Vis-a-vis: Reading texts in real-time
Joseph Butch Rovan · The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 2006
This presentation addresses the formal and psychological aspects of Vis-a-vis as a way of framing the attitude of the technology itself. Based on a text by Rilke, the work situates a solo singer within a dense sonic landscape whose electronic sounds are based entirely on her voice. The interactive score, written in MaxMSP, makes the computer a virtual performer, listening and responding to the changing musical events in its own terms. In this new 5.1 mix a variety of real-time processes are used on the voice, shifting from scene to scene, according to the tone of the text. Among the real-time processes used are spectral analysis/resynthesis, granular sampling, harmonization, frequency shifting, and envelope tracking, among others. In Vis-a-vis the computer functions like a virtual performer, listening to the changing musical events phrasing, dynamics, and register of the singer, and responds accordingly, in its own terms. The point is to capture something of the improvisatory spirit that is part of any live performance, and to create an environment in which the singer and computer can interact as a duo, responding to each other’s musical decisions in an immersive sonic environment.