Princeton University


Music

Reproduced with permission from NeXT Computer, Inc.
A Reference Guide to NeXT in Higher Education, Fall 1992
ยช 1992 NeXT Computer, Inc

'The most important musical development to come along in years'

A NeXT user since 1989, Paul Lansky, professor of music at Princeton University, creates custom software applications and computer music compositions and teaches several undergraduate music courses.

"NeXT is the first computer that combines a lot of things that we've been forced to piece together in the past. We really like the total package-the environment, the digital signal processor, the Music Kit, the Sound Kit, the converters, the Objective C programming environment, and Interface Builder. It's a package that we think is really coherently and brilliantly thought out."

Lansky has created several software applications in the NeXTSTEP environment, including a signal processing scratchboard, called Ein, that he uses in his classes to help students write simpler code for sound. With student Kent Dickey, he developed RT, a real-time mixing program that allow users to play sound files simultaneously to achieve different musical effects. In addition, Lansky says the NeXT machine combined with synthesis languages, such as CSound from MIT and Music Kit from NeXT, allow students to experiment with sound in ways they could not otherwise.

Several of Lansky's NeXT-based computer music compositions have been released commercially on compact disk. Lansky recently issued a 30-minute piece for string trio and tape, which was mixed and edited on his own workstation. The music professor says he's been able to significantly cut the time in which he writes such compositions significantly since he started using NeXT. His compositions deal with a wide variety of subjects. One piece, for example, is about somebody playing rock-and-roll guitar, another is the processing of a conversation in Chinese, and another is about shopping mall sounds.

Lansky uses such sound inputs as musical sources from which he makes musical patterns and shapes. "The guitar piece is sort of a musical portrait of a player," he explains. "I took large stretches of improvisation that he did, manipulated them, and added computer instruments. Then I did a lot of editing, reverberation, and room simulation and put it all together."

"NeXT is an extremely useful package for us," he concludes. "And for the first time, we're able to share a lot of software with people all over the country who are using the machine. Being able to share establishes a sense of community that is really lively and interesting and makes the whole development process much faster."

"I think NeXTSTEP is the most important musical development to come along in years," Paul Lansky.

For more information, please contact:

Paul Lansky
Professor of Music
Princeton University
Princeton, NJ 08544
(609) 258-4241
paul@silvertone.princeton.edu