-
ing work. extrémitiés lointaines was
originally composed for eight-
channel dispersion and was commis-
sioned by the French Ministry of
Culture in collaboration with INA-
GRM (Institut National de
l’Audiovisuel—Groupe de Re-
cherches Musicales) in Paris. This
work was a finalist in the 1998
Bourges International Electroacoustic
Music Competition in France and
was given the award of Distinction
at the 1998 Prix Ars Electronica
competition in Austria.
Most of the compositions on Mo-
ment feature the human voice in one
form or another. Mr. Tutschku’s
. . . erinnerung. . . (. . . menmento . . .)
(1996) is no exception, as unique ges-
tures of the human voice are used to
create richly colorful and sometimes
quite dense textures. The piece is
based on the poem ‘‘. . .
erinnerung . . .’’ by Antonio Bueno
Tubis. This collection of words pro-
vides the starting point for the trans-
formation of the human voice later
interspersed with bells and tam-
tams. The intensity created by the
juxtaposition of these sound worlds
is then interrupted by the clearly
spoken text: ‘‘Yo/ os lo aseguro,/ la
cárcel existe,/ la recuerdo como un-
trallazo en la sien’’ (‘‘I/ assure you/
the prison is there/ I recall it like a
lash to the face’’). In this recording
the poet is also the male voice fea-
tured reading the text of the poem.
. . . erinnerung . . . (. . . menmento . . .)
is a highly dramatic composition full
of truly evocative sounds which are
well suited to the intentions of the
poem.
Les invisibles (1996) is a composi-
tion for tape without live performers
derived from an earlier work, Freibrif
für einen Traum (1995) for soprano,
flute, cello, percussion, and
computer-generated soundfiles. The
work featured on Moment uses 25
short melodies and five longer se-
quences for instruments, as well as a
four-voice counterpoint for soprano.
The text for the soprano comes from
the poem ‘‘Es wird später’’ (‘‘It’s get-
ting later’’) by Austrian poet Karl
Lubomirski. The musicians who
made the recordings for Les invisi-
bles include Donatienne Michel-
Dansac, soprano; Catherine Bowie,
flute; Antoine Larette, cello; and Jean
Geoffroy, percussion. All the re-
corded sound material was later reor-
ganized and given different spatial
placements within the new composi-
tion. The sound world and melodies
created are very well suited to the
text of the poem throughout the
work. Les invisibles focuses on the
understandability of words as a part
of the compositional process. The
poem’s description of travel and its
allusions to time are very clearly il-
lustrated in the design of the melodic
lines and long sustaining tones cre-
ated from the elongation of the origi-
nal instrumental material.
Sieben Syufen (Seven Steps) (1995)
is based on the poem ‘‘Verfall’’ (de-
cline, decay) by the Austrian poet
Georg Trakl (1887–1914). Mr.
Tutschku uses the text of the poem
primarily as a sound source and is
not necessarily trying to ‘‘set’’ the
text or illustrate the intentions of
the poem itself. This is obvious in
the treatment of the words which is,
at times, very disjointed, and thus
the resemblance to the spoken text
is null. At the same time, the sounds
that the words create through vari-
ous processes is very musical, often
with long, sustained, subtle, chang-
ing timbres which are pleasing to the
ear. The piece is divided into several
sections, emphasizing various pro-
cessing techniques. These range from
glissandi through movement, clear
spoken text, male and female voices,
harmonic and melodic elements of
the voice, granular synthesis where a
single vocal sound is elongated over
time in minute splices played to-
gether, to superimposed text creating
varying delays and echoes. The poem
is presented in two languages, Ger-
man and French, and is spoken by a
total of four voices, two male and
two female. Mr. Tutschku selected
four main words in each language to
corresponded to seven different
pitches for a total of fourteen pitches
for the entire composition. This
piece uses the difference in languages
to act as a counterpoint throughout
the composition. This work received
Second Prize in the CIMESP Interna-
tional Electroacoustic Music Compe-
tition of São Paulo in Brazil in 1995.
It is a powerful composition which
alters the listener’s perception of
strict time through the haunting ebb
and flow of the voices.
Die zerschlagene Stimme (1991)
features sound material derived from
only the human voice and percussion
sounds. In this composition, Mr.
Tutschku imposes vocal articula-
tions on the sounds of the percussion
material while those of the voice are
transformed into percussive ones.
This is similar to Jonathan Harvey’s
Mortuos Plango, Vivos Voco (1980),
where the envelopes of two sound
sources, a boy’s voice and a bell, are
switched. Thus, in Die zerschlagene
Stimme, the percussion imitates the
vocal envelope of a gradual attack,
no immediate decay, long sustain,
and gradual release, while the voice
at times has a percussive envelope,
Recordings
with a short attack and sudden decay
followed by a relatively short sustain
and decay. The basis of the composi-
tion is the exploration and play of
the various stages of transformation
for both sound sources. The juxtapo-
sition, integration, and relationship
between the new and original mate-
rials produce an enticing listening
experience. The transformation of
the human voice into a percussive
element surfaces strong emotions
such as fear, anger, and distress, feel-
ings commonly associated with
quick abrupt vocal sounds. On the
other hand, the lengthening of the
percussion sounds creates a dream-
like setting which is at times quite
calming. When transformations oc-
cur at the same time there is a great
range of intensity as familiar sounds
of human emotion meet the aural
sound play of the unfamiliar. While
Die zerschlagene Stimme was origi-
nally written for four-channel diffu-
sion, the sense of sound
transformation through movement
in a compositional space is still pres-
ent in this two-channel version. Ide-
ally, this work should be listened to
in a concert hall setting to experi-
ence the full changing and processing
of the sounds as they travel through-
out the space.
Overall, the compositions featured
on Moment are well crafted in the
expression of common sounds and
poetry transformed into elegant tap-
estries of music. Mr. Tutschku’s use
of the voice for presenting discern-
able words, text in a harmonic sound
source, or the combination and jux-
taposition of materials creates rich
compositions. It is these various
techniques that expose the music
within the words themselves. The
compositions featured on Moment
form a well-rounded collection that
include city soundscapes, bells, and
percussion, to more melodic works
such as Les invisibles, featuring
101
acoustic instruments played and re-
corded. Mr. Tutschku created his
compositions through the use of
computer programs, his own pro-
gramming, and various other electro-
acoustic techniques. It is his vast
talent in this area that enables his
music to sound natural and free
flowing, rich in emotion and inten-
sity. Unlike some early ‘‘computer’’
music, which sounds very pro-
grammed, heavily structured, and de-
void of any human element, Mr.
Tutschku has elegantly bridged the
gap between the music and the me-
dium to produce stunning composi-
tions of exceptional caliber.
Products
Waves Gold Native Bundle
Version 3.0
Waves, 306 West Depot Avenue,
Suite 100, Knoxville, Tennessee
37917, USA; telephone (Ⳮ1) 865–
546–6115; fax (Ⳮ1) 865–546–8445;
electronic mail sales@waves.com;
World Wide Web www.waves.com
Reviewed by Juniana Grimm, Lon
Schnittgrund, and James Harley
Moorhead, Minnesota, USA
Waves has long been a leader in de-
veloping signal processors (com-
monly called plug-ins) for audio
editing software. The company has
also made excursions into hardware,
including the L1 Limiter, which en-
ables the processing to be offloaded
from the computer’s CPU. Over the
years, Waves has developed an im-
pressive collection of plug-ins, and
upgraded versions of most of them
are included in the new Version 3.0
102
Gold Native Bundle (there is another
bundle for Digidesign TDM systems).
The new package features resolu-
tions up to 88.2 kHz or 96 kHz sam-
pling rates, with internal processing
running at 32 bits. As the ‘‘Native’’
part of the name suggests, these
plug-ins do not require any addi-
tional hardware to operate. One
should be warned, however, that the
suggested computer requirements are
a minimum; the stronger the horse-
power and the greater the RAM, the
better the processors will run. Waves
‘‘strongly recommends’’ using a Mac-
intosh G3 or G4 (with at least the L2
backside cache), with 96 MB RAM
for multitrack operation. On the PC
side, a Pentium 266 MHz with 96
MB RAM is recommended. The plug-
ins are compatible with AudioSuite
and Realtime AudioSuite (RTAS)
programs (Pro Tools), VST (Cubase,
etc.), MAS (Digital Performer), and
DirectX (for Windows).
Waves Gold includes various
equalizers, limiters, and compres-
sors, often packaged together to form
composite plug-ins. New to the set is
the C4 Multiband Parametric Proces-
sor, ‘‘with 4-band up and down ex-
pansion, limiting, compression, plus
dynamic and standard EQ.’’ The bun-
dle also includes plug-ins for rever-
beration, including the new
Renaissance Reverb, along with ‘‘ef-
fects’’-type processors such as
Enigma (a type of phaser), Meta-
Flanger, SuperTap (delay), Doppler,
and MaxxBass. Waves has also added
the S1 Stereo Imager, the L1 Ultra-
maximizer (for dithering), and the
PAZ Psychoacoustic Analyzer. Space
prevents us from discussing every
one of these tools, but a selection of
them will be reported on in more de-
tail.
Waves Gold comes with a substan-
tial set of printed manuals. While
there are redundancies—the installa-
tion instructions and description of
Computer Music Journal
the general interface are duplicated
for each of the five booklets, for ex-
ample—the information is often very
useful. There are discussions of basic
concepts (the different components
of reverberation, for example) and
specific pointers on using the param-
eters within each plug-in to achieve
certain effects.
The plug-ins are not ‘‘dumbed
down’’ for instant use by audio en-
thusiasts with no knowledge of mu-
sic or engineering. The Renaissance
Reverb, for example, includes set-
tings for Reverb Type, Decorrelation
(between channels), Reverb Proper-
ties Control (Predelay, Time, Size,
Diffusion, Decay), Reverb Levels
Controls (Early Reflections, Reverb,
Wet/Dry, Gain), Damping Controls
(Low Frequency, Low Frequency Ra-
tio, High Frequency, High Frequency
Ratio), EQ Controls (Low Frequency,
Low Gain, High Frequency, High
Gain), and Graph Displays. Whoa!
Thankfully, all of the plug-ins have a
healthy collection of pre-sets, which
can be useful starting points for ex-
ploring the possibilities of particular
processors along with the manuals.
Each plug-in allows two settings to
be loaded for A–B comparison, and
users may easily store their own set-
tings for later recall or duplication.
The graphic interfaces that are sup-
plied with most plug-ins also help
users to orient themselves to the par-
ticular features of a plug-in (see Fig-
ure 1).
We ran the Waves Gold bundle on
a 400 MHz G4 with 256 Mb RAM,
operating within the environment of
Pro Tools 5.1 LE. Installation is
straightforward, the new version
simplifying the process by substitut-
ing call-and-response verification for
awkward dongles. In order to proceed
with user verification, it is necessary
to register. This can be done through
the Waves Web site, or by mail or
telephone. In any case, the full bun-
dle is functional as a demo for 14
days.

In Pro Tools, we found that, even
with our relatively powerful work-
station (or at least it used to seem
powerful!), it is pretty easy to stall
the CPU by applying a modest num-
ber of the more computationally in-
tensive plug-ins (the stereo
Renaissance Reverb, for example).
One discovers soon enough that
whenever multiple applications of
the same plug-in are needed, the
various tracks should be routed to a
sub-master so that the processor can
be applied to that track, or stereo
pair, alone. One also discovers that
there is a major difference between
applying the plug-ins in real time
and applying them to existing audio
‘‘outside time’’ (as AudioSuite pro-
cessors).
When working with these plug-
ins, it is crucial to decide how each
processor needs to be applied in or-
der to preserve the greatest process-
ing efficiency. If you are recording
direct-to-disk and you want to use a
limiter to prevent the signal from
peaking, for example, then you must
apply the plug-in as a real-time pro-
cessor. (You may also apply the plug-
in on an auxiliary ‘‘send.’’) Or, if you
need to exert dynamic control over
plug-in parameters, you would also
need to draw on the real-time capa-
bility of the plug-ins. This process is
straightforward in Waves; the param-
eters are selected for automation, the
track is put into Write Mode, and the
trajectories can then be recorded.
They can also be edited afterward. If,
however, you want to process exist-
ing audio, or apply a non-dynamic ef-
fect (or at least unchanging effect in
terms of plug-in parameters) to your
soundfile, then you can do it in
AudioSuite, or non–real-time, mode.
(Efficiency strategies may need to be
different when using Waves in other
editing environments.)
As a general observation, the au-
dio quality of the Waves plug-ins is
high. The sounds are clear, and re-
verb ‘‘tails’’ and other such artifacts
have very little, if any, of the
‘‘cheap’’ digitized sonority common
to inexpensive digital signal proces-
sors. What follows are discussions of
particular plug-ins.
Renaissance Reverb, TrueVerb
The Renaissance Reverb parameters
Products
have already been noted. It has also
been noted that this plug-in, which
works with a stereo ‘‘space’’ whether
the source file is mono or stereo, is
computationally intensive. Running
a couple of these in real-time mode
made our computer conk out. The
sound, though, is rich and clean, and
the user has a great deal of control
over a whole range of controlling ele-
ments. The presets provide a good
collection of ‘‘rooms’’ to serve as
starting points for creating powerful
reverberation effects that can be very
natural sounding or highly contrived.
The TrueVerb plug-in is also quite
sophisticated, but presents a much
lighter load to the CPU. The Time
Response Controls include: Dimen-
sion, Room Size, Distance, Link
(links Reverb, Room, and PreDelay),
Balance, Decay Time, PreDelay, and
Density. The Time Response Graph
gives a visual representation of these
parameters, and the values can be ad-
justed graphically as well as numeri-
cally. The Frequency Response
Controls (again available in graphic
form) include: RevShelf (high-
frequency shelving filter), ERAbsorb
(absorption rate of early reflections),
Freq (sets the ‘‘corner’’ of the shelv-
ing filter as well as the absorption
control), and Reverb Damping (four
controls for setting Low and High
Frequency Damping Ratios along
with the ‘‘corner’’ frequency settings
for each). There is also an Input/Out-
put Section, for adjusting InputGain,
and toggling controls for Direct,
Early Reflection, and Reverb levels.
The manual includes an in-depth
tutorial for working with TrueVerb,
and discusses more sophisticated ap-
plications such as combining differ-
ent TrueVerb plug-ins in series. Both
TrueVerb and Renaissance Reverb are
high-quality processors for adding re-
flections and ‘‘room’’ to digital audio.
C4 Multiband Parametric Processor
Waves has produced a whole collec-
103

tion of processors that combine ele-
ments of compression, limiting, or
equalizing. The L1 Limiter is a basic
single-purpose unit—although the
ⳭL1 Ultramaximizer adds the pro-
prietary IDR dithering and noise-
shaping tools—and it does a great job
of maximizing your bits (using the
Ultra noise-shaping setting, in fact,
enhances the high frequency compo-
nents to such an extent that our files
crackled mightily when played back
in another editor after processing).
The C1 Parametric Compander is
more sophisticated in adding dy-
namic release functions (shorter re-
lease times for fast transients, etc.)
and a gate. There is also a look-ahead
filtering function which enables spe-
cific frequency regions to be selected
for processing rather than the whole
signal. The DeEsser plug-in dupli-
cates what could be done with the
C1, but the interface is simpler, for
104
just concentrating on toning down
high frequencies. The Q10 Para-
graphic EQ units provide up to 10
bands of equalizing capability (the
Q4 is a scaled-down version of the
same thing), with the center frequen-
cies, bandwidth/slope (Q), and gain
able to be adjusted either graphically
or using the numerical buttons. The
Renaissance Equalizer and Compres-
sor aim at ‘‘vintage’’ sound quality,
so are different in degree rather than
type.
The new addition to the bundle is
the C4 Multiband Parametric Proces-
sor (see Figure 2). This plug-in pro-
vides four bands of adjustable
compression/expansion, making it
possible to adjust the spectral bal-
ance of the audio with a fair degree
of finesse, and is obviously of great
benefit as a mastering tool. The C4
runs at 48-bit double-precision reso-
lution, automatically dithering to 24
Computer Music Journal
bits at its output. Waves has tried to
create phase-compensated crossovers
to achieve flat frequency response at
nominal levels. It is very difficult to
hear any distortion at the crossover
points, even when the neighboring
regions are processed quite differ-
ently. This is one more plug-in that
eats up the processing power,
though, so its use should be judi-
cious.
Each band in the C4 has indepen-
dent settings for Threshold, Gain,
Range, Attack, and Release. In order
to check your audio, you can solo or
bypass particular regions, a utility
we found very useful. Another valu-
able feature is the Master controls,
so that overall thresholds, for exam-
ple, can be adjusted with one con-
trol, preserving the differences
between the four bands. The Master
Release control enables different
modes to be set, including the Auto-
Release Control (ARC), which is a
proprietary look-ahead algorithm for
optimizing release times for different
types of material (faster- or slower-
decaying transients). The Behavior
control switches between Opto
(modeling opto-coupled compressors
that use light-sensitive resistors),
which has the characteristic of oper-
ating more slowly as the level re-
turns to zero, and Electro, which is
the opposite, so that the compressor
responds more quickly as the level
returns to zero (and which, by exten-
sion, has slower response times at
higher levels). It takes some experi-
mentation to decide which of these
settings works best; the difference is
noticeable, certainly. The Knee Con-
trol affects the ‘‘edges’’ of the com-
pression/EQ bands. Finally, the
Output Control enables the audio to
be boosted overall, if that is what is
desired, or reined in. If you are want-
ing to boost the low end, for exam-
ple, the overall output may need to
be brought down slightly to compen-

sate. You can always run the output
through the ⳭL1 Maximizer to make
sure the sound is at its maximal
level.
Doppler
The Doppler plug-in is ideal for cre-
ating moving distance effects for al-
most any desired audio application.
In our experience with it, we found
it useful both for obtaining a true
Doppler effect and simply for creat-
ing spatial panning/distance effects.
The controls are pleasantly straight-
forward and easy to work with (see
Figure 3). We didn’t need to read the
manual to get started, although
when we finally did, it was also
pleasantly straightforward and help-
ful. Clearly displayed are variables
for Start-time and End-time, allow-
ing for proper temporal scaling to the
audio segment, along with Curve,
Center-time, and Pitch to more
finely adjust the ‘‘path’’ of the sound.
This trajectory may also be adjusted
visually by simply clicking and drag-
ging the start, end, and center points
on the sound-field graph.
Fine tuning is done by adjusting
the Gain, Pan, Pitch, Air Damp, and
Reverb (including Time and Bright-
ness controls) settings. These allow
the user to control the overall vol-
ume of the audio segment, the
amount of change in the left/right
audio field (as well as the direction it
flows), the amount of high end that
is lost to ‘‘distance,’’ and how far
away the sound travels. We found
that even the slightest adjustment of
these controls can create very subtle,
but extremely effective coloration
Products
that would add energy to any mix.
With different combinations of these
variables, it is possible to create any-
thing from a voice slowly coming
straight toward you in a cold room to
a train whizzing by three feet away
at 80 mph on a hot day! And with
the wide array of presets that come
with the plug-in, new effects may be
created with a few clicks of the
mouse.
PAZ Psychoacoustic Analyzer
The Psychoacoustic Analyzer is a
useful tool once you have started
mixing down or mastering your proj-
ect. It can be used to get a good look
at the overall picture of the audio.
The Stereo Position Display (SPD)
indicates the stereo energy in the
mix, showing a finer detail than
would be apparent from your ears
alone (see Figure 4). This feature may
aid in creating a good stereo balance.
The Frequency Window provides a
real-time display of the frequency
content of the audio. The default set-
ting of 52 bands, from 40 Hz, emu-
lates the perceptual characteristics of
the human ear. It can be set to go as
low as 10 Hz, and can reflect A-, B-,
or C-weighted hearing curves (it will
track peak or RMS values).
Although the Analyzer does not
allow you to change anything in the
audio directly, it does present differ-
ent ways to see where the mix may
be improved. It may not be a neces-
sity for everyone, but the ability to
view various important details of the
audio is an attractive feature. The
only significant drawback is that, for
fast response times, one is counseled
to have only a single graphic display
open at a time. It would be nice to be
able to track the different parameters
at the same time.
Short Notes
The S1 Stereo Imager is an interest-
ing tool for enhancing stereo effects
rather than creating new ones as
105

with the Doppler plug-in. Its basic
aim, according to the manual, is ‘‘to
readjust the stereo level-balance of a
mix.’’ The controls include Width,
which can widen (or narrow) the
stereo image, even beyond the range
of the loudspeakers (not overly con-
vincing to our ears, although the pro-
cessor does not introduce phasing
effects, at least). The Shuffle works
in conjunction with the Frequency
control to widen the lower range in
reference to the higher frequencies.
The other controls include Asymme-
try, to adjust the relative level of left
and right sounds, and Rotation, for
106
adjusting the centering of the entire
stereo image. Input mode can be
switched between Left–Right (LR)
and Mid–Side (MS) for concentrating
on specific imaging effects (or for
converting audio recorded using an
MS microphone set-up to LR). This
utility includes polarity switches, a
useful tool for checking phasing is-
sues.
MaxxBass is an interesting plug-in
that works off of the psychoacoustic
phenomenon of ‘‘missing fundamen-
tal,’’ whereby the sound of the fun-
damental is created in our ears on
the basis of strong presence of the
Computer Music Journal
harmonics above it. This processor
injects energy into the harmonics in
the region above a defined bass re-
gion. If you boost these harmonics
and lower the level of the bass re-
gion, the low frequencies will come
through even on sound systems that
lack a strong low end. We found that
MaxxBass calls for careful adjust-
ment, and it is critical to listen to
the audio over the loudspeakers (or
comparable) for which the sounds are
intended.
We did not work too intensively
with the UltraPitch plug-in, which is
designed for pitch-shifting and har-
monizing melodic tracks. This is one
of the more complex processors of
the bundle, with tools for pitch de-
tection, formant shifting, time
stretching, multiplying voices, and
so forth. The MetaFlanger and
Enigma plug-ins are flexible tools for
creating phasing-type effects, with a
whole range of tools for controlling
the processing.
Conclusion
With a list price of US$ 1,299, the
Waves Gold bundle is not inexpen-
sive. It is, however, an extremely
powerful collection of signal proces-
sors. For the budget-conscious,
Waves has packaged slimmer bun-
dles (the Renaissance set, for exam-
ple, which includes its Equalizer,
Compressor, and Reverb plug-ins),
and some of the releases are avail-
able individually. The orientation of
the plug-ins is toward the audio engi-
neer rather than the composer (in
contrast to, for example, GRM
Tools), but these processors contain
enough detailed parametrical con-
trols (and automation) that creative
applications are quite feasible, and
even inviting.