----- Original Message -----
From: Josep M Comajuncosas 
To: Paul Barrett 
Cc: csoundlist 
Sent: Saturday, June 19, 1999 9:45 AM
Subject: Re: Csound and other synthesis systems


I deeply respect electronic music in general and Csound in particular. I
wouldn´t like it to become merely another softsynth or a plugin for
commercial
software. It has to be much more. As Csound is biased towards serious
timbral
research - and not much more honestly-, I see it naturaly linked to powerful
algorithmic composition packages to help in the elaboration of complex
scores
for example.

_____________________________________


that is my personal feeling as well.  There is groundwork being laid that
will in the end produce the Stravinsky's, Bartoks, (Coltranes, Mingus's)
etc, of the next era, and such as Csound will be _part_ of it, but all this
research is needed first.  It takes many working in these fields.  We all
work in a field-music-where the standards are set by genius.  Genius is a
hard act to follow, usually:  and it is completely impossible to predict
when and where it will arise.

I've been most used to playing music real-time; for forty years I've played
piano, sometimes quite well, too (he said modestly), and have studied theory
and composition on the graduate level, so my view of sequencers is that they
are fine _if you play the music in live_ . . . I use Cakewalk quite a lot
for capturing improvisations, and for my teaching, and other practice and
study, and find that its playback through a good synth is quite acceptable
artistically (well, a nine foot Steinway would be nice, too), but the
possibilities for _real time-playing_ in midi are wonderful, especially
regarding ensemble compositions.

I have a fairly decent hand played Brandenburg 4/1, that works ok on a good
synth, if anyone is interested in hearing it, I will gladly send it to them.
Originally done on a sound canvas, I've found from synth to synth the
balances of the voices can get a bit off so you might have to tweak that,
(currently I have a sblive, not too bad), but anyway, all the parts are
lovingly played in.  This would be an interesting Csound compilation, but I
wouldn't know how to begin to design the instruments for the orc file.
__Step entered midi files I cannot listen to for more than a few seconds.__
other than perhaps for study purposes.  They also print better.

The combinations of midi complexities, and Csound/algorithmic packages have
me fascinated as an artist.    thanks for letting me contribute to the
group.

jim