Re: good feedback vs. bad feedback, or the revenge of the 10dollar microphone.

[Alex Stahl <alex@pixar.com>]

>Also, on feedback music:  I recall that a few years ago Neil Young 
>did a limited edition CD compilation of guitar feedback from live 
>gigs.

Funny you should mention that, I found and played "Arc" while 
cleaning the basement last weekend.

Akin to pitch-tracking feedback, I did a dance piece with wireless 
lavaliers hidden in the sleeves of a dancer, and small speakers 
sitting on ladders on stage. The mics fed an Eventide H3000 in 
diatonic shift mode, with a more or less random scale programmed in. 
The H3000 output went through a limiter and out to the speakers. So 
when a mic came close enough to the speaker to feedback, the 
harmonizer guessed at the pitch of the feedback, which triggered a 
change in the pitch shift interval, which changed the tone of the 
feedback....you get the idea. The best part was that although the 
sound was pretty standard abstract modern dance electronic noodling, 
it was unusually responsive to movement-- the interactivity wasn't 
lost on the audience as it so often is in these situations.

Also don't forget the (in)famous Robert Ashley feedback piece 
Wolfman. I believe people on this list have performed that one? If 
memory serves it was a popular choice on the lunchtime radio show 
"Torture Time" that my old pals Steve Fisk and Steve Peters used to 
do on KAOS-FM. That was the show that routinely caused the school's 
maintenance engineers to run over thinking the transmitter had blown 
up.

-Alex