From: atman@ecst.csuchico.edu (Thin Layer Of Pond Scum)
Subject: Re: HELP!!! with project
Organization: California State University, Chico
Date: Sun, 12 Apr 1992 23:33:29 GMT

In article <1992Apr12.151829.1@gacvx1.gac.edu> pooh@gacvx1.gac.edu writes:
>-I need help!

I'm glad you finally came to your senses.  :)

>-1) I am, frankly, to broke to buy a sampler, and the only
>	sound editing/sampling programs I have are not MIDI
>	compatable.  And, yes, I do know why...I am not 
>	ignorant of the construct of MIDI transport and
>	MIDI files.  However, I would REALLY like to hear
>	from anyone who knows of a program that could act
>	as an intermediary, or might know of a MIDI compatable
>	voice program (for a MAC, preferably.)

Go sniffing around GA's music deparment, and see if you can link up with
a recording arts student to get access to university equipment.  If not,
consider taking a few recording arts classes or declaring a recording arts
minor, so you can get access to things like FREE STUDIO TIME, DIGITAL 
RECORDING EQUIPMENT, and other of life's niceties.  Or, you could get a 
job.  :(

>-2) Secondly, I would be interested in any help finding an
>	easy way to generate cliche industrial voice 
>	distortion. (Something better than on TWITCH, however.)

Voice -> fuzzbox -> effects box (like an Alesis Quadraverb.)

>-3) If anyone has any ideas or tricks they have used or think worth 
>	mentioning, let me know....I'd be interested in hearing...

I don't know what you want to do, so it's hard to offer advice or
share experiences.  If you assume you aren't going to do any sampling
or MIDI stuff, you still have a couple of options.  See if you can 
find out the file format of the samples on your Mac, get ahold of a 
digital audio processing/DSP book, and write a few programs to play
with custom effects in non-real time.  

You could also try some mathematical compositions, assigning note
frequency, duration, chord progressions, etc. using a mathematic
formula; you might want to play around with chaotic stuff like the
Hailstone sequence, strange attractors, Julia sets, boundaries of the
Mandelbrot set, Homoclinic points and bifurcations, Henon's attractor,
or even the Fibonacci (sp) sequence (modulo some constant.)  If you're
into the math side, you should take a peek at

Chaotic Dynamical Systems
Robert L. Devaney
Addison Wesley 31601

For a good general understanding, read "Chaos" by James Gleick (my copy
is lent out.)

For lots of nifty algorithms, check out Algorithm magazine, published 
in Canada.  It's got lots of good articles and easy-to-use algorithms
dealing with chaos, artificial life, and related topics.  

Algorithm
PO Box 29237, Westmount Postal Outlet
785 Wonderland Road
London, Ontario, Canada
N6K 1M6

Ear Magazine had some good articles too, until it went belly-up.  

What else... you can try some tried & true techniques, such as tape 
loops, running forwards, backwards, at funny speeds, overlapping 'em,
etc.;  If you have access to multitrack equipment, you can try 
juxtaposing things that might normally clash, like the ECC's "Power To
The People" --> Public Enemy vocals on top of Herb Alpert music.  I've
been meaning to finish up a track that has 12 - 24 Erasure songs all 
playing on top of each other, but I haven't gotten around to it. 

Generally, abuse your equipment and your sound sources; heat up your
oven, and put those vinyl 7" singles your never listen to any more in there
until they get a little soft, then take them out and stretch them a little 
bit; punch holes in your records, or glue sandpaper to sections of them;
get a really cheap cd player and knock it out of alignment so that everything
you put in it skips; rent or borrow a portable DAT deck, stick it in your
backpack, hide a stereo lavalier (sp) mic on your front, and wander into
a restaurant and ask for a bucket of ketchup, sit next to a couple having
a fight, go to a party or a lecture, etc.  Set up your phone to record;
call government officials, break into people's voicemail boxes, call the
NRA and argue about gun control, etc.   Go record the noises, cursing, etc
at a construction site, and use the sounds to make a piece called "House
Music."  (har har.)  Get a bunch of back issues of Phrack or 2600 magazine,
go to a pay phone, call an operator and ask him/her a bunch of questions
about any term you don't understand, and record the conversation.  Don't
do this for more than 5 minutes before moving to a new phone booth.  Ask
each operator you talk to when they expect ISDN to be generally available
to residential customers in your area, since their switch is already ISDN
capable.

Let your imagination run wild.  Just sit down in front of a computer with a
word processor running, or with a pencil and paper, and spend about 20 
minutes coming up with ideas.  Write down EVERYTHING you think of; many 
times, one crummy idea will spark a better one later.

Up above, anything I said that would violate a law is a joke.  Ho ho.

The most important thing, though, is to start saving your pennies NOW
for an Alesis ADAT digital multitrack recorder.  Trust me on this one.
Shoot for $4000 US.  

@Man

-- 
  atman@ecst.csuchico.edu  ||  What good is it if it doesn't distort?
 
  In _my_ universe, in short, classes are not unreal, but they're less
  real than their members.      -- John Barth
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