Once again I’m finding myself stuck watching Apocalypse Now, but this time – as has been the case in recent years, it’s Apocalypse Now Redux. Every time an added scene comes on, I’m proud to be an editor. As is often (always?) the case when watching this or any “Director’s Cut,” I’m reminded of all the redone or extended original works of art, and in musical terms specifically, I wonder if any piece of tape that had initially been left on the cutting room floor actually improved the work of music after it had been restored and release on some Deluxe edition. Please name one song that was improved by a restored edit.
PORTLAND, OR – After 23 years in development, former Nixon’s Head and Autumn Carousel musician Mike Fingeroff has released a White Paper in support of the pending release of Strat-o-Matic Rock ‘n Roll, a virtual band development, composing, and recording tool.
“Although I respect the work Pete Townshend and his developers have been doing,” said Fingeroff in a recent interview, “their software will allow users to create little more than a musical self-portrait. That’s cool, but what rock ‘n roll fans really want to know is, ‘What would a band with Jimi Hendrix, John Bonham, John Entwistle, and Gary Rossington sound like?'”
What Strat-o-Matic Rock ‘n Roll offers is not only a chance to form these Supergroups but, through the software, to accurately simulate the writing and recording of original music. The possibiliities are endless, but the best way to understand exactly how this works is to study the following White Paper. Fingeroff will be available to field your technical questions.
Strat-o-Matic Rock ‘n Roll is a real-time system level performance modeler. It differs from other “performance engines” in that it allows both the novice and expert musician to create complete musical productions by applying a series of constraints in the design environment. The end result is pristine audio with song qualities that can rival creations that would normally takes years of practice to duplicate.
The key patent-pending technologies involve a combination of Linear Predictive Coding techniques for modeling vocal tract formant frequency acoustics (Fig. 1), Blind Adaptive Filtering analysis (Fig. 2) and reproduction of numerous amps, guitars, acoustics, etc, and Neural Networks for “on the fly” performance creation and modeling of a wide range of rock-n-roll styles.
What’s the happening album you’ve been spinning of late, old or new?
Are you or have you ever been into “hot rod music” – with all those rockabilly, hellcat, headlight, and pommade associations?
Can the exaggerated “vampire rock” of goth-related artists like Bauhaus and The Birthday Party (and other heavier Nick Cave projects, including this new Grinderman CD) be seen as an update of the hot rod ethos?
Opera excluded, have you ever been able to get into any foreign-language music and love it as much as something sung in English? I ask because I just downloaded a bunch of African guitar stuff that sounds really good and I know will be good background music for painting rooms and editing manuscripts, but as with other foreign-language albums I’ve bought over the years, I fear I’ll never get the added kick of being able to sing along with them. Some of the stuff is in French, so at least I can make out the gist of some couplets.
Perhaps you’ve got your own dugout chatter to stir. What’s the one question that hasn’t been asked yet?
I think technology is a sword. It’s fine, it’s sharp and you cut things with it, but if you’re not careful you can cut your own toes off. It does bring people in, but it also brings people who don’t like you. Some messages on the Ape House forum have brought me close to tears. Who would write you a fan letter saying how awful you are? The net brings out the anonymous assassin. But certainly, it is great for Ape House (30 percent of all Ape House sales are from the web.)
“This is a step in doing something which is a true, authentic, elegant artist process, based on the incredible [software)]system,” he said. “I love what this produces and my vision for it now is that I think, yes, we could have a gathering in some future time where we could share our music together.”
If you’ll recall, we’d been making some progress toward a working definition of Proctomusicology and its practitioners’ common threads as expressed in what is becoming known as Prock music.
If the Proctomusicologist, as another Townsperson remarked, displays, “an overt intention to approach rock from an intellectual mindset,” then Todd Rundgren might be an artist we can study and use toward furthering our definition. If you have not already viewed the opening clip of Todd’s flashy, self-consciously bluesy performance of “Black Mariah”, I encourage you to do so now…
What did you think? There’s the obvious play for the glam market; the second-rate self-conscious “Yer Blues”-like use of blues structure; the green-haired taller brother of Paul Williams twiddling knobs, the last psychedelic painted guitar, chops and perms a’plenty… And how ’bout that intro: “You know what, he looks like he does everything!” All around, it’s a pretty joyless and stifling performance, no? Continue reading »
