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Networked music performance


A networked music performance or network musical performance is a real-time interaction over a computer network that enables musicians in different locations to perform as if they were in the same room. These interactions can include performances, rehearsals, improvisation or jamming sessions, and situations for learning such as master classes. Participants may be connected by "high fidelity multichannel audio and video links" as well as MIDI data connections and specialized collaborative software tools. While not intended to be a replacement for traditional live stage performance, networked music performance supports musical interaction when co-presence is not possible and allows for novel forms of music expression. Remote audience members and possibly a conductor may also participate.

One of the earliest examples of a networked music performance experiments was the 1951 piece: “Imaginary Landscape No. 4 for Twelve Radios” by composer John Cage. As quoted in, states that the piece “used radio transistors as a musical instrument. The transistors were interconnected thus influencing each other.”

In the late 1970s, as personal computers were becoming more available and affordable, groups like the League of Automatic Music Composers began to experiment with linking multiple computers, electronic instruments, and analog circuitry to create novel forms of music.

The 1990s saw several important experiments in networked performance. In 1993, The University of Southern California Information Sciences Institute began experimenting with networked music performance over the Internet.The Hub (band), which was formed by original members of The League of Automatic Composers, experimented in 1997 with sending MIDI data over ethernet to distributed locations. However, “ it was more difficult than imagined to debug all of the software problems on each of the different machines with different operating systems and CPU speeds in different cities”. As mentioned by, describes a three-way audio-only performance in 1998 between musicians in Warsaw, Helsinki, and Oslo dubbed “Mélange à trois”. The early distributed performances all faced problems such as network delay, issues synchronizing signals, echo, and troubles with the acquisition of non-immersive audio and video acquisition and rendering.


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