MT Plus - Using the Computer to Teach Music Technology

Dr. Arthur Gottschalk, Director

Rice University Electronic Music Laboratories

Yin Feng, Laboratory Assistant

Software Programmer

Music and technology is not a new relationship; they have been inextricably intertwined since the beginning. Some have argued that one of Man's first uses of tools was to create sound. As tool-making has progressed, so has music-making. The instruments of the modern symphony orchestra represent the apex of 19th Century technology; as newer and better instruments were developed as a result of technological advances, composers naturally embraced them, and made them a part of their pallette. So it is no wonder that composers of today, regardless of their style or function, have embraced electronic technology as it has become available to the practising musician. The universities have been on the cutting edge of electronic music technology development and application, but since the emergence of commercial development the advances have come so fast that departmental budgets and staffing cannot keep pace. And yet we must uphold our obligation to teach this new technology and its applications, and make it relevant to the students' projected needs, experiences, and expectations in the field.

The very diversity of the technology makes it difficult to teach in the traditional confines of the electronic music studio. After all, the technology has made its way into the class piano studio, the ear-training lab, the musicologist's carrel, the pedagogy classroom, and even the performing ensemble environment. We should be teaching the new technology as a natural part of all areas of musical study and endeavor, and yet much of it is often "ghettoized" to the realm of electronic music studios, as an adjunct to the theory/composition department.

As example, at Rice University we currently have a computer-based aural skills lab, a Finale - based notation lab, a large traditional hybrid electronic music studio, and 4 NeXt-based computer-music workstations, all under the aegis of music theory and composition. Examining the larger studio, as it is the one directed towards more general education in music technology, we find the following equipment requiring some degree of competency in the first semester:

multi-track analog tape decks

DAT mastering decks

6 different multi-timbral synthesizers

audio and MIDI patch bays

multi-I/O audio mixing consoles

2 different percussion computers

SMPTE and MTC synchronizing interfaces

3 different software sequencers

programmable multi-effects processors

digital samplers

a rack full of outboard gear

The time required to teach just the 16-bit sampler and all of its functions and capabilities is immense; indeed, some schools offer complete semester courses on this device and its applications to video alone!

What often happens is that, in teaching the "bits and bytes" of this technology there is a necessary reduction of emphasis on musical creativity. Imagine the following scenario: One wants to teach the students the finer points of "orchestrating", using multiple synthesizers, MIDI channels, and recorded MIDI program number changes on a computer-based sequencer. Before this can be done, a multi-track piece must be sequenced. And before this can be done, a multi-part piece, appropriate to the medium and the task, must be composed. The dilemma that results is this: In the time available, should we emphasize the compositional aspects and thus gloss over the applied technology, or vice-versa? Neither option is satisfactory to a concerned musician, and yet the exigencies of time necessary to master either of these techniques is a pedagogical reality (nightmare?). In the best of all worlds, a series of 4 to 6 courses, each prerequisite to the next, should be available. Most of us have neither the manpower nor the requisite budget to allow this.

My lab assistant for the past 3 1/2 years, Yin Feng, and I have developed a computer-assisted composition program, called MT Plus, to help us with just this problem. MT Plus is 16-track sequencer software with built-in compositional assists that are "non-invasive" stylistically; that is, the program will help assemble a piece only from material provided by the composer and only in manners specified by the composer. In a nutshell, MT Plus allows the composer to quickly

hear and evaluate numerous possibilities and variations inherent to his material, and then select and refine those options that the composer finds attractive and representative of both his aesthetic and the ultimate purpose of the work. When a piece is generated using MT Plus, it satisfies my general requirement that the composition, written for an electronic medium, has been conceived of and in the medium itself. This is somewhat comparable, after all, to asking that music written for the violin should be appropriate and idiomatic, and conceived for the violin. The great advantage pedagogically, of course, is that the student user can work much more quickly as an arbiter of craft than as a craftsman himself, thus freeing more time to spend on creative impulses and (thank goodness) to learn the technological applications beyond the creation of the material - that which is appropriate to the work at hand.

Once a piece has been composed using MT Plus, it exists as a series of simultaneous sequencer tracks of basic MIDI information. It is with this basic note and duration information that one can test and learn MIDI routing, processing, and editing, signal processing, MIDI "orchestration", audio mixing, computer manipulation, storage, and retrieval, indeed, most of the vast amount of technology created and available to put the piece into a finished form. I am fond of telling my students that, contrary to lay wisdom, electronic music should take much longer to create, since the composer is also his own arranger, orchestrator, conductor, performer(s), producer, and engineer! The final product is, after all, still a master recording of some type, and the composer bears all responsibility for its creation and effectiveness.

MT Plus is, therefore, a computer-assisted solution to temporal pedagogical needs and a working tool for the creation of works which ultimately reflect the peculiar aesthetics of the individual user. I have been gratified by its effective use in the classroom, and offer it as "shareware" for others with similar needs and/or interests.