Significant Electronic Works
- James, S. (2023). Sillage for RISE Dance Collaboration Showcase.
- James, S. (2017). offset and gate for solo laptop and 8.1 surround loudspeaker array.
- James, S. (2016). Intervolver for 8 laptops and 8 loudspeakers (commissioned by the Western Australian Laptop Orchestra (WALO)).
- James, S. (2016). Operation Fortitude for 8 laptops and 8 loudspeakers (commissioned by the Western Australian Laptop Orchestra (WALO)).
- James, S. (2012). Additive Recurrence for Laptop and Live Feedback.
- James, S. (2003). 想 (xiǎng).
- James, S. (2003). Like Memories Faded in the Lucid Autumn Sky.
- James, S. (2003). The Cat's Eye Nebula (4-channel).
- Vouris, P., & James, S. (2003). Friendly Firewire and Other Casualties of Infoland.
- James, S. (2003). The Abyss for laptop and no-input mixer (4-channel).
- James, S. (2002). Inside a Box.
Sillage (2023)
Commissioned by Kim McCarthy for the RISE Dance Collaboration Showcase at WAAPA (West Australian Academy of Performing Arts)
Almost all sounds are derived from improvisations at the prepared piano. These sound sources were processed and extended in the DAW. The majority of percussion, kick drums, sustained sub-bass notes, are all derived from the piano samples. Some additional samples were added at a late stage in the works development - an orchestral bass drum, tom, tam tam, kick drum (used sparingly), pink noise oscillator, vinyl crackle, rock.
The work was commissioned for dance choreographer Kim McCarthy to feature for the RISE dance collaborations at WAAPA (West Australian Academy of Performing Arts). The design team also created some imagery that strongly influenced the initial direction of the work.
The work was commissioned for dance choreographer Kim McCarthy to feature for the RISE dance collaborations at WAAPA (West Australian Academy of Performing Arts). The design team also created some imagery that strongly influenced the initial direction of the work.
Intervolver (2016)
Commissioned by the Western Australian Laptop Orchestra (WALO)
9 laptops
8.1 surround sound system (8 separate loudspeakers arranged equidistantly in a circle, with sub-woofer)
9 laptops
8.1 surround sound system (8 separate loudspeakers arranged equidistantly in a circle, with sub-woofer)
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This work began by modifying some existing Java code I created for an iterative phase shifting additive synthesizer. The original design of this additive synthesizer was based on a simple algorithm (a continuous differential equation as shown below) that computes the individual changes in phase for a bank of oscillators, iterating this process through a vector block of samples, and finally accumulating the sinusoids generated, for i number of oscillators:
This code was further modified so that there were three different timed structures, one an iterative process involving computation of the phase shift of 350 independent oscillators. Secondly the phase shift applied to these oscillators is modulated at audio-rate in a 1024 sample repeating cycle that determines the bank of frequencies by a lookup table. These two isochronic structures align differently meaning that the phase shifts are modulated every audio sample by rotating this 1024 sample vector by 26 values each time this cycle repeats. Furthermore, the values of the 1024 samples determining the amount of phase shift are influenced by a slower evolving system which cyclically changes the phase shift of 20 of the 350 oscillators each second. For this entire system to cycle through the entire bank of oscillators, it takes 51.2 seconds. Each laptop performer has a copy of the same instrument, and follows a graphic score inside the Decibel scoreplayer.
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Additive Recurrence for Laptop and Live Feedback (2013)
想 (xiǎng) (2003)
Of the few surviving ancient theoretical documents on music, it seems that many of the systems were based on the idea of dividing a string or a resonating tube at various points with respect to the fundamental harmonic relationship of the octave. With exception to the unison, this interval has the simplest of all harmonic ratios, being 2:1. However, it seems that for the ancient Chinese systems, and the origin of pentatonic scales, the respective importance of the octave is somewhat diminished. Alternatively, the fundamental relationship of the pure fifth (3:2) is used to construct harmonic (intervallic) relationships. This piece uses the pure fifth as a primary fundamental (3:2), which is divided to form a pitch series formed through the symmetrical division of intervals by just intonation. Essentially this score varies between a textural, harmonic, and/or spectral structure. Most segments of the score have been realised within OpenMusic (Mac OS 9), which were then subsequently arranged within the Blue Csound compositional frontend tool (Windows XP). From here an audio render was obtained via the WinSound application (Windows XP).
Like Memories Faded in the Lucid Autumn Sky (2003)
The Cat's Eye Nebula (4-channel) (2003)
Friendly Firewire and Other Casualties of Infoland (2003)
A collaboration between Australian sound artist Petro Vouris and myself presented at the 2003 Australasian Computer Music Conference
The Abyss for Laptop and No-Input Mixer (4-channel) (2003)
Inside a Box (2002)
Like the previous soundscape pieces, Inside a Box is concerned with the manipulation of audio; although this is not so much the core of the composition itself. Like in The Realisation…, Inside a Box follows a more profound inner meaning. The Box is a metaphor that works on many different levels. Besides the obvious that this piece was generated “inside a box” (or a computer), this piece represents a box as the restraints of ones own inner self, mind, body, and spirit, and the perceived bounds of existing within the systems of the state. The piece has been scored out entirely in the C programming language, and compiled using the opcodes within the canonical version of CSound. The piece explores many of the FFT based functions unique only to a handful of programmable software synthesizers. These include FOF and FOG synthesis, additive synthesis/resynthesis, STFT resynthesis, LPC (Linear Predictive Coding) resynthesis, convolution and cross-synthesis, some audio cut-up techniques, and some other features used in the processing of audio for spacialisation purposes (namely sound localisation and HRTF features). Software used in the creation of this piece include CSound canonical 4.23, WinSound 4.23, Hydra 1.1, CSound Heterodyne, Phase Vocoding & Linear Predictive Coding Utilities, and Sound Forge 6.0.
