Synopsis

I'm interested in sonification of natural phenomena such as flocks and L-systems, real-time interaction between human improvisors and computers, perceptual dissonance, microtonality, and complex aperiodic polyrhythms.  I'm less concerned with breaking new conceptual ground in these areas than in finding aesthetically useful applications for them in composition or in the design of computer systems for improvisation.

What follow are brief descriptions of some of the applications I'm working on, including MP3 examples, a couple of short papers, a bit of code, and links to compositions in which I've incorporated some of the early results of these projects.

factorOracle
A Max 5.0 external for real-time construction and traversal of factor oracle automata. This external can be used to turn your computer into a live improvisation partner.  Multiple instances of the factorOracle object are used in Scaipthe IV: the Duoquadragintapus, for fretless electric guitar and 32 improvising percussion robots.  A detailed explanation of its use in this piece can be found in my dissertation.

Click here to download the external (compiled for Intel Mac, OS version 10.5) and the associated help file.  Click here to download the source and Xcode project files.


phraseDetect
A Max 5.0 external for real-time detection of musical phrases.  This external is used in Scaipthe IV: the Duoquadragintapus, for fretless electric guitar and 32 improvising percussion robots, to identify musical phrases produced in real-time by a human performer.

Click here to download the external (compiled for Intel Mac, OS version 10.5) and the associated help file.  Click here to download the source and Xcode project files.


L-System: example 1
This short paper explains how the Lisp function call below produces the L-System shown on the right.  Click here to listen.  See example 2 below to get an idea of how changing the input parameters can affect the resulting musical surface.
(make-tree
    :trunk-frequency 285.00
    :angles '(30 -40 67)
    :nodes '(0.1 0.5 0.9)
    :node-scalar 0.8
    :equal-temperament 17
    :temperament-base 2.1
    :iterations 3
    :new-length? 10
)
Numbers below the notes on the right represent cents deviation.  Relative onsets are shown proportionally.


L-System: example 2
Note how the disposition of nodes and angles in the function call below yields a structure that seems to derive from the same class of objects as example 1, yet exhibits a substantially different surface.  Click here to listen.
(make-tree
    :trunk-frequency 440.00
    :angles '(90 -30 -77)
    :nodes '(0.4 0.75 0.9)
    :node-scalar 0.4
    :equal-temperament 13
    :temperament-base 2.1
    :iterations 3
    :new-length? 10
)
Numbers below the notes on the right represent cents deviation.  Relative onsets are shown proportionally.


Harmonic Flocking
This paper describes the concept behind the LISP function call below that produces the music on the right.  The chords shown here are "flocking" cyclically from consonant to dissonant sonorities.  Click here to listen.
(make-flock
    :frequencies nil
    :amplitudes nil
    :spear-infile "electric-keyboard.txt"
    :interval 2.1
    :divisions 72
    :chord-size 3
    :combinations-infile nil
    :chords-infile "2.1-72-C-3_electric-keyboard.txt"
    :when-interrupt? .6
    :cycles 4
    :duration 20
    :reference-frequency 92.499
)
Numbers above the notes on the right represent cents deviation.



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