The Four of Us

By Edmund Wong

Project Description
My project will deal with improvisation. There will be large four boxes on screen, each containing a smaller box. These smaller boxes can be clicked on/off, they act as a toggle to turn on/off the larger boxes. The smaller boxes will be located in the top left or top right corner in order to be nonintrusive. Three of the larger boxes will play a video with audio if they are toggled on. They are meant to be played simultaneously as the three audio tracks, when synced, will play a more complete song. It is up to the user to check or uncheck the smaller boxes to his or her desire to hear more the song. The fourth box will utilize a webcam to display the user in real time. The webcam will be aimed at a midi keyboard that the user can use to improvise with the tracks. To avoid alienating nonmusicians, there will be a picture indicator of which keys are appropriate for a certain song. There will be multiple songs so the user can use the radiogroup to select each one. To keep my project from being too dull, the songs will exhibit varying difficulties. These can vary from uncommon voicings to different time signatures. The three larger boxes will be tied to a play button to ensure everything is in sync. There may be an option to record the user’s improvisation. I have to explore more of maxmsp to decide on synths that the user will use.

Bio
Edmund Wong is a full time student at Hunter college. He works part time at an IT company and lives in Brooklyn. He makes music in his spare time.

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