IxiQuarks

ixiQuarks
Developer(s)	ixi software
Operating system	Mac OS X
Type	experimental music, software
Website	www.ixi-audio.net

Last updated April 10, 2019

ixiQuarks is an experimental music software released by the ixi software team, focusing on both live and studio production contexts.

Experimental music is a general label for any music that pushes existing boundaries and genre definitions. Experimental compositional practice is defined broadly by exploratory sensibilites radically opposed to, and questioning of, institutionalized compositional, performing, and aesthetic conventions in music. Elements of experimental music include indeterminate music, in which the composer introduces the elements of chance or unpredictability with regard to either the composition or its performance. Artists may also approach a hybrid of disparate styles or incorporate unorthodox and unique elements.

ixi software is an open source experimental project concerned with building musical instruments where the interface is at the same time a meta-composition. The instrument becomes a pattern generator suitable for the performance of generative music. ixi runs a label as well where music is released under the Creative Commons license.

ixiQuarks is a software environment designed for live musical improvisation that allows for user interaction on hardware, GUI and code level.^[1] The environment enables innumerable setups with flexible loading of tools and instruments. The ixiQuarks consist of different types of tools: basic utilities, instruments, effects, filters, spectral effects and generators.

Musical improvisation is the creative activity of immediate musical composition, which combines performance with communication of emotions and instrumental technique as well as spontaneous response to other musicians. Sometimes musical ideas in improvisation are spontaneous, but may be based on chord changes in classical music and many other kinds of music. One definition is a "performance given extempore without planning or preparation." Another definition is to "play or sing (music) extemporaneously, by inventing variations on a melody or creating new melodies, rhythms and harmonies." Encyclopædia Britannica defines it as "the extemporaneous composition or free performance of a musical passage, usually in a manner conforming to certain stylistic norms but unfettered by the prescriptive features of a specific musical text. Improvisation is often done within a pre-existing harmonic framework or chord progression. Improvisation is a major part of some types of 20th-century music, such as blues, jazz, and jazz fusion, in which instrumental performers improvise solos, melody lines and accompaniment parts.

In 2008, ixiQuarks won the first prize in the Lomus international music software contest^[2] organized by the Association Française d’Informatique Musicale.^[3]

This software is written in SuperCollider and is part of an extended research programme exploring human-computer interaction in computer music.

SuperCollider is an environment and programming language originally released in 1996 by James McCartney for real-time audio synthesis and algorithmic composition.

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Csound is a computer programming language for sound, also known as a sound compiler or an audio programming language, or more precisely, an audio DSL. It is called Csound because it is written in C, as opposed to some of its predecessors.

The National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Automation (INRIA) is a French national research institution focusing on computer science and applied mathematics. It was created under the name Institut de recherche en informatique et en automatique (IRIA) in 1967 at Rocquencourt near Paris, part of Plan Calcul. Its first site was the historical premises of SHAPE. In 1979 IRIA became INRIA. Since 2011, it has been styled inria.

Virtual Studio Technology (VST) is an audio plug-in software interface that integrates software synthesizer and effects in digital audio workstations. VST and similar technologies use digital signal processing to simulate traditional recording studio hardware in software. Thousands of plugins exist, both commercial and freeware, and a large number of audio applications support VST under license from its creator, Steinberg.

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Traktor is DJ software developed by Native Instruments. It is also used as a sub-brand for Native Instruments' associated DJ hardware products.

FAUST is a domain-specific purely functional programming language for implementing signal processing algorithms in the form of libraries, audio plug-ins, or standalone applications. A FAUST program denotes a signal processor: a mathematical function that is applied to some input signal and then fed out.

Carl Faia is an American composer and live electronics designer and performer.

Ranorex Studio is a GUI test automation framework provided by Ranorex GmbH, a software development company. The framework is used for the testing of desktop, web-based and mobile applications.

Fabio Cifariello Ciardi is an Italian composer of acoustic and electroacoustic music.

A software widget is a relatively simple and easy-to-use software application or component made for one or more different software platforms.

A networked music performance or network musical performance is a real-time interaction over a computer network that enables musicians in different locations to perform as if they were in the same room. These interactions can include performances, rehearsals, improvisation or jamming sessions, and situations for learning such as master classes. Participants may be connected by "high fidelity multichannel audio and video links" as well as MIDI data connections and specialized collaborative software tools. While not intended to be a replacement for traditional live stage performance, networked music performance supports musical interaction when co-presence is not possible and allows for novel forms of music expression. Remote audience members and possibly a conductor may also participate.

Sound and music computing (SMC) is a research field that studies the whole sound and music communication chain from a multidisciplinary point of view. By combining scientific, technological and artistic methodologies it aims at understanding, modeling and generating sound and music through computational approaches.

An immersive virtual musical instrument, or immersive virtual environment for music and sound, represents sound processes and their parameters as 3D entities of a virtual reality so that they can be perceived not only through auditory feedback but also visually in 3D and possibly through tactile as well as haptic feedback, using 3D interface metaphors consisting of interaction techniques such as navigation, selection and manipulation (NSM). It builds on the trend in electronic musical instruments to develop new ways to control sound and perform music such as explored in conferences like NIME.

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Integra Live is open-source software for interactive sound design developed and maintained by the Integra Lab at Birmingham Conservatoire, part of Birmingham City University. The software takes an audio input either from the computer's audio interface or from an audio file, and allows various types of audio transformation to be applied. The software can be used in live performance as well as in creating new sounds or composing new music in a studio. Integra Live was originally designed to address problems of software usability in the creation and performance of live electronic music. Integra Live is supported on PC computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system and on Apple computers running OS X.

Ixi lang is a programming language for live coding musical expression. It is taught at diverse levels of musical education and used in Algorave performances. Like many other live coding languages, such TidalCycles, ixi lang is a domain-specific language that embraces simplicity and constraints in design.

References

↑ Magnusson, Thor (2008). ixiQuarks: Merging GUI and Code into One Creative Space in Proceedings of ICMC 2007, Copenhagen
↑ Lomus international music software contest
↑ Association Française d’Informatique Musicale

External links

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[1] Magnusson, Thor (2008). ixiQuarks: Merging GUI and Code into One Creative Space in Proceedings of ICMC 2007, Copenhagen

[2] Lomus international music software contest

[3] Association Française d’Informatique Musicale