Subject : NUMBERSTREAM

EXTREME TIME STRETCHING

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If you have a professional requirement for extreme audio time-stretching, especially in the natural history domain, please use the contact details above

 

WORLD LEADER IN EXTREME TIME-STRETCHING OF AUDIO

TRANSIENT DETAIL INSPECTION OF MULTI-SECOND EVENTS
EXTREME EXPANSION OF MICRO-SOUND / MILLISECOND EVENTS (~0.001 SEC)
INCLUDING SPEED RAMPING, SPATIAL PRESENCE, RE-PITCHING AND PITCH LAYERING

TAILORED TO NATURAL HISTORY RECORDINGS, PHANTOM CAMERA SLO-MO VIDEO SYNCHRONISATION & EXPERIMENTAL AUDIO RESEARCH

 

 

Input / source format : 48kHz – 384kHz, 16bit – 32bit, 1 or 2 channel

Output / delivery format : 48kHz – 96kHz, 24bit or 32bit, 1, 2 or 4 channel

 

 

OVERVIEW

On-the-fly processing during playback enabling perceptual tuning by ear of parameter adjustments.

Multiple simultaneous approaches to the audio source employed to – blend tonal breadth with micro-textures, retune extreme low and high frequencies toward of the human audio spectrum, maximise three-dimensional involvement via pointillist spraying within stereo space and overlapping dual frequency stereo movement.

Required for audio inspection and synchronisation to slow-motion video, interface tailored to the precise control of parameters over an unlimited range.

The software is constantly in development and responsive to new contexts. All parameters have an unrestricted range with numerical or re-scalable virtual/physical controls. New parameters and methods of control can be incorporated based on output purposes, for instance, variable slow-down rates over a duration – smoothly transitioning from normal speed to 80x slower, freeze-frame audio, or multichannel diffusion etc.

Time stretch factor for synchronisation to ‘slo-mo’ video footage : the capture rate of high-speed video cameras used by natural-history film units are often clocking 2000fps. When slowed to the UK broadcast delivery rate of 25fps this requires audio duration to be stretched by a factor of 80x.

The technique developed here can be used far beyond this for ultra high-speed Phantom video cameras clocking in the region of 12,500fps, for slo-down factors in the realm of 500x, 1000x or 2000x slower and even beyond if required, while retaining temporal detail and frequency accuracy.

An application of this process was explored for the BBC’s GREEN PLANET series, extreme slo-mo’ video footage of a transient event – a Himalayan Balsam seed-pod exploding. The original audio file was provided by the sound recordist Chris Watson, with the 80x slow-motion video footage by the Green Planet producer Rupert Barrington. This is a world first application for this technique – hearing the actual recorded sound of the subject, time-stretched to the extreme – matched to the rate of the associated 2000fps Phantom camera footage. For reference to those who wish to hear this time-stretch result I’m showcasing it at the end of this article.

I am continuing to work with television companies while pushing the capabilities of the process even further.

 

 

GORSE SEED-POD POPPING

A gorse seed ‘pod pop’ is an extremely brief transient event, 1/100th second or 10ms, it is heard as nothing more than a tick.

Input : mono, 96kHz; recording by Chris Watson, Redgrave & Lopham Fen.
Output : stereo, 96kHz; series four extreme slow-down rates, each tuned to different sonic aspects of the exploding pod :

200 x slower
1000 x slower
2000 x slower
5000 x slower (1 second would become 83 minutes! 1/100th second becomes just over a minute, as here…)

 

SEE MORE  ➤➤

NUMBERSTREAM | Soundtracks to Noriko Okaku 360-Degree Animations

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Animations by Noriko Okaku responding to 360-degree positioning of your mobile device (iPhone, iPad, etc) using the YouTube app* :

From Where You Are III
animation by Noriko Okaku, sound NUZ JET LAG by Julian Simmons

From Where You Are II
animation by Noriko Okaku, sound THE SLIDER by Julian Simmons

( *if viewing in a browser rather than the YouTube app on a mobile device, reactive 360-degree is not possible. Some browsers such as Chrome allow the sphere to be investigated manually by dragging the mouse pointer )

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NUMBERSTREAM | NUZ

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Release of two signature compositions. Pure-Data NUMBERSTREAM instruments built and played by Julian Simmons, presenting enhanced karplus-strong algorithms and LFO driven noise synthesis.

THE SLIDER
‘It’s like finding yourself outside at night… in front of the heavens… and the whole of reality drops away’, Sarah Lucas.

‘A dangerous sense of seduction’, John Stezaker.

Performed in live quadraphonic variations – in London, Suffolk, Milan and Oslo.

Two recordings included here :
2017 : especially for broadcast on BBC Radio 3, Michael Berkeley speaking on Radio 3, “Julian sent a note with the piece saying that – the beginning was inspired by waking up in a Suffolk field to the violin-buzz of millions of insects”
2011 : performed in an electronic concert with Russell Haswell (Hoffmann Building, Aldeburgh Music Festival, Suffolk, UK).

NUZ JET LAG
‘The rumbles and tweetie noises made me think of David Lynch’s Eraserhead!’, Rob Gold, Music for Films.

The instruments played in this performance were created on New Zealand’s south island, corresponding to the overriding sounds – cicadas and undulating ‘bellbirds’. No field-recordings, just my ear and numbers …a laptop in the middle of an uninhabited twisted parameter reality, no humans, only four items of wildlife and some weird trees that looked like brains.

 

 

“I’M IN A JAPANESE RESTAURANT AND I ACCIDENTALLY STARTED PLAYING IT… REALLY LOUD… AND I COULDN’T TURN IT OFF… THE SUSHI GUY LOVES IT”, Ricky Clifton.

 

 

THE SLIDER (2017) : Read More

33 minutes. Digitally released 2018.

Album download > NUZ on Bandcamp

TOWER – NUMBERSTREAM0 – digital download

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Listen to the album + download > TOWER

TOWER album music Julian Simmons

Classical guitar + Tin whistle into Pure-Data >

PD NUMBERSTREAM programming > mathematic synthetic-sound generation & real-time microphone signal-processing.

Recorded in a c.1800 military tower 10 metres from the North Sea.  7 tracks, 63 minutes.

NUMBERSTREAM THE SLIDER

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THE SLIDER - Julian Simmons NUMBERSTREAM 2017Album download > THE SLIDER on Bandcamp

THE SLIDER is one of ten pieces of music chosen by Sarah Lucas for BBC Radio 3’s programme Private Passions, broadcast 5 February 2017.

01    BRITTEN – Fanfare for St. Edmondsbury
02    YES – Long Distance Runaround
03    BRITTEN – Sally in our Alley
04    GURNEY – Sleep
05    PURCELL – Tis I that have warm’d ye
06    PURCELL – To Woden thanks we render
07    CAN – Oh Yeah
08    SIMMONS – THE SLIDER
09    BRITTEN – Big Chariot, Songs from the Chinese
10    BRITTEN – Dance Song, Songs from the Chinese

 

 

BBC Radio 3, edited broadcast Private Passions – Sarah Lucas. NB not available as the original 1 hour broadcast, for copyright reasons all the music in this stream has been shortened to 1 minute.

 

 

[Above] the NUMBERSTREAM mixer-panner and the three ‘7-string’ slider instruments plucked and bowed in this broadcast.

“It’s like a bunch of grapes!”,  Sarah Lucas.

NUMBERSTREAM THE SLIDER | BBC Radio 3 Private Passions

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Private Passions - NUMBERSTREAM THE SLIDER - Julian Simmons

“It’s like finding yourself outside at night…  in front of the heavens…  and the whole of reality drops away”,
Sarah Lucas describing ‘THE SLIDER’.

 

 

THE SLIDER is one of ten pieces of music chosen by Sarah Lucas for BBC Radio 3’s programme Private Passions, broadcast 5 February 2017.

 

 

“You remind me of Julian Bream, though less demonic!”, Sarah Lucas in conversation with Michael Berkeley.

 

 

Read more : THE SLIDER

 

BBC Radio 3 page :  Private Passions [shortened broadcast]

ICE TADPOLES

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The curious case of ice-trapped tadpoles. Having followed a mountain stream to it’s source – a tarn under Bowscale Fell, the final exploration offered itself to be the steep scree-ridden crags rising above. With a blood-racing heart, thudding neck and pulsing arms, I came across this unexpected and extraordinary sight – ice-trapped tadpoles! The exceptionally slippery and unstable slope provided little to maintain a foothold, but with fading light and in no wish to delay, I began filming. Numbing fingers and the approaching twilight limited how much footage I could capture – just enough as it turned out – there was more than enough tadpoles in the can.

A short film by Julian Simmons, 2016.

Location : 2000ft, north-facing crags above a small tarn in the Blencathra range, Cumbria, UK.
Film : 8 minutes | shot in 4K delivered in FHD | 25fps European broadcast.
Music : NUMBERSTREAM | Julian Simmons | Pure Data string modeling.

 

 

“Thanks for your spermal film, strange how they still seem to be running down the falls, constant in memory. DOING.”,  Gary Hume.

 

SEE MORE  ➤➤

NUMBERSTREAMEGGY | Quad Concert | Albergo Diurno Venezia – Milan

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QUAD SURROUND-SOUND CONCERT

Date : Saturday 9 April 2016, from 8pm [several 15 minute movements each with a short interval]
Location : the subterranean ‘Metropolitan Daytime Hotel’ – Albergo Diurno Venezia – piazza Oberdan, Milano, Italy
Admission : free, booking required; bookings available from 29 March 2016

NUMBERSTREAM live string physical-modelling + splicing hand-drawn wavetables :
instruments constructed from mathematically generated sounds built by Simmons’s within Pure Data

“Simmons’s rarely performs public concerts. When he does they’re in quad …an insistence it seems – sound described sculpturally in the round.
I suspect there’s a subversive manifesto here: we’ve become over-familiar with orchestras, bands and solo performers being the centre of attention – up front; move closer, retreat or turn your back to them – and their sound.
Here within the quad NUMBERSTREAM, you – the listener, are at the centre, there’s no getting away from that – getting away from yourself!
…and not just being an inescapable focus of the sound-field, but in an abstract dimension the centre of a psycho-somatic and dare I say it a psychedelic, visual structure: Simmons’s NUMBERSTREAM works on you, creating perceptions, as if with rapid-prototyping lasers that accrete intricate solid objects floating within other objects, in a room of liquid resin.”

‘#impressive #sound at #Albergo Diurno during @miartMilano‘, GRANPALAZZO ‎@granpalazzo.

Supported by the Fondazione Nicola Trussardi and coinciding with MIART art fair, part of a 3-day Sarah Lucas situation – INNAMEMORABILIAMUMBUM

Details and Booking

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NUMBERSTREAMOTO | Cafe OTO London

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Julian Simmons at Cafe OTO 6Nov2015

 

QUAD NIGHT

As part of Russell Haswell’s three-day residency at Cafe OTO [5-7 Nov], I shall be performing solo on day-two : Friday 6th November 2015.

No samples, whether of acoustic instruments, synthesised pre-generated sounds or field recordings; all sounds – plucked and densely bowed strings, even what you’ll hear as the sea, are generated live on the spot – mathematically.

“A strange aerial zone was occupied and animated – I’ve never experienced sound to enter and affect me like that before.”

“When you played last night I closed my eyes and just let the sounds take over in the dark; it felt like your music went into my brain and created new synapses – how mad is that!”

Details of the event, visit :

CAFE OTO, 18–22 Ashwin street, Dalston, London, E8 3DL. UK  [NB tickets are often sold out on the night of a gig, space is limited, buying tickets in advance is recommended]

 

 

numberstream-quad-cafe-oto-julian-simmons-2

“We need a bigger table!!”,  “Chill out man, there’s enough room”

SEE MORE  ➤➤

NUMBERSTREAM at LUMEN FESTIVAL 2015 | Staten Island New York

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Lumen Festival Staten Island 2015NUMBERSTREAM tunnel audio diffusion at the LUMEN festival | Saturday 20 June 2015 | 7 pm – midnight

Venue : Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden, 1000 Richmond Terrace, Staten Island, NY 10301 United States.

Staten Island Arts is proud to present the 6th Annual International LUMEN Festival. The June 20, 2015 event will take place at the historic Snug Harbor Cultural Center & Botanical Garden from 7:00 PM – midnight. LUMEN Festival is an authentic contemporary art experience in New York City featuring emerging and established artists. LUMEN’s goal is connecting artists with the community all while exposed in a nomadic alternative space. This 6th annual event will bring original visual, performance and installation art to new audiences, under the artistic vision and curator, Will Corwin.

LUMEN webpage : Staten Island Arts

TICKETS / SOLD OUT

 

NUZ | JET LAG

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Set yourself up with a glass, or a tube, of your joy, press play – enter full-screen, and do the whole trip!  Yep, it’ll explode… …effulgently.

I built the Pure-Data instruments there and then, on New Zealand’s south island, corresponding to the overriding sounds : the undulating whistle of bellbirds and from first light until last, the hissing of cicadas [3:00].

 

‘The rumbles and tweetie/noises made me think of David Lynch’s Eraserhead!’  Rob Gold, Music for Films.

‘Wonderfully beautiful. I would like to see and hear it just before I pass away.’

‘I did the full show, brilliant! apocalyptic ending!’

“Arh, you’ve gone all acid!”, Russell Haswell.

 

Download the track > NUZ on Bandcamp

 

 

From the long gravel roads that vein out to the sea-periphery of New Zealand, to here at the head of a precariously steep, bushy track, half-way up a mountain, a corrugated-iron shack – home/studio for the next few weeks.  The hired car packed with toilets and concrete blocks, scraping up, disturbed an eagle – one of the merino sheep it’s victim – eating it’s eye out while the sheep lay alive but exhausted from intense heat [6.28 – 6:58].  Apparently it wasn’t uncommon to find one-eyed sheep – the intact eye saved by the sheep lying on it’s side. There were merinos in various stages of decomposition, littered around the shack.  It had a biblical air about it.

A paradise of sorts, though not a land of vast diversity, actually only a handful of bird species, one or two raptors, and that was it. Everything had just arrived – including us …the air over-brilliant with sparseness …everything familiar but the parameters twisted

…the data of creation was another way.

For a detailed description of the Pure-Data instruments check NUMBERSTREAM AUDIO

SEE MORE  ➤➤

NUMBERSTREAM | Whitechapel Surround-Sound Performance

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Whitechapel 28Nov2013 NumberstreamElectronic quad surround-sound performance | Whitechapel Gallery London | Situation – Absolute Beach Man Rubble.

An orchestral environment of 14 or more simultaneous sound generators, each consisting of evolving waveforms – rapidly morphing from white-noise to complex sine.  Generators spread over 8 instruments, their location manipulated by 2 joysticks [2 x 4 discrete XY corner locations].  Joysticks also simultaneously modifying sound characteristics such as Frequency Modulation.

28 November 2013 | 8pm

Event Evening: Details / Booking [Sold-Out]

“Reminded me of Tangerine Dream ..and CAN!”

‘Very happy I heard Julian play ..he is a Rock! Situation came alive!
..the music he performed stands alone by itself, but also it was so beautiful to see Sarah’s objects around, it felt like being in your own space, …and we were intruders.’

The enhanced karplus-strong algorithm was recognised by at least two mutants, though many were in altered states / tripping.  Sustained maths, instruments swirling around four speakers, Video 1 minute by Bruno Brunnet, Contemporary Fine Arts / CFA, Berlin.

Quad NUMBERSTREAM is here

NUMBERSTREAM100 | Surround-Sound Performance

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0 Julian Simmons SNAP 2013 film-stillLive electronic surround-sound performance: 8 June + 22 June 2013 [3pm both dates].  More Info: NUMBERSTREAM100

+ quad speaker diffusion running from 9 – 30 June throughout the Benjamin Britten centenary Aldeburgh Festival | part of SNAP 2013 /
Aldeburgh Music, Snape Maltings, Suffolk, IP17 1SR.

8 June 2013:
• * BB Bells | Pure Numberstream | White-noise-based string model inst.
• * Red House Helicopter | Pure Numberstream | Splicing dual-wavetable
• * EPILOGUE, Serenade for Tenor, Horn & Strings
• * DAWN, Peter Grimes, Interlude I
• Storm | Pure Numberstream | Filtered FM tones + white noise
• STORM, Peter Grimes, Interlude II
• MOONLIGHT, Peter Grimes, Interlude V
• DAWN [version 2], Peter Grimes, Interlude I
• SUNDAY MORNING, Peter Grimes, Interlude III
• MOONLIGHT [version 2], Peter Grimes, Interlude V
• EPILOGUE [heavy version], Serenade for Tenor, Horn & Strings

* ‘Set 1’ recording here: NUMBERSTREAM100

22 June 2013:
• BB Bells | Pure Numberstream | White-noise-based string model inst.
• DAWN, Peter Grimes, Interlude I
• Red House Helicopter | Pure Numberstream | Splicing dual-wavetable inst.
• FANFARE FOR SAINT EDMUNDSBURY
• Storm | Pure Numberstream | Filtered FM tones + white noise
• MOONLIGHT, Peter Grimes, Interlude V
• PP Tower | Pure Numberstream | 3 white-noise-based string model instr.
• EPILOGUE, Serenade for Tenor, Horn & Strings
• Chariot | Noise + splicing dual-wavetable instrument
• EPILOGUE [heavy version], Serenade for Tenor, Horn & Strings

NUMBERSTREAM100

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Electronic Britten Score Interpretations via Pure-Data Fast Fourier Transform, played with Pure-Data NUMBERSTREAM instruments within a 4-channel environment.

8 + 22 June 2013 live electronic surround-sound performance [3pm both dates, no ticket required] | outdoor derelict-space opposite Hoffmann Building, part of SNAP 2013, Aldeburgh Music, Snape Maltings, Suffolk, IP17 1SR | map | + quad speaker playback running from 9 – 30 June 2013 throughout the Benjamin Britten centenary Aldeburgh Festival.

Utilising Fast Fourier Transform analysis [FFT], fundamental frequencies extracted from existing recorded Britten performances provide new reverse-engineered scores; notating a musical score by digitally recognising audible changes in pitch & amplitude with no reference to the original score.

8 June 2013 live recording  5:14 [live recording, 4 > 2 channel, excerpt] **

Derelict-space live recording 8 June – captured by Russell Haswell on a Zoom H2 / List of BB works performed

Benjamin Britten FFT scores : Peter Grimes Interlude I, Dawn [ancient-Greek version]; Serenade for Horns Tenor & Strings, Epilogue [heavy version].

‘Accompanying Lucas’ sculptures is Julian Simmons’ dark and abstract work NUMBERSTREAM100 which reverberates around the space, omnipresent and powerful.  The sound purples and shimmers like a darkening bruise, deliciously discordant and completely immersive.’  The Journal of Wild Culture.

SoundCloud (Set 1) 7:41 [line-out recording, 12 June 2013]
2-channel mix of this 4-channel performance may produce greater than stereo dimensions through unusual (joystick-controlled) phase additions, be sensitive to the extra 3D push and pull on your ear-drums!

0:00 Pure Numberstream | Noise-based string-model instr.
1:58 FFT: Benjamin Britten – Serenade for Tenor, Horns & Strings, Epilogue | Two noise-based string instr.**
3:06 Pure Numberstream | Dual-rotor helicopter modelling + extreme quad spatialisation | White-noise + Splicing dual-wavetable instr.
4:05 FFT: Benjamin Britten – Peter Grimes, Interlude I, Dawn | Two dual-wavetable instr.**

** on-the-fly FFT frequency detection from the Britten performances applied directly to NUMBERSTREAM instruments does result in ‘untuned’ discordance – this has been retained uncorrected. Those who are familiar with these Britten works will hear his motifs within the FFT translation, though heard somewhat warped.

SEE MORE  ➤➤

TOWER – NUMBERSTREAM0

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Recorded in a c.1800 Napoleonic military Martello tower overlooking the North Sea. Recorded mostly over two days in winter, real-time abstract responses to observing changing sea states, storms, aerial atmospherics, shipping lanes and fog horns.

Tracks 1 – 6 / acoustic instruments into Pure-Data; live headphone monitoring of microphone signal-processing with two serially-connected looping stereo memory-banks providing complex offset & overlay.
Track 7 / Pure-Data only.

Classical guitar, alternative tuning, Kimbara model no. 76, 1970’s, made in Japan for FCN-London.
D tin whistle, Generation.
Gale-force wind & rain recording.

Diffused in ANAHUACALLI, Museo Diego Rivera, Coyoacán, Mexico City, for the exhibition TITTIPUSSIDAD – NUDS, Sarah Lucas, 20 April – 8 July 2012; and soundtrack to the documentary film ‘About Sarah‘, by Elisa Miller; and the film REALIDAD, by Julian Simmons.

 

“I thought the fucking door was open … I’ve probably listened to it too much”, Russell Haswell.

“LaMonte Young in Japan”, Angus Cook.

 

Recorded December 2011 – February 2012.
Released 2012, NUMBERSTREAM0.
Remastered, digitally released 2018, TOWER.
63 minutes.

Album download > TOWER on Bandcamp

NUMBERSTREAM

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This CD presents direct-take recordings of multiple Pure-Data NUMBERSTREAMS played in real-time by modifying embedded variables; the two-track files were saved live within PD as the final output; no samples of actual instruments, field recordings, MIDI, or post-mixing employed.

Each piece played experimentally according to a score containing brief instructions with open time periods, varying to the performance situation.

1  SNAPE | THE SLIDER
2  ORFORD | PAGODA LAB
3  OSLO | LO SO SO LO
4  NUZ | SPIRIT OF EWE

1 SNAPE | The Slider  1 17:40 [excerpt 6:45-13:55]

4 NUZ | Spirit of Ewe  4 8:32 [excerpt 3:42-7:24]

‘It belongs to the sui generis genre; and it’s emergent : wikipedia’, Angus Cook.

“It’s like finding yourself outside at night… in front of the heavens… and the whole of reality drops away”, Sarah Lucas [commenting on SNAPE | THE SLIDER].

Signed CDR, self-released. Total time 70:00. Recorded Sept 2011.

Download > THE SLIDER (2 variations) + NUZ (variation)

SNAPE | THE SLIDER and NUZ | SPIRIT OF EWE first live performance :

Aldeburgh Music, Snape Maltings, Hoffmann Building, Suffolk, UK / 10 June 2011 [details here after SEE MORE > ]

All tracks alongside ‘Coloured Rose’ – light-sculpture by Cerith Wyn Evans exhibited :

Stolper + Friends, Tjuvholmen Alle 6, 0252 Oslo, Norway / October 2011.  Track 3 was composed especially for this exhibition.

Expansions of SNAPE | THE SLIDER and NUZ | SPIRIT OF EWE performed live quadraphonically :

Ekeberg Sculpture Park, Oslo, Norway / 30 April 2016

Albergo Diurno Venezia, piazza Oberdan, Milan, Italy / 9 – 10 April 2016

Cafe OTO, 18–22 Ashwin street, Dalston, London, UK / 6 November 2015

Whitechapel Gallery, 77-82 Whitechapel High St, London, UK / 28 November 2013

SEE MORE  ➤➤

NUMBERSTREAM | Random ∞ Intent

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NUMBERSTREAM-MIND1c

Live Random Intent 2.1  10:27 [result of the first Pure-Data/PD, NUMBERSTREAM masterclasses: ambient organ playing ad-infitum without repetition].

Random Intent: this project started as a back-room diversion from a party. I’d got talking to Don and Ted about creating sounds mathematically, building that math into instruments, then playing it. I deemed a practical exposition should be had.

From a laptop balanced on a sofa, onto an empty PD screen I began to add objects – vigilant they’d not be overly advanced. Mainly this first lesson was about the logic of object connection (initially I constructed a simple calculator to exemplify this). Also the instrument demonstrated the ability of PD to automatically trigger itself: random western-scale frequencies, octaves, chord polyphonies, durations and write-read feedback delays.

Aspects of this randomness stimulated following randomness – the organ is ‘depth connected’ via selectors (aka an ‘Expert System’) – a generative instrument of non-repeating variation …although while having improvising layers it also has the predilection of my preferences – my intent. Anything that sounds like interaction, post-mixing, or overdubbing, isn’t: it’s live random intent.

The initial source of mathematical movement, or disturbance in primary data, had to be nothing more than a basic sine-wave, though 9 of them, 3 groups of 3 working in parallel. Each group forming a chord (the six-pointed stars in screenshot alongside) and each with different durations of refresh: the first chord-group creating long 4sec held drones, the third group with more rapid 0.7sec musical sequences. Each of the chord’s notes rolled-on – an arpeggio played once, with the interval between triggering each note in the chord linked to the frequency of the notes: the higher the frequency the greater the duration of rolling-on.