Sample 1: Additive Synthesis
I started playing around with this right after class last week and had it in mind to make some sort of nasty sounding bass patch. I used envelopes to control the frequency and DC offset of the oscillators. I can’t seem to predict, though, how the envelopes actually get used. The way I think it should work is that the metronome kicks off the envelopes and the frequencies I drew should be smoothly sent to the cycle~ object. That’s what happens, except that the full envelope I drew doesn’t get used.
Sample 2: Ring Modulation
Sample 3: FM Fwub Bass
I modified Peter’s FM patch to ramp the modulator amplitude between 20 and 250 over 1 second. This, in combination with the other modulation parameters, yielded a flappy bass sound.
Sample 4: FM Grow Tone
Using the FM synthesis patch again, but this time with different parameters, I created bass tone using a sine wave that evolved with a sound like a resonant filter sweep.
Sample 5: Faux Scratch
I discovered an interesting sound by scraping the first modulator frequency between -20 and 20. It made the sound burble a bit and sound almost like a turntablist scratching.
Sample 6: Blippy
Blippy, Atari-like noise sample. This one makes use of the modulo function to create the nasty repeating, yet random, blips.
Sample 7: Metallic Additive “Feedback”
I took a look in the MAX/MSP documentation folder and looked through the tutorial pages. There are tutorial topics on all of the synthesis techniques we looked at in class along with some helpful patches. I took the additive synthesis patch and started hacking away at it to see what I could produce. The tutorial contains a subpatch called “partial~” which encapsulates some of the basic elements of an oscillator so the patcher doesn’t get so messy. The first patch I created with my modifications uses a fundamental frequency and makes two sets of tone clusters, one of which is subltey randomized. I find that this sounds a bit like feedback in a PA system, but with some interesting pulses caused by the beating of adjacent frequencies.
Sample 8: Metallic Additive Shimmer
One of the presets from the original MAX/MSP tutorial patch sounded interesting when I played it back through my modified version of the patch. I think it sounds a bitter like a metallic shimmer.
Download all samples from this entry.
posted by Michael at 7:34 pm
This is a low-tech piece which considers the differences between humans and computers.
Consider for a moment that all computers know how to do at a fundamental level is deal with bits of information: ones and zeroes strung together in finite lists.
Consider for a moment that any “creativity” a computer possesses has been given it by a human programmer.
Let’s further constrain our thinking to the process of drawing. Computers “draw” using pixels, or discrete bits of information. We create using continuous lines. We put pen or pencil to paper and the inspiration flows out of our minds and onto the page. Even constrained, we have infinitely more imagination than a computer.
Let’s confine ourselves to rectangles and a simple set of rules
Equipment
- Felt-tipped pen
- 8.5″ x 11″ sheet of paper
Rules
- Please read all rules before beginning
- Use the provided felt-tipped pen to draw a rectangle on the paper
- If the paper is blank, you may draw a rectangle of any size anywhere you wish on one side of the paper
- If the paper is not blank, please follow the following guidelines
- Your rectangle must be drawn on the same side of the paper as existing rectangles
- Your rectangle must be drawn outside of any existing rectangle
- Your rectangle must not intersect any existing rectangle
- After you have drawn a rectangle, ask someone else to draw the next rectangle
- The drawing is finished when it is no longer possible to satisfy the above conditions
posted by Michael at 9:26 am
I found that Steve Mann’s article responded to some of the issues raised in Frank Webster’s Theories of the Information Society with regard to surveillance as an important information gathering tool of the “scientific management” mindset of our corporate and governmental systems. Mirroring Webster’s desire to understand the impact of information technology (primarily in the form of information gathering) on the regulation of current society, Mann wants to question the claim that surveillance will lead to a “better future” (Mann 94).
What I found fascinating about the article was that Mann’s experiments in “Reflectionism,” relied upon his “clothing” and the identity he created with it. It seems that the experiments he undertook would not have been so directly provocative if he simply visited establishments wearing “normal” clothes and carrying a video camera. By using the personally expressive power of his clothing, he literally wore his attitude “on his sleeve.” This was especially subversive in the context of our discussion of wearables because unlike a handheld technical accessory, his imaging and data transmission system was deeply embedded in the garments he was wearing. He mirrors the use of built-in video surveillance as a new “prosthetic territory” of architecture (Mann 95) by his total integration of the equiment into his identity, even going so far as to insist on his “self+prosethetic device” (Mann 101) identity on official documentation.
“‘Reflectionism’ and ‘Diffusionism’: New Tactics for Deconstructing the Video Surveillance Superhighway”
Steve Mann
Leonardo, Vol. 31 No. 2. (1998), pp.93-102
posted by Michael at 8:21 am
