.. title: Darmstadt 2016
.. date: 2016-09-27 22:00 UTC+02:00
.. modified: 2016-09-28 22:00 UTC+02:00
.. tags: darmstadt, supercollider, bowelyzer, neue musik, annesley black, tolerance stacks, international summer courses for new music
.. category: events
.. slug: darmstadt-2016
.. summary: I created a SuperCollider based audio analysis tool for a piece by |website-annesley_black|, that was premiered at the |48th_international_summer_courses_for_new_music| in Darmstadt.
.. authors: David Runge

Summer courses
______________

| In its 48th edition, the |international_summer_courses_for_new_music| were taking place in Darmstadt this year with a wide |international_summer_courses_for_new_music-program|.
| Initiated just after World War II by Wolfgang Steinecke (then head of Department of Arts and Culture, in a city that was pretty much completely destroyed during the war), the |wiki-darmstadt_school| has risen to glory not only because of its famous seminarists such as Karlheinz Stockhausen, but mainly because of its diversity, international flavor and rehabilitation of art that was tainted by the Third Reich.
| I am happy to have been a part of this year's spectacle, although I didn't really see much aside from the rehearsals and premiere of the piece I came to help establish: |tolerance_stacks| by |website-annesley_black|.

.. TEASER_END

Tolerance Stacks
________________
| Annesley's piece is a very funny and diverse multi-channel multimedia experience, that got its name from the process of decaying electronic parts, that change their behavior over time, in turn changing the workflow of the system they are used in (by |wiki-tolerance_analysis| of the parts).
| She was confronted with this undesired behavior while trying to get old music gear of |wiki-hermann_heiss| fixed during research on the late |wiki-twelve-tone_technique| and |wiki-electronic_music| composer. Initially, some of his synthesizers were meant to be used in the piece, but in the end only two |wiki-teac| tape machines made their way into it, as the rest was unrepairable.
| |tolerance_stacks| (try the |tolerance_stacks-german| for a better description and biographies) gives a funky perspective on these *relics from the olden days* by commenting with historical markerpoints, rap, unconventional tools (|wiki-etch_a_sketch|) and instruments (ideogrammophon, no-input-mixer, turntables), constant positional changes of the musicians, alongside a very neat video projection by |website-lutz_garmsen|, showcasing the bowels of old machines and tools.
|

Collidin'
_________
| While the musicians involved did a very fine job rehearsing the piece in such a short amount of time, a pressure project like this obviously leads to friction, which luckily is released after the premiere has taken place.
| I for my part had a relatively relaxed job behind the mixing desk, as I monitored a piece of software I wrote to feed Lutz's |website-vvvv| with |wiki-osc| messages derived from the various audio inputs coming from musicians and microphones.
| As a little inside joke I baptized this |website-supercollider| application |bowelyzer|. It is able to monitor up to *n* channels (also *n* times each) and send |wiki-osc| messages depending on the settings you choose. It uses |abbr_json| for saving and loading its settings.
| These are the settings we used for |tolerance_stacks|:

  .. code:: javascript

    {
      "forwardAddress": "192.168.2.2",
      "forwardPort": 9998,
      "hubAddress": "127.0.0.1",
      "hubPort": 57120,
      "synthServerAddress": "127.0.0.1",
      "synthServerPort": 57110,
      "controls": {
        "Comp": {
          "active": true,
          "amplitudeAttackTime": 0.01,
          "amplitudeReleaseTime": 0.1,
          "freqRange": [ 100, 14000 ],
          "hfFoote": 0,
          "hfHainsworth": 1,
          "hfThreshold": 0.3,
          "hfWaitTime": 0.04,
          "onlyForwardOnNewPitch": false,
          "pitchAmpThreshold": 0.01,
          "pitchDownSample": 1,
          "pitchExecFreq": 100,
          "pitchInitFreq": 440,
          "pitchMaxBinsPerOctave": 16,
          "pitchMaxFreq": 14000,
          "pitchMedian": 1,
          "pitchMinFreq": 80,
          "pitchPeakThreshold": 0.5,
          "sendReplyFreq": 20
        },
        "Drms": {
          "active": true,
          "amplitudeAttackTime": 0.01,
          "amplitudeReleaseTime": 0.093,
          "freqRange": [ 60, 16000 ],
          "hfFoote": 0,
          "hfHainsworth": 1,
          "hfThreshold": 0.3,
          "hfWaitTime": 0.04,
          "onlyForwardOnNewPitch": false,
          "pitchAmpThreshold": 0.16,
          "pitchDownSample": 1,
          "pitchExecFreq": 100,
          "pitchInitFreq": 440,
          "pitchMaxBinsPerOctave": 16,
          "pitchMaxFreq": 14000,
          "pitchMedian": 1,
          "pitchMinFreq": 60,
          "pitchPeakThreshold": 0.5,
          "sendReplyFreq": 20
        },
        "Ideo": {
          "active": true,
          "amplitudeAttackTime": 0.01,
          "amplitudeReleaseTime": 0.1,
          "freqRange": [ 60, 14000 ],
          "hfFoote": 0,
          "hfHainsworth": 1,
          "hfThreshold": 0.3,
          "hfWaitTime": 0.04,
          "onlyForwardOnNewPitch": false,
          "pitchAmpThreshold": 0.01,
          "pitchDownSample": 1,
          "pitchExecFreq": 100,
          "pitchInitFreq": 440,
          "pitchMaxBinsPerOctave": 16,
          "pitchMaxFreq": 14000,
          "pitchMedian": 1,
          "pitchMinFreq": 60,
          "pitchPeakThreshold": 0.5,
          "sendReplyFreq": 20
        },
        "Moog": {
          "active": true,
          "amplitudeAttackTime": 0.01,
          "amplitudeReleaseTime": 0.1,
          "freqRange": [ 30, 16000 ],
          "hfFoote": 0,
          "hfHainsworth": 1,
          "hfThreshold": 0.3,
          "hfWaitTime": 0.04,
          "onlyForwardOnNewPitch": false,
          "pitchAmpThreshold": 0.01,
          "pitchDownSample": 1,
          "pitchExecFreq": 100,
          "pitchInitFreq": 440,
          "pitchMaxBinsPerOctave": 16,
          "pitchMaxFreq": 16000,
          "pitchMedian": 1,
          "pitchMinFreq": 30,
          "pitchPeakThreshold": 0.5,
          "sendReplyFreq": 20.1
        },
        "NIM": {
          "active": true,
          "amplitudeAttackTime": 0.01,
          "amplitudeReleaseTime": 0.1,
          "freqRange": [ 60, 13000 ],
          "hfFoote": 0,
          "hfHainsworth": 1,
          "hfThreshold": 0.3,
          "hfWaitTime": 0.04,
          "onlyForwardOnNewPitch": false,
          "pitchAmpThreshold": 0.01,
          "pitchDownSample": 1,
          "pitchExecFreq": 100,
          "pitchInitFreq": 440,
          "pitchMaxBinsPerOctave": 16,
          "pitchMaxFreq": 13000,
          "pitchMedian": 1,
          "pitchMinFreq": 60,
          "pitchPeakThreshold": 0.5,
          "sendReplyFreq": 20
        },
        "Pub": {
          "active": true,
          "amplitudeAttackTime": 0.01,
          "amplitudeReleaseTime": 0.01,
          "freqRange": [ 150, 16000 ],
          "hfFoote": 0,
          "hfHainsworth": 1,
          "hfThreshold": 0.3,
          "hfWaitTime": 0.04,
          "onlyForwardOnNewPitch": false,
          "pitchAmpThreshold": 0.04,
          "pitchDownSample": 1,
          "pitchExecFreq": 100,
          "pitchInitFreq": 440,
          "pitchMaxBinsPerOctave": 16,
          "pitchMaxFreq": 12000,
          "pitchMedian": 1,
          "pitchMinFreq": 60,
          "pitchPeakThreshold": 0.5,
          "sendReplyFreq": 20
        },
        "Revox": {
          "active": true,
          "amplitudeAttackTime": 0.01,
          "amplitudeReleaseTime": 0.1,
          "freqRange": [ 63.25, 12000 ],
          "hfFoote": 0,
          "hfHainsworth": 1,
          "hfThreshold": 0.3,
          "hfWaitTime": 0.04,
          "onlyForwardOnNewPitch": false,
          "pitchAmpThreshold": 0.01,
          "pitchDownSample": 1,
          "pitchExecFreq": 100,
          "pitchInitFreq": 440,
          "pitchMaxBinsPerOctave": 16,
          "pitchMaxFreq": 14000,
          "pitchMedian": 1,
          "pitchMinFreq": 60,
          "pitchPeakThreshold": 0.5,
          "sendReplyFreq": 20
        },
        "Sax1": {
          "active": true,
          "amplitudeAttackTime": 0.01,
          "amplitudeReleaseTime": 0.184,
          "freqRange": [ 100, 10000 ],
          "hfFoote": 0,
          "hfHainsworth": 1,
          "hfThreshold": 0.3,
          "hfWaitTime": 0.04,
          "onlyForwardOnNewPitch": false,
          "pitchAmpThreshold": 0.11,
          "pitchDownSample": 1,
          "pitchExecFreq": 100,
          "pitchInitFreq": 440,
          "pitchMaxBinsPerOctave": 16,
          "pitchMaxFreq": 10000,
          "pitchMedian": 1,
          "pitchMinFreq": 100,
          "pitchPeakThreshold": 0.5,
          "sendReplyFreq": 20
        },
        "Sax2": {
          "active": true,
          "amplitudeAttackTime": 0.01,
          "amplitudeReleaseTime": 0.139,
          "freqRange": [ 60, 14000 ],
          "hfFoote": 0,
          "hfHainsworth": 1,
          "hfThreshold": 0.3,
          "hfWaitTime": 0.04,
          "onlyForwardOnNewPitch": false,
          "pitchAmpThreshold": 0.17,
          "pitchDownSample": 1,
          "pitchExecFreq": 100,
          "pitchInitFreq": 440,
          "pitchMaxBinsPerOctave": 16,
          "pitchMaxFreq": 11000,
          "pitchMedian": 1,
          "pitchMinFreq": 200,
          "pitchPeakThreshold": 0.5,
          "sendReplyFreq": 20
        },
        "Sop": {
          "active": true,
          "amplitudeAttackTime": 0.01,
          "amplitudeReleaseTime": 0.184,
          "freqRange": [ 100, 12000 ],
          "hfFoote": 0,
          "hfHainsworth": 1,
          "hfThreshold": 0.3,
          "hfWaitTime": 0.04,
          "onlyForwardOnNewPitch": false,
          "pitchAmpThreshold": 0.05,
          "pitchDownSample": 1,
          "pitchExecFreq": 100,
          "pitchInitFreq": 440,
          "pitchMaxBinsPerOctave": 16,
          "pitchMaxFreq": 14000,
          "pitchMedian": 1,
          "pitchMinFreq": 100,
          "pitchPeakThreshold": 0.5,
          "sendReplyFreq": 20
        },
        "Ttb": {
          "active": true,
          "amplitudeAttackTime": 0.01,
          "amplitudeReleaseTime": 0.01,
          "freqRange": [ 50, 16000 ],
          "hfFoote": 0,
          "hfHainsworth": 1,
          "hfThreshold": 2.706,
          "hfWaitTime": 0.349,
          "onlyForwardOnNewPitch": false,
          "pitchAmpThreshold": 0.03,
          "pitchDownSample": 1,
          "pitchExecFreq": 100,
          "pitchInitFreq": 440,
          "pitchMaxBinsPerOctave": 16,
          "pitchMaxFreq": 16000,
          "pitchMedian": 1,
          "pitchMinFreq": 50,
          "pitchPeakThreshold": 0.5,
          "sendReplyFreq": 20
        }
      },
      "inputs": {
        "Comp": 1,
        "Drms": 15,
        "Ideo": 11,
        "Moog": 17,
        "NIM": 13,
        "Pub": 2,
        "Revox": 0,
        "Sax1": 10,
        "Sax2": 12,
        "Sop": 14,
        "Ttb": 16
      }
    }

| If you are interested, go and check out its |bowelyzer-about| page.
|
| So, while Lutz was sitting in front of the stage, dealing with a bunch of camera-enhanced |website-rpi3|, that in turns filmed parts of the musicians' work, |bowelyzer| sent its messages, which were used to morph and move the video pieces, over |abbr_lan|.
| In the meantime we were able to communicate through a local |website-etherpad| instance.
| Overall a very nice process, that got more visually interesting by the minute (although I must admit I liked the second performance's visuals the best).
|

Aftermath
_________
| The premiere has been recorded (video and audio) and there is a video in the making. As soon as I know more, I will post an update to this.
|

Sidestory
_________
| Me having less to do during the rehearsal process didn't mean less stress for me (apart from the programming marathon and the calibration process on-site).
| As soon as I got on the train in Berlin, I realized, that I had forgotten my power adaptor for my |wiki-lenovo_thinkpad_x220|.
| Luckily, this is a very common laptop and has an even more common power adaptor.
| So, instead of going crazy, I spent half an hour on the train to communicate with the nice folks at |website-chaos_darmstadt|, whose hackspace |website-trollhoehle| (|twitter-trollhoehle|) I wanted to visit anyways.
| Turns out, they have a heap of the power adaptors just lying around and their new spot was 100m away from |website-centralstation|, where |tolerance_stacks| was rehearsed and performed.
| This way I ended up with a borrowed power adaptor for my laptop, some nice acquaintences from one of the many |website-ccc| bubbles and a great spot to decompress. Thanks again, folks!
| If you're visiting Darmstadt, make sure to go by their space in the late afternoon/ evening. It's worth a peak.
|

.. |website-annesley_black| raw:: html

  <a href="http://www.editionjulianeklein.de/composers?composer_id=100001" target="_blank">Annesley Black</a>

.. |48th_international_summer_courses_for_new_music| raw:: html

  <a href="http://www.internationales-musikinstitut.de/en/" target="_blank">48th International Summer Courses for New Music</a>

.. |international_summer_courses_for_new_music| raw:: html

  <a href="http://www.internationales-musikinstitut.de/en/" target="_blank">International Summer Courses for New Music</a>

.. |international_summer_courses_for_new_music-program| raw:: html

  <a href="http://www.internationales-musikinstitut.de/en/program2016" target="_blank">program</a>

.. |tolerance_stacks| raw:: html

  <a href="http://www.internationales-musikinstitut.de/en/program2016/327-11-08-2016/1877-tolerance-stacks-en.html" target="_blank">Tolerance Stacks</a>

.. |wiki-darmstadt_school| raw:: html

  <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darmstadt_School" target="_blank">Darmstadt School</a>

.. |wiki-karlheinz_stockhausen| raw:: html

  <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karlheinz_Stockhausen" target="_blank">Karlheinz Stockhausen</a>

.. |wiki-tolerance_analysis| raw:: html

  <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tolerance_analysis" target="_blank">accumulating tolerances</a>

.. |wiki-hermann_heiss| raw:: html

  <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Heiss" target="_blank">Hermann Heiß</a>

.. |wiki-twelve-tone_technique| raw:: html

  <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve-tone_technique" target="_blank">Twelve-tone technique</a>

.. |wiki-electronic_music| raw:: html

  <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_music" target="_blank">Electronic music</a>

.. |wiki-teac| raw:: html

  <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TEAC_Corporation" target="_blank">TEAC</a>

.. |wiki-etch_a_sketch| raw:: html

  <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etch_A_Sketch" target="_blank">Etch A Sketch</a>

.. |website-lutz_garmsen| raw:: html

  <a href="http://www.oscilux.de/garmsen.html" target="_blank">Lutz Garmsen</a>

.. |tolerance_stacks-german| raw:: html

  <a href="http://www.internationales-musikinstitut.de/programm2016/327-11-08-2016/1876-tolerance-stacks.html" target="_blank">German version</a>

.. |website-vvvv| raw:: html

  <a href="https://vvvv.org/" target="_blank">vvvv</a>

.. |wiki-osc| raw:: html

  <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Sound_Control" target="_blank">OSC</a>

.. |website-supercollider| raw:: html

  <a href="http://supercollider.github.io" target="_blank">SuperCollider</a>

.. |bowelyzer| raw:: html

  <a href="../../software/bowelyzer/" target="_blank">bowelyzer</a>

.. |bowelyzer-about| raw:: html

  <a href="https://git.sleepmap.de/audio/bowelyzer.git/about" target="_blank">about</a>

.. |website-rpi3| raw:: html

  <a href="https://www.raspberrypi.org/products/raspberry-pi-3-model-b/" target="_blank">Raspberry Pi 3s</a>

.. |website-etherpad| raw:: html

  <a href="http://etherpad.org/" target="_blank">Etherpad</a>

.. |wiki-lenovo_thinkpad_x220| raw:: html

  <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ThinkPad_X_Series#X220" target="_blank">Lenovo Thinkpad X220</a>

.. |website-chaos_darmstadt| raw:: html

  <a href="https://www.chaos-darmstadt.de/" target="_blank">Chaos-Darmstadt</a>

.. |website-trollhoehle| raw:: html

  <a href="http://trollhoehle.net" target="_blank">Trollhöhle</a>

.. |twitter-trollhoehle| raw:: html

  <a href="https://twitter.com/trollhoehle" target="_blank">Twitter</a>

.. |website-centralstation| raw:: html

  <a href="http://www.centralstation-darmstadt.de/" target="_blank">Centralstation</a>

.. |website-ccc| raw:: html

  <a href="https://ccc.de" target="_blank">CCC</a>

.. |abbr_json| raw:: html

  <abbr title="Javascript Object Notation">JSON</abbr>

.. |abbr_lan| raw:: html

  <abbr title="Local Area Network">LAN</abbr>