0:00:00.927,0:00:03.108
I want to talk to you about one thing

0:00:03.108,0:00:04.864
and just one thing only,

0:00:04.864,0:00:08.620
and this has to do with when people ask me,

0:00:08.620,0:00:11.867
what do you do?

0:00:11.867,0:00:13.767
To which I usually respond,

0:00:13.767,0:00:16.907
I do computer music.

0:00:16.907,0:00:18.852
Now, a number of people

0:00:18.852,0:00:21.089
just stop talking to me right then and there,

0:00:21.089,0:00:23.502
and the rest who are left usually have

0:00:23.502,0:00:25.750
this blank look in their eye,

0:00:25.750,0:00:27.919
as if to say, what does that mean?

0:00:27.919,0:00:30.137
And I feel like I'm actually depriving them

0:00:30.137,0:00:33.342
of information by telling them this,

0:00:33.342,0:00:35.070
at which point I usually panic

0:00:35.070,0:00:36.660
and spit out the first thing that comes to my mind,

0:00:36.660,0:00:40.442
which is, I have no idea what I'm doing.

0:00:40.442,0:00:42.054
Which is true.

0:00:42.054,0:00:44.910
That's usually followed by a second thought,

0:00:44.910,0:00:48.210
which is, whatever it is that I'm doing,

0:00:48.210,0:00:49.902
I love it.

0:00:49.902,0:00:53.699
And today, I want to, well,

0:00:53.699,0:00:55.870
share with you something I love,

0:00:55.870,0:00:57.354
and also why.

0:00:57.354,0:01:01.283
And I think we'll begin with just this question:

0:01:01.283,0:01:02.620
What is computer music?

0:01:02.620,0:01:06.400
And I'm going to try to do my[br]best to provide a definition,

0:01:06.400,0:01:08.131
maybe by telling you a story

0:01:08.131,0:01:09.778
that goes through some of the stuff

0:01:09.778,0:01:11.704
I've been working on.

0:01:11.704,0:01:13.516
And the first thing, I think, in our story

0:01:13.516,0:01:16.064
is going to be something called ChucK.

0:01:16.064,0:01:21.437
Now, ChucK is a programming language for music,

0:01:21.437,0:01:24.146
and it's open-source, it's freely available,

0:01:24.146,0:01:26.066
and I like to think that it crashes equally well

0:01:26.066,0:01:28.410
on all modern operating systems.

0:01:28.410,0:01:31.370
And instead of telling you more about it,

0:01:31.370,0:01:33.196
I'm just going to give you a demo.

0:01:33.196,0:01:34.352
By the way, I'm just going to nerd out

0:01:34.352,0:01:35.981
for just a few minutes here,

0:01:35.981,0:01:38.779
so I would say, don't freak out.

0:01:38.779,0:01:40.850
In fact, I would invite all of you to join me

0:01:40.850,0:01:42.034
in just geeking out.

0:01:42.034,0:01:45.096
If you've never written a line[br]of code before in your life,

0:01:45.096,0:01:46.282
do not worry.

0:01:46.282,0:01:49.799
I'll bet you'll be able to come along on this.

0:01:49.799,0:01:51.218
First thing I'm going to do is to make

0:01:51.218,0:01:53.051
a sine wave oscillator,

0:01:53.051,0:01:56.085
and we're going to called the sine wave generator

0:01:56.085,0:01:58.847
"Ge."

0:01:58.847,0:02:00.937
And then we're going to connect "Ge" to the DAC.

0:02:00.937,0:02:02.091
Now this is kind of the abstraction

0:02:02.091,0:02:04.699
for the sound output on my computer. Okay?

0:02:04.699,0:02:07.899
So I've connected myself into the speaker.

0:02:07.899,0:02:09.491
Next, I'm going to say my frequency

0:02:09.491,0:02:11.459
is 440 hertz,

0:02:11.459,0:02:15.278
and I'm going to let time advance

0:02:15.278,0:02:18.000
by two seconds through this operation.

0:02:18.000,0:02:22.068
All right, so if I were to play this --

0:02:22.068,0:02:24.740
(Tone) —

0:02:24.740,0:02:27.161
you would hear a sine wave[br]at 440 hertz for two seconds.

0:02:27.161,0:02:30.187
Okay, great. Now I'm going to copy and paste this,

0:02:30.187,0:02:31.931
and then just change some of these numbers,

0:02:31.931,0:02:35.891
220.5, 440 I shall leave it as that,

0:02:35.891,0:02:38.331
and .5 and 880.

0:02:38.331,0:02:39.693
By doubling the frequency,

0:02:39.693,0:02:42.210
we're actually going up in successive octaves,

0:02:42.210,0:02:43.547
and then we have this sequence --

0:02:43.547,0:02:45.674
(Tones) — of tones.

0:02:45.674,0:02:47.580
Okay, great, now I can imagine creating

0:02:47.580,0:02:49.022
all kinds of really horrible

0:02:49.022,0:02:51.420
single sine wave pieces of music with this,

0:02:51.420,0:02:54.332
but I'm going to do something[br]that computers are really good at,

0:02:54.332,0:02:56.156
which is repetition.

0:02:56.156,0:02:57.860
I'm going to put this all in a while loop,

0:02:57.860,0:02:59.156
and you actually don't need to indent,

0:02:59.156,0:03:01.280
but this is purely for aesthetic reasons.

0:03:01.280,0:03:02.884
It's good practice.

0:03:02.884,0:03:04.464
And when we do this —

0:03:04.464,0:03:08.961
(Tones) —

0:03:08.961,0:03:10.134
that's going to go on for a while.

0:03:10.134,0:03:11.628
In fact, it's probably not going to stop

0:03:11.628,0:03:13.411
until this computer disintegrates.

0:03:13.411,0:03:16.110
And I can't really empirically prove that to you,

0:03:16.110,0:03:19.779
but I hope you'll believe me when I say that.

0:03:19.779,0:03:21.655
Next, I'm going to replace this 220

0:03:21.655,0:03:24.461
by math.random2f.

0:03:24.461,0:03:25.739
I'm going to generate a random number

0:03:25.739,0:03:28.879
between 30 and 1,000 and send that

0:03:28.879,0:03:30.965
to the frequency of me.

0:03:30.965,0:03:33.065
And I'm going to do this every half a second.

0:03:33.065,0:03:36.007
(Tones)

0:03:36.007,0:03:38.668
Let's do this every 200 milliseconds.

0:03:38.668,0:03:43.290
(Tones)

0:03:43.290,0:03:44.745
One hundred.

0:03:44.745,0:03:46.357
(Tones)

0:03:46.357,0:03:47.591
All right.

0:03:47.591,0:03:49.535
At this point, we've reached something

0:03:49.535,0:03:50.605
that I would like to think of as

0:03:50.605,0:03:54.626
the canonical computer music.

0:03:54.626,0:03:58.443
This is, to me, the sound that mainframes

0:03:58.443,0:03:59.565
are supposed to be making

0:03:59.565,0:04:02.807
when they're thinking really hard.

0:04:02.807,0:04:04.900
It's this sound, it's like,

0:04:04.900,0:04:08.471
the square root of five million.

0:04:10.427,0:04:14.211
So is this computer music?

0:04:14.211,0:04:16.190
Yeah, I guess by definition,

0:04:16.190,0:04:17.395
it's kind of computer music.

0:04:17.395,0:04:20.403
It's probably not the kind of music you would listen to

0:04:20.403,0:04:21.891
cruising down the highway,

0:04:21.891,0:04:26.907
but it's a foundation of computer-generated music,

0:04:26.907,0:04:29.110
and using ChucK,

0:04:29.110,0:04:30.803
we've actually been building instruments

0:04:30.803,0:04:32.699
in the Stanford Laptop Orchestra,

0:04:32.699,0:04:36.900
based right here at Stanford Center for[br]Computer Research in Music and Acoustics.

0:04:36.900,0:04:39.683
Now the Laptop Orchestra is an ensemble of laptops,

0:04:39.683,0:04:42.312
humans and special hemispherical speaker arrays.

0:04:42.312,0:04:43.909
Now the reason we have these

0:04:43.909,0:04:46.379
is so that for the instruments that we create

0:04:46.379,0:04:48.603
out of the laptop, we want the sound to come

0:04:48.603,0:04:51.123
out of somewhere near the instrument

0:04:51.123,0:04:52.491
and the performer,

0:04:52.491,0:04:55.193
kind of much like a traditional, acoustic instrument.

0:04:55.193,0:04:57.079
Like, if I were to play a violin here,

0:04:57.079,0:04:59.190
the sound would naturally not come out of

0:04:59.190,0:05:01.964
the P.A. system, but from the artifact itself.

0:05:01.964,0:05:05.171
So these speakers are meant to emulate that.

0:05:05.171,0:05:06.500
In fact, I'm going to show you

0:05:06.500,0:05:09.243
how we actually built them.

0:05:09.243,0:05:11.307
The first step is to go to IKEA

0:05:11.307,0:05:12.687
and buy a salad bowl.

0:05:12.687,0:05:15.917
This is an 11-inch Blanda Matt.

0:05:15.917,0:05:17.415
That's the actual name,

0:05:17.415,0:05:18.837
and I actually use one of these

0:05:18.837,0:05:21.065
to make salad at home as well, I kid you not.

0:05:21.065,0:05:24.236
And the first step is you turn it upside down,

0:05:24.236,0:05:26.711
and then you drill holes in them,

0:05:26.711,0:05:29.220
six holes per hemi,

0:05:29.220,0:05:30.934
and then make a base plate,

0:05:30.934,0:05:33.614
put car speaker drivers in them

0:05:33.614,0:05:36.205
along with amplifiers in the enclosure,

0:05:36.205,0:05:37.559
and you put that all together and you have

0:05:37.559,0:05:39.333
these hemispherical speaker arrays.

0:05:39.333,0:05:40.896
Add people, add laptops,

0:05:40.896,0:05:43.584
you have a laptop orchestra.

0:05:43.584,0:05:47.114
And what might a laptop orchestra sound like?

0:05:47.114,0:05:49.033
Well, let me give you a demonstration

0:05:49.033,0:05:52.268
of about 200 instruments we've created so far

0:05:52.268,0:05:55.511
for the Laptop Orchestra.

0:05:55.511,0:05:57.938
And what I'm going to do is[br]actually come over to this thing.

0:05:57.938,0:06:00.143
This thing I have in front of me

0:06:00.143,0:06:03.355
actually used to be a commodity gaming controller

0:06:03.355,0:06:05.145
called a Gametrak.

0:06:05.145,0:06:07.021
This thing actually has a glove[br]you can put on your hands.

0:06:07.021,0:06:08.581
It's tethered to the base,

0:06:08.581,0:06:11.110
and this will track the position of your hands

0:06:11.110,0:06:12.163
in real time.

0:06:12.163,0:06:15.537
It was originally designed as a golfing controller

0:06:15.537,0:06:17.453
to detect the motion of your swing.

0:06:17.453,0:06:19.984
That turned out to be a rather large

0:06:19.984,0:06:21.688
commercial non-success,

0:06:21.688,0:06:25.442
at which point they slashed prices to 10 dollars,

0:06:25.442,0:06:27.450
at which point computer music researchers

0:06:27.450,0:06:29.508
said, "This is awesome!

0:06:29.508,0:06:32.257
We can prototype instruments out of this."

0:06:32.257,0:06:35.201
So let me show you one instrument we've created,

0:06:35.201,0:06:37.113
one of many, and this instrument

0:06:37.113,0:06:38.682
is called "Twilight,"

0:06:38.682,0:06:41.368
and it's meant to go with this metaphor

0:06:41.368,0:06:44.401
of pulling a sound out of the ground.

0:06:44.401,0:06:47.752
So let me see if this will work.

0:06:47.752,0:06:54.188
(Music)

0:06:56.968,0:06:58.791
And put it back.

0:06:58.791,0:07:02.886
And then if you go to the left,

0:07:02.886,0:07:05.381
right,

0:07:09.427,0:07:13.231
it sounds like an elephant in pain.

0:07:13.231,0:07:16.259
This is a slightly metallic sound.

0:07:16.259,0:07:19.613
Turn it just a bit.

0:07:19.613,0:07:22.569
(Music)

0:07:25.211,0:07:28.785
It's like a hovering car.

0:07:32.406,0:07:33.799
Okay.

0:07:33.799,0:07:37.965
This third one is a ratchet-like interaction, so

0:07:39.360,0:07:41.911
let me turn it up.

0:07:44.915,0:07:49.710
(Music)

0:07:50.068,0:07:51.948
So it's a slightly different interaction.

0:07:51.948,0:07:54.902
The fourth one is a drone.

0:07:55.583,0:08:00.760
(Music)

0:08:08.613,0:08:11.319
And finally, let's see,

0:08:11.319,0:08:13.130
this is a totally different interaction,

0:08:13.130,0:08:14.940
and I think you have to imagine that there's

0:08:14.940,0:08:17.872
this giant invisible drum sitting right here on stage,

0:08:17.872,0:08:20.315
and I'm going to bang it.

0:08:22.255,0:08:24.902
(Drum)

0:08:24.902,0:08:27.689
(Laughter)

0:08:28.241,0:08:30.685
So there we go, so that's one of many instruments

0:08:30.685,0:08:32.455
in the Laptop Orchestra.

0:08:32.455,0:08:36.009
(Applause)

0:08:36.009,0:08:38.290
Thank you.

0:08:38.290,0:08:40.396
And when you put that together,

0:08:40.396,0:08:44.464
you get something that sounds like this.

0:08:44.464,0:08:51.123
(Music)

0:09:33.470,0:09:35.820
Okay, and so, I think from the experience

0:09:35.820,0:09:38.343
of building a lot of instruments[br]for the Laptop Orchestra,

0:09:38.343,0:09:40.847
and I think from the curiosity of wondering,

0:09:40.847,0:09:42.350
what if we took these

0:09:42.350,0:09:43.942
hopefully expressive instruments

0:09:43.942,0:09:46.575
and we brought it to a lot of people,

0:09:46.575,0:09:48.982
plus then a healthy bout of insanity —

0:09:48.982,0:09:50.471
put those three things together —

0:09:50.471,0:09:53.987
led to me actually co-founding a startup company

0:09:53.987,0:09:56.446
in 2008 called Smule.

0:09:56.446,0:09:58.366
Now Smule's mission is to create

0:09:58.366,0:10:02.223
expressive, mobile music things,

0:10:02.223,0:10:06.985
and one of the first musical instruments

0:10:06.985,0:10:08.845
we created is called Ocarina.

0:10:08.845,0:10:11.610
And I'm going to just demo this for you real quick.

0:10:15.234,0:10:17.650
So Ocarina —

0:10:17.650,0:10:21.248
(Music) —

0:10:21.248,0:10:24.371
is based on this ancient flute-like instrument

0:10:24.371,0:10:25.780
called the ocarina,

0:10:25.780,0:10:29.163
and this one is the four-hole[br]English pendant configuration,

0:10:29.163,0:10:32.566
and you're literally blowing into the microphone

0:10:32.566,0:10:35.492
to make the sound.

0:10:35.492,0:10:37.125
And there's actually a little ChucK script

0:10:37.125,0:10:38.293
running in here that's detecting

0:10:38.293,0:10:39.775
the strength of your blowing

0:10:39.775,0:10:41.893
and also synthesizing the sound.

0:10:41.893,0:10:45.478
(Music)

0:10:45.478,0:10:48.808
And vibrato is mapped to the accelerometer,

0:10:48.808,0:10:50.461
so you can get —

0:10:50.461,0:10:53.790
(Music)

0:10:53.790,0:10:57.500
All right. So let me play a little ditty for you,

0:10:59.533,0:11:01.349
a little Bach.

0:11:01.349,0:11:03.941
And here, you'll hear a little[br]accompaniment with the melody.

0:11:03.941,0:11:06.509
The accompaniment actually follows the melody,

0:11:06.509,0:11:10.290
not the other way around.

0:11:10.290,0:11:15.625
(Music)

0:11:23.132,0:11:24.789
And this was designed

0:11:24.789,0:11:26.065
to let you take your time

0:11:26.065,0:11:29.270
and figure out where your expressive space is,

0:11:29.270,0:11:31.077
and you can just hang out here

0:11:31.077,0:11:34.139
for a while, for a really[br]dramatic effect, if you want,

0:11:34.139,0:11:37.205
and whenever you're ready —

0:11:37.205,0:11:41.857
(Music)

0:11:52.981,0:11:54.089
And on these longer notes,

0:11:54.089,0:11:56.190
I'm going to use more vibrato

0:11:56.190,0:11:57.082
towards the end of the notes

0:11:57.082,0:12:00.134
to give it a little bit more of an expressive quality.

0:12:00.134,0:12:03.750
(Music)

0:12:07.473,0:12:11.160
Huh, that's a nice chord to end this excerpt on.

0:12:11.160,0:12:14.581
(Applause)

0:12:14.581,0:12:17.841
Thank you.

0:12:19.750,0:12:23.746
So I think a good question to ask about Ocarina is,

0:12:23.746,0:12:28.493
is this a toy or it an instrument? Maybe it's both,

0:12:28.493,0:12:30.502
but for me, I think the more important question is,

0:12:30.502,0:12:32.043
is it expressive?

0:12:32.043,0:12:34.117
And at the same time, I think

0:12:34.117,0:12:35.421
creating these types of instruments

0:12:35.421,0:12:38.783
asks a question about the role of technology,

0:12:38.783,0:12:40.477
and its place for how we make music.

0:12:40.477,0:12:42.214
Apparently, for example,

0:12:42.214,0:12:44.120
not that long ago, like only a hundred years ago —

0:12:44.120,0:12:45.640
that's not that long in the course of human history —

0:12:45.640,0:12:47.621
families back then

0:12:47.621,0:12:49.509
used to make music together

0:12:49.509,0:12:52.557
as a common form of entertainment.

0:12:52.557,0:12:53.802
I don't think that's really happening

0:12:53.802,0:12:55.337
that much anymore.

0:12:55.337,0:12:57.007
You know, this is before radio, before recording.

0:12:57.007,0:12:59.214
In the last hundred years, with all this technology,

0:12:59.214,0:13:01.388
we now have more access to music

0:13:01.388,0:13:03.021
as listeners and consumers,

0:13:03.021,0:13:06.084
but somehow, I think we're making less music

0:13:06.084,0:13:07.770
than ever before.

0:13:07.770,0:13:09.401
I'm not sure why that would be.

0:13:09.401,0:13:12.050
Maybe it's because it's too easy just to hit play.

0:13:12.050,0:13:14.509
And while listening to music is wonderful,

0:13:14.509,0:13:17.918
there's a special joy to making music

0:13:17.918,0:13:19.573
that's all its own.

0:13:19.573,0:13:20.836
And I think that's one part

0:13:20.836,0:13:22.926
of the goal of why I do what I do

0:13:22.926,0:13:27.682
is kind of to take us back to the past a little bit. Right?

0:13:27.682,0:13:29.462
Now, if that's one goal, the other goal

0:13:29.462,0:13:30.892
is to look to the future and think about

0:13:30.892,0:13:33.229
what kind of new musical things can we make

0:13:33.229,0:13:35.822
that we don't perhaps yet have names for

0:13:35.822,0:13:38.685
that's enabled by technology, but ultimately

0:13:38.685,0:13:41.126
might change the way that humans make music.

0:13:41.126,0:13:43.498
And I'll just give you one example here,

0:13:43.498,0:13:49.723
and this is Ocarina's other feature.

0:13:49.723,0:13:51.910
This is a globe,

0:13:51.910,0:13:54.683
and here you're actually listening

0:13:54.683,0:13:56.735
to other users of Ocarina

0:13:56.735,0:14:00.715
blow into their iPhones to play something.

0:14:00.715,0:14:05.568
This is "G.I.R." from Texas,

0:14:05.568,0:14:11.501
"R.I.K." I don't know why it's these[br]three-letter names today, Los Angeles.

0:14:11.501,0:14:16.519
They're all playing pretty,

0:14:16.519,0:14:19.879
somewhat minimal music here.

0:14:19.879,0:14:25.327
(Music)

0:14:25.327,0:14:27.933
And the idea with this is that, well,

0:14:27.933,0:14:31.850
technology should not be foregrounded here,

0:14:31.850,0:14:33.933
and — (Laughter) —

0:14:33.933,0:14:36.646
we've actually opened this up.

0:14:36.646,0:14:38.153
The first thought is that, hey, you know

0:14:38.153,0:14:41.343
there's somebody somewhere out there

0:14:41.343,0:14:42.613
playing some music,

0:14:42.613,0:14:44.393
and this is a small but I think important

0:14:44.393,0:14:45.613
human connection to make

0:14:45.613,0:14:48.611
that perhaps the technology affords.

0:14:48.611,0:14:51.435
As a final example,

0:14:51.435,0:14:52.790
and perhaps my favorite example,

0:14:52.790,0:14:55.941
is that in the wake of the 2011 earthquake

0:14:55.941,0:14:58.427
and tsunami disaster in Japan,

0:14:58.427,0:15:01.270
a woman reached out in one of our singing apps

0:15:01.270,0:15:04.157
to try to get people to join in to sing with her

0:15:04.157,0:15:05.762
on a version of "Lean on Me."

0:15:05.762,0:15:08.810
Now, in these apps, there's this thing that allows

0:15:08.810,0:15:10.511
any user to add their voice

0:15:10.511,0:15:13.309
to an existing performance by any other user

0:15:13.309,0:15:14.363
or group of users,

0:15:14.363,0:15:16.388
so in some sense, she's created this kind of

0:15:16.388,0:15:19.772
global ad hoc corral of strangers,

0:15:19.772,0:15:21.980
and within weeks, thousands of people

0:15:21.980,0:15:23.612
joined in on this,

0:15:23.612,0:15:25.991
and you can kind of see people[br]coming from all around the world

0:15:25.991,0:15:28.272
and all these lines converging on the origin

0:15:28.272,0:15:30.620
where the first rendition of the song was sung,

0:15:30.620,0:15:32.254
and that's in Tokyo.

0:15:32.254,0:15:35.686
And this is what it sounds like [br]when there's 1,000 people.

0:15:35.686,0:15:37.663
This is 1,000 voices.

0:15:37.663,0:15:41.940
(Recording) ♪ Sometimes in our lives ♪

0:15:41.940,0:15:49.260
♪ We all have pain, we all have sorrow ♪

0:15:49.260,0:15:53.100
♪ But if we are wise ♪

0:15:53.100,0:15:58.990
♪ We know that there's always tomorrow ♪

0:15:58.990,0:16:01.497
♪ Lean on me ♪

0:16:01.497,0:16:04.310
♪ When you're not strong ♪

0:16:04.310,0:16:06.950
♪ And I'll be your friend ♪

0:16:06.950,0:16:11.235
♪ I'll help you carry on ♪

0:16:11.235,0:16:15.248
♪ For it won't be long ♪

0:16:15.248,0:16:17.976
♪ Till I'm gonna need ♪

0:16:17.976,0:16:21.372
♪ Somebody to lean on ♪

0:16:21.372,0:16:23.726
♪ Just lean on — ♪

0:16:23.726,0:16:25.296
Is this computer music?

0:16:25.296,0:16:28.884
(Applause)

0:16:30.728,0:16:32.696
Was that computer music?

0:16:32.696,0:16:34.743
Yeah, I guess so; it's something that you really

0:16:34.743,0:16:37.028
couldn't have done without computers.

0:16:37.028,0:16:41.264
But at the same time, it's also just human,

0:16:41.264,0:16:44.353
and I think what I've essentially answered so far

0:16:44.353,0:16:47.744
is maybe why I do the stuff that I do,

0:16:47.744,0:16:50.136
and let's just finally return to the first question:

0:16:50.136,0:16:52.248
What is computer music?

0:16:52.248,0:16:54.552
And I think that the catch here is that,

0:16:54.552,0:16:55.808
at least to me, computer music

0:16:55.808,0:16:57.656
isn't really about computers.

0:16:57.656,0:16:59.182
It is about people.

0:16:59.182,0:17:00.816
It's about how we can use technology

0:17:00.816,0:17:02.862
to change the way we think

0:17:02.862,0:17:04.306
and do and make music,

0:17:04.306,0:17:07.992
and maybe even add to how we can

0:17:07.992,0:17:10.502
connect with each other through music.

0:17:10.502,0:17:12.655
And with that, I want to say,

0:17:12.655,0:17:15.752
this is computer music, and thank you for listening.

0:17:15.752,0:17:19.752
(Applause)