This was lifted from a BBS, so I don't have a link to
the original article:
DJ Robot Turns the Tables
By Katie Dean
A professor at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
is the man behind DJ I, Robot, which is the first
random-access, analog robotic DJ system. It's made up
of a computer and three turntables that can mix,
scratch, cut, and beat-juggle like a human disc
jockey.
"It's a new means of composition and competition,"
said Chris Csikszentmihalyi (pronounced
chick-sent-me-hi), an electronic arts professor at
RPI. "What's really been fun is coming across really
strange sounds that you're not expecting to and
deciding that
it's not really a negative, but a positive."
The machine is hardly musical or expressive. It
doesn't have a collection of old records it likes to
scratch up. But it can spin platters up to 800
revolutions per minute, compared to 45 RPMs by a human
hand.
To create the new mixes, 80 breakdance songs were
pressed onto each record. The location of each musical
element -- such as a particular measure, beat or
audio sample -- is indexed on the computer.
Programmers mix tracks by dragging-and-dropping each
element into a timeline on the computer, then an
analog motor spins the platter at the programmed speed
and direction.
The computer controls the manipulation of the
tracks, but the motion is analog. The platter moves as
if a human hand were guiding it, but with superior
technical precision.
Yet it's the human quality that counts in the
artistic process, said one DJ. "What separates
different DJs from each other is how they choose
records to mix together, how they mix them, and the
kind of
tricks they do when they mix them,"
said Paolo, a DJ who has played jungle and hip-hop
clubs in Washington D.C. and New York.
"A computer is not going to know how to do that. It's
missing the inspiration," Paolo said. "There's only so
much you can program." Would he jam to the mixed beats
of DJ I, Robot? "That wouldn't interest me at all,"
Paolo said. "That's not the point. There's a certain
amount of personal expression going on when you mix
records. That's what you're there to see or hear."
DJ Qmaxx420 had a different reaction.
"Bring it on, man! I think it's a great idea," said
Qmaxx420, a professional DJ who has played clubs in
New York, Germany, London and Tokyo. "I think that can
be fun and entertaining."
"It was inevitable that this was going to happen
anyway," he said. "This is the future."
Qmaxx420 said that DJ I, Robot might have some
unexpected benefits. Some DJs don't like to spin first
or last at clubs, so DJ I, Robot might be a good
opening DJ. Also, because the machine has no emotions,
it would never feel like it's selling out. Maybe
record companies could use it to promote new songs,
he said.
Csikszentmihalyi admits the machine has its
limitations. "It doesn't have taste and it doesn't
have a sense of music," he said. "There's no algorithm
for funk. We're faking the funk."
Nevertheless, Csikszentmihalyi hopes DJ I, Robot will
be able to outperform any human DJ in three or four
years. So far, the machine has battled several DJs and
has a losing record. "It's kind of a remake on the
John Henry competition," Csikszentmihalyi said.
"That's why we've been calling it the DJ killer app."
The system has already received international
attention. DJ I, Robot was a finalist in the Berlin
Transmediale, an international juried competition for
software art, and it's performed in a Berlin
nightclub, at a street party in Boston and a warehouse
party in
Brooklyn. The machine will tour Europe this summer.
http://www.dj-i-robot.com
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