Dear Csounders:

I am a composer/experimental musician from Portland, Oregon, USA.  I have
19 years experience playing the cello in orchestras and chamber
ensembles, and a 1994 B.S. in biology from Portland State University.  I
have worked three years now as a part-time janitor in a church near the
university, but I spend most of my time thinking about music, and finding
ways to realize my ideas.  I dallied with rock bands for a couple of
years, and have done five or six studio sessions for rock, pop, and
gothic local bands, but now I do just solo performances, about one every
six months; I find my ideas have been too exacting and labor intensive
for any effective collaborations.

In spite of my poverty, and lack of equipment, I have finally finished a
solo album, called "Zendrome", to be released soon on a very young local
independant label.  Because I have no decent microphones or pick-ups,
there is no cello at all on this album; I produced it entirely with the
Software Audio Workshop, and Cakewalk Pro Audio on a Windows 95 PC with a
SoundBlaster32 card, then mixed it down on a twelve year old Yamaha
4-track with two Boss guitar pedals.  It's really quite primitive.

The impetus behind the album was this:  For years, I had been searching
for hardware or software which would enable me to use just intonation,
and occasionally microtonal equal temperaments in my compositions.  I had
written for the Commodore 64 for years, and had done some things with the
system speaker of my PC, but needless to say, the timbre and polyphony,
not to mention the programming interface, were extremely limited.  My
attempts to do it via MIDI in my sequencing software were equally
unsuccessful, given the rigid inflexability of the SoundBlaster card (not
to mention the company's mainstream market orientation).  In desperation,
I began to breadboard a pulse code modulation control circuit to vary the
speed of a tapedeck motor.  I then created a number of taped drones at
standard pitches (A 440 and Middle C) which were to be varied in speed in
order to implement the tuning systems I desired.  Fortunately, I
discovered the MUSICV paradigm before I had finished creating this
monster.   A CD on the history of digital computer synthesis from my
public library opened me to the world of Max V. Mathews, John Pierce et
al.  From there, I discovered the websites of the Stanford Center for
Computer Research in Music and Acoustics, IRCAM, etc.  And finally, I
found Csound!  Hurray!

The drones I created, incidentally, were liked well enough by my friends,
 that I simply compiled some of them together for them to trip out on. 
Voila!  My first solo album.

Special areas of interest for me are tunings and temperaments, acoustics,
and the neurophysiology of music perception.  Although unaffiliated with
any school or university, I am developing a theory of interval perception
which relies on the hypothesis that the sound processing parts of the
brain treat signal from the cocleae in a manner similar to that in which
the visual cortex treats sigals from the retinae.  I am a long way from a
publishable paper, but I am working on a website.  Since this is probably
 an off-topic issue, I won't bring it up on this list again, but I do
forsee using Csound in my research in this area.  After all, Roger
Shepard's landmark pitch perception studies made exstensive use of
MUSICV.  BTW if anyone wants to discuss this or related topics off-list
please do e-mail me directly.  I would welcome any comments or
suggestions.

In light of the above mentioned hypothesis, I have also concieved  of a
number of electronic and acoustic instruments, which as of now exist only
on "paper."  I hope to refine these designs, to eventually build these
instruments, and to compose music for these ensembles, towards which ends
Csound will be indispensible.  Some of my future Csound compositions, I
imagine, will stand admirably on their own, as well.

Other things which draw me to Csound are:

1)  The prospect of a completely digital music production process
(meaning a lack of unintended noise, provided one understands what one is
doing)

2)  A depth and breadth of control which is unimaginable on hardware
based platforms (I like to think of it as "sonic nanotechnoloy")

3)  A depth and breadth of sonic possibilities which is unattainable on
hardware based platforms

4)  A "hands-on" approach to sound production that makes Csound a great
acoustics learning tool (and a good technology according to "The Five
Principles of Good Design")

5)  The hope of contact with a community of like minds

6)  Dare I say it?  A jumpstart for my lagging music career

I look forward to a personal creative renaissance now that I have
discovered Csound.

Sincerely,
Kurt Nelson

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