mahaberio

Hello All,
There is a piece I'd really like to perform on a recital I have coming up and it requires something rather bizarre. The work is an improvisatory piece for trumpet and computer in which pictures on a screen that make sounds are manipulated by the sounds of the improvised trumpet part. If that doesn't make sense you can watch a video of the a part of the piece here:

http://hosting.zkm.de/wmuench/sf_tale

Click on "video." Anyway, the computer and visuals aren't the bizarre part. What's bizarre is that the program recognizes the trumpet sounds through midi input. I've talked to several people who have experience in electronic media including my computer music professor here at the conservatory and no one can seem to help me get this working. So, my question is, does anyone know how to input midi through a microphone? On the video he is simply playing and it is recognizing it somehow, so I know it's possible. I've emailed both the composer and the programmer and neither has gotten back to me. If anyone is really interested, I can send you the program and you can doodle around with it yourself. Thanks for any help.

-Matthew

tpter1

Reading the info, what I get from it, is that the comuter graphics generated are not reactions to the trumpet but are instead notational suggestions.

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NickD

You can get converters that will convert audio to digital and then to midi. They've been around for a while. Guitar player's ues them. Try the Music Center of Kenosha for some ideas.

http://www.musiccenterinc.com/main.php

Talk to Tom Merit and drop my name. He SHOULD remember me. I've certainly spent enough up there over the years!

Nick

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mahaberio

Well, the instructions on the the program give certain pitches for the trumpet to play and what happens when they're played. For example "X" note centers all of the objects. If you watch the video on the second part, dots will appear or disappear with as a reaction to certain notes.

CGUM

Yeah, there is a way to do this. I did a piece where by blowing air into a mic proccesed by max/msp I could affect what sounds occured. I think the reaktor program and also in max/msp you could do something. Though sight unseen I don't know if you would need that, or if you can just send a signal into the program. If you didn't show him the program when you taked to him I would do that. If not I don't know.

Good luck,
CG

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ecarroll

maha,

All of the advise above is good (I have reaktor and max/msp and use them constantly in the work that we do at CalArts). You had better be in touch with the composer/programmer, however. I've found that each program has it's own characteristic(s). If there was a "one size fits all" way to do this it would be much more common.

Improv from graphics has been around since the 60s, as you probably know, and is great fun.

Good luck and keep at it! If you can, load a few minutes of your result onto your webpage for us to hear?
EC

mahaberio

Thanks for all the help. I'l try to load some of the video after the recital. The performance isn't until October 26 but I'll keep everybody up-to-date if you're interested.

bigtiny

If this piece relies on the input trumpet note being represented as a MIDI note, then you will need a device called a 'pitch to midi converter'.

Max/msp could be used to build a conversion program (or patcher in max/msp parlance)....

Your trumpet would play into a mic (or pickup), which would be plugged into an audio interface for your computer, which would do analog-to-digital conversion. The Max/msp patcher would presumably detect the pitch that you've played, then send out the appropriate MIDI note(s) to whatever you have MIDI'd to the computer (which in this case would probably be another computer running the program that manipulates the video)...

Hope this helps,

bigtiny

CGUM

I was messing around with the program for a few minutes just a little while ago. And I was playing with the thermodynamics game. I need to do a little more experimenting, ie hooking it up to a midi control and not using the mouse as a controler but midi, but if it goes as I think it would it shouldn't be too difficult to set up. The one with black circle being chased by the other circles looks like it would translate well into use with trumpet. anyways I just wanted to know if you had gotten any info from the creators.

Keep us posted.

CG

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mahaberio

Thanks for all the help everyone. I apologize for not keeping up on everything. I just got back into the country yesterday and I didn't have much internet access when I was away.