20Hz

This project has seen me and other two sound driven people building our own Digital Audio Instruments using Max/MSP and jamming on a chosen video, following the theme of "Pattern". ​ My digital instrument has been very well received, both for its versatility and for its added functionalities. In fact, I was able to implement automation, envelope modification, randomization of steps and multiple waves for the synth engine to work on. ​ The main part of the research has been focused on the sound and, in particular, how to synthetize a drum set. The sounds for the drum kit can resemble both electronic drum sounds and analogue drum sounds. These hybrid sounds have been designed to represent the video’s both “digital” and “organic” image. The synth has been chosen3 because of its capabilities, which have been expanded in order to obtain a wider range of controllable parameters and timbres. Experimenting has been a crucial part in developing the system. In fact, it helped to better define what was needed from the groovebox in order to make more user-friendly. Moreover, it helped to fine-tune the parameters that were already available. ​ The short film has a wide variety of morphing images with a common theme that can be described as “waves”. I associated shapes with sound waves, however the relation between the sound and the image is not literal. In fact, if the distance between the waves is stretched and shrunk, instead of a change in pitch, I preferred a variation of the LPF to translate the images’ movements. This way, the relationship between the moving image and the sound is maintained. However, since the LPF has a strong resonance, it effectively creates a musical tone. This change in the tone could also be thought as a change in pitch, finally resulting in a double link to the image: one “fictitious” and the other more “natural”, but still not literal. ​ Since the video has many elements (and not being always able to react to them), a random events-generators is built inside the system to both keep the user engaged and to reflect the video’s content. The random generators have multiple choices: from adding a single hit/note, to adding 16 of them at the same time. Also, it is possible for the user to save its own presets and to recall them both randomly or specifically.