Live production
Recreating the feeling of a live performance is the aim for a brand new music playback format called Bronze.  UK musician Gwilym Gold and electronic music producer Lexxx approached Dr Mick Grierson, who specialises in creative technologies, from Goldsmiths University in London, to help them develop a new way for listeners to experience their music on an iPhone. Gold’s new album ‘Tender Metal’ offers no definitive version of any track, as all the sound elements are programmed to evolve around each other in an open-ended way.

Grierson describes creative technologies as the application of computer science to the arts. He develops software specifically for sound, image video and interactive content. Grierson’s previous collaborations include his work with Christian Marclay’s award-winning media art film ‘The Clock’. His background in sound and music engineering and film-making meant that he is in tune with what a producer wants to achieve.

Quality and variation
He explains the approach, ‘there are a range of algorithms which, in the case of Bronze, try to emulate what someone might do if they were mixing music. It should feel like a live experience. If you see a band perform, they can make changes as they are performing. With Bronze, the excitement of listening to music live is right there and to be honest, it is being produced live. Every last sample Bronze makes, it has just decided to make and can change at any point.’

Griersom describes how the need for excellence in the reproduction of the sound and optimising that to run on an iPhone was a huge challenge. To achieve this technically, there are calculations on each element of the audio stream to a very high resolution. Following that, he explains the system had to be configurable for different types of music and allow for the way that music is written.

Programming creativity
Bronze is part of Grierson’s greater Sound Image and Brain project. He is driven by the desire to make current computer technology relevant to artists and communicators and believes that what Gold and Lexx have done is create something that enhances their business, and will enhance the culture and practices of the music community around them. It’s all about producing technologically enhanced creative experiences that people can plug into.