Jean-Francois Charles

During this month of December 2011, I spent some time learning more about Physical Computing and the related topic Embedded systems . Here are the two books I found great: The first is the reference in the domain of physical computing for artists: Physical computing: Sensing and Controlling the Physical World with Computers . It is a very good reading to get started with connecting sensors and actuators to multimedia computers. The second is a book about PIC micro-controllers: Designing embedded systems with PIC microcontrollers . It requires a little more scientific background, and is not specifically written for artists, but it is a thorough introduction to the world of micro-controllers. I am going to include more physical computing studies in the course I teach in the "Multimedia Master - Music & Sound track", at the University of Franche-Comté. I'll let you know about that, in 2012! Happy new year!

Young composers, get ready for Compos it , a new international summer music festival for composers. Dedicated to new music, this festival is staring, for its first edition (Summer of 2012), French "spectral" composers Joshua Fineberg & Tristan Murail . I wish all the best to this exciting project. Organizers include two dear friends of mine: Davide Ianni , who got a Ph.D. in music/composition from Boston University, and who is a very active music professional in the Boston area. Gabriele Vanoni , whom I studied with at Harvard University. If you are a young composer looking for a great experience in Italy next summer, make sure you visit the composit web site and get in touch with the organizers to get more details.

The second session of our Electro-chamber music class was dedicated to delays. We played with a great piece of gear: the Boss DD-7. It's a powerful compact digital delay pedal, complete with expression pedal input to continually vary the delay time for instance. But to fully understand what's going on when we're using such gear, knowing about the history of delay effects comes very handy. Analog tape delays That's why I introduced in class a couple of great musical examples featuring tape delays. Of course, two major actors in 20th century electronic music are mentioned: the group Pink Floyd and composer Karlheinz Stockhausen. Here are a few visuals: David Gilmour used a Binson Echorec extensively with Pink Floyd between 1968 and 1977.   The very first commercialized guitar delay was inside the Echosonic amplifier   Excerpt from Ray Butts' patent for the tape delay inside the Echosonic. Check out the recording head (REH) and the play head (PH).   O