Marcus Lyall - Pitch Control

A while ago, I filmed 25 people individually in a recording studio. I played them each note in the classical human vocal range, and asked them to sing it for four seconds. This was surprisingly
difficult, even for more experienced singers. Few people could sing in tune, or cover anything like the vocal range I requested. But the attempts were valiant, and the results were varied and unique.
I then edited them into a series of individual audiovisual samples. With the programming expertise of artist/code genius Evan
Raskob, I developed a custom computer program that allows these audiovisual samples to be played back in the manner of a vintage Fairlight synthesiser.
The result is an instrument that allows this amateur choir to be played like a piano, with four octaves range, twenty notes of polyphony and pressure-sensitivity. The instrument has been field-tested by Chad Lelong, a professional jazz pianist.
Uniquely, it also allows the singers to be seen as they perform. A dynamic visual composition is built up as the instrument is played. Their faces are projected onto a series of identical
hanging shapes, to form a ghostly disembodied choir. These hanging shapes also contain the speakers that play back the audio samples, creating a richly directional soundstage.

As people play the instrument, the results are recorded as midi files and added to a database. When the instrument is not being played, it becomes a ‘player piano’, playing selections from it’s database until someone hits a note on the keyboard.
In this way, a long musical composition is built up, consisting of the musical contributions of those people who decide to play the instrument.
This project looks at the possibilities for audio-visual composition when visual elements are generated at the same time as music so that the playing style and structure of the music takes into account how it appears. During testing of Pitch Control, Chad, our pianist, instinctively altered his playing style so that he produced a visual composition and rhythm that he found more aesthetically
pleasing. This is the result I was hoping for. Pitch Control, as an installation, invites the public to explore these audiovisual
possibilities for themselves.