Goldsmiths Electronic Music Studios: 40 Years

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the founding of the Electronic Music Studios (EMS) at Goldsmiths, University of London. The 1968 studio placed Goldsmiths at the forefront of such developments in the UK university sector. 2008 also marks the launch of our EMS Research Group, which brings together a diverse range of interests and activities in computer music research, creative practice and music technology. 1. GOLDSMITHS: THEN AND NOW The early history of the studio is closely linked to two British pioneers of experimental, electronic music: Hugh Davies (1943-2005) and Daphne Oram (19252003). Interest in electronic music at Goldsmiths can be traced back to 1966 and a visit by Oram, co-founder and director (1958-9) of the BBC Radiophonic workshop. (Her life and work is the subject of a current EMS research project, outlined below). A letter to Oram dated May 3rd 1966, from J.A. Gulland, Head of the Department of Adult Studies, thanked her for a recent lecture, concluding "I am not quite sure what we as a College do next about electronic music but you have certainly stimulated very great interest that may, in time, develop into a serious study of the subject here”. Interest developed quickly. In autumn 1967 Hugh Davies, following his two-year tenure in Germany as Stockhausen’s assistant, proposed the establishing of a Goldsmiths electronic music studio to Stanley Glasser, who was soon to be Head of the Music Department. By January 1968 the ‘Electronic Music Workshop’ had begun evening classes. Davies writes “This appears to have been the first such regular class given in any academic institution in Britain, although others followed fairly rapidly.” 1 [4]. Initial equipment consisted of “three Revox tape recorders, a stereo mixer, one air and a couple of contact microphones, a stereo amplifier and loudspeakers, followed a few weeks later by a sine/square-wave generator built from a kit.” [4]. By 1976 this had expanded to include two VCS3 synthesizers, numerous Revox A77 tape recorders, a custom-made mixer, a range of ring-modulators, phaseshifters, wave-shapers, reverberation units etc., and a few years later the addition of a Roland 100M modular synthesizer (still working today). In the 1980s the studio acquired a Fairlight CMI series II computer music 1 A claim supported by Prof. Peter Manning: “...there were developments at York, Cardiff and Manchester underway by 1968 but Hugh's claim to be the first is sustainable” (email correspondence, 28/1/08). system, at the time extremely expensive technology (Figure 1). Over the years there have been numerous composers and artists associated with the studio, as performers-inresidence, researchers and visiting tutors, including Don Banks, Anna Lockwood, Lawrence Casserley, David Burnard, Lily Greenham, Bob Cobbing (poet in residence, 1973-74), Richard Bernas, and more recently, Philip Mead, New Noise London, Max Eastley, Lawrence Upton, and Neil Heyde. Composer, Katharine Norman (EMS Director, 1998-2003), oversaw an extensive modernization of the studio and also established undergraduate and postgraduate courses that continue today. Hugh Davies is sadly no longer with us, although his influence remains; one obituary noted that “in the 21st century, it seems that Hugh Davies's innovatory, do-ityourself, lo-fi approach – which in several respects prefigured present laptop culture – is finding favour with a younger generation to whom this remarkable and iconoclastic innovator now appears as a significant father figure.” [8]. The current EMS Research Group staff includes Ian Stonehouse (Head of Studio), Dr. Michael Young (Deputy Head of Department, Lecturer in Composition), Dr. John Levack Drever (Lecturer in Composition), Dr. Mick Grierson (AHRC Research Fellow), John Lely (Researcher and Technician) and Sebastian Lexer (Researcher and Max/MSP Course Tutor). The EMS website is www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/ems. Figure 1: EMS Studio c.1982 (later, the Multichannel Studio). Chilton 24.8.2 desk (middle), Publison DHM89 digital delay/pitch shifter (bottom left), Fairlight CMI series II (right). 2. CURRENT RESOURCES The Electronic Music Studios comprises a suite of eight independent studios, offering a range of facilities for teaching and research. There are three identical Pro Tools Studios based around a Digidesign Mbox Pro 2/Apple iMac system. The Music Technology Lab supports both undergraduate and commercial courses with 10 Mac and PC workstations running Sibelius, Cubase and Max/MSP. Other frequently used software includes IRCAM Forum software, MetaSynth 4 Pro, Soundhack, Ableton Live, and a range of plugins such as GRM Classic & ST, Pluggo and Waves. Our Teaching Studio space houses another Digidesign workstation, in addition to a Yamaha Disklavier grand piano and a vintage Roland 100M modular synthesizer, which still attracts regular use. The studio is used for seminars, workshops, installation development and recording; an adjacent Control Room is equipped for multitrack recording, comprising Digidesign HD2 Accel/192 hardware, a Yamaha O2R desk, Genelec monitors, TL Audio Preamp & Compressor and TFPRO pre-amplifiers/stereo optical compressors. There are also tie lines to the Department of Music Recital Room for remote recording. Figure 2: The Multichannel Studio today There are three studios specifically for postgraduate/research use: The Multichannel Studio is the main facility, designed for eight-channel or 5:1 sound diffusion/spatialisation and digital sound processing/editing (Figure 2). It is based around an Apple G5 and Digidesign HD2 Accel system, with eight Adam active speakers and subwoofer with a dual Blue Sky controller. Additional software includes IRCAM SPAT real-time spatialisation, and a custom-made realtime eight-channel spatialisation RTAS plug-in. The new 5.1 Studio is designed specifically for surround sound composition with an Apple Mac Pro, Digidesign HD2 Accel system, Adam active speakers and a Blue Sky controller. It also equipped for reel-to-reel tape transfer. The Live Electronics Studio is a facility for interactive performance and live signal processing. Equipment includes an Apple Mac Pro 3GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon with a range of control surfaces and external equipment inlcuding a JazzMutant Lemur, Korg KAOSS pad, Kenton Control Freak, Phil Rees C16 and Soundbeam 2 system. 3. CURRENT RESEARCH 3.1. Interactive Performance/Composition Interactive and generative music in performance is well represented in EMS, evidenced by the Live Algorithms for Music Network (LAM) as well as individual research projects. 3.1.1. Live Algorithms for Music The LAM network was founded by Dr Michael Young and Dr Tim Blackwell (Department of Computing, Goldsmiths) with a grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Culture and Creativity Programme. The vision for the network is the development of an artificial music collaborator in performance [1], and the main aim of the network has been to form an interdisciplinary community to identify theoretical and practical issues. The community has been developed through a series of events hosted by EMS, which facilitated research workshops and concerts. During 2004-7 there were 40 presentations and 27 performances of live algorithminspired music (Figure 3). The network has some 100 members including performers, composers, software engineers and researchers in relevant sciences; computing, cognition, robotics. Although UK-based, there are many members from other European countries, Australia and the USA. The network has benefited from contributions by leaders in improvised and computer music including Prof. George Lewis (Columbia University, USA), Al Biles (Rochester Inst. Technology, USA) and Francois Pachet (Sony CSL). LAM established links with international conferences NIME 2006 and ISMIR 2006 and with IRCAM. Figure 3: Evan Parker (left) and George Lewis performing with live algorithm systems, LAM Concert