Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Music apps

OK, I said that discussions with Dave Stafford got me going again. I found him through Eno's/Childer's iPad music creator Scape - an amazing app which dave as a musician is playing/working/publishing with. He wrote some fabulous pages describing his early experience with the instrument, and sort of reflected in this one
http://pureambient.wordpress.com/2013/03/11/generative-music-applications-mixtikl-and-scape/
It is a good read, but search for the earlier ones too.

Anyway, I find Scape fun and a way to create Enoesque transitory new works: unlike dave I see mine as ephemeral explorations.
I have also tried Mixtikl which he mentions (a spawn of the people behind Koan - who of you remembers that) and it is more complex but also interesting.

There are many others, a few of which I have toyed with & sometimes make myself some noise with, but these are the stayers for the amateur music maker

2 comments:

dave stafford said...

>>>>>OK, I said that discussions with Dave Stafford got me going again. I found him through Eno's/Childer's iPad music creator Scape - an amazing app which dave as a musician is playing/working/publishing with.

Scape is a most remarkable tool, and I was extremely affected by it when I first started working with it in September / October 2012. I've since created well over 1000 "scapes" with it - and I never tire of the unique and beautiful pieces of music that it outputs...

>>>>He wrote some fabulous pages describing his early experience with the instrument, and sort of reflected in this one
http://pureambient.wordpress.com/2013/03/11/generative-music-applications-mixtikl-and-scape/
It is a good read, but search for the earlier ones too.

That's very kind of you Jeremy, but I would encourage iPhone and iPad users to try Scape for themselves - I think the fact that it appeals to a lot of different kinds of people, regardless of "musical experience" speaks volumes about what a beautiful, creative musical tool eno and chilvers have developed. it's really just a lovely, lovely sounding device.

>>>>>Anyway, I find Scape fun and a way to create Enoesque transitory new works: unlike dave I see mine as ephemeral explorations.

I don't really know what I see "Scapes" as except beautiful music - music that anyone can make - which is fantastic.

>>>>I have also tried Mixtikl which he mentions (a spawn of the people behind Koan - who of you remembers that) and it is more complex but also interesting.

Mixtikl is a degree of magnitude more confusing and difficult to use, and I would advise caution - you will need time and patience to conquer it's complexities - but, as always, there are great rewards to be had if you have the time and patience...

>>>>There are many others, a few of which I have toyed with & sometimes make myself some noise with, but these are the stayers for the amateur music maker

..or for musicians who want to experience the state of the art in generative music applications - these two tools are the best that we have at this point in time - but it will be very interesting to see what the next generation of generative music tools looks and sounds like - I can't wait!

happy scaping...


dave stafford
pureambient.com

Unknown said...

In terms of my "ephemeral explorations" - the difference is that you (Dave) save your creations and also publish them. I have saved a couple but never go back to them & have only played the 'album' once.
But I agree they are beautiful music
And unfortunately for the iPhone you are still limited to the other Eno works (Bloom, Trope and to a lesser degree Air)