Twitter has been (rightfully, in many cases) maligned as a distraction, but at times the “microblog” can keep us connected in smaller bits of time, not larger. People read while something is rendering, when they feel a bit lonely or distracted to begin with (a bit like taking work to a virtual coffee shop), while they’re in line at the grocery looking at their phone. And for the bedroom- and studio-based music maker, Twitter reveals something of what the future might be like. Twitter itself can sometimes prove too unstructured to be useful, but that one service aside, it demonstrates that we can find ways of being connected to other music makers in new ways – ways that have probably only just begun to evolve.

Yesterday I looked at why I thought Imogen Heap was doing Twitter right – both as a model to follow, and a chance to see her as an artist in a different light. But I also hoped to hear who readers here might be following. In the informal tradition of “Follow Friday,” here’s a look at a few of those people.

Side note: I’ve actually gotten a whole lot of useful stuff from Twitter – it’s allowed me to keep connected to people I might otherwise lose touch with, and I’ve gotten great news leads and project stories out of it as a writer. I’ve gotten more technical help than musical – but that’s also helped me fix the technical stuff with servers and the like so I can get on with music and visuals. I have a mile-long list of complaints about how I think this sort of thing could work better, but – well, I’ve been online since the days when I had a 1200-baud modem. There’s always hope for change. Oh, and TweetDeck is the best client for processing information productively; I’m just waiting for multi-account support.

Reader Tips for this Week

The first two here also tour with Imogen Heap, but are great musicians themselves (with terrific accompanying solo careers). The last two take us another direction, thanks to one of CDM’s Twitter followers.

Zoe Keating, suggested by Tim/newmusicmonday in comments
Bio: “cello, computers, pancakes.” (great line)
Sample tweet: “mix, tweak, mix, listen, rest, mix, tweak, mix, re-record, listen, rest, go to post office, mix, mix, mix.”
Website | http://twitter.com/zoecello

Levi Weaver, also suggested by Tim
Bio: I’m always doing at least 3 things Ed.: hint – one of those is making great music
Sample tweet: “Just avoided RyanAir baggage fees the same way I used to try to make spankings not hurt as a child: Books down the back of my pants.”
Website | http://twitter.com/leviweaver

Todd Reynolds, the superstar violinist
Bio: Digital Violinist and Global Music Citizen and Advocate. Teacher.
Sample tweet: “If there is one thing that I learn over and over again in music, it’s that simplicity, when embraced, opens a straight shot to the core.”
MySpace | http://twitter.com/digifiddler

Steve Lawson, suggested by @MKS21471
Bio: “Bass 2.0 – musician, webbist, uni lecturer on music and technology, bass teacher, music journo… one of life’s enthusiasts. :o) ”
Sample tweet: “Wordpress nerds, what CHMOD settings do I need to have files uploadable to the server etc. but still be secure?” (hey, I told you this is part of what Twitter is useful for)
Website | http://twitter.com/solobasssteve

Steve’s blog, by the way, is full of tips on social media (still hate the term, but the idea is good). http://www.stevelawson.net/wordpress/

Regular Information Sources

Other active Twitter feeds I follow:
@stretta – of monome fame, “Graphic Designer. Musician. Tea snob.”
@Chris_Randall – of Audio Damage / Analog Industries
@podcasting_news – James Lewin on both his podcasting site and the prolific Synthtopia; expect a lot of tweets (but you won’t have to dig through RSS)
@wesen – for beats and powerful geeking on new projects like the Mididuino
@serial_consign – Greg Smith on digital media, culture, theory
MarkMosher is doing all sorts of things, Web and musical, including running the ModulateThis blog
@MusicThing – the blog is gone, but Music Thing lives on as Tom tweets

Modular Friends, Ableton Tips

Twitter is in everyone’s thoughts, this week, it seems. (Perhaps the perfect medium for a sagging economy?)

stretta himself rounds up a fantastic list of Twitter feeds, with an emphasis on modular synths.

As noted by Wire to the Ear (and note Oliver Chesler’s feed, too):
AbletonTweets, entirely unofficial tips on Live

Me

Oh, yeah:
The blog feed – more CDM business, CDM headlines
(I found it made sense to separate the two.)

Do say hi, and since I’ve lost track of who’s following them, send a @shout at me and I’ll take notice of you!

Micromusicblogging?

But what if Twitter really does seem like just a distraction? Could quick blog entries make you more productive musically, and help you share what you’re doing with others?

Dan Gillespie is trying a microblog concept in his own work: “MicroSong,” tagline, “publish your process.” It’s a bit like a musical tumbleblog – but only about the music, not the various Web distractions one finds online. He writes:

I’m hoping to have a couple friends and local artists come on and share their process when song writing and music making, this has always been the fun part for me.

Like I said, it’s just starting up, but it’s cool to see other people thinking the same sort of things. Maybe I’ll have to hook up with twitter as well.

microsong.blogspot.com

And yes, before someone steps in and says it, of course all of these are an additional drain of precious time. But then, that to me is the point – and it’s a good thing. Some of these ideas will prove to be distractions. But if you can find an approach where the benefit is worth the input, you’re likely to stumble upon something that’s efficient, that makes sense to you.

Let us know how it all works out, okay, Internets?

And, nope, this list isn’t close to comprehensive. That’s where you come in.

Film/TV composers have a particular interest here on CDM in that they tend to think creatively about style, instrumentation, and sound in their work and have to meld one technology (music) with another (film). It’s Friday night, so having resisted this long, I can no longer avoid mentioning Galactica. Composer Bear McCreary, who has scored the Battlestar Galactica TV series, has a blog going in which he talks about his music and some of the instruments featured in the show’s eclectic (and often surprisingly ethnic) sound textures:

For tonight’s episode, McCreary blogs his featured violinist, Paul Cartwright, whose electric violin is largely responsible for the signature sound of the show. CDM readers I think will especially like his bag o’ covet-worthy gear, including a tube amp and set of stompboxes any guitarist would love to have, let alone a violinist. The small tube amp is especially interesting to me, because one of the challenges of electric violin is softening out the tone, both to distinguish it from just sounding like a guitar or, at the opposite extreme, being too harsh. I love the analog approach, and there’s still plenty to be learned if you’re a computer-toting violinist (and, of course, I wouldn’t be the person I am if I didn’t point out computers can be great fun with violins, too).

Bear McCreary blog (erm, blog in a sort of mid-90s, stuck in frames sense — no RSS — but well worth reading!)

Bear McCreary is an interesting composer in general, a young, rising star in a hyper-competitive field. He’s a USC grad and Elmer Bernstein protege, obviously a fan of Philip Glass (yes, that isn’t just music that sounds like Glass on Galactica, it is actually Glass excerpts), and has scored other TV and movies, including The Alamo. Galactica is clearly his major claim to fame now, and not just because of the sci-fi fanboys; without his music setting the stone I doubt Galactica would have become the breakout hit it is. Interestingly, McCreary breaks from the usual composer stereotype by making his primary instrument the accordion.

Richard Gibbs deserves credit for scoring the original Sci Fi Channel miniseries, and I think it says something about both composers that the music of one segues perfectly into the music of the other. Gibbs has a long history of credits, arguably the coolest being The Simpsons series 1. Gibbs music is responsible for producing the initial character of the show, and his musical cues surface throughout the series (much as Alexander Courage created a series of leitmotifs for Star Trek). He managed to score the severity of the initial Cylon attack while keeping the world fantastic and not just, well, depressing, which is an accomplishment for a show that begins with mass-scale destruction and death.

The miniseries and TV soundtracks for the show aren’t available on iTunes or the various Windows Media stores so don’t look. The record label has free MP3 downloads of a lot of the main tracks (excerpts only, of course), and if you like it enough to get one or all three CDs, Amazon will hook you up. International readers can buy direct from the label.

La La Land Records Official Pages (with downloadable MP3 samples, though be prepared to want more if you’re a fan …)
Miniseries Soundtrack
Season One Soundtrack
Season Two Soundtrack

Buy the CDs from Amazon:
Battlestar Galactica Miniseries
Battlestar Galactica: Season One
Battlestar Galactica: Season 2

Of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t also mention the long legacy of Battlestar Galactica soundtracks. The 1978 series and pilot movie featured a score by Stu Phillips, the composer who gave us Knight Rider and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. Series creator Glen Larson even contributed music and co-wrote the Galactica theme song, one of the few theme songs that may ultimately have had more notoriety than the actual show, especially when a certain Italian keyboardist came on the scene. Giorgio Moroder produced his own cover album of Galactica-inspired music, with this cover, which proves that obviously he and his cover artist were watching a very different show than the rest of us:

The art is by someone named Winston Taylor. Anyone out there who can shed light on who that is? Anyway, Moroder’s album wound up becoming a club legend, and now the original show has pretty much been eclipsed by everything else that bears its name. What have we learned? You can’t release a really awesome electronic album without a space babe like this on the cover. And if you remake old shows (ahem, Lost in Space), go for awesomeness rather than camp.

Amplifying violins — and processing them with bizarre Max/MSP patches using mics and pickups and gyroscope bows — is no longer a major challenge. But it wasn’t always so. Early recordings of violins faced the challenge of the fragile sound of the instrument. Builders like John Matthias Augustus Stroh devised a primitive but effective solution: attach a horn to the instrument. The results are nothing if not wacky, and they reveal a lot about how instruments and technology evolve over time. I’d love to see more of this thinking in modern digital instruments, and violin/horn mash-ups seem even more compelling creatively now. They’re begging for a digital rendition.

Benedict Anthony Heaney has written up a short history of these now-unfamiliar instruments:

STROH/HORN-VIOLINS, 1899-1949 [Digital Violin]

For more assorted information on violins, players, and recordings on a site of somewhat archaic and mysterious design, see the rest of Mr. Heaney’s Digital Violin site — start with the data link.

Custom electric violin builder E.F. Keebler goes a little over the top with instruments like his Inferno. Pimp my violin, indeed: this is the first acoustic instrument I’ve ever seen that I can confidently say is NOT street legal. Take a look at these specs:

1. 79 LEDs in the fingerboard in a flame pattern, reponsive to motion and playing
2. 92 LEDs on the side for a flickering-flame effect, also responsive to music
3. 12 additional flame lights
4. Custom flame shell with custom engraving and airbrushing
5. Pewter sculpted devil’s head, designed by the late fantasy artist James Lane Casey
6. Laser-powered eyes and a spark-shooting mouth

E.F. Keebler Violins

You’ll pay a few grand for all the options, but it’s not just for show: Keebler’s designs are customized for playability, too. But, for you DIY types, you just have to appreciate the guts inside:

That’s just the beginning: electric violins are a must-have for music students, rockers, and (for some reason) crossover classical women wearing latex catsuits:

Viva, Violin Electrico!

Builder Mark Wood manufactures custom electric violins for a slightly broader audience, ranging from more traditional models to 7-stringed electric rocker ‘lins. Mark has his own electric violin-fronted rock band that tours with the likes of the Trans Siberian Orchestra, though he’s also been known to play duets with Celine Dion.

Most interestingly, though, Wood is taking an evangelical method about violins in general (electric and otherwise) to students, through his Electrify Your Strings program. And as it happens, today’s kids love 80s rocker dude chic. (Why not? The guy looks like he’s having a great time, and the kids catch on.)

CBS Evening News Video: A Music Teacher’s Revolution

Of course, there’s also the phenomenon of custom electric violins being fashion accessories for crossover violinists like the members of Wild, as seen below. But I can’t argue with an instrument that looks good with your catsuit, if that’s how you roll. If nothing else, I’m sure these women will shatter the long-haired rocker with electric violin image.

Izzy, seen here, has gone from being a Fiddler on the Roof to getting a scholarship at the Royal Academy of Music. But damnit, Izzy, the lens flare from your violin is blinding me! (Now, all I find disappointing is that these electric violinists haven’t connected with some spacier sounds to go with their instruments.)

More Violin Tech

When it rains, it pours violin stories:

Stroh’s Strange, Early 20th Century Horn-Violins; â€Å“Digital Violinâ€Â? Resource

Expanding the Violin: Diana Young’s Sensor-packed Hyperbow (with discussion of just how you’d play a bow that’s packed with sensors, like the one pictured below)

16th Century Music Tech: 11-yo Sirena Huang on Design Marvel of Violin (The original and best, explored)

While it looks mostly like an ordinary bow, the Hyperbow is designed to electronically measure gestures and calculate force, speed, and bow-bridge distance, thanks to accelerometers, gyroscopes, and force sensors. The bow, designed by MIT Media Lab Ph.D. candidate Diana Young, began as a way to measure different bowing techniques. But combined with MIT’s Hyperviolin, the all-electronic/non-acoustic violin also developed by the MIT Media Lab, the bow can unleash new means of making music with violins. If you’ve seen this before, it’s because Young has been working on it for several years and presenting it as it develops; the Hyperviolin for its part has been played by the likes of Joshua Bell. Here, Diana Young is pictured with Hyperbow and Hyperviolin from earlier this summer. (Photo: Donna Coveney, MIT News.)

Grad student’s Hyperbow makes music to measure [MIT News]
ASA paper abstract [Acoustical Society of America]
Video and audio clips, Toy Symphony (Featuring Hyperviolin)

So, what do you think? Innovation or reinventing the … um …. bow?

We hear lots of discussion of how to make better digital instruments. But to fully understand instrument design, it’s often best to look at instruments from around the world that have evolved over centuries. (Hey, these synthesizers and such, by comparison, are mere infants.)

Here’s a fantastically virtuostic performance from 11 year-old Sirena Huang, via June Cohen on the TEDtalks blog. Following the music, she discusses in frank terms why the instrument is such a timeless design. She’s got a smart audience for such thoughts: the performance comes from the Technology, Entertainment, Design conference, a legendary gathering of “thinkers and doers”. And while Sirena feigns surprise that her violin would be included with “real” technology like an iPod, I think she recognizes the violin is the better design by far.

Embedding their videos doesn’t seem to work, so I suggest checking out the story directly:

Sirena Huang on TEDTalks [Video links and comments, TEDblog]

Thanks to our friend Matrix of Matrixsynth fame for this. The TEDblog has plenty of other music coverage, including a similarly virtuostic video of pianist Jennifer Lin, not to mention lots of other general cool tech and non-tech topics.

Notably, on the topic of violins, the blog has a mini review of the book Stradivari’s Genius by Tony Faber, exploring the history of the most famous of violins.

Will digital instruments ever match an instrument like the violin? I tend to look at it the other way: watching a great performance is as much about the player as it is the design of the instrument. Practice your favorite digital instrument for a lifetime, and see what happens. And keep in mind that “easier” isn’t always better. A violin is anything but intuitive, and sounds awful when you first play it.

Talk about digital technology and music, and people are often skeptical: doesn’t technology get in the way of making music? But technology and music have always been interwined, and even for advanced composers, better understanding the technology of how acoustic instruments work is fundamental to realizing musical ideas. Unfortunately, orchestration books, despite their best intentions, can be disastrous for composers trying to understand instruments. Books by definition can’t include musical examples, and the texts themselves are often divorced from real practical information.

Now the good news: the Web could offer an antidote.

Check out this extensive site put together by the Philharmonia Orchestra:

The Sound Exchange: The Orchestra: Instruments

This is not the “young person’s guide to the orchestra” it first appears: click through, and you’ll find practical, opinionated thoughts on real-world playing from the orchestra’s players. Imagine “textbooks” where real players talk about playing, instead of the lone voice of a theorist.

That’s not to slam tried-and-true orchestration references, and in fact, we could see those develop, as well. Gary Garritan is working on realizing a completely free version of the classic Rimsky-Korsakov Principles of Orchestration, to be released on the Garritan forums. This one will make use of Garritan’s virtual orchestra so you can hear and see all the examples. It’s something of a modern technical acheivement in itself, really, that you could make a software-only orchestra sound like a real one, an exercise in artificial orchestration. The results are due this month; I’ll let you know when they appear.

Online resources promise not only to be free, but to cover instruments left behind by mainstream commercial textbooks. The next time you’re writing for the viola da gamba, for instance, you might actually get some useful advice.

Found online compositional resources you like? Let us know in comments.

“The dream of a violin that can play itself has tantalized inventors for over a century.” Well . . . mad scientist inventors, maybe, along with dreams of self-cleaning carrots and ironing boards that can go into battle.

Nonetheless, here it is: I give you the Gulbransen Virtuoso Violin, a QRS Pianomation Player Violin. Put on a violin piece, and it sounds like the violin is really there — because it is. Ain’t no digital samples here, just a MIDI-controlled bow hacking away at a real violin.

List price, $20,000, but for some reason it’s at a fire sale bargain-basement discount bin price of US$12,500.

I’d love to feed it some unplayable Max/MSP patch, but they’ll have to let me get my hands on it first. And if there are audio samples there, I can’t get at them. Anyone else know about this bizarre invention? You’ll also find other instruments on the site, like the . . . hold on, this calls for another post. Thanks, LeMel!

Pop quiz: what instrument by pioneering “father of digital audio” (or, if you’d rather, “great-grandfather of Techno”) Max Mathews was featured on the cover of Playboy Magazine?

If you guessed the IBM 704 mainframe, the computer on which Mathews generated the first computer music the world ever heard, you’d be — wrong! Would that we were so lucky. I’m sure you hard-core geeks can imagine your favorite woman or man sprawled over those . . . crisp lines . . . cold, slab surfaces . . . humming away . . . see the 704 photos here and here.

The correct answer is, as shown, Mathews’ Electronic Violin, from the April 1998 Playboy. The player is a serious violinist named Linda Brava who, apparently, has an affinity for posing for soft-core violinist porn. Then again, if I were a blonde bombshell Finnish violinist, my publicity shots would probably involve me in lace-up boots, too. Brava has a hard-core violinist resume, but she really does play digital violins — not just for photo shoots.

But, in all seriousness, I don’t enjoy looking at Finnish violinist nearly as much as looking at IBM mainframes, especially as operated by serious-looking businesspeople in suits. So, for posterity, check out the real first digital musical instrument after the break (hit ‘read more’). Oh, sure, it was too slow for real-time digital audio and IBM discontinued it in 1960, but that hardly matters. 704 forever. Rock and roll!

My kind of porn below: never trust a computer you can lift.