May 2012

"Pianissimo"

Comments Off on "Pianissimo"

"Pianissimo" [mp3 moved to Bandcamp]

Production notes:
The first theme is modular patch, forget how I did it; there was a lot of routing and interconnection among modules (not saved). The gritty percussive slaps are probably the LFO doing something to the signal.
The high-pitched whistling-like theme is a triangle wave FM-ing a sine with ADSR modulating both the program and carrier. It was as punchy as an icepick through the temple so I softened it with a slight convolution reverb (small room).
Often the tunes I write start as MIDI prompts to hear what a patch is doing and end up becoming real melodies. That was the case here, so I played the same MIDI notes with a piano (sampler) to hear the tune without all the synth distortion. The tune is then tweaked in the piano roll to add pauses, discords, and accents that a live player might have.
Then the synth themes come back in, with the piano bass line changed to a latin jazz sort of thing for some counterpoint to end the song.

Lissajous curves + minor thought experiments

Comments Off on Lissajous curves + minor thought experiments

Vimeo demonstrating the ADDAC502, a modular synth module that generates control voltages to alter sounds produced by other modules.
Unlike a standard LFO (low frequency oscillator), which generates simple sine, square, or other waves, the ADDAC502 produces complex curves in Lissajous patterns.
The Vimeo is a bare-bones image of an oscilloscope screen, showing as visual information the curves generated by the ADDAC502: a real-time demonstration.
Much is written about synesthesia (the combination or blurring or two senses) but this type of demo is its pure embodiment. You have a palpable, almost gut knowledge of the audiovisual intersect points as you watch. (See earlier discussion of synesthetic false knowledge.)
Bonus, new media meta-level considerations:
1. Watch the video as "found internet art" - a minimal low tech audiovisual abstraction
2. Imagine someone linked to it and claimed it wasn't generated by a machine but was the trace of a human hand playing a theremin. (Not a great idea; am just thinking about how verbal information can alter perception and feeling about straightforward demonstrations, in this case via a semi-plausible tech-bloggy narrative of "superhuman technical prowess such as to compete with machines.") See earlier discussion of wow factor.