A new standard in Music Synthesis
Computers can be used to make music - this is nothing new. Tools like Buzz from Jeskola are new in the way they generate sound and in the way you are able to construct and sequence that sound into music.
This site explores some aspects of Buzz and represents a personal journey for the author (who is still very much a Buzz newbie) into understanding the world of constructing synthetic/electronic music.
As a collector of synthesiser-based music since the 60's, the author holds a fascination for the electronic sculpting of sound. Early synthesisers worked primitively compared to the virtuoso keyboards available today, but still are based on the basic premise of changing the nature of white noise (a basic electronic hiss) through envelope shaping (modifying attack, decay, sustain along with wave form, amplitude and frequency) and effects (like reverb, pitch-shifting, flanging and stereo engineering).
I was first introduced to Buzz through some enormously talented students who were already making some amazing music using it. As a tool, I like it - as a non-musician it appeals to the way I approach the creative process of writing music and listening to it as well. I would suspect that musicians will find Buzz a little different to use as it is not notation-based. Conventional music scores (all those dots and lines and squiggly marks) are not used in Buzz - the Buzz interface is number-based, with codes for most things being expressed in hexadecimal.
Buzz is a realtime music studio by Oskari Tammelin. When you alter settings, you hear the result there and then. Adding new generators and effects to the mix provides instant feedback. You are able to hook up MIDI capable hardware and utilise it directly in Buzz, if you are a C programmer, you can even generate your own music making machines through the developers toolkit.
Go on to learn about Synthesisers ....
pwhitehouse@optushome.com.au
Buzz © Jeskola
