Jun 26, 2016
My first encounter with Carla Scaletti was at an AES show, where she was doing personal demos of the Kyma system in a little square in the middle of the show floor. In among mic preamps and tape decks was a bunch of computer monitors and a demo station with a mic. I was blown away when Carla proceeded to use the microphone to record her voice, then use it (her voice) to do score following - it was magic to me.
Since then, I've always been fascinated to see where the Kyma system appears. Often tied to serious sound designers, I saw it in studios, in background pictures of Hollywood sound-heads and in the workplaces of my friends in the game industry. I also started seeing it in academic institutions, where it was being used for both teaching/recording and research.
I was so pleased when Carla said she was willing to be interviewed for the podcast. I'd recently noticed that she was pretty active in the community, having given the keynote speech at the 2015 ICMC (which was also published in the Computer Music Journal), and Meg Schedel mentioned that Carla was going to be doing some sessions at Stony Brook. And now I'm happy to present this talk with Carla, where we range from her personal history to her (incredible) ideas about the nature of modern experimental composition.
Enjoy!