Room 2, Session 2 (11:30 – 13:00) [BACK TO PROGRAM]
How is the relationship between technology and music practice shifting in the 21st century? How does this relationship alter the agency and/or creativity of music makers?
Each presenter’s video ‘paper’ can be viewed below – the video immediately below is the conference discussion
Amandine Pras (University of York)
Arranging national folklore with global sounds in Bamako recording studios (Mali)
A grounded ethnography of Bamako recording studios revealed a unique sound culture that emerged in the 2000s and exponentially expanded in the 2010s with the spread of 3G and broader access to affordable digital audio technologies. Éliézer Oubda, a music producer and sound engineer from Burkina Faso catalysed this culture by installing digital studios and training the first generation of local sound professionals when he was resident engineer of the mythic large-scale studio Bogolan in 2006-2011[1]. Our analysis of complete recording sessions filmed in 2018-2019 showed that Malian beatmakers and arrangers have developed ‘sound sculpting’ techniques based on additive and subtractive editing of a quickly-programmed MIDI instrumental track that is often inspired by the national folklore[2]. To highlight these sound sculpting techniques and the collaborative processes of local production workflows, in 2022 we conducted a case study for which we commissioned five studio professionals and rapper Mylmo, born Mohammed Soumbounou, to version Da Monzon, a song based on the legend of Da Monzon Diarra, a famous king of the Bamana Kingdom of Segu before French colonisation. The commissioned artists could each choose one or more collaborators to create their version, starting from a MIDI instrumental track that we had asked Éliézer to compose. The styles of the six produced versions comprise Electronic Mande, Gang Rap, Tradi-Trap, Tradi-Modern, Northern-Mali – or what is considered locally as Ali Farka Touré’s lineage, and Conscious Rap. Éliézer also recorded a seventh Acoustic version at Bogolan with the musicians who were on tour with Salif Keita, including kora player Mamadou Diabaté. Video montages across the production sessions will underline how uses of globalized music technology in the 21st century can contribute both to perpetuating and transforming local music cultures.
[1] Emmanuelle Olivier, and Amandine Pras, “Généalogies des professionnels du studio d’enregistrement à Bamako (Mali)” Les Cahiers d’ethnomusicologie, Cultures du numérique, 35 (December 2022):123-149.
[2] Emmanuelle Olivier, and Amandine Pras, “Creative Uses of Low Tech in Bamako Recording Studios (Mali)” Journal of New Music Research (in press).
e 2000s and exponentially expanded in the 2010s with the spread of 3G and broader access to affordable digital audio technologies. Éliézer Oubda, a music producer and sound engineer from Burkina Faso catalysed this culture by installing digital studios and training the first generation of local sound professionals when he was head engineer of the mythic large-scale studio Bogolan in 2006-2011. Our analysis of complete recording sessions filmed in 2018-2019 showed that Malian beatmakers and arrangers have developed ‘sound sculpting’ techniques based on additive and subtractive editing of a quickly-programmed MIDI instrumental track that is often inspired by the national folklore. To highlight these sound sculpting techniques and the collaborative processes of local production workflows, in 2022 we conducted a case study for which we commissioned five studio professionals and rapper Mylmo, born Mohammed Soumbounou, to version Da Monzon, a song based on the legend of a famous king of the Bamana Kingdom of Segu before French colonisation. The commissioned artists could each choose one or more collaborators to create their version, starting from a MIDI instrumental track that we had asked Éliézer to compose. The styles of the six produced versions comprise Griot (Mande), Clash Rap, Tradi-Trap, Mande Reggae, Northern-Mali – or what is considered locally as Ali Farka Touré’s lineage, and Conscious Rap. Éliézer also recorded a seventh Acoustic version at Bogolan with the musicians who were on tour with Salif Keita, including kora player Mamadou Diabaté. A video montage across the seven recording sessions will underline how uses of globalized music technology in the 21st century can contribute both to perpetuating and transforming local music cultures.
Ewan Stefani (University of Leeds)
This paper and presentation will explore how a common vocabulary of sounds and performance practice might be established across a wide range of analogue synthesizer instruments. Trevor Pinch identified the Moog “fat bass” sound as a possible archetype of the analogue synthesizer (Pinch, 2016) and this paper will aim to present a methodology for extending his ideas to a wide range of sounds and musical gestures, accessed through the control panel of the instruments. A brief explanation of where the analogue synthesizer sits within academic research will be outlined, including how the instrument has been defined and deprioritised in academic literature (as discussed in Stefani, 2022). This discussion will then progress to the role of practice-based research in testing our knowledge and understanding of the synthesizer, focussing upon where gaps in our existing knowledge of synthesizer performance practice lie. The musical importance of key components of the analogue synthesizer will be explored, using a combination of existing musical examples and recreations of synthesizer patches designed by the author. Practical demonstrations will be used to illustrate the extent to which engineering design (the filters, oscillators, envelope generators, and other components of the subtractive synthesizer) may produce significant impacts upon musical outcomes. Additionally, the veracity of existing sources of information about synthesizer practice (e.g. Woodworth’s analysis of the Minimoog bass sound in Flash Light) will be reviewed via the recreation of patches on hardware instruments. Finally, the layout and functionality of the synthesizer control panel will be discussed from the perspective of instrumental performance practice, using practical demonstrations with different hardware synthesizers to compare how differences in design may affect the expressive musical potential of the instruments.
Andrew Bourbon (University of Huddersfield)
In 2021 Apple announced support for spatial audio, allowing Apple Music subscribers to audition binaurally rendered Dolby Atmos mixes on headphones streamed to their personal devices. In 2022 over 80% of Apple Music subscribers listened to music using spatial audio, with most of the new music released with Dolby Atmos versions of mixes. The impact of the ability to work within an immersive system is huge for music production, but despite this the main impact has been on mix engineers, who are using the Atmos environment to create immersive mixes as a post-production exercise, separated from the composition, production and recording stages. To create mixes capable of playback on commercial streaming platforms there is a requirement to use Dolby Atmos, with the technology in this case driving the practice. The Atmos mix can only exist when using specific software tools, that rely on a very specific workflow and approach. As well as understanding the tools, in this case a DAW and a dedicated renderer, engineers also need to understand the affordances of the playback systems, many of which are in a state of flux as the quality of playback systems changes as technology improves. This paper seeks to explore the potential of Atmos as an environment for creative practice not just as a post-production environment, but as a creative tool for music production. Currently the agency lies with the engineers who are using this technology to create the Atmos mixes. This paper will explore the limitations and affordances of the system through a series of demonstrations rendered as binaural audio, exploring the environment, and exploring opportunities for creative agency in immersive music production and support discussion around the idea of immersion in music and how an immersive experience can be enhanced through an immersive system.