Compilation

This is a compilation i made 2 years ago sometime in October 2023 .There are 36 short excerpts from various electronic and electroacoustic artists that sum up to around 9 minutes . Here is the full playlist :

1.irr. app. (ext.) Ozeanische Gefühle - 1 2.Taku Sugimoto 3. doremilogy 2.12 [taku sugimoto 2007] 4.Obst, Michael - Kristallwelt - 1983-86 - Part I, II, III + Intermède 5.Harold Budd - Jane 7 6.Gordon Mumma Pontpoint(1966-1980) 7.Robin Hayward, Rhodri Davies & Taku Unami 8.Z'ev - KPFK 9. Mandolini Ricardo 10.Natasha Barret -1 11. Vaggione, Horacio - Thema - 1985 - sax baixo e tape - 1 12.Ivo Malec - Actuor (1983) 13.irr. app. (ext.) - Their Little Bones - 2 14. Kiyoshi Mizutani, Hideaki Shimada & Kiyoharu Kuwayama 15. Tom Djll 16. Eva Perouk-Auto Da Fé-La Semaine D'Une Somnambuliste Unlikely Records URT96 `85 17.Lionel Marchetti, Yôko Higashi - Pétrole (2009) 18.Robin Hayward, Rhodri Davies & Taku Unami 2 19.FURT The Field Recordings 2 FURT Live in Amsterdam 1994 - 1 20.Mendes, Gilberto - Nascemorre - 1963 - coro misto, 2 máquinas de escrever e tape - 2 21.The Pulses Of Time (Electro-Acoustic Music On Tape) - Denis Smalley - 2 22. Bayle, François - Espaces Inhabitables - 1967 - 1 23.Eva Perouk-Auto Da Fé-La Semaine D'Une Somnambuliste Unlikely Records URT96 `85 3 24.Robin Hayward, Rhodri Davies & Taku Unami 4 25.Une Le Würg Production - Don't Fight Against The Time -See It Destroy Tape Eigen `87 - 1 26. Tod Docksteder - 2 27.Xenakis, Iannis - Orient-Occident - 1960 - 1 28.Roy, Stéphane - Paysages Intérieurs - 1988 - 1 29.Cognitive Disorder 3 - Detrition - irr app - 1 30.Stockhouzen - Kontakte 31.Ferrari, Luc - Und so weiter - 1966 - 1 32.Schaeffer, Pierre - Etude aux Allures - 1958 33.Denis Smalley 34.looper SQUAREHORSE 35.Mario Davidovski 36.Patrice Sciotino

 

Studiomaster SESSIONMIX822

 

I rarely buy gear , so rare that nowadays i write the companies like Studiomaster ,Xvive ,and whoever before i buy something .So the people at Studiomaster after answering my query said that i can review this piece of gear . I bought it myself and here's what i think about it .

I am not audio engineer so i really can not speak all in dB and Hertz but i can give honest view and ear on the machine , i did go to SAE for a few months but i never graduated so i know nothing ... 

One thing that led me to this mixer for start is that Mic and Line inputs were separate for each channel, that was very important for me ,and something i prefer .and two aux channels unlike all the mixers in that price range that usually offer just one.

There are compressors on all 6 channels and I would like to test the compressors with premixed inputs and various sources  ,they really are a attractive feature and at first glance they sounded more like sound leveler than true compression until i pushed them all the way and there it was, a nice interaction . 

 I know the mixer is sort of a utility box for many ,and it will be set and forget but i like to treat it like an instrument and it's very good for that . One fantastic feature this mixer has is not only the great effects and the dedicated fader for the DSP but also the ability to turn off and on the Effects ,like an Effects mute . 

When it comes to the EQ's they are sort of very vanilla , they are just 3 band EQ's without sweep and gain controls separate which i loved with my old Fostex DMT8 , so for the price you can't ask for more . External EQ is needed if you want real thump or squeak but they do the job nicely for commoners .

 I still like the mixer .Actually it's layout is just what i would like or imagine !

It has mute on each channel which is important for live sessions , and the submix* is more than welcome for no input mixing as a 3rd aux channel , yes there are 2 x aux channels which is important if you wanna use external effects and stuff and more important if you wanna record some no input mixing experimental mambo jumbo . The onboard effects have dedicated pot per channel next to the aux 1 and aux 2 and sound beautiful ,i will only say that and it's nice that there is a proper effects processor included for the price , i can imagine it being very useful feature in Live Events situations , like amateur Theater or Poetry reading.

With the compressors and the additional gain preamps on the top of the mixer this thing has a lot of gain at least for me using synthesizer levels i never touch the preamps at all . 

Sadly there is no separate return channels for the 2 auxiliary outputs but a single stereo return and whatever that is is not talking well with my Polymoog Resonators which tells me i might need to adapt a cable for normal use . (There really is a User Manual:)

Lastly there is an mp3 player there , i wish it was just some picture of Phil Collins, i could live with that , you can just ignore the whole mp3 module , unless you are at a live event like a gallery or some book publishing event or everywhere else where you'd need music before and after some strange lady reads her semi erotic poem with a big white hat with purple ribbon

You have Group 1+2 as a linked stereo bus (Group 1 = L, Group 2 = R)

Each channel has a routing switch that sends signal to both groups at once

Then you get fader control over Group 1/2 output level ,So functionally, it’s less like:

“true independent subgroup routing”  and more like: “alternate stereo mix bus with per-channel assign”

But i can imagine those two outputs being properly abused in no mixing input session .You can also have alternate mix going thru a processor and then feeding it back to another channel or recorder , and then you can give to two people two variants of the recording. I ended up using the Group output exactly for recording sessions , with faders at 20/30 or just very little it works well feeding a semi-professional handheld recorder .

Conclusion. Yes, for me it is worth every penny. Companies keep cutting corners and features at this price point, yet this thing still manages to pack quite a lot inside. you get a lot of features that some might find useful , some less , but it's really worth as base for a small budget studio . It's cheap ... and you won't get much more for the price , after months of use one thing i would complain about it the noisy mute switches ,it's very annoying and you can't fix it later in recordings ,i guess i just got what i paid for .

I hope to update this article in the future with few no-input mixing recordings .

https://studiomaster.com

Hardware Design of Real-Time Musical System

by Sergio Franco 

(excerpts) 

1. Importance of Real-Time in Electronic Music

With the advent of electronic music, the roles of the composer and the performer have been placed in a new perspective. Traditionally, musicians have tended to specialize in either one role or the other, or have tended to play only one of the roles at a time. This has happened mainly because of the considerable difficulty encountered when composing and performing are carried on simultaneously.

When a musician improvises at an instrument, he is essentially composing music in real-time. This means he is thinking and evaluating very quickly a series of possibilities out of which he makes appropriate choices, which in turn lead to the execution of the various mechanical motions necessary to produce the music he wants.

Because of the difficulties encountered in doing all these things at once, musicians have tended to specialize either in the inception/evaluation process (composition) or in the execution process (performance), and have developed the notation of musical scores to communicate among themselves. Thus, the composer need not be principally concerned with the quick thinking and decision making of the improvisational process, but can pursue his inspection of musical possibilities on his own time scale.

What is even more important, to appreciate the effects of his choices and changes, he does not need to try them out on actual instruments because he can rely on his aural imagery, a faculty he has developed through experience either by playing instruments or by listening to others playing them, or both.

In developing his aural imagery, the musician is certainly helped a lot by the fact that he deals with a limited set of instruments whose characteristics extend over known and predictable ranges.

In electronic music the situation is quite different. Because of the new kinds of sounds that electronic instruments are capable of synthesizing, it is very difficult for the musician to develop the kind of musical imagery that may suffice to assist him in composing on his own time scale and away from his instruments. If the composer is to come up with something musically meaningful at all, it is absolutely essential that he actually hear the effects of his choices, his trials, and his alterations as he makes them, so that he can directly evaluate them in the context of the whole composition. In other words, the concept of direct feedback has come to play a dominant role in the electronic music composing process.

Another important change brought about by electronic music involves the relationship between performer and instrument, and is due to the much greater detail in which the performer is required to control the various musical parameters. While in conventional instruments such parameters as timbres, attacks, decays, etc. are, to a large extent, fixed, built-in features, in electronic music they are left to the discretion of the performer, who must therefore specify and control them directly. If this feature allows on the one hand much more freedom of choice and experimentation, on the other it imposes a more demanding control burden upon the performer, and it certainly renders the communication among musicians more complex than with conventional instruments, where the notation of the musical score is usually adequate.

As a result of the above discussion, it should be clear that in electronic music the distinction between composer and performer ceases to exist, partly because the composer needs to try out his musical ideas on the instrument by himself, and partly because of difficulties of communication among different people.

Furthermore, having accepted the notion of direct feedback as an indispensable ingredient of the improvisational process, it is of paramount importance that the composer/performer be allowed to interact with his instrument on the time scale of the music he is improvising, that is, in real-time.

As shown in the block diagram of Figure 28, the realization of the sound distribution system requires a total of 96 audio gates. With a number of this magnitude, the cost per gate plays an important role in the choice of the circuit realization to be adopted.

An audio gate, besides satisfying such obvious requirements as low distortion, high on-to-off transfer ratio, and low control signal feedthrough, must also exhibit specific transient characteristics in order to ensure proper audio switching.

The last requirement is motivated by the fact that when a sound is switched on or off, spurious partials are generated which may alter the tonal character of the sound considerably, as has been discussed in connection with sound enveloping.

As Fourier analysis reveals, the amount of spurious partials accompanying sound switching usually increases with the rate at which sound builds up or decays. Thus, unwanted switching effects can be easily reduced by employing gates with low switching speeds.

From the viewpoint of sound movement control, however, it is desirable to have fast gates so that sounds can be switched around the performance space at arbitrary rates. A compromise between the two conflicting requirements can be determined experimentally.

Analog gates based on solid-state, electro-optical devices like Raysistors or Vactrols usually exhibit predetermined and highly asymmetrical switching characteristics which render these components unsuited to the present application. The cost of these devices at the time of design was also a key factor that contributed to their rejection.

The smoother for the harnonic tone generator has been real-ized with two CA3080 OTArs in the manner i]lustrated in Figure 1p.This circuit realizes a tvo-pole,maximally-f1at, low-pass prograrnrnable fil-ter. Due to the absenceof the voltage-to-current converter and diode compressor, signal conditioning at the OTArs inputs i-s achieved by means of resistor attenuators, as shown. Tire resj-stcr values have been chosen so that the bal-anced outputs from the progranraable mixer can be tied to

 the inputs of the first 0TA directly, without the need for additional ancilfary circuitry. AIso, because of the finite imped.ance presented. by the attenuators, the output from each OTA naust be buffered. by a high input-imped.ance decoupler. This task is performed. by the pair of FET-transistor

source fol-lowers. The voltage-offsets associated vi-th the fol-lowers $o not affect the dc level of the filter because each follover is placed insid.e the feed.back loop of the correspond.ing OTA.

Digital Waveshape Generation

Because of the discretization introduced by the sampling technique, the control of tonal qualities can be exercised only over a limited bandwidth. According to the well-known sampling theorem, the order of the highest harmonic that can still be represented with the sampling process equals half the number of samples contained within one waveshape period.

Thus, if the harmonic generator is to span a wide tonal scope, the number of sampling intervals should be as large as possible. A high sampling density, however, requires a commensurably high frequency for the sequential scan of memory as well as a large memory size to accommodate the samples.

As it has already been pointed out in connection with the relaxation oscillator, the accurate generation of an exponential frequency over a range of three decades becomes more and more difficult as the range is shifted in the direction of higher frequencies.

A compromise has been achieved with the choice of a time resolution of 32 samples per period and an amplitude resolution of 15 levels per sample. Since the tonal bandwidth is determined solely by the number of samples, the amplitude resolution need not be as high as the time resolution.

It should be noted, however, that the presence of the mixer results in an effective increase of the amplitude resolution because it allows for the programming of arbitrary ratios between corresponding samples of the incoming waveshapes.

(Sergio Franco was one of the people that designed the Sal-Mar Construction)

This excerpt is shared for educational and research purposes only, to facilitate discussion and understanding of electronic music history. If you are the copyright holder and object to its publication here, please contact me directly, and I will remove it immediately.

***

 Zahar Pavlovič se zamislio i hteo da ode u bosjake, ali je ostao. Tuga

i nemaština su ga tako dirnule — zbog neke nepoznate griže savesti što

se otkrila u njegovom srcu poželeo je da neumorno hoda zemljom, da

susreće tugu u svim selima i da plače na tuđim grobovima. Ali sprečili

su ga predstojeći poslovi: starosta mu je dao da opravi zidni časovnik, a

sveštenik da naštimuje klavir. Zahar Pavlovič nikad u životu nije slušao

muziku — jednom je u sreskom mestu video gramofon, ali su ga seljaci

dokusurili i nije svirao: gramofon je stajao u krčmi, zidovi kutije bili su

odvaljeni kako bi se mogla videti prevara i onaj ko peva, a u membranu

je bila udenuta igla za krpljenje. Proveo je mesec dana u štimovanju

klavira, isprobavajući setne zvuke i razgledajući mehanizam koji je

stvarao takvu nežnost. Zahar Pavlovič je udarao u dirku — tužna pesma

se rađala i nestajala; Zahar Pavlovič je gledao gore i čekao da se zvuk

vrati — bio je odveć lep da bi se nepovratno izgubio. Svešteniku je

dosadilo da čeka sa štimovanjem, pa je rekao: »Ti, čiko, nemoj badava

da puštaš tonove, nego se trudi da stvar završiš do roka, i nemoj

dokučivati smisao onoga što ti nije potrebno.« Zahar Pavlovič se uvredio

iz dubine svoga majstorstva i napravio u mehanizmu tajni deo koji se

mogao za sekund ukloniti ali se bez specijalnog poznavanja stvari nije

mogao otkriti. Posle je pop svake nedelje pozivao Zahara Pavloviča:

»Dođi, prijatelju, dođi, opet se izgubila tajna snaga muzike.« Zahar

Pavlovič nije napravio tajni deo zbog popa, niti zbog toga da sam često

odlazi do njega i uživa u muzici: ganulo ga je nešto sasvim suprotno —

kako je napravljena sprava koja uzbuđuje sva srca, koja čoveka čini

dobrim; radi toga je i ubacio svoj tajni deo, koji je bio u stanju da se

meša u milozvučnost i da je maskira grubim tonovima. Kada je, posle

deset opravki, Zahar Pavlovič shvatio tajnu mešanja zvukova i

mehanizam treperave glavne ploče, izvadio je iz klavira tajni deo i

zauvek prestao da se zanima za zvuke...

АНДРЕИ ПЛАТОНОВ

ЧЕВЕНГУР

*

♭♬♬♪♮♪♫♫

 

*

 

000191991000110019

*

 

bhbibibibbh

iiiiiiiiiiii

listen to your mother

 this analogy comes to mind when it comes to the modular synth , you have pots that in best case look like nipples ,and you got holes where you stick little pins in ,the sound you get is similar to your mother shouting at you for cleaning the room or taking out the trash ,now who would want to work on their relationship with their mothers for 10 yrs

.

 
На една ливада ,еден сиромав си направи куќа ,подалеку од селото ,и еден ден селото дојде и неговата куќа беше на сред село . И неговите внуци трчаа низ куќата весели ,и пораснаа ,некој се распослаа по рамниот свет и печалеа ,ги жалеа мајка си и татко си со секоја паричка . И селото тргна по нив и куќата пак беше на сред ливада сама. Еден сиромав живееше во куќата се дур не реши да ја сруши ,доаѓаа големци од далеку и селски старешини и сите му велеа најдобро да ја сруши .И така еден ден ја запали плевната и таа изгоре и како што гореше од неа почнаа да бегаат голи моми убави ,млади . Кога изгоре плевната тие веќе беа далеку а сиромавиот си го држеше здрвен и гледаше немо во пепелта . Зеде да ја растура куќата ,и сите од далеку посакаа да им прати по едно камче ,по една слика ,по нешто да си го памтат вилаетот . Кога ја сруши целата и стигна до темелите уморен си легна .

Но го разбуди татнеж силен и темелите се отворија ,и почнаа од темелите да излегуваат голи жени ,руси , црни ,послаби и не многу дебели .
Умре сиромавиот и во ливадата меѓу куп камења ,остана мирисот на жените и еден куп писма од далеку .

 Од таму минуваше еден селанин ,син на сиромав , и си рече - убаво е тука да насадам лубеници . И зеде да копа бунар ,и се умори и легна ,а бунарот беше веќе завршен . Во мугрите му се матеше пред очите но од бунарот излегуваа девојки ,мајки и ќерки ,голи и убави млади и не многу стари . Се држеа за за раце и се смееја а студената вода од бунарот капеше од нивните бедра . Синот на сиромавиот скокна во бунарот и се удави .

Неговиот син таму насади лојзе ,и го чуваше од болештини и од грабливки и од лојзето направи убаво вино . Пијан додека седеше на купот камења на крајот од неговото лојзе заспа . Во мугрите жена му го посети да го разбуди и да го прибере дома . Дома кога дојде во дворот на трпезата имаше гола дебела жена која пиеше лакомо од виното и јадеше кокошка ,нејзините гради ги туркаа и тркалаа тањирите од трпезата ,го гмечеше лебот и се валкаше во доматите . Кога го видоа тоа домаќините се исплашија многу па ја запалија куќата и плевната и избегаа од таму ,и магарето ја теглеше во инаетот нивната покуќнина ,а тие брзаа да најдат црква и да се исповедаат .
Од плевната и куќата што гореше почнаа да бегаат голи девојки ,девојчиња ,жени ,со мали гради и поголеми ,и вода потече и заврна ,и се стемни ,а на ливадата пуста во летото врело остана да мириса на секоја една што била и ќе биде .

Секој таму би умрел од љубов.

Thoughts On Electronic Music II - by Jim Wilson

Before i share all 3 sections of the article by Jim Wilson to say that i tried to look up for email and ask properly for permission to reprint these ,i wrote to Bernie once over some other issue and got no reply at all ,so if i need to remove this content from my blog i will ,just as it goes for so many lost schematics in electronotes that so very few have built ..it is same for the many articles (mostly technical issues) that can be found there or in older publications of the type and it's shame to be forgotten .

5c.ESTHETICS OF NEW MUSIC

 Thoughts On Electronic Music

II

Music - Electronic vs. Electrified*

by Jim Wilson

The present use of the term "electronic music" covers a wide range of musical phenomenon from certain rock groups and the Hammond Organ to the most sophisticated computer techniques . It seems that the only requirement for the music to be given the adjective electronic is for electricity to be present .Evidently ,this is considered necessary and sufficient .

What i would like to suggest is that ,the above use of the term "electronic music" is a striking example of definition by non-essentials .It confuses and blurs the characteristic of electronic music which makes it unique and revolutionary .That characteristic is that electronic music is not a performing art .This immediately distinguishes electronic music from all other types of music .It also radically alters the relations between composer - audience ,composer - performer ,composer - sound .In addition the status of the recording is drastically changed .

But what about live electronic music ? I propose to call this electrified music. What i want to stress here is that electrified music does not change the composers relations with audience ,performer or sound ,and that electrified music represents a part of a general evolutionary trend we have seen in the history of music.That trend being to create instruments which expand the timbre and range available to the composer .
In short - electrified music is evolutionary ,electronic music , revolutionary .We can see this by examining certain relations one by one .

The Relation Between Composer and Audience :

In performed music ,electrified or acoustic , the composer addresses his audience only indirectly ,through the medium of the performer ,or twice removed through the performer and a distorted recording .The only exception to this is if the composer himself performs a work he has written for an unaccompanied instrument ,to a live audience .
The composer of electronic music has a more direct , more intimate communication with his audience because electronic music is not performing art .No performers means no distortion of the composer's intentions . Also ,the recording of an electronic music opus does not represent a distortion .(More on this later)

Paradoxical as it may sound, even tho the electronic music composer communicates more directly with his audience then the composer of performed music, the electronic music composer also has less physical contact with his audience .This is because the electronic music composer's audience is dispersed ,rarely coming to concerts because electronic music sounds as good on one's own stereo ( or quad ) as it does in the concert hall. The electronic music composer speaks to his audience in the same manner as the novelist .The novelist never meets the vast majority of his readers and may deliberately cut himself off from contact with his audience .For the first time the composer ,if he writes electronic music ,can do the same .

The Relation Between Composer and Performer :

In performed music ,both electrified and acoustic ,the composer is at the performer's mercy .He must first convince the performer that his music is worth playing . But even should he convince the performer that his music is good the performer must also consider his reputation and whether or not the audience will want to listen to a new piece .The situation is immensely frustrating since a composer's work may be rejected on grounds that have nothing to do with esthetics ,and even if the performer finally deigns to play the composer's opus ,the performer may not play the piece the way the composer would like.

The electronic music composer's relation to performers is very simple. Since there are no performers in electronic music no relation exists. The performer becomes irrelevant, and ,thank gooodness, the attendant problems

The Relation Between Composer and Sound :

The material the composer uses is sound and this, of course, is true for both electronic music and performed music. But how the composer relates to sound undergoes a severe change in non-performed electronic music. 

In performed music, either acoustic or electrified, the composer's relation to sound is distant and the coomposer has to rely heavily on his inner ear. This was result of the fact that it was extremely difficult to gather the proper musicians just to hear if a certain passage sounded correct. A positive cult grew up labeling any composer who composed at the piano inferior.

With electronic music the composer deals directly with sound. He therefore does not have to wait to hear certain passages, he can try them out, over and over again if need be. Here the composer resembles a sculptor and it might be appropriate to call electronic music sound sculpture. An electronic music composer can take a bloc of sound or passage and wittle it away, or add to it, or change it and hear the results very soon. 

The Status of the Recording :

In performed music ,electrified or acoustic, the recording represents a reproduction in the same sense as a reproduction of a painting. The recording of a piece of music is generally considered an esthetically inferior product to hearing a "live" performance. (I must confess that i never understood the prejudice for i have never heard a piece of music in a concert hall with the amazing clarity with which i hear the same piece on a recording. Besides if i want to stand up while listening to a recording no one will mind and i won't be bothered by anyone else coughing , shuffling, whispering etc..)

In electronic music the recording becomes the actual artwork itself. It is not a reproduction. Just as each copy of a novel is the novel, so also each copy of an electronic music opus is the art work.

This leads directly to a chamber like quality of electronic music  for electronic music is perfectly suited for home listening either from records ,tape or radio.

I think the above case speaks for itself. In no significant way does performed electronic music change the relation between composer and performer or sound or the recording or audience . Electronic music as a non-performing art substantially changes all of these relations. Therefore electronic music and electrified music should be conceptually differentiated .

5c. ESTHETICS OF NEW MUSIC

Lots of schematics and articles in old magazines and newsletters on electronic music and electronic instruments ,magazines like Polyphony ,Synapse and Electronotes have so many ,so here's one from Electronotes Issue #42 .

5c. ESTHETICS OF NEW MUSIC :

Thoughts on Electronic Music 

III

On Defining Music*

-by Jim Wilson

    In explaining electronic music to friends one is frequently confronted with a question which is usually asked after many hours of discussion. "Yes , i agree with what you say ,but is it music ?" It is a frustrating question because , at first ,it seems hardly relevant . After all ,if electronic music is artistically valid ,what does it matters if it is music or not ?

And yet the question is interesting in itself .Is electronic music a new art form , or is it a continuation of the art of music ? What is called for to settle this question is nothing less then the definition of music .

Traditional definitions of music have centered around a type of sound being used .A musical tone was one where the overtones were in whole number ratios to the fundamental .A musical composition is one that uses musical tones. \Every very recent critics have accepted this definition .For example Zuckerandl in Sound and Symbol even goes to the extreme of banishing glissando from the realm of music because they can not be perceived as musical tones .

Surely ,if we accept this definition we are immediately in troube - even disregarding glissandos for a moment . What do we do about bells ,for example ?

These instruments (and i doubt that anyone would deny that bells are instruments ) have overtones that are in non-whole number ratios to the fundamental . In fact ,it is precisely the fact that these overtones are in fractional relation to the fundamental which gives them their distinctive quality .yet ,according to the definition of music they should be banished from the realm of music .

Let's go one step further . What do we do about snare drums ,wood blocks ,tam tams,tom toms, and a whole battery of pitchless and near pitchless instruments ? It is obvious ,I would even go so far as to say self-evident that composers use these instruments for stunning musical effect .But if we are going to admit woodblocks to the realm of music , why not Bartok's wind machine in his opera Bluebeard's Castle  .And why not the all percussion pieces of the 20th century .Finally ,when one arrives at the electronic music all hell breaks loose with such pieces as Variations on a Door and a Sigh .It is clear that a traditional definitions based on the type tone employed is simply inadequate to cover even traditional music .it should therefore be dropped .

What we are searching for is a definition that would distinguish between musical sounds and non-musical sounds .We are looking for characteristic which all musical sounds  have in common and which no-non-musical sounds have .

I think we can approach a valid definition of music thru Leonard B. Mayer's definition of sound term . A sound term is  a sound or group of sounds ,simultaneous or successive ,which implies a consequent musical event . In other words a sound which refers to another sound is a sound term . What i propose is to define a musical sound in precisely the saame way ; A musical sound is a sound that can be understood as exclusively refering to another sound .A musical composition would therefore be a sound structure that could be understood as exclusively self-referential .

Notice that these definitions carefully avoid limiting music to any type of sound .Notice also that , according to these definitions ,under certain conditions ,what had previously been labeled musical would now not be considered so .

For example ,a doorbell ,no matter how pleasant it's chimes ,would not be a musical event because it refers to the action of answering the door , not to another sound .At the same time the definition implies that any sound, even a doorbell - is potentially musical if put in the proper context ,a context where the sound is used to refer to another sound .

Notice also that the definition carefully excludes ordinary speech from the realm of music since ordinary speech refers to the external world ,either directly or via concepts ,and is used primarily to manipulate the world .

The idea of defining musical sounds by context as opposed to type clarified many problems and therefore it should be given serious consideration .

" She adjusted the controls of a musical instrument that played soft and complicated strains out of it's own creative bowels by striking notes and chords in a random manner ; the randomness weighted in favor of pleasant combinations by intricate mathematical formulae. The music could no more repeat itself then could snowflakes ,and could no more fail of beauty ."

Asimov Isaak - The End of Eternity (1955)

"A vague blur of music had started up at one end of the chamber .A music robot ,creating random combinations of sound ,harmonic colors and shades that flitted agilely ,too subtle to pin down .Some couples started dancing listlessly. " 
Solar Lottery ( World of Chance) 1955
Philip K Dick

Our Moog, which ARP in waveform,

              Filter be thy Gain.

       Thy waveshape be square.

            Thy cutoff be 24dB,

            As it is in Oberheim.

Give us this VCA our board of bread.

   And solder together our circuits,

As we forgive those

Who think analogue is dead.

And lead us not into unwanted oscillation,

But decouple our supplies:

For sine is the pure tone,

And the power supply, and the modulation,

Forever and ever.

Ohm.