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VERY COOL Per, I loved the peice.. would it be possible to control this with a footcontroler and improvise on other instrument.. Or even cooler could the strength of signal and pitch of a input instrument på set to do what the joystick does. Sort of letting all these patterns be controlled by audio.. sort of.. Thanks for sharing.. > Date: Sun, 24 Jan 2010 22:19:44 +0100 > Subject: Re: Shared recording uploaded (Re: mac vst builder(Synthedit) thingy??) > From: perboysen@gmail.com > To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com > > On Jan 23, 2010, at 6:36 PM, Per Boysen wrote: > > http://www.box.net/shared/9f6cov0qh2 > > > > On Sun, Jan 24, 2010 at 8:51 PM, Mark Hamburg <mark@grubmah.com> wrote: > > > How much preparation do you put in before an "improv" like this and how much are you really able to pull together on the fly? > > > I would say that the general flow of the piece, understood as > directions and movements, is all improvised. Poly rhythm is partially > improvised while tonal pitch is not improvised at all, rather > automized with a little help of random. > > The balance between how much you prepare in advance vs how much you do > during performance is really totally open. I'd love to explain the > process behind this tune, since live sequencing is a big interest of > mine. Those not interested can just skip over this mail. ;-) Here are > the steps: > > 1. Discrete sequencing. > I don't know where this term comes from originally, but in musical > terms it is what King Crimson does a lot in many tunes; you use two > patterns of different length where pattern one is the pitches and > pattern two is the accents. To achieve this I used > > A: an Interval (pitch) sequencer of 16 steps. This pitch sequencer's > positions for the 16 steps is partially randomized ("partially" > meaning not all steps are changed) by a Modulation Sequencer now and > then. This modulation sequencer runs at 15 steps to randomize the > randomization frequency (yay! how deep can you go...). > > B; a Gate Sequencer that runs at five steps with all steps active and > values gradually going down from beat 1 to 5. While the Interval > Sequencer gives the pitches to be played this one gives the note > duration. What we get here is a changing 16 note pattern with a note > duration pattern repeating every fifth beat. > > C: a Velocity Sequencer that runs at 6 steps. Values are like > "High-Low-Mid-Low-Mid-Empty". This creates an accent pattern in the > above reminding of a Waltz rhythm, and with a paus at the last beat. > > Ok, the MIDI generated by these three sequencers are tonally quantized > into a C minor dorian scale. This was all automatic precess prepared > in advance. Oh, I also set the synth to juste intonation in C. > > Here comes the live performance part: > > The synth sound is programmed to go into a bell like timbre on higher > velocity values and more pad like sounding with slower attack at lower > velocity values. On the Faderfox I can control the following: > > 1. base for the velocity sequencer (the fundamental value it starts out from) > 2. scaling for the velocity sequencer (how "much" its pattern shall be > implied on the generated MIDI) > > These two control parameters are assigned to a joystick. By turning > down the "base" to zero I get only only the three beats "High-Mid-Mid" > in half tempo (since it is every second beat and the ones between are > silent). This is the typical Waltz rhythm. The "scale" parameter now > works as an attack/level control for the synth. If I bring up the > "base" value a bit the silent notes between the waltz notes comes > alive and the rhythm may as well be experienced as a four beat > measure. > > 3. Groove tremolo. In the audio path after synth 1 there is a groove > tremolo effect. I use one knob to fade between full bypass and full > tremolo treatment. The tremolo is a little delayed on every second > beat ("groove factor"), actually the same groove factor I have set > Numerology's global groove clock sequencer to (forgot to tell that > initially, but it's just a preference setting). The more this tremolo > is applied to the sound the more 4/4 it feels. > > I added a second synth, bass sound, with a similar setup but now > tremolo. Then I also added a drum sequencer that loop a 16 bar "song" > containing 8 one bar patterns. > > These three instrument recourses were then manipulated with the > processes described above plus simple volume mixing. As you hear I > kept the waltz feel of synth 1 all the way until fading in the 4/4 > drums, because I found it cool with that odd feeling of the drums > appearing like that; for a second you don't "understand" it until your > hearing switches over from 3/4 to 4/4. > > This was a dirt simple example of "discrete sequencing". The cool part > of Numerology is that you are not limited to sequencing notes only - > you may in fact sequence any sound parameter of a synth, a looper, a > sampler or filter plugin. This is why I asked Mark Francombe why he > thinks he must program his own plugins, because to me it would be an > easier solution to us Numerology that already offers a drag n drop > patching matrix to jiggle any parameter in any plugin in any way. > > Greetings from Sweden > > Per Boysen > www.boysen.se > www.perboysen.com > |