[jmsl] Java Music Systems at Columbia, Final Projects by students Fall 2007

[jmsl at music.columbia.edu]

Java Music Systems at Columbia, Fall 2007
Final Projects by students
Nick Didkovsky - instructor

On Dec 4, 2007 Nick Didkovsky's Java Music Systems class at Columbia met 
for final project presentations.  
What follows is a summary of each student's work.  In some cases a URL 
to an Applet is included, and requires the JSyn plug-in ( 
http://www.softsynth.com/jsyn/plugins/ )

Ahmet Kizilay
PortFader Record Panel - an interactive JSyn performance instrument
In this project, I design a simple live performance tool in Java, using 
JSyn and JMSL libraries. The idea originally comes from a JSyn class 
called SoundTester, a class for testing SynthNotes. SoundTester displays 
the input ports of the SoundTester it contains and enables the user to 
change the values of these ports through the PortFaders. 
PortFaderRecorderPanel is a Panel in Java in which the user can load 
multiple SynthNotes and play them at the same time as well as change the 
parameters of individual SynthNotes, record these fader moves and play 
them back at different speeds.
A movie of Ahmet's final project is at 
http://www.algomusic.com/movies/AhmetKizilay/

Victor Adan
Music for Dot Matrix Printer
Victor used JMSL and Java serial library to send commands to a print 
head of a dot matrix printer.
JMSL's MusicJobs were used to schedule printer click patterns and are 
used to explore compositional textures in real-time.
A movie of Victor's final project is at 
http://www.algomusic.com/movies/VictorAdan/

Daniel Iglesia
Stochastic Model
For use in an installation, I created a JMSL system to create a 
continuous stream of MIDI data that was routed to an external 
synthesizer. I use the JMSL hierarchy to launch clusters of simple 
melody-generating behaviors, with repetitions, that are acted upon by 
another series of objects that modify constraints on these fragments 
(such as pitch range, note durations, etc) to impart some occasional but 
not always obvious coherence between randomized streams.
Dan has posted a QuickTime movie of a performance at 
http://music.columbia.edu/~daniglesia/cmII/dxheaven_10minsample.mov

Dan Taeyoung Lee
Spaces, divided by sound
Dan captures data from a video image and sonifies it.
"The original idea that I had outside of the class was to create a 
hermetically sealed space or room that would be continuously recording 
humidity, temperature, brightness, and other environment variables. When 
the space is opened, all of the data recorded so far is erased, and 
transformed into a sound that is played out loud. The space starts 
recording when it is sealed again.
The idea draws from the image of a djinn releasing itself into the air, 
sublimated as sound. The process of listening involves the process of 
anti-creation; in listening to the sound, you disturb the forces of 
creation at work. Every time the space is opened, the 
recording/generating process stops, and a djinn is released, its 
inception process interrupted."

Spencer Russell
Bach's Box: Generating Coherent Music for Multiple Performers
Bach's Box is a Java applet created with the JMSL hierarchical 
scheduling language that generates and displays a score for three voices 
or instruments. The lines are generated algorithmically by repeatedly 
choosing a 1-measure sequence of chords from a set library, and filling 
the measure with notes from those chords. Because the three voices stem 
from the same underlying chord progressions, they form a mostly-coherent 
harmonic structure.
http://www1.cs.columbia.edu/~sfr2105/bachsbox/