Chapter 4 Response

In Chapter 4, I was inspired by the list of programmable sonic parameters since it reminded me a lot of the decision making I do when I DJ! From texture to rhythm to spatialization, there are a ton of factors that go into computer programmed music and mixing. It has been really interesting teaching people how to DJ recently since I’m actually having to slow down and think about what qualities of the music I use in creating an effective transition. Often times, I find myself relying on rhythm and texture, making sure that bass lines or vocals don’t overlap haphazardly and musical arcs lead into each other smoothly for fun “drops.” While my board gives me some pretty good control over these different audio aspects, it has been interesting to explore a more low-level programming language like Chuck that can really manipulate these features. The first sort of “ah-ha” moment I had with Chuck was when I was transcribing parts of songs for my visualizer and thought it was so cool that you could define “beats” and literally transcribe rhythms from sheet music into Chuck, and have all melodies synced together!

As a musician, it does feel more intuitive when understanding how to use time in Chuck; for example, it was much more intuitive for me to increment time in multiples of 4 since all the songs I was transcribing were in 4/4 time. Having that understanding let me have some insight into how to use Chuck! However, the hardest part of using Chuck has been creating new music and sounds that are unique to computer generated music. In general, I’m not super comfortable with composing and never really got the hang of jazz improvisation (unfortunately), so that same barrier to creating sound completely from scratch is still daunting. I’m excited to work with the sequencer that allows users to incorporate more of their creativity into the final product.