60x60 "UnTwelve mix" and ICMC --- context

Hi all,

It's been ages since I've checked the traffic here. When I need an internet fix of all things tuning-related, I hang at Xenharmonic NING nowadays for many many good reasons, but lo and behold, I check here and I hear the tribes chattering about the whole 60x60/Un12 and ICMC affair, and the controversy over the $60 ICMC fee.

NEWS FLASH--there never was, nor is there, a fee to do the UnTwelve Chicago show, or for any of the traditionally recurring 60x60 events (International mix, etc.). The fee is solely for the ICMC conference. Let me say that again....there never was, nor is there, a fee to do the UnTwelve Chicago show, or for any of the traditionally recurring 60x60 events (International mix, etc.). The fee is solely for the ICMC conference.

That being said, I found out *after the fact* myself from Rob Voisey. I was, at first, very confused, feeling like this was a major piece of missing information, and I was concerned that this would make UnTwelve look bad by association, but in retrospect: Rob is a true pro who knew what he was doing, and I agree now with his reasoning to reveal this late. WHY? Because most of the contestants really did a poor job of reading any of the correspondence we did send. (more evidence for this below) Rob has been doing 60x60 for years, and this jives well with his general experience. He knew that he would get *way* fewer entries for the general 60x60 call if he said anything about $60 dollars. In the interest of non-redundancy, he was given permission to use the ICMC submission engine (which was an engineering nightmare, BTW, but that's another story) for all 60x60 related things, including ICMC/60x60 events.

How can we say that people didn't read anything well? Because we fielded countless emails where people already had the answer in an email we sent, but still asked anyway. Obviously, they were too impatient to read the entire email! We asked for .zip archives with .wav or .aiff files with some documentation. Half of the entries were ok. The other half? We got some Mac RAR archives, some mp3s and WMAs, some files with no docs, some zip files which were corrupt, aiff files at wrong bitrates, zip files with no audio, etc. Part of this was the submission engine interface being poorly designed and engineered; part of this was just poor reading skills or impatience; or some combo cocktail of all of these things. In any event, multiply that by ~582 or so entries for the 60x60 related events alone, and you've got an organizational nightmare. Imagine having to field 600 emails about "what's this about $60 dollars?"....fielded by Rob Voisey himself and his only assistant during this process, me. I, for one, am glad he kept the $60 part silent.

BTW, the actual ICMC cost for the conference, per participant goes up to as much as $450!!!! Yes, it's very steep, in my opinion, but since it's still happening, someone must be paying it. The ICMC probably has a huge overhead for a conference. I doubt they are getting rich holding computer music conferences, or the Mafia would be in it already. As for the participants, some people build their careers this way, and probably use it as a tax write-off. It's called a business expense. Obviously, if you're not a pro musician, you don't go that route. Anyway, Rob managed to cut it down to $60 for 60x60 participants, at a bulk rate.

Now, being *generous*, Rob also offered the following to the UnTwelve crew who may have wanted to have their work played elsewhere *around the world* --- put up an UnTwelve mix in your hometown, and I'll put your work up at ICMC---FREE!!!! Yup, that's right, said Rob, I'll go further and waive your fee.

Now, I don't know about you, but I'd gladly put up a concert and invite my friends if I knew that it would put a work of mine, and my name as a composer, around the world in performances based in towns of my microtonal colleagues....we've got folks in Italy, Australia, Turkey, France, Germany...you name it...network marketing, anyone? And if I were too lazy, I'd find $60 bucks somehow to pay the reduced price. Right now it looks like 20 or so *worldwide* performances in the works....what's your music career *worth* to you? Plus, you get to be on a very prestigious, expensive conference (ICMC) in front of many colleagues....for FREE.

This is an unprecedented opportunity to expose microtonal music, *your music*, to the world. I'm really surprised that anyone anywhere, amateur, or especially professional, would dismiss such an opportunity, or criticize in any way anyone who would actually do hours of hard work to bring it about for you. OK, I understand not wanting to pay $60 to have your music heard--but you don't have to, do you? You can go the alternate route, and host a show. Or, I should say, you *could* have.... :) Anyway, the people that reject either offer were in the minority.

But I mostly wanted to set the record straight re:the $60, and reiterate that the fee is neither 60x60's nor UnTwelve's.

Best,
AKJ