Marc LingkAudioproduction and Sound Design

(c) Marc Lingk 2004

Marc LingkAudioproduction and Sound Design

Marc LingkFeurigstraße 34 :: 10827 Berlin :: Tel: 030 - 691 71 15 :: Mobil: 0177 4155 822email: lingk@bigfoot.de

Audio production and sound design

Computer-aided music

My rational side—or drive to organize—is probably what led me to “computer-aidedmusic.” It was hard for me to picture more than three notes in a row without strainingmyself to find the best way to continue. I was in search of systems that could givestructure to my ideas. I am not a fan of shrink-wrap software, but I am able towrite my own programs. I’ve worked with various programming languages likeBasic, Assembler, Turbo-Pascal, and C/C++, among others. I formulate my ideaswith algorithmic systems, or by improvisation. So my compositions combine planningand spontaneity.

Working on the musical Process

Advancements in musical tools in the past two decades have helped me produce avariety of musical pieces. Their driving forces were random generators, chaossimulations, format changing and mapping, live input and a few others.

Working on the Sound

When writing for classical instruments, the sound palette is relatively clearly defined. Even when working with extended sound events of the 20th century, you still reston a secured and well-known foundation. In electronic music this is different. Itmust be reinvented all the time. The work on electronic sound is fascinating andvaried. I am on a quest for the “new,” because nothing is more boring than anelectronic sound that has been played. But handling of electronic or digital materialis difficult. It implies long practice and experience, exactly like a violin player whorehearses 15 or 20 years before going on stage. To manipulate sounds in a musicalcontext I collected and programmed a big collection of working methods. Sounddesign is only a word that feebly describes what it actually is. In addition to beingan adept user of electronics and computer science theory, I had the opportunity ofdeveloping and selling my own toolbox.

Professional Experiencesin Audio Production and Sound Design

Qualifications

• Over 20 Years of productions in AV-Media• Programming abilities since 1975, going from BASIC to C++ through

Pascal, Assembler, Forth and other languages• Multimedia programming in audio and video with common user

interfaces such as Nuendo, Premiere, Flash, php, MySql• DSP (Digital Signal Processing) developer for different commercial

applications of audio companies like Audiovirtuality Productions(Pop music algorithms), Musicon (acoustic damping),Audiofabric (sound analyse), PRIM (percussion resynthesis)

• Teacher for digital manipulations of AV medias in interactiveapplications with Flash MX at the CDI (Computer Data Institut),ACCD (Art Center College Design, Pasadena, California)

Education

• Degree in physics from the Technical University of Berlin (TU-Berlin)• Studies of musical composition at the University of the Arts in Berlin

(HdK-Berlin)• Further studies in computer languages• Studies of the theory of DSP-Technologies

Professionally active as

• Composer, interpreter, performer• Music and audio programmer, digital research• Organizer of the concert series „Brainstorming“• Radio productions• Teacher

Vitae

1964 birth in Berlin; grew up in Paris• Musical education in different instruments (piano, keyboard, drums, trombone)• Musical theory, harmony and counterpoint• International school in St.Germain en Laye (the only one in France at that time)• Languages: German, French, English, Spanish and a little Japanese

1982-1991• Core studies of physics at the TU-Berlin, many experiments• Major studies of composition at the university of the arts in Berlin• Teachers: Witold Szalonek, Mario Bertoncini, Gösta Neuwirth, Frank-Michael Beyer,

Wolfgang Rihm, Dieter Schnebel• Organization of „Brainstorming“, a concert raw with over 30 Concerts in Berlin and

foreign countries, 5 CDs and many Radio broadcastings on Radio 100• Studies of film music with Bernd Heller, expert for silent movies and conductor;

first movie scores for the film student Detlev Buck and others

1991-1999• Radio 100: „a night at Casablanca“, a weekly feature upon the contemporary music

scene in Berlin and elsewhere• about 20 movies and 20 theatre pieces, many concerts• Many programs for composing and producing music in many different styles• DSP-programming for different audio companies

2000-today• Working as a freelancer for programming multimedia applications and internet• Developing new algorithms for music and audio

Stipends, Awards• Forum Junger Deutscher Komponisten; „Woff“, first composition for orchestra• Förderung vom Senat für kulturelle Angelegenheiten von Berlin; „Irrwege, Unwege“,

performed by Uwe Köller, solo trumpet of the „Deutsche Oper Berlin“ and Yoriko Ikeya,maybe the best pianist for contemporary music in Berlin

• Nino Rota (the composer of Fellini) Prize for the soundtrack of „Schwarzbunt Märchen“,a short movie by Detlev Buck

• Heinrich-Strobel-Stiftung in Freiburg; production of the future sound track of„Cork Bones“ (see description at the end)

• Institut für Neue Musik Berlin; „Sextett“, played by members of the„Ensemble Modern“, Frankfurt a. M.

• Max-Ophüls-Price for the movie „Unter der Milchstrasse“ from M. X. Oberg• Tschüss MTV-Price from FAB (Fernsehen aus Berlin) for the techno video „spent echo“

Marc Lingk

Professional Experience

Composer:· Score writing; solo pieces, chamber music, orchestra music· Movie soundtracks· Theater and dance theatre· Electronic music· Video production

Musician, performer:· Instruments: piano, trombone, drums· Conductor· Live electronic

Analog and digital sound studio technique· Many works made in different studios, learning by doing· Building up a composing and sound producing digital studio

Other skills:· Acoustics: physical basics and special know how· Programming DSP· html, php, mysql, apache-server, C/C++· big range of audio and video user software (see list)· sound installation· building electronic sound entities· use of electronics, microphones and loudspeakers in concerts· musical theory: solfege, harmony, counterpoint, instruments, instrumentation,

Formenlehre), history of music, music of other cultures

Teaching and publications:· Digital audio and visual work on PCs at the CDI (Computer Data Institut)· Theory and workshops on the theme „visua representation“ based on the platform

“Macromedia Flash“ for students from the ACCD (Art Center College Design,Pasadena, California) (pictures)

· Digital media in audio, video and interaction· Different lectures about chaos, film music, electronic music, digital art· Radio features· Concert organization· Other: mathematics, physics, French, judo class instructor since 1994

Marc Lingk conducts his work “Split-Focus”

Portrait of Marc Lingk on Bavaria Radio

In 1996 or 97 the Radio station „Bayerischer Rundfunk“ aired a special featureover one hour about the composer Marc Lingk.Here a translation of the introduction:

In October 93 the music department of the Berlin Academy of the Arts producedan interdisciplinary speech forum with physicists and musicians. The main pointof the discussion was to address the so-called chaos research. As no other researchfield – so it is said in the preface of the published book – chaos research seems tobe adequate for understanding the processes of the material and the ideal worldin their unity. In the actual context the perception of the reality gets more andmore fragmentized, which is why young scientists are on search of anunderstanding the world as a whole.

In his contribution to the discussion, Marc Lingk presented himself as follows:

„My name is Marc Lingk, which is pure coincidence. This has been my name forabout 30 years without any special reason or intention. Coincidence also led meto work in music and not the production of other things. A new knowledge ofthe world is raised: the conscience of chaos. Everything in this world touches therest of the world and gets touched by it. This is the old view: in the „reality“ ofthings there is no isolated system. Every system is open, which is why contactpoints are interesting. You may say I am one of those contact points. I want topresent myself as a composer who deals with Chaos Theory. An important partof my work is related to the results of the mathematical, physical and computerscience chaos research.“

Thus far Marc Lingk.

A constant movement at a certain point suddenly changes into an uncontrolledbehavior. It becomes incalculable, seemly random. The laminar stream of a riverfor example switches to a turbulent flow when hitting a rock. The chaos researchis interested in studying the behavior of dynamic systems in those so-called chaoticphases. Music in this case can also be interpreted as a dynamic system.

Music and audio programming, research

Main themes:Music programming: electronic music, algorithmic composition on computer platformsImplemented through Assembler, Basic, Pascal and C/C++ as well as the use of many smalland big audio tools from the industry;Development of multimedia applications and sound modulation

Program Development:

MIDI / composition• N.O., New Orchester; random managed music with implemented sysex programming,

triggered by external acoustic signals• Minimal music generator; imitates the so named music like Riley, Reich,

Glas or others• Subito; complex melody generator that prints scores on the screen in real time

and plays other things in the same time; used for example in my works „subito“ for solowoodwind instrument (already performed by clarinet and saxophone), or „Phrases“written for 11 Flutes (on the CD „Silhouettes“)

• Chaos Theory; iteration program based on the chaos theory; sample pieces„Illusions Fétiches“ played by the „Ensemble United“ or „Sextet“ played by the„Ensemble Modern“

• Set theory; a program that analyses with 0 (zero) latencies the chords playedon a MIDI-Channel and displays a lot of information on it according to the so called„set theory“ form USA

• Space notation; a program that converts free improvisation in graphic notation

Audio / DSP• Sweep generator, a complex program that calculates an multi level ADSR curve on

pitch, amplitude and filtering; based on an a theory based on groove generation andprime number combinations

• 0-time compressor; a kind of loudness increaser with no distortion and no phaseor time shift

• Justifier / tuner; a program to prepare samples before being remanipulated• Resynthesizing of drums an short notes „with one transient only at the beginning“• Combination fields based on prime number pairs (more mathematical)• Analyses of real acoustic damping• 0-time stretcher; a portion of a wave is resynthesized at infinite length with

absolutely no looping effect• Groove Modulator; a real time groove variator; a work still in progress• Denoiser for extracting disturbing noises from guitars• Several VST-Plugins; this is just the beginning

Background for programming that I neededand that I can eventually teach

• Sampling, aliasing, quantifying in time and amplitude, dithering• Transformation, in the time or frequency domain, fourier transformation, FFT• Work with wav or aiff files, overview over other formats• Common studio effects: noise gate, amplitude effects, limiter, compressors,

filters, echo, delay, reverb, chorus, flanger, . . .• New contemporary digital effects, that are only possible since the digital age:

real time tuning, pattern recognition, data compression, time stretching,physical modeling, formant processing, . . .

• Technique of using actual software packages like Cubase/Nuendo, Protools,Emagic, Wavelab, Cool edit

• All about MIDI, from the signal stream to the MTC-Sync• Basics on classical room simulations up to Dolby 5.1 with FIR and IIR-Filters• Basics of mastering with time invariable Filters• Basics in mathematics and physics for sound operations; resonance, complex numbers,

fourier transformation, z-transformation• The idea of impulse response versus electronic circuits• Filter design• The use of VST (virtual studio technology) and its programming• Different principle of sound synthesis• Convolution reverb, filters and other effects• History of electronic music, from Theremyn / Ondes Martenot up to our time

TeachingDuring a class of the Art Center College Design, students visiting a studio for electronic music.

Scores

Here you can see two samples of early computer notatedpieces: “Schwarze Wolken, weiße Wolken” (black clouds,white clouds) for piano and automatic piano and“Illusions fétiches” for small Orchestra.

Single ordered and free compositions, a choice of

• “France Musiques”, Radio France; in cooperation between the CNSMP (Conservatoire NationalSupérieur de Musique de Paris) and the HdK (Hochschule der Künste) Berlin I organized together withJ.P. Rieunier concerts for young students in both cities. During a concert in Radio France theSaxophone Duo “Libertin” played “Organische Griffe”, wich means something like “organic (Griffe)”

• the same piece was played many times at different places, namely at the “Rainbow-Festival” inKattovice and Krakau, in Cologne, And of course in many concert halls in Berlin

• “Illusions Fétiches”, a 20mn piece for small orchestra, was first performed by theBoris Blacher Ensemble was later replayed by the “Ensemble United”

• “Sextet” was played by the “Ensemble Modern” and later by the “Modern Art Sextett”• The “Modern Art Sextett” played also the musical Haiku “Mandelröschen”, wich was released

on the CD “Berliner Haiku” from the “Sender Freies Berlin”

Dieter Schnebel Experimentalgruppe plays “actionmusic”

Hella Westendorf & Julia Vogelsänger plays “Magische Klaviere”

Modern Art Sextett in the “Siemens Villa” plays “Sextett”

Detlev Buck: “Schwarzbunt Märchen”

Detlev Buck: “Karniggels

Film music and soundtrack

Movies• Detlev Buck “worauf wir abfahren”; short movie; noise collage to street workers• Detlev Buck “Schwarzbunt Märchen”; short movie; primed with the “Nino Rota” Price for music• Detlev Buck “Karniggels”; more than 1000.000 have seen it• Thomas Findeis “Die Kosten der Freiheit”; a story about a young polish woman in free west Berlin• Roger Heereman (actually one of the best director of photography) “automatic”; short movie• Nicol Meyerdiercks “Figurinen”; short movie• Josy Meier “Der Kunde ist König”; Documentary in Swiss-German on drugs and prostitution in Zürich• Armin Schneider / Otto Sander ”Das Gedächtnis von Bombay”

Documentary on the life between rails in the suburb of Bombay• Dirk Jungnickel / Wolfgang Schwaneberg “Zeit Zeugen”; 4 Documentaries on the German communist dictatorship;

ordered by the VOB (Verein der Opfer des Stalinismus)• Mathias Xaver Oberg “Unter der Milchstrasse”; awarded with the “Max Ophüls” Price• Ivan Stanev / Remco Schuurbiers: “Villa dei Misteri”; experimental Film on themes around the so named villa in Pompeij;

shown as the only experimental movie at the “Münchener Filmfest 2003”

Thomas Findeis: “Die Kosten der Freiheit”

Nicol Meyediercks: “Figurinen”

René Berger: commercial for “Buzz”

Commercials• Knuspertopf from “Scheurig & Geurig”• Buzz; an English alcopop; German campaign in cinemas and radio;

the movie was excellent, but the Germans did not like the Englishtaste of the drink; I liked it and it was a funny piece.

Internet• Sound design of a very experimental web site from the

multimedia company “Mediamutant”; by navigating on the color-changingsurfaces – representing something like DNA-Codes – you create your one mix life on the web

• Development of the Website of the Artist Residence “Villa Aurora” of Los Angeles.The online music world is always changing; there is a huge archive of videos, music, poetry,other texts and pictures. I programmed an online editor is programmed so that the office staffcan change the content daily.

• Tanzfabrik Berlin: “Anna und John”; 1991, 70 min, Jean Cocteau, choreography by Sonja Th. Romeis• Tanzfabrik Potsdam: “Limes 3”; 1992, 24 min, Sabine Chwalisz• Theater am Halleschen Ufer: “Atempause”; 1993, 25 min, choreography by Sonja Th. Romeis,

with Ingo Reulecke (dancer) and me (composer and life trombone)• Die Pumpe: “B-Essay”; 1993, 13 min, Solo from Ingo Reulecke Semper-Oper, Dresden: “Something Lost”;

1996, 60mn, choreografy by Sonja Th. Romeis• Semper-Oper, Dresden: “Something Lost”; 1996, 60 min, choreography by Sonja Th. Romeis• Semper-Oper, Dresden: remake of “Anna und John”• Galery HO: “Achtung Tiere”, 1997, 30 min, with Annalisa Derossi, workshop by Barbara Ehnold-Danailoff

• Sophiensaele 1999, Ivan Stanev: “Don Juan im Kumpelnest 3000 zu Berlin”• Sophiensaele 2000, Ivan Stanev: “Le Bleu du Ciel”; also on tour in France• Sophiensaele 2001, Ivan Stanev: “Villa dei Misteri”; also on tour in France• Sophiensaele 2002, Ivan Stanev: “Luxor Las Vegas”; also on tour in France• Paradise Productions, Berlin, L.A. and Munich: “Superfection”

• Marlen Liebau, “Hamm im Winkel”; artificial blue trees that “sing” when the sun shines• Marlen Liebau, “still lives, distant voices”; exhibitions with still lives painting and soundtrack, later a video• Marlen Liebau, “ab ovo”; big blue musiv playing eggs on the grass at the “Gärten der Sinne”• Marlen Liebau, “Sonnengesänge”; Fragmentals singings, organ playing and speaking balls in a ruin of a

Franciscan church in Berlin• Landesgartenschau Luckau 2000-2009; “Insel der Klänge”; quadrophonic music in a park with a music

dealing with Napoleon and “historical walls”; the music repeats every half hour, it is quiet, an you canlay on the grass nearby the water to listen to it.

Dance theatre

Theatre

Sound installations

Ingo Reulecke & Marc Lingk in “Atempause”

Session 03 playing at the Club “Bootlab”

“Ping Pong Ballet” at the “Transmediale Club”

Actual works in 21st century

• 2000 “Nachhall Festival” Ballhaus Naunynstrasse: “cumulus”, a work for a saxophone soloist (Ulrich Krieger),an actor (Anton Rattinger), a Video projection and live electronic music (myself); now it is stored as a DVD

• 2001 beginning of the Mumu (muscle music) project; Avant-gardistic fusion experiments between techno,rock and contemporary noise music with a speaking actor (Gabriel Walsh)

• 2002 “Eisharmonien” (“Ice Harmonies”); a frozen like piece for Organ played by a veteran of contemporarymusic Peter Schwarz

• 2003 “Ping Pong Ballet”, world premiere of the WFS-System with compositions during the Transmediale-Club.The WFS (Wave Field Synthesis) is still in development. The advantages resides in the fact that you can locatesound perfectly in place and movement, from whereever you listen (not only at the perfect stereo or Dolby-Surround place)

• 2003 Session 03; live electronics group, playing at radio, clubs, galleries, home concerts and concert places

Music for a Solo Trombone Player and Life Electronic Transformations

The history of the creation of “Cork Bones” is quite extensive. It all started in the earlynineties, when Dieter Schnebel, a composer who taught me “experimental music,” organizeda small fund for having a short residency at the “Heinrich Strobel Stiftung” in Freiburg. WhenI went there I had no idea what was expecting me: a big hall with about two trucks loads full of music electronics, a technician who would stand beside me during three full days to assistme in my work. After he demonstrated every single device that was available – this proceduretook us several hours – I went back into the hotel for drawing up a sketch of an electroniccircuit for my music. Because I still had every detail present in my mind I considered theopportunity of using absolutely everything, every transformation tool that was available.In the next morning, when I went to the studio, the technician was just about calling mecrazy because of the complexity of this map. But I convinced him to work it, and the wholeday we plugged lines and cables everywhere. Everything was connected, ring modulators,vocoder, harmonizer, filters, delays, and much more. It took us really one day to perform this.The following day, which was my third and last one, I literally came alive with my trombone.In the middle of this big setup I stood with my instrument and one microphone, sixloudspeakers around me an one wall full of buttons and blinking lights; this is how like it. Aspace shuttle-like cockpit. And then the technique and I took off.

The concept is based on something like digestion: when I played, the electronic giant swallowed it down. After a while it came back with manyvariations of transformations. Through the multiple channel delays the process really seemed to digest my playing, which by the way sounded veryorganic because of the possibilities of the brass. What came back gave me inspiration for coming up with new “stuff,” and in that symbiosis aninteresting kind of concerto grew in that magic hall.The only thing that remains from this day was a single tape with two recordings. It was not possible to perform it somewhere else because of thehuge amount of equipment. Today, it will all go into a single laptop, and that is what I am working on also, by the way.Nearly a decade later not only the audio area takes place in a laptop, but also the video technology. In December 2002 / January 2003 I had theopportunity of residing in the Sirius Art Center, which is in Cobh, the district of Cork, Ireland. Peter Murray - the curator of the Crawford MunicipalArt Gallery - was so kind as to lending me the trombone he just bought in exchange of a first lesson for this instrument. The sunset of December28th was amazing. The Sirius Art Center building is the former Club house of the Royal Cork Yacht Club at Cobh (the former Queenstown), shone soincredibly beautiful behind its palm trees – yes, palm trees in the Irish winter. I made the decision to make an outside video, taping myself playing thetrombone exactly as I did in the late eighties, with all the stuff I was used to doing. A TV-Cam, a trombone, a real nice stage, a video editing software,that was the birth of an 18 minutes long video I called “Cork Bones”; “Cork” because of the place, “Bones” because of “Trombones” and maybe alsobecause of the digestion and the organic roughness of the piece.

Cork Bones, a video

Publications

Writing:

• „Zufall und Kreativität im Chaoszeitalter in der Musik“(chance and creativity in the age of chaos in music),published in the book „Arbeitsprozesse in Physik und Musik“(work processes in physics and music) available in the edition Peter Lang

CD-Audio:

• Tetra Pak / Vielklang: CD „Silhouettes“• EFA Medien / ZENSOR music production: CD „Idyllen“• Edel Records / label „the listening room“: Solo-CD „Neuronal Systems“;

this half German word is the title of the one and only techno-CD publishedby the Berlin Academy of the Arts

• Sophiensaele / Ivan Stanev: music for „le bleu du ciel“;theatre version of the roman from Georges Batailles

• Other publications in short series

Video clips (excerpts):

• „Spent echo“• „Chaos, bewußt“• „Jodler“• „Still lives, distant voices“• „Cork Bones“

Further informationswww.marclingk.delingk@bigfoot.de0177 4155 822