Computers and Music

Technology is the basis of art. Perhaps it is not the basis of all art forms, but it is definitely the basis of most of them. The practice of sculpturing, for example, requires a set of hammers and rasps. Paintings require brushes, paint and frame. Music requires instruments. These tools are, of course, ancient, but they still are technologies. Any group of resources used for the development of practical tools is technology.

Along the years music have greatly advanced in technology. One of the ultimate advances was the introduction of the computer. This machine allowed new possibilities and it also changed the way music is are created and performed.

The computer made the music recording process much faster and more straightforward. Before the introduction of digital audio, the recordings were made with tape machines, which demanded much more effort since every step was manual. It was necessary to allocate the tapes on the head stack, align the magnetic flux and frequency response, and if it was necessary to edit a track, the sound engineer had to cut and glue one tape to another, literally!

With the advent of computers and digital mixing, the sound was automatically converted into binary code through a system named DAC (Digital Audio Converter) and then sent to the computer, where all sound properties could be manipulated in a program called DAW (Digital Audio Workstation). This program has introduced the visualization of audio, making its manipulation much more straightforward. The program allowed editing a track with delete, copy and pasting commands, which are more precise and easier to use. In addition, the software includes a great variety of digital effects, which provide the music producer with an extensive arsenal of tools on top of his/her analog effects.

Computers have also made possible the creation of a new music genre, computer music.  This genre is based on sounds either originally created in the computer itself or manipulated by it.  Surprisingly this genre started in 1960 by Max Mathews, who developed this primitive music software called MUSIC.  Along with the improvement of computers, computer music acquired a greater variety of sounds, instruments, and software. One of the major computer contributions to music was MIDI. A computer language based on 127 numbers used to assign pitch, articulations, timbre, and other controls. This language was a break through to music technology, because it made possible to record the “pitch code” from an instrument recording, and apply it to several other MIDI instruments. For example, a musician would play several notes on a keyboard and the MIDI code of his playing would be later assigned to different MIDI instruments, which produced the same notes but with different timbres/sounds. In addition, MIDI has also facilitated the editing process. One can easily edit a MIDI track by simply moving the MIDI notes in the DAW.

A new group of artists also arose from computer music, and these artists are not the kind of ones you often see on television. This group consists of computer geeks, who program computers to perform music. They most commonly use programming software, such as Pure Data (PD) and Max, which contain more visual oriented computer languages, satisfying artists’ workability. These geeks do not only program software instruments and digital effects. They continue to revolutionize the relationship between a musician and his/her instrument. Body motion, visual effects, and new hardware designs are being constantly incorporated into music.

Actually a new subcategory emerged in computer music based on body motion called biophysical music. The artist and creator of this “genre” is Marco Donnarumma. He developed a music system in 2011 called Xth Sense, which consists of a wearable biosensor and a software for capture, analysis and audio processing of biological sounds of the body (Pure Data-based). This system captures the player’s muscle sounds and use them as both sonic source material and control values for sound effects. According to Donnarumma, the system enables “the performer to control music simply with his body and kinetic energy.”  Here is a link to a video of Marco Donnarumma’s performance with Xth Sense:

http://marcodonnarumma.com/teaching/xth-sense-biophysical-music/

Therefore, computers have not only make musicians’ lives easier with easier editing and mixing tools, but it also opened many doors to creativity. Computers provide infinite sounds and ways an artist can express himself with sound. In the traditional instrument world the instrument tells the artist where to go. In the digital world the artist has total control over the instrument’s outcome.