DisMLosphere



This video shows an experiment using my Opal
Chameleon sending MIDI data, through Disarray, to M and, from there, to Spectrasonics Omnisphere, through Logic Pro. The tuning system is Carlos Alpha.
The Chameleon is set to the note layout already explained in my previous article
Transnotating Carlos Alpha 2.

M can be used in a variety of ways. Here I show a few: it can be used as an improvising partner, meaning that a MIDI performance can be changed, in real time, by variables set up in advance and controlled by an automated conductor, without recording any MIDI data.

DisMLosphereM1

In M, a variable is some aspect of the music which can be changed. M offers many variables which can be used to introduce rhythmic and melodic variety to the music and conducting is a special performance technique that essentially lets you change the selected positions of many variables simultaneously.

The second technique I use is similar to the first one but with the recording of some MIDI data that are then rearranged by variables and played along what is played in real time afterwards.

For this piece I alternate between empty patterns where what you hear is only what I play in real time and patterns where I recorded MIDI data, while filming the movie.

M is an old application I first had for Atari. It was given to me by
Joel Chadabe when I visited him in Albany, NY at Intelligent Music, a pioneering software house of which he was president. That day (December 1989) I met also Richard Lainhart (at the time IM’s technical director) and Eric Ameres (who had ported M to the Atari ST platform).

DisMLosphereMidAs

After all these years M (version 2.7.2) is still compatible with Mac OS 10.6 (Snow Leopard) and able to exchange data from Disarray and to Logic Pro even though the set up is a little flaky.

DisMLosphereEnv1

I wonder if upcoming releases of Mac OSX will allow the sharing of data among applications or if Apple will make Macs behave as overgrown iPhones where apps have their own data that they don't share with others.

I had already created a piece using M in a microtonal environment in 2007. It’s called
AlgoXenoJazz. There is also a movie showing similar techniques here and a forum post where I explain a few things about this piece.