Music 171 homework 5
1960s style sequencing revisited
This assignment combines practice with modulation (chapter 5 of
the book) with another sequencer-like trope that came into being in
the days of voltage-controlled synthesizers: randomness (in the 60s
done using a noise generator and a sample/hold unit but today more
easily managed in the control domain with a metronome and random
number generator; here we'll opt for the second possibility). The
working patch should make a series of random notes and "play" them
using a waveshaping instrument (to use the term loosely) that uses
symmetry to vary from even to odd harmonics.
To make the patch (as usual, 2 points for each step below):
- Make random numbers ranging from 36 to 72, controlled by a
metro object to generate six to eight notes per second. The
'random' object will help you.
- Make a waveshaping patch as in patch example E07.evenodd.pd
(the last example described in chapter 5 of the book). The heart of
the the patch is the oscillator and cosine generator, with an
envelope generator to control the gain of the oscillator into the
cos~ object, and an adder to make an offset to control
evenness/oddness.
- Rather than use an abstraction for the envelope generator, make
it simple and just supply a line~ with message boxes in the patch.
(Note that it's possible to be lazy and not make a second envelope
generator to control the amplitude of the output; if the "index"
goes to zero the output is a constant and hence silent.)
- To make the patch vary continuously from evenness to oddness,
make a second oscillator running at , say, 0.1 Hz., that generates
an offset for the cos~ object (in the example, this is just
supplied by message boxes). You will have to use a multiplier and
adder to adjust the oscillator's natural range (from -1 to 1) to
the range 0 to 0.25, so that it functions as an even/odd harmonic
control.
- Since this patch can make constant, non-zero output, use a hip~
object (high-pass filter) to remove DC from the output; a 5-Hz.
cutoff is fine. Then make some reasonable way to control the output
amplitude overall.
Your successful patch should sound something like this.
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