Ge Wang: The DIY orchestra of the future

翻译人员: Hancheng Li 校对人员: 易帆 余

I want to talk to you about one thing

我想和你们分享一件事，

and just one thing only,

就一件，

and this has to do with when people ask me,

这涉及到人们常问我的一个问题：

what do you do?

你是做什么的？

To which I usually respond,

对此，我经常这样答复：

I do computer music.

“我是做计算机音乐的。”

Now, a number of people

有一部分人听到这个回答后，

just stop talking to me right then and there,

就不再和我继续聊了，

and the rest who are left usually have

而其他人通常也是

this blank look in their eye,

一脸茫然，

as if to say, what does that mean?

就像在问，那是什么东西？

And I feel like I'm actually depriving them

我感觉我的解释

of information by telling them this,

反而让他们更迷惑，

at which point I usually panic

这种情况下，我通常就慌了，

and spit out the first thing that comes to my mind,

然后不加思考就脱口而出：

which is, I have no idea what I'm doing.

“我也不知道我在干什么。”

Which is true.

这是大实话。

That's usually followed by a second thought,

随后会浮现第二个想法：

which is, whatever it is that I'm doing,

就是，无论我从事的是什么，

I love it.

我就是很喜欢。

And today, I want to, well,

今天，我想要与大家

share with you something I love,

分享我热爱的工作，

and also why.

以及我热爱它的理由。

And I think we'll begin with just this question:

我想先提出一个问题：

What is computer music?

什么是计算机音乐？

And I'm going to try to do my best to provide a definition,

我想尽我所能给大家下一个定义，

maybe by telling you a story

给大家讲一个故事吧，

that goes through some of the stuff

内容包括了我至今

I've been working on.

一直以来在研究的一些东西。

And the first thing, I think, in our story

首先，在这个故事中，

is going to be something called ChucK.

有个东西叫做“ChucK”。

Now, ChucK is a programming language for music,

“ChucK” 是个音乐编程语言，

and it's open-source, it's freely available,

它是开源、免费的，

and I like to think that it crashes equally well

但我喜欢这么想， 它在各种现代操作系统中

on all modern operating systems.

崩溃的概率都差不多。

And instead of telling you more about it,

我觉得，与其用语言描述，

I'm just going to give you a demo.

还不如给各位演示一下。

By the way, I'm just going to nerd out

顺便说一句，接下来几分钟

for just a few minutes here,

我会像电脑宅男一样，

so I would say, don't freak out.

所以，各位别吓到了。

In fact, I would invite all of you to join me

实际上，我想邀请各位

in just geeking out.

跟我一起当个技术宅。

If you've never written a line of code before in your life,

如果你一生都没有写过一行代码，

do not worry.

也不用担心。

I'll bet you'll be able to come along on this.

我敢保证，你很快就能跟上思路。

First thing I'm going to do is to make

首先，我来创造一个

a sine wave oscillator,

正弦波震荡器，

and we're going to called the sine wave generator

我们把它命名为：

"Ge."

“Ge”。

And then we're going to connect "Ge" to the DAC.

然后我们将“Ge”连接到转换器。

Now this is kind of the abstraction

这有点像是

for the sound output on my computer. Okay?

从我电脑输出声音的意思。

So I've connected myself into the speaker.

这样电脑就可以跟扬声器沟通了。

Next, I'm going to say my frequency

接下来，我把频率设为

is 440 hertz,

440赫兹，

and I'm going to let time advance

然后，我提前设定好

by two seconds through this operation.

延续时间为两秒钟。

All right, so if I were to play this --

好了，我们来试播一下——

(Tone) —

（音调）

you would hear a sine wave at 440 hertz for two seconds.

你会听到两秒的 440赫兹正弦波的声音。

Okay, great. Now I'm going to copy and paste this,

好的。我把这个复制粘贴，

and then just change some of these numbers,

然后改变一些参数，

220.5, 440 I shall leave it as that,

220，.5, 440 这些保持不变，

and .5 and 880.

然后还有.5和880。

By doubling the frequency,

通过把频率加倍，

we're actually going up in successive octaves,

音调可以依次提升几个八度，

and then we have this sequence --

接着，我们就有了这个序列的——

(Tones) — of tones.

（音调）...音调。

Okay, great, now I can imagine creating

嗯，不错，但我可以想象到

all kinds of really horrible

大家用这个创作出的

single sine wave pieces of music with this,

糟糕透顶的单正弦波音乐，

but I'm going to do something that computers are really good at,

所以，我要发挥电脑的强项，

which is repetition.

也就是重复。

I'm going to put this all in a while loop,

我把这些放到一个 while 循环里，

and you actually don't need to indent,

实际操作时并不需要首行缩进，

but this is purely for aesthetic reasons.

我这样做纯粹是为了美观。

It's good practice.

这是个好习惯。

And when we do this —

当我们这么做的时候——

(Tones) —

（音调）

that's going to go on for a while.

它会自己运行一会儿。

In fact, it's probably not going to stop

实际上，它可能根本停不下来，

until this computer disintegrates.

一直循环到电脑崩溃为止。

And I can't really empirically prove that to you,

当然我也没经历过， 不能向各位证实，

but I hope you'll believe me when I say that.

但是我希望你们相信我。

Next, I'm going to replace this 220

接下来，我将用math.random2f

by math.random2f.

替换220。

I'm going to generate a random number

我会随机生成一个数字，

between 30 and 1,000 and send that

介于 30 和 1,000，

to the frequency of me.

再将其传给“Ge”的频率值。

And I'm going to do this every half a second.

每隔半秒会生成一次。

(Tones)

（音调）

Let's do this every 200 milliseconds.

在改成每200毫秒生成一次。

(Tones)

（音调）

One hundred.

100毫秒。

(Tones)

（音调）

All right.

好了。

At this point, we've reached something

现在我们终于小有收获，

that I would like to think of as

我觉得这可称为

the canonical computer music.

计算机音乐的经典范本。

This is, to me, the sound that mainframes

这些对于我来说，是主机在

are supposed to be making

“苦思冥想”时

when they're thinking really hard.

产生的声音。

It's this sound, it's like,

这个声音就像——

the square root of five million.

在计算五百万的平方根。

So is this computer music?

各位觉得这是电脑音乐吗？

Yeah, I guess by definition,

是的，我想按定义来说是的，

it's kind of computer music.

这大概就是所谓的计算机音乐。

It's probably not the kind of music you would listen to

这也许不是那种

cruising down the highway,

跑高速公路时听的音乐，

but it's a foundation of computer-generated music,

但是这是计算机音乐的基础，

and using ChucK,

通过使用ChucK这种语言，

we've actually been building instruments

我们已经为斯坦福 笔记本电脑交响乐团

in the Stanford Laptop Orchestra,

创造了很多乐器，

based right here at Stanford Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics.

它们就位于这里的 斯坦福电脑声乐研究中心。

Now the Laptop Orchestra is an ensemble of laptops,

笔记本电脑管弦乐团 是由笔记本电脑、

humans and special hemispherical speaker arrays.

人，和特殊的半球形 扬声器阵列所组成。

Now the reason we have these

之所以需要这样做，

is so that for the instruments that we create

是因为我们想让笔记本电脑

out of the laptop, we want the sound to come

创造出来的乐器，

其声音是从乐器和表演者

out of somewhere near the instrument

and the performer,

附近发出，

kind of much like a traditional, acoustic instrument.

和传统乐器比较相似，

Like, if I were to play a violin here,

比方说，如果我在这儿演奏小提琴，

the sound would naturally not come out of

声音不会从扩音器传出，

the P.A. system, but from the artifact itself.

而是从乐器本身发出。

So these speakers are meant to emulate that.

所以扬声器是在模仿这种效果。

In fact, I'm going to show you

接下来我给各位介绍一下

how we actually built them.

我们是如何打造这些乐器的。

The first step is to go to IKEA

第一步是去宜家，

and buy a salad bowl.

买一个沙拉碗。

This is an 11-inch Blanda Matt.

这是 11 英寸的布朗达麦特碗。

That's the actual name,

这种碗就叫这个名字，

and I actually use one of these

我真的会用这个

to make salad at home as well, I kid you not.

在家做沙拉，没骗你们。

And the first step is you turn it upside down,

第一步是把它倒着放，

and then you drill holes in them,

然后在上面钻洞。

six holes per hemi,

每个半球面上钻六个洞，

and then make a base plate,

然后做一个底板，

put car speaker drivers in them

把车载扬声器驱动系统放进去，

along with amplifiers in the enclosure,

里面再放扩音器，

and you put that all together and you have

把这些零件组装起来后，

these hemispherical speaker arrays.

就成了半球形扬声器阵列。

Add people, add laptops,

再加上人和电脑，

you have a laptop orchestra.

你就有了电脑管弦乐团。

And what might a laptop orchestra sound like?

电脑管弦乐团的声音 听起来怎么样呢？

Well, let me give you a demonstration

现在，我给各位演示一下

of about 200 instruments we've created so far

目前为止我们给电脑管弦乐团

for the Laptop Orchestra.

打造的 200 多种乐器。

And what I'm going to do is actually come over to this thing.

接下来我要走到这个东西旁边。

This thing I have in front of me

在我前面的这个东西

原本是商店里卖的游戏遥控器，

actually used to be a commodity gaming controller

called a Gametrak.

叫做 Gametrak。

This thing actually has a glove you can put on your hands.

这个东西有一个手套可以戴上，

It's tethered to the base,

它与底板相连，

and this will track the position of your hands

可以实时记录你的

手的位置。

in real time.

It was originally designed as a golfing controller

它原本的设计是 高尔夫球控制器，

to detect the motion of your swing.

用来记录你挥杆时的运动轨迹。

That turned out to be a rather large

但这个产品

commercial non-success,

后来卖得并不好，

at which point they slashed prices to 10 dollars,

最后这家公司把价格降到 10 美元，

at which point computer music researchers

电脑音乐的研究人员 面对这样的价格表示，

said, "This is awesome!

“这真是太棒了！

We can prototype instruments out of this."

我们可以用这东西打造乐器原型。”

So let me show you one instrument we've created,

我给各位展示我们创造的

one of many, and this instrument

其中一个乐器。

is called "Twilight,"

叫做“暮光”，

and it's meant to go with this metaphor

它的寓意是

of pulling a sound out of the ground.

地平线上升起的音乐。

So let me see if this will work.

让我看看这个能不能用。

(Music)

（音乐）

And put it back.

然后把它放回去。

And then if you go to the left,

如果往左拉，

right,

往右拉，

it sounds like an elephant in pain.

听起来像大象在呻吟。

This is a slightly metallic sound.

接下来的声音有点金属感。

Turn it just a bit.

让我调一调。

(Music)

（音乐）

It's like a hovering car.

就像在空中盘旋的汽车。

Okay.

好的。

This third one is a ratchet-like interaction, so

第三个的声音像棘轮，

let me turn it up.

把它调高一点。

(Music)

（音乐）

So it's a slightly different interaction.

这是一个略微不同的交互方式。

The fourth one is a drone.

第四个是无人机的嗡嗡声。

(Music)

（音乐）

And finally, let's see,

最后，

下面是一种完全不同的交互方式，

this is a totally different interaction,

and I think you have to imagine that there's

我觉得你可以把它想象成，

this giant invisible drum sitting right here on stage,

有一个隐形的大鼓在舞台上，

and I'm going to bang it.

然后我要敲击它。

(Drum)

（鼓声）

(Laughter)

（笑声）

So there we go, so that's one of many instruments

那么这就是我们电脑管弦乐团的

in the Laptop Orchestra.

其中一些乐器。

(Applause)

（掌声）

Thank you.

谢谢！

And when you put that together,

如果把它们放到一起，

you get something that sounds like this.

你可以听到这样的声音。

(Music)

（音乐）

Okay, and so, I think from the experience

这个为电脑管弦乐团

of building a lot of instruments for the Laptop Orchestra,

创造不同种乐器的经历，

and I think from the curiosity of wondering,

再加上对未知事物的好奇心，

what if we took these

我们如果把这些

hopefully expressive instruments

表现力很强的乐器

and we brought it to a lot of people,

带给大众会怎么样？

plus then a healthy bout of insanity —

再加上大家的一点点疯狂——

put those three things together —

这三种东西放在一起——

led to me actually co-founding a startup company

让我在2008年与别人共同创立了

in 2008 called Smule.

Smule 公司。

Now Smule's mission is to create

Smule 的任务是去创造

expressive, mobile music things,

表现力强的、便携的音乐…… 这样的东西。

and one of the first musical instruments

我们最初创建的其中一个乐器，

we created is called Ocarina.

叫做“陶笛”。

And I'm going to just demo this for you real quick.

现在我给大家快速演示一下。

So Ocarina —

这个陶笛——

(Music) —

（音乐）

is based on this ancient flute-like instrument

是基于古代一种类似笛子的乐器，

called the ocarina,

名字就叫陶笛。

and this one is the four-hole English pendant configuration,

现在是四孔的英式吊坠的设置，

and you're literally blowing into the microphone

你可以直接对着麦克风吹气，

to make the sound.

来发出声音。

And there's actually a little ChucK script

这里运行的就是 一个简单的ChucK脚本，

可以检测

running in here that's detecting

the strength of your blowing

吹气的力度，

and also synthesizing the sound.

同时合成声音。

(Music)

（音乐）

And vibrato is mapped to the accelerometer,

颤音效果和加速度计相连接，

so you can get —

所以你可以这样——

(Music)

（音乐）

All right. So let me play a little ditty for you,

让我给你们吹个小曲儿，

a little Bach.

吹一曲巴赫吧。

And here, you'll hear a little accompaniment with the melody.

你会听到一些跟随旋律的伴奏，

The accompaniment actually follows the melody,

伴奏其实是跟着旋律在走的，

not the other way around.

并不是旋律跟随伴奏。

（音乐）

(Music)

And this was designed

这个设计是让你

to let you take your time

慢慢感受，

and figure out where your expressive space is,

去体会你的表现空间，

and you can just hang out here

如果有兴趣的话，

for a while, for a really dramatic effect, if you want,

你还可以把音拖长一些， 感受舞台化的声效，

and whenever you're ready —

准备好了吗——

(Music)

（音乐）

And on these longer notes,

在较长的音符

I'm going to use more vibrato

结尾的时候，

我会用更多的颤音，

towards the end of the notes

to give it a little bit more of an expressive quality.

让它的表达效果更加丰富。

(Music)

（音乐）

Huh, that's a nice chord to end this excerpt on.

用这个和弦来结束感觉不错哦。

(Applause)

（掌声）

Thank you.

谢谢！

So I think a good question to ask about Ocarina is,

那么我认为， 关于陶笛的一个很好的问题是，

is this a toy or it an instrument? Maybe it's both,

这是玩具还是乐器？也许两者都是。

but for me, I think the more important question is,

但对于我来说， 我认为更重要的问题是，

is it expressive?

它的表现力强吗？

And at the same time, I think

同时我认为，

creating these types of instruments

创造这样的乐器

asks a question about the role of technology,

提出了一个问题： 科技在创造音乐的过程中

and its place for how we make music.

扮演了什么角色，有什么作用？

Apparently, for example,

很明显，举个例子，

not that long ago, like only a hundred years ago —

大概100年以前——

that's not that long in the course of human history —

在人类史上并不算很长时间——

families back then

很多家庭在那个时候，

used to make music together

喜欢一起创作音乐，

as a common form of entertainment.

算是一种很普遍的娱乐项目。

I don't think that's really happening

我不认为这样的现象

that much anymore.

现在还很常见。

You know, this is before radio, before recording.

因为这是在收音机和 录音技术诞生之前。

In the last hundred years, with all this technology,

在过去的几个世纪，通过这些科技，

we now have more access to music

作为消费者和听众，

as listeners and consumers,

我们可以更多的接触到音乐。

but somehow, I think we're making less music

但是莫名其妙的，我们创作的音乐

than ever before.

比以前更少了。

I'm not sure why that would be.

我不知道为什么会这样，

Maybe it's because it's too easy just to hit play.

也许是因为点击 播放按钮变的太容易了。

And while listening to music is wonderful,

虽然听音乐令人很享受，

there's a special joy to making music

但创作音乐会令人感受到

that's all its own.

特别的乐趣。

And I think that's one part

我认为这是我

of the goal of why I do what I do

坚持做音乐的一个动力，

is kind of to take us back to the past a little bit. Right?

就是在某种程度上， 让我们回到过去。不难理解吧？

Now, if that's one goal, the other goal

如果这是一个目标，那另一个目标

is to look to the future and think about

就是展望未来：

what kind of new musical things can we make

如何创作出新颖的音乐，

that we don't perhaps yet have names for

尽管还不知道它们叫什么，

that's enabled by technology, but ultimately

但可以通过技术来实现，最终，

might change the way that humans make music.

这也许会改变 人类创作音乐的方法。

And I'll just give you one example here,

在这里我给大家一个小的例子，

and this is Ocarina's other feature.

这是陶笛的另一个功能。

This is a globe,

这是个地球，

and here you're actually listening

在这里你可以听到其他的

to other users of Ocarina

陶笛用户吹奏他们的

blow into their iPhones to play something.

iPhone时发出来的声音。

This is "G.I.R." from Texas,

这是 “G.I.R.”，来自得克萨斯，

"R.I.K." I don't know why it's these three-letter names today, Los Angeles.

“R.I.K.”，竟然还有人用 三个字母做名字，来自洛杉矶。

They're all playing pretty,

他们演奏的音乐都……

somewhat minimal music here.

有点极简风格。

(Music)

（音乐）

And the idea with this is that, well,

不过这个应用的初衷在于，

technology should not be foregrounded here,

技术不应该在这里被突出。

and — (Laughter) —

（笑声）

we've actually opened this up.

当我们把它打开，

The first thought is that, hey, you know

第一个想法就是，嘿，

there's somebody somewhere out there

其他地方有人

playing some music,

也在演奏音乐，

and this is a small but I think important

这是一个微小却重要的

human connection to make

人际联系，

that perhaps the technology affords.

而技术让这成为现实。

As a final example,

最后一个例子，

and perhaps my favorite example,

可能是我最喜欢的一个例子，

is that in the wake of the 2011 earthquake

2011年日本的地震和

and tsunami disaster in Japan,

海啸灾害后，

a woman reached out in one of our singing apps

一位女士在我们的唱歌软件里 呼唤其他用户，

to try to get people to join in to sing with her

想让更多的人加入她的合唱，

on a version of "Lean on Me."

唱一首《依靠在我肩上》。

Now, in these apps, there's this thing that allows

在这些软件里，有个功能

any user to add their voice

可以把任何用户的

to an existing performance by any other user

声音添加到其他用户的表演，

or group of users,

或是用户群的表演中，

so in some sense, she's created this kind of

从某种程度上讲，她创造了

global ad hoc corral of strangers,

这样的一个由陌生人形成的圈子。

and within weeks, thousands of people

几周之内，数以千计的人

joined in on this,

加入了她，

and you can kind of see people coming from all around the world

你可以看到来自世界各地的人们，

and all these lines converging on the origin

所有的线路汇集在了原点，

where the first rendition of the song was sung,

是这首歌第一次演奏的地方，

and that's in Tokyo.

那是在东京。

And this is what it sounds like when there's 1,000 people.

这是1000人合唱的效果，

This is 1,000 voices.

这是1000个声音。

(Recording) ♪ Sometimes in our lives ♪

♪ 生命中的某时某刻 ♪

♪ We all have pain, we all have sorrow ♪

♪ 我们感到悲伤，我们感到痛楚 ♪

♪ But if we are wise ♪

♪ 然而智慧如你我 ♪

♪ We know that there's always tomorrow ♪

♪ 懂得明天只会更好 ♪

♪ Lean on me ♪

♪ 依靠在我肩上吧 ♪

♪ When you're not strong ♪

♪ 当你受伤的时候 ♪

♪ And I'll be your friend ♪

♪ 我是你的挚友 ♪

♪ I'll help you carry on ♪

♪ 我将与你一起面对 ♪

♪ For it won't be long ♪

♪ 因我深知，不久之后 ♪

♪ Till I'm gonna need ♪

♪ 我也一定需要 ♪

♪ Somebody to lean on ♪

♪ 一个可以依靠的人 ♪

♪ Just lean on — ♪

♪ 请依靠着我…… ♪

Is this computer music?

这是电脑音乐吗？

(Applause)

（掌声）

Was that computer music?

这是计算机音乐吗？

Yeah, I guess so; it's something that you really

我认为是的， 因为这样的事儿没有计算机

couldn't have done without computers.

根本做不到。

But at the same time, it's also just human,

但同时，这也只是人声而已。

and I think what I've essentially answered so far

我觉得到目前我一直在回答

is maybe why I do the stuff that I do,

我为什么要做这样的事情，

and let's just finally return to the first question:

最后让我们回到刚开始的问题，

What is computer music?

什么是计算机音乐？

And I think that the catch here is that,

我认为精髓在于，

at least to me, computer music

至少对我来说，计算机音乐的重点

isn't really about computers.

不在计算机，

It is about people.

而在于人。

It's about how we can use technology

是关于我们如何利用技术

to change the way we think

去改变我们的思考方式，

and do and make music,

与创作音乐的模式，

and maybe even add to how we can

也许还关乎如何把大家

connect with each other through music.

通过音乐联系到一起。

And with that, I want to say,

讲到这里，我想说，

this is computer music, and thank you for listening.

这就是计算机音乐，感谢大家的倾听！

(Applause)

(掌声）