Ken Hyder - incidently, the magic of this release is still working for me. Even after all the development and testing, and knowing it really is different each time, when the record arrived in its cover, I just had to take it out and play it of course.


And I'm still listening and asking myself : "What was that? I don't remember that." The combinations of tracks are fresh and spontaneous.


It even has a "live" feel.

 

Hello Ken and friends,
well, you told me that I can ask questions on your blog... Here I go:
what is that really do this software? Remix the entire cd every time, song to song or the whole work? Put the clarinet on track 1 together with the dungur from track 4 and voice from track 6, for example? It changes too volumes, eq, pan, effects like reverb, compression, etc, applying different parameters every time? It changes everything every time, and on a no aleatory way? Thanks for the explanation! / Ángel
 

Hi. I don't really think of it in terms of remixing, it's more fundamental than that. I would say the software is set up to make choices. Some of the choices are between audio files, and different versions of the same audio files. Other choices are about volume and when to play the file. You can restrict these choices in different ways, like say at a certain point it has to play one or another of just 2 files. But in another place it could bring in a file at any moment within a specified time-span that could be quite long. So when it starts to be fun is when you start nesting choices within other choices. That's when you get to the very interesting point of being able to vary the type of variation.
But again, to move it away from the remixing idea, the software does not in fact do live sound processing as such, it doesn't add reverb or compression or any of those things. So most of the time the raw material is in fact 'raw'. If it's not it's because we prepared a processed version of that material in advance and gave the software the choice between which version to use where.
Tim
 

Hi Angel. You'll get the simple answer from me - but maybe something more detailed from Tim Hodgkinson or Andy Wilson who was the guy who set it all up for us and made it possible.

Basically each "play" lasts about 20 minutes. The software is given some instructions each time and the whole piece is effectively set up before it plays - in the same way as if you had a multi-track screen shot from Logic or Pro Tools or Acid, say.

There are dozens and dozens of tracks to choose from. But we think of the tracks in categories. Some might be acoustic...solo...interventions (a big noise)...loops...almost complete pieces....live tracks etc etc.

So the play might have, say an acoustic feel, and the instructions might be something like take any two of the following 7 tracks, and play them together for such and such duration...after x seconds bring in one of the following 4 intervention-type tracks.

And so on and so on.

When we experimented in the beginning, we got a lot of tracks up, but because the choice was too wide, and we used a lot of tracks at the same time, although it WAS different each time, it sounded similar.

That's when we started thinking of identifying different sounds and tracks in a particular way.

Ken
 

I understand... It seems as you have created a powerful tool. Could be interesting to try some complex scored composition with the possibilities of the software in mind. Difficult, or better said laborious, but the obtained result could be spectacular.
Or interacting music with images: you say that you can use also the software for video, I suppose that is this possible too?
Thanks Ken, I suppose that I'll be informed through myspace when ready to buy/download or whatever you will want to do with the software in the future...
Please keep me informed,
Cheers / Ángel
 

Andy Wilson (Infinity programmer) here. Angel - the basic idea was precisely to make software that interprets a score. The score consists of a series of choices (do this or that, if that happens, do the other, if it doesn't happen, then do the fourth thing... and so on.) The program cycles between the scores, playing them in order (and remembering which was the last you played, so that when you start up the program it goes to the next in turn.
) Given the above information, it might be interesting for a user to speculate precisely how many scores there are in total (A few, with a wide range of possible interpretations? A lot, each with only a narrow scope for interpretation?)

On most interpretations of most scores, playback of the score will last something around 20 mins. Each time around, the score will be interpreted differently, in terms of the general course of the interpretation and some of the details too. Each play of the same score is different to the last but also, hopefully, shares enough in common for it to constitute it an interpretation of the *same* score.


The idea for Infinity began when Tim Hodgkinson was describing the general form of KSpace improvisations - the implicit rules that govern the practice of their improvisation - and it was obvious that those rules could be partially embodied in software in order to produce at least an interesting variation on the original process. Infinity tries to embody certain combinatory rules that might be used in a live KSpace improvisation.


Factors that might vary in successive interpretations of any score include the order and timing of events, which of a series of alternate versions of the same musical 'event' are used, and the dynamics of any event might also also change.


It would be trivially easy to connect the compositional choices with changes in images / graphics / video streams, but debateable as to whether that would improve the experience.
Sometimes less is more ;-)
 

I see... Yes, frequently less is more, but is interesting to know what is the real potential of the software.

Thanks for your explanatory message, Andy. As it seems that I'll be in contact with Ken in the next future, I suppose that I'll be informed about the future of the software. It's very very interesting, perhaps you are opening a door...
All my best / Á.

 

There'll be an article about Ken and Infinity in The Herald arts magazine tomorrow (Saturday 6th September), so if you live in Scotland be sure to check it out. For those who don't - or are too mean to buy a paper (usually that'll be me!) - I'll post a link to it here once it's online.