As a composer of realtime Csound works, I find myself spending increasing
amounts of time simply designing sounds/instruments. I almost feel more like
a sound designer than a "composer." And I'm fine with that.

It can be frustrating - and rewarding. To me it is important to design
instruments *from the bottom up*; real composition for me includes basic
responsibility for the sounds themselves.

I only wish that it didn't take so much time and effort to write up all the
documentation, setup and "performance notes" for my pieces. I often dream of
taking a .csd orchestra, giving it to a performer, and simply saying "Here.
You do it."

Of course, that's *only* a dream.

Art Hunkins

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Rhoades" 
To: 
Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2008 5:57 AM
Subject: [Csnd] Re: Newbie in need of instruments


> Hello Panos,
>
> It is great that you are getting into Csound and I would say that a
> universe
> of unimagined sound awaits you. For me, the path of growth with creating
> Csound instruments is one of constantly expanding and refining a core set
> of
> instruments. If you were to keep adding features to the instruments that
> are
> currently "keeping your interest" you might find that you have created
> some
> very versatile and amazing sounding instruments that are uniquely you.
> Your
> imagination and creativity in this are your only limitations.
>
> Try anything no matter how incorrect it might sound. Combine two
> instruments, make the mix of them variable according to pfields in the
> score. Create ten copies of these within the same instrument... give each
> a
> different amplitude envelope, also variable within the score... give each
> a
> different frequency relationship to the others variable by a multiplier...
> the list is endless. In other words keep experimenting until something
> inspires you.
>
> Further, it is my opinion that the compositional process begins with the
> creation of the instruments. So for each new project I add to and
> rearrange
> this set of instruments that have been years in development. I throw our
> certain aspects of them and create new aspects. I think that creating
> interesting Csound instruments is a life-long pursuit.
>
> IMHO the score is as important to how your instruments sound as the
> instruments themselves. The way the sounds overlap, the frequency
> relationship and harmonics thereof... the placement in time and space...
> all
> simple examples of creativity.
>
> I once saw an amazing drummer at a percussion seminar. We in the audience
> were anxiously awaiting his performance. We imagined a huge drum set with
> 30
> drums and 15 cymbals etc... Instead, he came on stage with several tin
> cans
> of various sizes and proceeded to give us one of the best percussion
> demonstrations I have ever seen. He blew us all away. It is not the size
> of
> the wand but the magic of the magician that counts. The simplest of Csound
> instruments can become part of an incredible composition. It is how you
> use
> them that matters.
>
> I hope this is of some assistance and good luck,
>
> Michael Rhoades
> www.perceptionfactory.com
>
>
>
> On 3/6/08 3:49 AM, "Panos Katergiathis"  wrote:
>
>> Hello all
>>
>> I am a spoiled ex-(windows-asio-cubase-vst) user that had (until now)
>> too many "instruments" to play with. I have come to understand that this
>> "wealth" of options has nothing to do with creating music itself, and i
>> am willing to limit my instrument choices to a minimum. Still, since i
>> am not-much-of-an-expert in csound (yet, that is), i am currently
>> limited to very simple instruments that (yes) they keep me interested
>> but not excited at all.
>>
>> Of course, i have purchased the "csound catalog" that actually contains
>> some nice instruments (along with some others, not so nice), however i
>> wouldn't know if these instruments represent the cream of what one can
>> do with csound or if they are "mediocre" by today's standards. Surely, i
>> have listened to some extremely exciting instruments in the (long gone?)
>> csound radio page - nothing in the catalog comes close.
>>
>> So, the question is forged: what is the easiest and what is the best
>> approach for creating csound instruments? Please share your experience.
>>
>> Regards
>>
>> Panos
>>
>>
>> Send bugs reports to this list.
>> To unsubscribe, send email sympa@lists.bath.ac.uk with body "unsubscribe
>> csound"
>
> -- 
>
>
>
>
> Send bugs reports to this list.
> To unsubscribe, send email sympa@lists.bath.ac.uk with body "unsubscribe
> csound"

> I only wish that it didn't take so much time and effort to write up all the
> documentation, setup and "performance notes" for my pieces. I often 
> dream of
> taking a .csd orchestra, giving it to a performer, and simply saying "Here.
> You do it."

I know what you mean. I think this is the reason why so much new music 
is underperformed. On the plus side I think moves are being made to 
simplify this process. Hopefully your dream of giving someone a csd file 
and saying 'Here. You do it' isn't too far away.

Rory.



> 
> Of course, that's *only* a dream.
> 
> Art Hunkins
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Michael Rhoades" 
>