CCRMA Tour

20110615

Foyer Exhibit/Study Area

While I was in California, I happened to be very close to the Stanford Campus.  Stanford has a program within their music department that I have been interested in for quite a while.  So I set up a tour of the building and the program, CCRMA (Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics), pronounced "karma".  The building was relatively empty, as this was the first day on campus after the spring graduation.

The center is located in the old governors mansion at one of the highest points on campus and has a fantastic view of the  buildings below.  Right as you enter the building, you know that you are in the right place.  There are various keyboards, speakers, and other things I would bet are instruments, but not like any I've ever seen.  There is also a reel to reel, next to a pyramid shaped speaker array, and a giant machine that appears to be one of the earliest GUI based DAWs.

Balinese Gamelan Documentary

Here is a copy of a short documentary I helped make this past fall. It was created for a course on ritual and media at the University of Colorado, Boulder. It documents the 2010, November 7th Gamelan performance at IMIG music center.

Gamelan is the "why" of life, it is as important as food. I Made Lasmawan instructs the group as well as many other gamelans across Colorado and the US. This film was made in iMovie for simplicity and in collaboration with a group.






Check out the other documentary I made this year The 1996 Ute Mountain Ute Bear Dance.

Javanese Gamelan Transcriptions for Rachel Chacko

I was asked by Rachel Chacko, a Ph.D. graduate, to help her digitize some Javanese Gamelan transcriptions. Confident in my abilities, I agreed to to the project. Unfortunately, I did not realize how difficult this task would be. The learning curve for the transcription program (Finale) is very steep and the music requires very complex concepts to be shown. For example, most of the notations are in 9/8 time, but many measures have 10 beats in them... at first this was impossible for me to do. But after many hours in the lab, I eventually cracked the program before it cracked me. However, I did come away from the experience with a new skill set and the confidence that I can manipulate a wide variety of programs. This is a crucial skill in ethnomusicology.

Email me for more information about any kind of music transcriptions or customized sheet music.