Current Research
Research History
Panel Participation

1) Algorithmic composition and real-time software synthesis utilizing the Kyma digital synthesis system. Continued work on the algorithmic program COMP2, originally written in 1991 using Smalltalk-80.

The Kyma digital synthesis system utilizes a dedicated multiple DSP hardware box called the Capybara. My son Jacques photographed some Capybaras recently when we were in Birmingham, Alabama. (56K image)


2) Real-time performance improvisation using ImprovisationBuilder, a real-time algorithmic composition program written by William Walker (also using Smalltalk-80 ). This research specifically addresses the use of ImprovisationBuilder using the Yamaha Disklavier.

Cross-town Traffic, co-composed in 1995 by Belet and Walker, is the most recent result of this research. The composition utilizes two Disklaviers and two pianists, each routing their output data through ImprovisationBuilder, with the output then routed to the other Disklavier for realization. The result is a fusion of four interrelated musical streams. This composition was premiered at SJSU on November 9, 1995 on the Electro-Acoustic Concert during "American Music Week", with both composers performing.

A co-authored paper on this current ImprovisationBuilder research was presented at the 1996 International Computer Music Conference, Hong Kong (23 August 1996).

3)Real-time performance and computer interaction. A 1999 collaboration with William Walker utilizing electric bass, Disklavier, and Kyma running COMP2.

Research History -- Juried Papers presented at conferences:

"Applying ImprovisationBuilder to Interactive Composition with MIDI Piano"
1996 International Computer Music Conference, Hong Kong, China, 1996.
[Published]

"Real-time Performance With Software Synthesis, MIDI, and Piano"
2nd Bates Festival of New American Music, in conjunction with the Society of Composers, Inc., Region I Conference, Bates College, Lewiston, ME, 1994.

"Integrating Real-time Interactive Software Synthesis, Pre-processed Re-synthesis, MIDI Data, and Acoustic Piano in Composition and Live Performance"
Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States 1994 Conference, Middlebury College, Middlebury, VT, 1994.
[Published]

"Toward a Unification of Algorithmic Composition, Real-time Software Synthesis, and Live Performance Interaction"
1992 International Computer Music Conference, San Jose State University, San Jose, CA.
[Published]

"Using the Kyma Digital Synthesis System as a Single, Unified Environment for Real-time Software Synthesis, Algorithmic Composition, and Live Performance"
Japan Music and Computer Science Society Summer Symposium 1992, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan.
[Published]

"Using the Kyma Digital Synthesis System as an Orchestral Instrument and as a Dynamic Tool for Timbral Exploration"
1992 New Hampshire Music Festival Composers Conference, Plymouth State College, Plymouth, NH.

"Algorithmic Composition Within the Kyma Digital Synthesis System"
Computers and Composition, (co-sponsored by the University of Illinois, Michigan State University, and Wolfram Research, Inc.) Urbana, IL, 1992.

"Proportional Recursive Stochastic Composition using COMP2, a Smalltalk-80 Composition Program Within the Kyma Digital Synthesis System"
1991 International Computer Music Conference, McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
[Published]

Panel Participation

Moderator: "Teaching Music Theory in California: One Year Later -- A Follow-up Discussion"
The College Music Society -- Pacific Central Chapter 1996 Annual Meeting, Ohlone College, Fremont, CA (April 1996).

Moderator: "Teaching Music Theory in California in 1995: Where Are We Going and Why?"
The College Music Society -- Pacific Central Chapter 1995 Annual Meeting, CSU - Sacramento, Sacramento, CA (April 1995).

"The Aesthetics of Electroacoustic Music"
Technology and the Composer: The Continuing Tradition of Music Composed for Tape international conference, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg (June 1994); and continued at the University of Maryland, College Park, MD (November 1994).