Mel Chilianis

There’s a lot of appreciation of analog gear — and this is certainly called for, especially older units. Self-imposed limitations, incredibly-warm sound, unpredictable glitches, the immediacy of getting ideas down fast, and the aura of nostalgia associated with ground-breaking musicians and sound engineers all play a part. I occasionally find myself trawling gumtree or ebay for a Juno-60 or a rare 70s reverb machine. And I do own a small analog box and a Roland 606.

Another current desire is to be rid of the DAW (digital audio workstation, or editor — basically, where you assemble everything. But it can be much, much more than this.) Search for #dawlessaudio on IG and you find a lot of gadgetry, cleverly put together. Mostly very easy-listening ambient. But I appreciate this inclination.

Anyway, I’m not one to be hating on DAWs and the digital. When I first learnt about Logic, before Apple bought it, I felt liberated. Composition is generally a very slow process — with notating and communicating with musicians, and then performance somewhere down the track. Often, I would be that musician, working through possible interpretations with a composer before a performance. When I started working on the computer, I sampled instruments and sounds and worked these into textures; at high moments, I pin pointed elements with a sonic gesture. I learnt by trial and error, and getting feedback from a computer musician mentor.

My hand eye co-ordination is often unreliable in the real-world unless I’m playing flute. This, due to heavy side effects of anticonvulsant medication which makes me shake and tremor, and also asthma meds. Periodically, I’ll have muscle weakness or a flare of bed illness. So working with a lot of gear is also impractical and inaccessible. I remember when circuit bending was a hot topic in the electronic arts and I went up to Sydney for a conference with workshops, including a circuit bending one. And my shakes prevented me from doing any finicky soldering on the tiny circuit board. The three leaders ignored me and left me doing nothing. (This paragraph is not about woe betide me – – it is about many more than me. It is to draw attention to modes of accessibility in the electronic arts, and how it is often the most expedient and the loudest who will be listened to and catered to and provided with a path.)

So what is it like working with the digital, a DAW and Max? In Logic, I can straight-up mix, instruments or digital synthesisers, which I play in with a MIDI controller, or sounds from the environment. But that is usually the last stage in an electroacoustic project. What is more interesting, and more creative is a shaping process applied to different sounds, whether organic or not. I can go into more detail in another post. In Max, I record the results of live processing — a digital improvisation. In Max, the outcome is more unpredictable and the file I record is longer, which I’ll later usually cut down. Sometimes I patch things together as I’m recording. Although I’m no programming expert, what appeals in Max, as it did in AudioMulch, Junglator and forays into SuperCollider, is digital interaction and nonlinear live processing. Even in Logic, the DAW, I live-track (record, in other words) most of the automation. This can be for an EQ’s frequency, delay time, noise level, position of reverb, or fading of dry to wet. Sometimes happy accidents occur this way in the multitrack environment.

A lot of my PhD focused on tracking digital pathways and improvisation, including interaction with flute, connecting them to the body. Digital music making is automatic for a lot of people, especially those that take their health for granted, so it’s something I’m interested in making more audible and visible.

—