Capturing a sound mix on the fly ...

[Dave2002]

Sometimes I wish I had the means to capture sounds from my computer at very short notice.
Today I happened to have several different websites and applications open, and then I noticed a rather interesting mix of sounds. It would have been good to capture it at the time.

I could probably achieve an approximate result by remembering what was open at the time, but it would be hard to get an exact reconstruction - though maybe that wouldn't really matter.

Does anyone else discover sound mixes, or do most board members here go for playing standard pieces which they've heard before? Sit down (maybe) and decide to put on a jazz CD or a Beethoven string quartet. Perhaps that's what most of us are comfortable with - most of the time.

Alternatively one could try mixing different pieces together to create a sort of montage, and go out of your comfort listening zones.

I think there can be an element of discovery which some composers might use in their works. I don't think every composer knows exactly how things are going to turn out when they create new works, and some may adopt an experimental and trial and error approach - guided of course!

[johnb]

Quite frequently I play random pieces from my own music collection, using the option in Logitech Media Server (I am an enthusiastic, long term Squeezebox user).

It often throws up interesting and stimulating juxtapositions. It also frequently selects pieces that I had forgotten about or wouldn't have thought of listening to.

[Dave2002]

Yes - but sometimes it gets more fun if one somehow manages to get three or more sound sources going at once. For example - your Squeezebox source, a Youtube video, and one (or more) music sources.
Youtube videos quite often get to play together if the browser tabs don't shut down properly.

Often it's not really that good, but what happened this morning was curiously interesting.

[Richard Barrett]

This reminds me of a time a few years ago when - I forget the technical details, it doesn't matter - by mistake I started playing two new and unfamiliar recordings simultaneously, of orchestral music by Morton Feldman and ensemble music by Heinz Holliger. Before I realised what was going on I started thinking (a) this must be by a composer I've never heard before and (b) it's so amazingly beautiful I wish I could have written it. Of course this feeling didn't last very long before I twigged to what was happening, at which point of course I began to hear two separate layers and the dream evaporated, so to speak. Still, when I'm experimenting with electronic sound materials there's often a moment of asking myself "how would this and this sound simultaneously?", behind which is often the intuition that the result won't sound like two superimposed components but rather like more and/or less than that; in which case the resulting discovery might well act as the kernel for something new. I think the same kind of process probably goes on more or less unconsciously in the context of composing instrumental music too. On the other hand, another thing I tried was to play from Youtube several different recordings of my ensemble piece codex I which is improvisational but based on a sort of slowly evolving cantus firmus, thinking that the result might sound like an "impossible orchestra" but actually it sounded crap.

[Globaltruth]

Sometimes I wish I had the means to capture sounds from my computer at very short notice.
Today I happened to have several different websites and applications open, and then I noticed a rather interesting mix of sounds. It would have been good to capture it at the time.

I could probably achieve an approximate result by remembering what was open at the time, but it would be hard to get an exact reconstruction - though maybe that wouldn't really matter.

Does anyone else discover sound mixes, or do most board members here go for playing standard pieces which they've heard before? Sit down (maybe) and decide to put on a jazz CD or a Beethoven string quartet. Perhaps that's what most of us are comfortable with - most of the time.

Alternatively one could try mixing different pieces together to create a sort of montage, and go out of your comfort listening zones.

I think there can be an element of discovery which some composers might use in their works. I don't think every composer knows exactly how things are going to turn out when they create new works, and some may adopt an experimental and trial and error approach - guided of course!

Audio Hijack from Rogue Amoeba does this - Mac only. I use it regularly, v happy with it.

[Bryn]

Audio Hijack from Rogue Amoeba does this - Mac only. I use it regularly, v happy with it.

Total Recorder for Windows works well. Just make sure you have it ready to run at all times. I understand that Audacity can also do the job. However, I have never used it thus.

[Maclintick]

Total Recorder I understand that Audacity can also do the job. However, I have never used it thus.

Audacity works fine with the IShowU Audio Capture extension on Mac, is completely free, and will allow you to export to any audio format.