Dear friends,
After the shock of watching my work disappear and becoming a (home school) teacher to my kids overnight, I am trying to see a way forward for my future and that of my industry. I am thinking about ways I can stay in touch with my usual collaborators and even find new ones. Isolation means I have to adapt and develop new ways of working.
In my practice I have been researching remote working collaborations for some time now. Firstly with the Montrose Composers Club, where we developed a piece called ‘Chinese Whispers’ with graphic designer Myah Chun and artist Helen Lindon. Each collaborator reacted to the previous participant’s work in turn. Beginning with a text which inspired a graphic score, which inspired an improvised musical performance, which inspired a piece of live art.
Last year, with Matthew Brown as coordinator, we jointly wrote a fifteen minute work for Chatham and Rochester Symphony Orchestra called ‘Abyss’ which we developed remotely after a series of group improvisations at the start which acted as joint inspiration. A process that has some distancing effect for the composers involved but ultimately creates something richer and stranger than anything we could have come up with individually.
With composer Aidan Shepherd I experimented with writing music remotely by using the exquisite corpse technique, composing eight bars of music then passing it back and forth. This led to the creation of a piece for solo voice called ‘The Wooden Knight'.
These projects can be viewed/heard on: www.montrosecomposersclub.com or www.annabraithwaite.co.uk
All of these techniques are possible ways forward for the MCC and other musicians/composers whilst we are prohibited from gathering together in person. However to test these pieces as they are developed, to rehearse them and perform them to our audience, it would be ideal to be able to play with other musicians in real-time from our homes. If this was possible we might be able to fulfil our commissions whilst we are in isolation and become more resilient to future pandemics or situations that arise which require remote working. It would also save time. And petrol in the future.
As a side note many in the industry have already been thinking about how to reduce the negative effects of touring on our environment and how to easily continue collaborations with international artists post Brexit, which this technology could also be used to combat. Perhaps the use of online platforms could help solve some of these huge problems for our industry? Further reading**
I have been in touch with Dr Sean Williams (lecturer at Kent University and the Open University) and Juan Parra of the Orpheus Institute in Ghent to discuss the technical requirements and limitations of various network/telematic tools already in existence for the facilitation of live real-time performances by musicians working remotely at home. Apparently the best audio results have been gained using Jacktrip*. The downside is that this technology is not at all user friendly at the moment except for those who are technical specialists. This, and other networking tools are described in more detail below.
Research into this area of music technology used to be a ‘fringe’ concern, limited to a few dedicated academics, but the current crisis has catapulted it to the forefront of musicians’ and artists’ minds as they try to maintain an income and reach their audiences.
It feels like the best way forward is to help the developers of this technology to find the resources they need to progress it’s development as quickly as possible and for musicians who have the interest/time to offer, to test the systems for them whilst they are in development.
Until this technology is user friendly enough for everyone to use in a domestic setting what else can we musicians/composers do?
Take the example of the MCC and and invent new ways of working in isolation using current technology or even old fashioned communications such as sending things through the post or smoke signals!
Use the current networking technology, however flawed, and make a virtue of its limitations in the way you write.
Quite a few of us have been ‘meeting’ and perhaps teaching via video conferencing apps such as Zoom/Skype/Google Duo. These can be used for making music too but as Juan Parra says “most of these technologies have their audio stream optimised for the spoken voice, which means that complex signals, such as music, are heavily modulated”. In other words, music can sound awful.
Here are some information I have gathered for maximising your chances of a good experience on any system:
Use an ethernet cable straight straight from your router to minimise ‘lag’.
Use a good quality mic, not the onboard one, to and give your voice/instrument the best possible sound quality. This may require using an audio interface.
Wear headphones to prevent feed back.
Specific ‘tricks’ to optimise Zoom for live performance and teaching music lessons:
1. In the audio settings: Microphone section uncheck the box marked ‘Automatically adjust microphone volume’.
2. Click the ‘Advanced’ option and check the box marked ‘Show in-meeting option to “Enable Original Sound” from microphone’. Audio Processing select Disable from the ‘Suppress Persistent Background Noise’ and ‘Suppress Intermittent Background Noise’ options.
Below I have begun to compile a list of slightly less user-friendly alternatives to Zoom etc. which offer better real-time experience.
RESOURCES:
Software options which limit the negative effects of latency and are user friendly and music friendly:
Jamulus - https://sourceforge.net/projects/llcon/ - I have tested this software, using it for collaborative songwriting. The latency was not an issue. It took about 40 minutes to set up. Good when used in conjunction with Zoom (muted) so you can see each other too. FREE
Source-Elements - https://now.source-elements.com/#!/ - requires Chrome browser, microphone and headphones, Mac OSX (10.9 or higher), Windows 7 or higher, Linux or ChromeOS. FREE.
Artsmesh - https://www.artsmesh.com/ - The Artsmesh software is a network music and performance management tool. Content creators run the Artsmesh client which streams live media P2P; audiences run a lite Artsmesh client to watch the shows. Functions include: audio, video and open sound control (OSC) routing and mixing, chat, microblog, world map to see participants locations and live broadcasts, network testing tools, graphic scrolling score panel and more. $100+ donation.
Jamkazam - https://www.jamkazam.com - Play music with other musicians from your homes across the Internet as if you were sitting in the same room. You can record your performances at the track level, share your recordings, and even broadcast your live sessions to family, friends, and fans.
Slightly more ‘involved’ systems which may offer even better sound quality/experience:
WebRTC - https://webrtc.org - “which is the technology behind hangouts, but it allows you to granulate the quality of audio and video per peer, according to the bandwidth of each user. “ Juan Parra. Only available for two users at once.
*Jacktrip - https://ccrma.stanford.edu/software/jacktrip/ - According to researchers this is the best available software for uncompressed audio streaming, video needs to be done separately. The set up is an involved process which all participants will need to do to be able to collaborate. Still in the research phase, created by Chris Chafe of CCRMA at Stanford University, USA. It can be achieved with equipment that most musicians will have at home but does require internet with an upload bandwidth of at least 3Mbps. Check using Speedtest: http://www.speedtest.net
FREE. Read more about it here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/18pbu2xQRv521NKvHuYHjIVXRcLFqcDsqYnfKixyuyGg/edit
ORGANISATIONS/ARTISTS USING NETWORKING:
Nownet Arts: Contemporary arts performance live via the internet, New York - International - Online. https://nownetarts.org
Led by Sarah Weaver (https://www.sarahweaver.org)
JOURNALS:
Journal of Network Music and Arts: https://commons.library.stonybrook.edu/jonma/
RESEARCHERS DEVELOPING NETWORKING TECHNOLOGY FOR ARTISTS:
Chris Chafe of CCRMA at Stanford University, USA
Juan Parra of Orpheus Institute in Ghent: https://orpheusinstituut.be/en/orpheus-research-centre/researchers/juan-parra-cancino
Technical University Berlin
Margaret Schedel
Ricardo Dal Farra, Jøran Rudi, Margaret Schedel, Barry Truax, Ian Whalley, David Worrall, Lonce Wyse
**https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-day-the-music-became-carbon-neutral
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/brexit-latest-music-industry-ed-sheeran-stormzy-touring-copyright-visas-a8623511.html
I will be adding to this blog as I learn new things. Please feel free to add any advice or experience you might have about using remote playing in the comments section.
Good luck!
Anna