After attending a workshop held by Robert Normendeau at the this years ACMA conference I became aware that sound diffusion is a useful approach to exploring electroacoustic music in a learning environment. So this semester the Sonic Art Group started investigating sound diffusion. I made a Max patch that mixes stereo to six channels. The levels are controlled by MIDI sliders and the system works reasonably well. In the image above is a sonogram of Bernard Parmegiani's wonderful acousmatic work Incidences/Résonances which lends itself very well to diffusion and we started with this piece as well as Tristram Cary's Continuum (a synthesis piece from 1968 which is still remarkable fresh and imaginative). Following are reflections by those who have been involved. You can sample Parmegiani's work at last.fm, see:
So what is sound diffusion? According to Barry Truax its:
Usually an existing stereo recording is "diffused" out to a multispeaker array. Instead of mixing multiple channels of sound into two, here you take a two channel stereo format and mix out to multiple channels. At first glance this approach seems a little redundant but what becomes apparent is that the variable size of the sound through speaker array and its presence (via resonance) in the acoustic space can be powerful ways to render a fixed recording. In fact the live diffused performance is actually a interpretation of the work being played. From a teaching and learning perspective this is very interesting because the discussion that we have is focused (in the main) on musical issues instead of technical ones.
Electroacoustic diffusion refers to the practice of distributing sound throughout a space using multiple loudspeakers, usually with real-time control over the sound levels, equalisation, and placement of the sound. The source material may be live performers, synthesizers, and/or stereo or multi-channel tape recordings. (Source: Barry Truax - Handbook for Acoustic Ecology CD-ROM Edition. Cambridge Street Publishing, 1999 - CSR-CDR 9901)
Usually an existing stereo recording is "diffused" out to a multispeaker array. Instead of mixing multiple channels of sound into two, here you take a two channel stereo format and mix out to multiple channels. At first glance this approach seems a little redundant but what becomes apparent is that the variable size of the sound through speaker array and its presence (via resonance) in the acoustic space can be powerful ways to render a fixed recording. In fact the live diffused performance is actually a interpretation of the work being played. From a teaching and learning perspective this is very interesting because the discussion that we have is focused (in the main) on musical issues instead of technical ones.
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