Sunday Synth Jam: This video captures an informal collaborative synth jam, using AudioCubes and Mark Mosher’s 9 Box Method.
Here’s what Mosher has to say about the video:
There was an AudioCube jam at the 2011 Electro-Music Festival in NY. I brought 6 AudoiCubes and set up my casual musical instrument templates called the 9 Box.
The system fits in a backpack, is intended for 1-4 players. It only takes a few minutes to setup the system and about 1 minute to learn to play the 9 Box.
“9 Box” refers to a 3×3 matrix of 9 clips – hence the “9 Box”. Why 9 clips? After much research I’ve concluded that 9 is a perfect number of clips for mapping to a single AudioCube and a small enough number of clips that it’s easy to keep track of the different musical or sound phrases.
Watch for annotations in video for more details.
The end result is part synth jam, part audio installation. I’d like to see a polished multi-person performance with the same set up, too.
You can definitely use the system for polished performances. I have the system in a K-6 in Denver and the 5th and 6th graders are creating their own refills based on field recordings. They as learn to listen, take turns, and arrange pieces then perform them live.
You could also DJ with it with one person using the 9-boxes as “platters”.
I’ll work on some videos of this in the future.