About own compositions
- Commentary on Some Early Compositions
- The evolution of my approach to composition as found in some of my earlier pieces.
- About the Soundscape for 'The Mystery of the Maya'
- Structural outline and song text for Crossing the Dark Rift
- 'Crossing the Dark Rift': Whorls, Streams, Filligrees, Tubes and Tangles
- In Progress: Forthcoming article on the composition of this 32 min. soundscape using only CDP, which was written to accompany the exhibition of fabric art created by Pat Warrington called "The Mystery of the Maya".
Reference & Tutorial Documentation for CDP Software
(Available as free downloads from the CDP Website)
Reference
- CDP Reference & Tutorial Documentation
- Written and revised 1987-2002 for CDP's many sound transformation processes, with contributions from the program authors and additional tutorials by myself, Richard Dobson, Philippos Theocharidis, Robert Fraser, Trevor Wishart and Leigh Landy. These materials are bundled with the (free) CDP Software Package see http://www.unstablesound.net/CDP.
- CDP-Lite
- A topical introduction to CDP that focusses on key composition objectives: Colour a whole sound, Combine, Edit, Lengthen or Shorten, Rearrange, Reduce, Spatialise, Alter Time Within, Tune, and Transpose up/down or Glissando sounds.
Tutorial
- Getting Started with CDP in 12-Steps (= the '12-Step Tutorial')
- Basics of the CDP System illustrated with Command Line, Soundhsaper GUI and Sound Loom GUI examples.
- Dice Demo
- 6 worked examples, 5 drawn from his composition Crossing the Dark Rift and 1 illustrating pitch shapes linked with texture densities in Grainmill.
- 9 CDP Examples
- Examples for Filters, Distortion, Envelopes, Stretching, Morphs, Segmentation, Granulation, Tuning and Textures.
- A Drunk Tutorial
- On designing breakpoint files for CDP's 'Drunk' program. which was modelled on a Miller Puckette original.
- Multi-process Batch Files-PC
- An introduction to using the batch file mechanism to create template chains of sound transformation processes that can be used with different soundfile inputs.
Workshops
- Tutorial Workshop 1
- 9 Workshops with 179 worked sound examples; originally prepared for students at Wiltshire College Chippenham.
- Tutorial Workshop 2
- (a) 21 worked examples on how to compose with Trevor Wishart's Texture Set for CDP.
(b) An-depth study of transposition, shifting and (pitch-trace) combination options available within the CDP software.Other Writings
- 'CDP: A Musical Imperative', an article in Organised Sound 2(1), pp. 29-33. Cambridge University Press, 1997
- Describes the context for the origin of the Composers Desktop Project
- Obituary for Richard Orton.
- A personal recollection of his time and work with Richard.
- 'An Introduction to Cscore'
- An article about algorithmic programming using the Cscore facility of Csound. Published on the CD-ROM of the The Csound Book ed. Boulanger. The MIT Press, Cambridge, Mass., 2000
- A Workshop of Musical Art
- Presentation about 'micro-time-forms' presented at the 'Music Without Walls' Conference held at De Montfort University, Leicester, 2001, and also published on the CD-ROM of its proceedings. 'Micro-time-forms' are generic relationships that can be found in many different musical styles (including non-Western cultures). It aims "towards a dynamic and open way of thinking about form in music" and draws on my research into forms and relationships in music.
- Study Guide for Workshops in Sound Design
- Prepared for workshops in the Community, funded by Millenium Awards
- Shaping Moods
- A look at various musical features and how they might be used to create or reinforce certain moods and feelings.
- Overview of Sound/Music/Film Relationships
- A quick survey of different relationships: terminology, placement in time, sound effects and the role of music
- Image & Sound Relationships
- A reference chart that summarises a number of different ways in which the audio can relate to the visual and the story
- How to Shape Existing Sounds with LHC Data
- A comprehensive paper detailing the steps involved in sonifying numerical data, in this case simulated data from the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. It then describes a library of scripts with which to handle each step separately for maximum flexibility. The context of this library is to be able to build breakpoint files from the data with which to musicalise the data with sound transformation software (e.g., CDP). Finally this paper also describes a GUI with which to carry out the sonifications using the Csound synthesis engine.
- An Introduction to Sound Design: From Real to Imaginary Landscapes
- This paper describes a practical workshop in which participants make their own (group) recording and then see how it can evolve through sound transformation processing. Also see About Sound Design PPT
- Formative Decisions by CDP Founders
- An overview of the thinking that lay behind the creation of the Composers Desktop Project. Also see Decisions that formed CDP.ppt
Other Courses and Presentations
- Union College, Schenectady NY
- Courses on American music and 20th century music
Bingley College of Higher Education - Course in composition
- The Open University
- Facilitator for practical week on creating soundscapes
- University of York
- Lecture to Computer Science on creating software for sound design, and a course in the English department on Music and Text.
Willoughby Arts Club - Presentation on the composition of his Crossing the Dark Rift