WEBVTT 00:57.060 --> 01:02.860 A little pause... 01:02.860 --> 01:02.960 and we are back. 01:31.810 --> 01:35.190 A little pause... 01:35.190 --> 01:35.230 A little pause... 01:35.230 --> 01:35.250 A little pause... 02:30.410 --> 02:33.270 A little pause... and we are back. 02:33.270 --> 02:33.730 A little pause... and we are back. 02:41.450 --> 03:04.830 A little pause... and we are back. 03:24.750 --> 03:25.790 A little pause... 03:25.790 --> 03:25.790 and we are back. 03:25.790 --> 03:28.510 A little pause... and we are back. 03:54.390 --> 04:00.250 That was my quantum improvisation system called Lengage. 04:01.470 --> 04:08.630 And technically it is listening to me in real time and I am able to play with it and musically communicate with it. 04:08.670 --> 04:13.570 And it will respond to me sometimes and sometimes it will do its own thing. 04:15.910 --> 04:25.550 So usually when we do NPHD performances, I am usually playing with my colleague Dr. 04:25.550 --> 04:27.850 Omar Tosa-Hamido. 04:28.370 --> 04:30.990 So it is usually he is playing saxophone and I am playing flute. 04:30.990 --> 04:34.670 And in our recent album we are usually playing those songs from there. 04:34.670 --> 04:40.190 It starts out with us playing acoustically and then that was pretty much the second song in the track. 04:40.810 --> 04:47.350 But I won't be playing the third song in the track because usually Vineyard plays with his quantum synthesizer. 04:47.450 --> 04:50.550 But he is not here today and I don't have his quantum synthesizer. 04:51.410 --> 04:53.530 But I will take a little break. 04:53.530 --> 04:58.490 If anybody has any questions, I am available to answer them. 04:58.610 --> 05:00.290 How long have you been playing? 05:01.670 --> 05:06.210 Probably about 13-14 years I think. 05:06.210 --> 05:07.190 You are doing great. 05:07.190 --> 05:09.470 Oh, thank you. 05:11.130 --> 05:13.930 So you say it is listening to you. 05:13.930 --> 05:20.250 Is it translating it to MIDI and then doing a MIDI or is it pitch shifting? 05:21.190 --> 05:28.650 So it is actually doing some music information retrieval functions on it. 05:28.650 --> 05:31.570 So it is taking different musical features out of itself. 05:31.870 --> 05:46.390 It might take the signal energy from my playing or it might take pitch estimation and use that as a reference for how far it should go away and how far it should stay within the realm of what I am doing. 05:47.090 --> 05:53.390 And then I have I guess a couple other musical features for like brightness of the tone I am playing and things like that. 05:53.390 --> 05:58.950 And I am kind of looking into different ways of sending different information. 05:59.590 --> 06:04.530 Are you pre-setting pitch parameters, key parameters at all or do you just keep it completely open? 06:04.530 --> 06:07.050 It is completely open at the moment. 06:07.490 --> 06:12.550 Especially in jazz improvisation, it is kind of hard to keep it open. 06:16.470 --> 06:18.310 Two questions, but they are related. 06:18.310 --> 06:21.750 Is it trying to track your tempo at all? 06:21.750 --> 06:23.430 And the other question is what is the lifetime? 06:23.610 --> 06:29.930 It is tracking my tempo every so often, but that is not part of the quantum algorithm. 06:29.930 --> 06:32.690 That is more of a classical kind of algorithm. 06:32.690 --> 06:41.150 I do want to try to incorporate that into the circuit, but the circuit is actually kind of big enough as it is and I don't think I can fit it in at the moment. 06:41.150 --> 06:47.550 But yeah, the current state of quantum computers, I kind of hit the max that they will allow for the general public to know. 06:47.550 --> 06:49.230 But yeah. 06:50.690 --> 06:52.650 Is it a max for live? 06:53.410 --> 07:03.850 So, I didn't pay for max for live, but I am using just the full max software and then I am feeding it into Ableton kind of manually. 07:03.850 --> 07:04.270 Yeah. 07:12.150 --> 07:13.930 I think I will continue. 07:15.490 --> 07:18.770 I guess since this is jazz, I will kind of figure out from here. 07:18.770 --> 07:29.890 There is some stuff at the end that I do want to get into more of the system, but I will kind of go back to work and play along with some of the effects and some of the other stuff. 08:33.220 --> 08:37.760 So, here we go. 08:53.170 --> 09:17.990 So, here we go. 09:51.610 --> 09:55.190 So, here we go. 10:01.170 --> 10:10.410 So, here we go. 10:19.710 --> 10:24.930 So, here we go. 10:49.060 --> 10:51.860 So, 11:01.890 --> 11:12.810 here we go. 11:47.190 --> 11:48.710 So, here we go. 12:17.920 --> 12:22.500 So, here we go. 12:49.420 --> 12:52.220 So, 13:07.040 --> 13:11.260 here we go. 13:53.440 --> 13:56.240 So, 14:42.800 --> 14:44.220 So , 16:20.840 --> 16:23.420 Here we go. 17:03.900 --> 17:06.880 Here we go. 17:29.980 --> 17:34.540 Here we go. 17:53.100 --> 17:57.700 Here we go. 18:48.660 --> 18:51.480 Here we go. 19:24.370 --> 19:28.070 Here we go. 20:08.210 --> 20:08.750 Here we go. 20:20.290 --> 20:26.350 Here we go. 21:07.410 --> 21:11.630 Here we go. 22:49.490 --> 22:52.430 Here we go. 24:04.340 --> 24:07.640 Here we go. 24:19.500 --> 24:29.520 Here we go 24:35.210 --> 24:35.350 . 24:57.140 --> 24:59.460 That's pretty much what I have here, guys. 24:59.460 --> 25:02.240 Unless you guys want to hear anything specific. 25:03.040 --> 25:12.060 I was working on another application today as I was waiting for this performance, but it's still not quite working yet. 25:14.020 --> 25:16.840 Does anybody have any more questions? 25:17.620 --> 25:25.240 During the transition of that last song, there was a decay of four different layers. 25:25.240 --> 25:30.740 Does that represent the deep wave, or is it just my imagination for the energy compression? 25:31.260 --> 25:36.180 So, half of this performance is just straight electronics. 25:36.180 --> 25:40.320 And then the other half is being controlled by the actual system. 25:41.280 --> 25:50.360 But, this is actually using a simulator, so it's not using a specific computer at the moment, because getting there and back is... yeah. 25:50.360 --> 26:02.480 But, the system, the parameters of that system was built on some example data to the system, using some of IBM's own computers. 26:02.600 --> 26:04.140 So , yeah. 26:04.640 --> 26:11.100 So, ideally, it could just be a plug and chug, if they, you know, have the capability of this, then use it. 26:11.100 --> 26:12.060 But, no. 26:13.420 --> 26:14.260 Yeah. 26:16.580 --> 26:24.540 Any of the sounds generated, were they pitch tracked to what you were playing? 26:24.640 --> 26:27.480 Or was it just emulating what you were playing? 26:27.480 --> 26:32.840 Or was it quantized after the fact to some scale, whatever you were playing in? 26:32.880 --> 26:40.240 So, it's using... this is actually my dissertation research, but it has a lot of different components in it. 26:40.240 --> 26:46.180 But, in terms of pitch, let's say I have... so, the system will do an estimation, right? 26:47.040 --> 26:55.700 It hears 50% chances of B, 50% chances of A, or maybe another note in there with another percent chance, whatever. 26:55.700 --> 26:57.960 So, you're sort of using Markov chains or something like that? 26:57.980 --> 27:03.620 No, not Markov chains, but I'm using... it takes it in and gives it a wave function. 27:03.620 --> 27:04.220 Okay. 27:04.220 --> 27:08.860 Yeah, and it says, okay, it's in all these notes I'm perceiving at the same time. 27:08.860 --> 27:14.040 But the second that it measures it to execute the actual note, it collapses to one of them. 27:14.040 --> 27:14.400 Okay . 27:14.480 --> 27:19.020 Yeah, and then it has some kind of way of saying, like, okay, this is the target pitch I'm going for. 27:19.220 --> 27:24.000 And then it kind of looks up the energy of the qubit and says, how far do I have to get there to get to the pitch? 27:24.000 --> 27:25.780 Or am I going in another direction? 27:32.410 --> 27:35.250 Does the last track have drums in it? 27:36.630 --> 27:39.790 Yeah, so the system is actually playing the drum set, so yeah. 27:39.890 --> 27:40.390 Nice. 27:40.390 --> 27:40.710 Wow. 27:40.710 --> 27:41.030 Yeah. 27:41.110 --> 27:46.530 And how does it go between generating just sound and generating a drum tempo? 27:46.530 --> 27:47.770 Is it intentional? 27:47.770 --> 27:50.530 So it's actually just playing software instruments. 27:50.530 --> 27:50.830 Okay. 27:50.830 --> 27:52.710 So it's like sending, yeah, so it's sending... 27:53.330 --> 27:54.010 Like a MIDI instrument. 27:54.010 --> 27:57.210 Yeah, it's sending MIDI information to the instruments, but yeah. 27:57.210 --> 28:04.210 So there's many layers of quantum and processing going in with it to bring out a really... because it was really multi-layered performance. 28:04.210 --> 28:05.150 Yeah, yeah. 28:05.150 --> 28:06.130 Yeah , brilliant. 28:06.590 --> 28:06.810 Yeah. 28:07.010 --> 28:08.130 Okay, go ahead. 28:08.130 --> 28:16.430 So I wanted to ask if eventually quantum should be able to play music that regular computers can't. 28:16.430 --> 28:18.030 Is there anything about that? 28:18.050 --> 28:22.490 My philosophy on that is, well, there is a subfield right now. 28:22.490 --> 28:24.650 I don't know how much you guys know of this. 28:24.650 --> 28:33.850 So there is a group of researchers, not a large set of them, but they are looking into building quantum computer music applications. 28:33.850 --> 28:39.890 But right now they are kind of focusing on what capabilities we have currently that are transferable to quantum computers. 28:39.890 --> 28:46.710 So we don't know if it will give us an advantage or not, or if it might be able to play music better than a classical computer. 28:46.950 --> 28:50.250 But my thought is, especially with jazz, it's just so many different elements. 28:50.250 --> 28:56.470 And I think there is more language in quantum computers than there are in classical, which I mean... 29:02.090 --> 29:07.530 Do you find when you are playing jazz with a quantum computer, there is a level of feedback? 29:07.810 --> 29:12.210 Because when you play jazz live, there is a feedback between you and the other musicians. 29:12.690 --> 29:18.550 Do you find that the quantum... and I can guess someone's personality through how they feedback to me. 29:18.550 --> 29:19.830 I get a feel for that. 29:20.130 --> 29:22.070 Does a quantum computer have a personality? 29:22.690 --> 29:23.930 A jazz personality? 29:23.930 --> 29:27.870 It has an image of my personality. 29:27.870 --> 29:28.590 An image of you. 29:29.690 --> 29:33.710 So I don't know if you guys have ever heard of George Lewis. 29:34.110 --> 29:37.290 George Lewis has a computer improvisation system. 29:37.290 --> 29:38.730 He has nothing to do with quantum. 29:38.850 --> 29:41.190 He made this back in the day. 29:41.190 --> 29:43.390 He was very groundbreaking at the time. 29:43.630 --> 29:48.490 But this system is actually inspired off of his system, which is called Voyager. 29:48.490 --> 29:54.970 And that's an actual real-time improvisation system that many jazz musicians have played with and have discussed about. 29:54.970 --> 29:56.310 Does it have a personality? 29:56.310 --> 29:59.430 Is it actually... what is actually going on here? 29:59.430 --> 30:02.930 And George Lewis has always said, it's a reflection of myself. 30:03.530 --> 30:10.190 I consider a composition as a reflection of myself, and it has my philosophies of improvisation within it. 30:11.170 --> 30:12.210 Fascinating. 30:13.710 --> 30:22.030 Could you just tell us some more general knowledge about how to go about using the quantum in instruments? 30:23.450 --> 30:29.130 So, I guess for me, it's a different approach than what most of the field is doing. 30:29.130 --> 30:35.490 So , a good example would be my other bandmate, Omar. 30:35.650 --> 30:40.770 Omar, he's actually in Portugal, so it was kind of difficult to get him down here this time when we performed in New York. 30:40.770 --> 30:51.270 But his quantum synthesizer is using different algorithms to generate for different parameters of the synthesizer, actually. 30:51.270 --> 30:56.970 And to actually use the superposition for different waveforms that the synthesizer can generate. 30:57.410 --> 31:02.830 There are other applications for pitch estimation, or melody generation, and things like that. 31:02.830 --> 31:10.790 But anything that you can do with classical computing, there is probably a way you can adapt it to quantum computing. 31:10.790 --> 31:17.770 So it's mostly like mapping your output from your quantum computer onto a classical machine, I would say. 31:17.990 --> 31:20.690 I don't know if that answers your question or not, I'm sorry. 31:23.810 --> 31:32.030 So the source of the randomness, you have the quantum computing, but it's being simulated, right? 31:32.030 --> 31:44.190 Is it possible, have you thought about using a true source of quantum randomness, like a Geiger counter or something like that? 31:45.930 --> 31:47.250 Not really. 31:47.270 --> 31:52.730 I kind of just was using, when the kids came out at the moment, I really wanted to just run on actual hardware. 31:52.730 --> 31:59.170 Because the simulator for me is not actually giving it the actual experience of using the actual quantum hardware. 31:59.170 --> 32:04.530 It's just a matter of logistics, I guess, on the company's side. 32:04.530 --> 32:09.590 But yeah, the simulator to me is not the most I take on. 32:09.590 --> 32:20.810 What kind of level of randomness is brought in versus the entropy of being able to move beyond what you're at? 32:20.810 --> 32:27.690 Because I saw within the performance I heard, as it was starting to run away with a lot of energy, you could slowly bring it back. 32:27.690 --> 32:31.930 Or as it was getting a little lower, you would slowly bring in more energy. 32:31.930 --> 32:37.370 So do you have parameters there, and can you widen those and make it more random? 32:37.370 --> 32:52.450 Yeah, so besides tempo, which is not quantum at all in this case, a lot of the parameters I'm using that are being extracted from here, I use those metrics on the quantum gates, on the actual quantum gates or the actual rotations. 32:52.610 --> 32:59.310 So it's actually taking into consideration inside the actual algorithm, the quantum algorithm, what I'm doing. 32:59.410 --> 33:04.350 So it's building a state of what it could possibly do based off what I'm doing. 33:07.430 --> 33:13.230 This is more like a philosophical slash artistic question. 33:13.310 --> 33:24.130 In the perspective of the science and engineering, do you find a superposition when you identify the artistic component with the engineering component? 33:26.170 --> 33:28.610 I'm sorry, can you do the last question? 33:28.610 --> 33:29.830 I don't know. 33:32.570 --> 33:34.130 I would say so. 33:34.130 --> 33:39.150 I've actually gotten a lot of feedback, especially when I came to the... 33:39.150 --> 33:44.170 when I was trying to finish my dissertation and things, I was having a lot of issues with it getting to sound. 33:44.170 --> 33:48.630 So the first iteration, this was not as flexible, I would say. 33:48.630 --> 33:50.110 It was very stagnant. 33:50.110 --> 33:51.670 It was kind of mostly based on pitch. 33:51.670 --> 33:56.110 It didn't really have any kind of change in tempo or change in energy or anything. 33:56.110 --> 33:59.930 But a lot of feedback I got from musicians that nothing, mostly about... 33:59.930 --> 34:05.370 They were tech savvy, but they didn't know what's happening underneath the hood of anything. 34:05.550 --> 34:09.470 They were kind of like, you also have to remember this is also an artistic project. 34:09.470 --> 34:12.050 You can get lost in the weeds of building the sound. 34:12.050 --> 34:20.810 So you can have all these fancy algorithms, which I was technically trying to do, but it ultimately meant nothing in the end. 34:20.810 --> 34:27.690 So it's kind of like a balance between what are the tools and algorithms I can use for a specific purpose. 34:27.910 --> 34:35.190 If it's not being used for a specific purpose, and it's just in there for more efficiency or something, then it kind of gets away from the artistic side. 34:39.050 --> 34:43.370 If there are no more questions, please do thank Scott. 34:43.370 --> 34:43.550 Thank you. 34:49.690 --> 34:51.690 Thank you very much everyone. 34:51.690 --> 34:54.690 We hope you've enjoyed the most cultured... 34:55.710 --> 34:57.250 I also have a... 34:58.810 --> 35:08.490 I do have a flyer, I wasn't able to print them out, but me and Omar are having a couple of listening parties next Saturday and the Saturday after that on Bandcamp. 35:08.490 --> 35:12.250 So you'll be able to hear the whole album and you can decide if you want to buy it. 35:12.250 --> 35:16.050 I do have a QR code for anybody who wants to check out the album. 35:16.070 --> 35:23.710 You can also just type in nphd.space and it'll take you guys to our rep website. 35:24.210 --> 35:33.190 But also, on September 2nd, we're having a telematic performance of the album as well, if you guys are interested in it. 35:33.190 --> 35:40.250 And you can find that information on our rep page, which is nphd.needspace. 35:43.010 --> 35:44.730 That in space? 35:44.730 --> 35:45.870 That space. 35:45.930 --> 35:47.010 Yeah, just space. 35:47.010 --> 35:47.910 We'll put it on the Twitter. 35:49.410 --> 35:51.590 Everyone, thank you very much. 35:51.590 --> 35:52.510 Thank you Scott.