101010

I thought I would share this recording that I made this evening to commemorate 101010. Have a listen!  Be prepared for a long, gradually changing noise-scape.  Technical details are below.   

  101010 by cloudveins

The recording was produced by running a single guitar sample at several playback rates through a custom feedback delay system that I built this weekend using Max/MSP.  This was my first time working with the "delay~" object in msp, so I went a bit crazy... 

The system includes 10 interconnected delays with constantly varying time offsets (generally between 5 to 500,000 ms).  Feedback loops and random pathways are created and destroyed as the sound bounces through the rapidly shifting time terrain.  During the "performance" of the piece, all incoming audio was turned off at approximately 10 minutes.  The second half of the recording consists entirely of the decaying feedback loops until they become inaudible (don't be fooled by the waveform shown above - the audio does in fact reach a lower level than what is depicted by soundcloud).   No gain/attenuation/fade ins/fade outs were applied to the resulting waveform.

So...

10 delay lines  + 10 minutes of processing + 10 minutes of decay =  101010.

The first draft of the patch really embodies the experimental spirit of Max/MSP...

Version 2:  more delay stages, encapsulated functionality, improved access to controls, and preset selector

The guts of a single delay stage.  Delay time is varied by a
scaled sinusoid. Min/max time and oscillation rate are controlled
by the user.  Two signals are output - an attenuated copy is sent
to the audio card. A non-attenuated version may be fed to other
delay stages.

This is the audio routing subpatch.  The connections and objects on the
left route the attenuated signals to the Left and Right audio outputs. 
The lines on right connect the non-attenuated outputs of the various
delay stages to each other.  This routing configuration and the time/
oscillation settings for each delay stage are responsible for the overall
sound of the patch.

Check back soon for some photos from the CCRMA whale recording trip and more details about my recent projects!