I use two stand-alone systems that are used just for synthesis. Control comes from a central hub (midi->CV). I use two sometimes three Encore expressionist converters.
There are three ingredients to control: midi sequences from Logic, keyboard input, and a suite of Max tools, mostly binary operators. The Max stuff relies on custom externals so it’s difficult to imagine how to “port” any of this to the modular world, unless I build my own modules.
I reshape the sequences and their relationships algorithmically by playing the keyboard. Roles of keyboard/sequence inputs can be exchanged so I can set up one sequence that transforms another sequence. I sometimes create complex “chains” operating over multiple time scales so at this point it starts to be an interactive, generative composition framework.
Synthesis is primarily at each instrument based on duophony, even if I use only one of the voices. Usually one voice is delayed but shares or inverts some characteristics of the first.
I’ve gotten rid of all outboard effects and don’t use anything except the reverbs in Logic (Valhalla, mostly) and one phaser plugin I made. The “duophony” removes the need for delay/filtering effects, because one can create the relation directly among the voices.
Anyway, one of my main goals was to play the entire studio like a folk instrument … create “in the moment” – so sequencing, patching etc. has to be very simple. The juxtaposition: generative algorithms and folk music. That was the initial impetus. ,So I don’t do much with modular sequencing, sample looping, and much that is standard now in the Eurorack world, it’s too complex for me right now.
An irony is that while I can create a track or “jam”, basically live, the whole apparatus is so fragile and non-portable, with time-consuming setup (things also need to be periodically re-calibrated/re-tuned) that I’m basically hopeless in terms of performing live. Also, “performance” sets up an expectation of presencing that I am trying to avoid.
Actually, what I’ve found is something very different, and far more interesting than “in the moment”. “In the moment” suggests that I would be able to do something very different each time, based on a whim or feeling. Do whatever the authentic self desires, shape the music according to command. But in fact (I suspect) I keep repeating much the same patterns (in every aspect: patching, sequencing, playing), but “from scratch” so that the joy of discovery and delight in the “thisness” of the sound is always there. When the process works there is no generality, no going through the motions that dulls the force of repetition.
What I’ve done is not “in the moment” because there is no “presencing”, no naked, authentic self one puts on display. It’s simply the entire history of repetitions upon repetitions, that carries things across to the next repetition.
What I have done is avoided representational thinking. Apart from bare necessities (laying out equipment, setting up Logic environment, writing code for Max) nothing else is written down, only a bare minimum cast in terms of any theory. Above all… no plan! Instead, memory is preserved in the repetitions themselves rather than some abstract/symbolic system. Memory is externalized physically in my body, in the equipment, in the patch cables, in the music itself, in the ways that these unfold across each repetition.
If one accepts Bataille’s claim, “the animal is in the world like water in water”, perhaps I approach an animal relation to music [at least I hope so!] And by re-inscribing memory in the lifeworld, experiencing an open/receptive relation to various “persons” that are the control surfaces, sound sources, and algorithms all acting within music perhaps I approach an animistic relation, devoid of any desire or command. Perhaps this is radical immanence, working as it does only within itself.
One hopes to have produced a new kind of thought, not simply perform again the tired “presencing” of the authentic artist behind the work…
Now I should say this is all very ideal, I am in practice far from ideal… always some bugs to be worked out, always terribly inadequate to any of these tasks. Always falling back on a bit more representation than necessary, and letting self-doubt and ego intervene in the worst moments. But this is how I see my current development.
