Skyline Melody - Modular Synthesiser Proof of Concept

Boon, H. 2020. Skyline Melody - Modular Synthesiser Proof of Concept. London

TitleSkyline Melody - Modular Synthesiser Proof of Concept
CreatorsBoon, H.
Description

This artefact is a proof of concept and is the audio output generated from my conference paper 'Observations on the Utility of Square Waves and Their Applicability in Generative Melodic Applications'.

This artefact demonstrates the proposed generative compositional approach within a modular synthesiser system using square waves. Some aspects of this approach refer in passing to Schillinger's 'millimetrization' procedure that has had some influence on composition outputs.

The melody is generated by using 3 x Square wave Low Frequency Oscillators; 1 x Triangle wave Oscillator. All four waves are combined into a single mix output (summing mixer). The varying strength i.e. amplitude, of each Square wave is set individually so that each Square wave presents two pitches. The duty cycle of each waveform is varied so as to minimise synchronisation and to maximise the opportunity for the creation of interesting coincident melodies.

The output from the summing mixer is then sent to an offset and polarizing module and this output is then passed to a quantiser and then on to the Oscillator. The offset and polarizing module is manipulated in realtime to situate the melodic output in different registers. Furthermore this is combined with varying the quantisation patterns used to infer different melodic or modal centres.

As such this is an interesting concept and procedure that has been rarely explored within the domain of generative music and therefore provides a more 'organic' approach to challenge the dominant paradigm of Supercollider and other computer based outputs.

KeywordsGenerative Music
Modular Synthesis
Generative Melody
Creative Randomness
Performance
Music Composition
Year11 Sep 2020
Files
Media type
Audio
License
CC BY 4.0
Place of publicationLondon

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