Assignments | Music and Technology: Live Electronics Performance Practices | Music and Theater Arts

This page includes descriptions of each assignment, and includes video and audio recordings from the class concert performance at the end of the term.

Pd Tutorials

Pd Tutorials are short Pd programming tasks, to be submitted as complete Pd files. Written comments and answers to questions must be included as comments. Each tutorial will be reviewed at the beginning of class on the due date.

Descriptions of each tutorial may be found in the lecture notes for the session preceding their due date:

Pd Tutorial 1: see end of Lecture Notes, Session 2 (PDF)

Pd Tutorial 2: see end of Lecture Notes, Session 3 (PDF)

Pd Tutorial 3: see end of Lecture Notes, Session 4 (PDF)

Pd Tutorial 4: see end of Lecture Notes, Session 6 (PDF)

Controller/Interface/Instrument Design 1

This assignment is an original design for and implementation of a controller/interface/instrument employing a dual-analog game controller and a Pd synthesis, sampling, or signal processing system.

Design Draft

Produce an operational prototype or minimal implementation of the controller/interface/instrument. Students must be prepared to demonstrate and discuss their goals and plans towards completion.

Implementation and Report

Students must submit the complete Pd code and a written report. The Design 1 report is a written document (at least 500 words, or about 2 double-spaced pages in a 12 point serif font with one inch margins) consisting of at least the following sections. (1) A discussion of musical and/or aesthetic motivations. (2) A brief analysis of the system's main components, interface, and sound production techniques. (3) An evaluation of the aesthetic quality of the results and a description of how the system might be improved and expanded.

Controller/Interface/Instrument Design 2

This assignment is an original design for and implementation of a controller/interface/instrument employing any mechanism and/or sound production process. The system must have at least two performative input parameters.

Design Proposal

This assignment begins with a proposal: a written document (around 300 words, or about 1 double-spaced page in a 12 point serif font with one inch margins) describing a plausible controller/interface/instrument system and the necessary materials and components.

Design Draft

After the proposal, students prepare an operational prototype or minimal implementation of the controller/interface/instrument. Students must be prepared to demonstrate and discuss their goals and plans towards completion.

Implementation, Report, and Presentation

The Design 2 project report is a written document (around 800 words, or about 3 double-spaced pages excluding citations and bibliography in a 12 point serif font with one inch margins) consisting of at least the following components. (1) A discussion of musical and/or aesthetic motivations. (2) An analysis of the system's main components, interface, and/or sound production techniques. (3) Comparisons to related historical or contemporary musical controllers, interfaces, or instruments. (4) An evaluation of the aesthetic quality of the results and a description of how the system might be improved and expanded.

Students must prepare and deliver a ten minute aural presentation on their design. The presentation should include main points from the project report. Additionally, students must demonstrate the sonic possibilities of the controller, interface, or instrument, treated in isolation and/or in the context of other sound sources and/or music.

Performance Framework

The Performance Framework is a creative assignment, completed in small groups, specifying interfaces, procedures, musical materials, and/or interactions for an ensemble performance lasting from four to eight minutes. The performance framework must be delivered in any of the following formats: written graphical, textual, or symbolic notation; sound file or sonic materials; signal processing designs or implementations; and/or interface designs or implementations. The frameworks will be demonstrated in the class concert at the end of the term.

Performance Framework Draft

At the start of this assignment, students will give a presentation including a sketch, outline, or preliminary materials and designs for the Performance Framework.

Class Concert Peformance

Sonorous Currents: A Concert of 21M.380 Live Electronics Performance Practices
New works for live electronics with laptops, iPhones, circuits, and other sonological mechanisms

Selections from the program:

Introduction by Christopher Ariza

Work II
Christopher Ariza
for nine or more laptops and dual-analog gamepads

Fruit Loops
Hsieh Chen and two other MIT students

Improvisation
Hsieh Chen, Chris "8-Ball" Reyes, Andrew B. Shapiro, and eight other MIT students