[microsound] No Input Mixing Board

[Robin Parmar]

I agree -- this sort of thing is fun! I have worked regularly with feedback loops in live situations, particularly in the piece Ouroboros. Here I use a short range FM transmitter and various radios as sound sources. These are picked up by a central microphone and fed into the transmitter... hence the loop. 

I play this as an "instrument" by changing the proximity, tuning etc. of the radios. Of course the acoustical characteristics of the room are paramount important. And sometimes the audience plays around with the radios which adds a nice touch.

By adding a small delay I can keep amplitude spikes out of the system. I generally use a laptop for this as I can then record using the same device. If I had a foot-pedal or two they would do the job as well. The nice thing is the volume doesn't need to be too loud to achieve a smooth state.

Analogue is definitely the way to go for any component you wish to use expressively. Radios with digital tuning suck!

Getting good recordings of such environments is difficult and low on my priority list. Creating a living sound field in which people can situate themselves is much more important to me. Maybe if I someday do a multichannel recording I might be able to get a useful approximation of the live setting in a series of PCM files.

Some details at remanence.robinparmar.com/listen.html

-- Robin Parmar