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127th AES Convention Coverage (New York, NY Oct. 9-12)
PRESS RELEASE
Koan Generative Music Software Supports DirectX 5
February 23, 1998
Advertisement SSEYO(R) Ltd., creator of Koan(R) software for generative music and sound environments, today revved its range of Koan authoring tools and Koan players with a new Koan Music Engine that, in 32 bit form, has integral DirectX 5 support. The SSEYO "WAV Map" technology allows multiple advanced WAV-file based instruments to be used as the basis of Koan sound environments. This important development for the fast-growing international Koan community means that Koan piece authors can now use their own WAV samples to deliver, on any Windows 95 PC with DirectX 5 installed, Koan music with consistent playback quality irrespective of the Soundcard on the target machine. When allied to the power of the SSEYO Interactive Koan Music Control (IKMC), which supports the asynchronous background downloading of any files required by a playing Koan piece, any webpage can use completely unique and custom sound palettes (e.g. WAV files) to provide the ultimate fast-download sound environment. Said Tim Cole, Managing Director and Co-founder of SSEYO, "The traditional approach to providing Internet sound or music content is either to download a small section of pre-recorded content and then loop it again and again, or to listen to continuously streamed, non-interactive, bandwidth intensive pre-recorded content. For highly style-based music another alternative is to use Microsoft's new Interactive Music Control. Koan's unique, yet complementary generative approach is highly focused on creating non-style based and potentially massively interactive sound environments, where, to use a culinary analogy, more of the sound environment can be real-time 'baked to order'." Koan is an inherently 'low bandwidth' solution as it adopts a component approach to the creation of sound environments. The components or building blocks include a small Koan piece (typically 1kb to 20kb) and either the hardwired General MIDI sounds on the PC soundcard or downloaded custom WAV samples or SoundFonts; in either case, the Koan engine does the generative composition at the target machine meaning that streamed audio or endlessly looping MIDI music are not necessary. Indeed with the IKMC, via a webpage and a little VBScript or JavaScript, 200+ Koan parameters can be changed in real-time allowing the creation of incredible interactive sound environments. Just like home cooking, Koan is highly interactive, fresh and personal. SSEYO's new "WAV Map" technology brings the following advantages:
Other capabilities added include:
The "V2.1" release, includes new releases of: [Note : the Album Editor is contained within Koan Web Platinum] Multimedia System recommendations: P90 PC or higher, 16Mb RAM, Windows 95 / NT 4, Microsoft Internet Explorer 3 or higher or Netscape Navigator 3 or higher, Microsoft DirectX 5 (for WAV file playback), MIDI soundcard (AWE64 recommended for SoundFont usage) or MIDI software synth, speakers. Notes to Editors SSEYO is now a world leader in generative music software for sound environments, through its successful and award winning Koan software product range and the SSEYO Koan Music Engine (SKME), developed over the last 7 years. Koan products are well suited to the Imagination Age, and a key SSEYO goal is to deliver enabling and inclusive tools that enable users to make their own music or sound environments, be they young or old, musically gifted or not. SSEYO Koan technology is being adopted by a range of well-known artists, including Brian Eno and Jamuud of Loop Guru, and SSEYO is working with closely with the technologies of companies like Microsoft, Creative Labs and Yamaha. In addition to being a music/sound-enabling system, Koan is also ideal for the WWW as it is low bandwidth, massively interactive, MIDI based, contemporary sounding and ever-changing. Its hyper-instrument capabilities are soon to result in easy-to-use and fun music making appliances. The experiental, non-looping and personal nature of music and sound the SKME generates is ideally suited to WWW sites, 3D WWW virtual worlds, gaming and situations where fresh, massively interactive music or sound content is required.
SSEYO Koan product range:
IKMC download link:
The IKMC Walkthrough showcase:
SSEYO's online store:
SSEYO, Koan and the SSEYO logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of SSEYO Ltd in the UK and/or other countries. Other products mentioned may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies and are the sole property of their respective manufacturers. Specifications subject to change. For more information, visit their web site at http://www.soundperformancelab.com/.Recent SSEYO headlines
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