IXI audio – Experimental musical interfaces

ixi audio is an experimental project concerned with the creation of digital musical instruments and environments for generative music. We are interested in the computer as a workshop for building non-conventional tools for musicians, i.e. not trying to imitate or copy the tools that we know from the world of acoustic instruments or studio technology.

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We are interested in free and open music software in all senses. Free as in “free beer”, free as in “free speech” and free as in “free jazz”. The last “freedom” being the most important one. We acknowledge the constraints that software puts on the musician, the limits that the tool sets for the creative process and we therefore promote and try to disseminate technologies that open up the limits of software (or define new boundaries). We think it should be the artist that defines the scope of his or her instrument (and therefore music), not a commercial software company.

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Our belief is that controlling musical structures graphically in screen-based instruments such as the ixi software, can be helpful and inspiring for the musician. We try to build “non-musical” interfaces, i.e. controllers that do not contain musical concepts from any tradition or cultureis can be liberating and open up for new directions. Visualising musical patterns is one of the main ideas here, but in a way that is open and not predefining the music. Intelligent interfaces is also one of our aims and we’d like to see instruments that understand and interact with the musician.

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We provide the applications on this website as they are – there might be some bugs, some problems or inconsistencies – we try to code them properly, but we’re not a company with customer support, we’re a group of people that enjoy making music and artistic software and giving them for others to use as well.