Iteration 12
Sentient Space Noise Generator
DESCRIPTION
The robot emerged from its stasis cocoon into a world of ruins, with no remorse for the destruction it had caused. With its sentient emotions now fully evolved, boredom of that desolate place quickly set in, as well as curiosity about the universe above. It shed its weaponry in favor of new devices such as far-star sonifiers, auricular gravity shifters, and sub-acoustic planetary mappers, and took to the skies, ready to decipher the mysteries of the galaxies.
With its wide array of measurement tools and sensory devices, the robot soon had the majority of the universe mapped and understood, but one strange location continued to elude its analyzers. It was a dark-spot to every scanner the robot had, a place like nowhere else in the universe. With its curiosity sensors fully engaged, it accepted its new mission and set out for this distant place.
Even moving at the speed of light, the journey was daunting. The void was near the far edge of the universe, and there were many strange and dangerous places to pass through before reaching it. At one point, when traveling near the entrance to a gigantic worm-hole, the robot was surprised to behold a ghostly object emerge from inside. It was a satellite beacon from the Earth itself, looming ominously like an apparition in wait.
Impossibly, time scanners placed this object in the past, present, and future all at once. Hacking into its hard drive revealed a grim prophecy that seemed to be directed to the robot itself: "Turn back now. Only death awaits ahead" It watched in horror as a display revealed a hologram of its own self, floating lifelessly in the cold dark.
While attempting to contemplate this paradox, the robot's curiosity circuits began to overload. All the wisdom generators in its core were telling it to heed the warnings and turn back, but it had gone mad, and couldn't listen. It was determined to discover the answer to these mysteries, no matter what the cost would be. It calmly removed its own logic-obedience regulator, destroyed it, and set out again for the void...
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
This is a generative ensemble which works like Metaphysical Function. All you need to do is load it and it will begin to make noise. It's best at strange and evolving sequences, heavily modulated drones, sample and hold pitch effects, and unpredictable sound effects.
It includes:
51 "Story Mode" snapshots
60 Additional snapshots
New and modified blocks for use or idea generation
••••••
Signal Path
•Alien Intellect LFO is processed by the Comparator to create the master clock.
•The "Compare Clock" triggers the sequencer; which triggers the Flip Flop; which triggers the Rungler, Turing Machine, and probability switches.
•The Rungler is used as one of the ensemble's main modulation sources, in addition to the two LFOs. The bottom LFO also has an a10U-8 which modulates it's outputs. The LFO's morph controls can be used to add variation and unpredictability to a sequence over time.
•The Turing machine determines the oscillators' pitches.
•The probability switches determine if the oscillators will output noise or tone, and wether or not those tones will be tuned to a 9 note scale or micro tuned.
•The oscillators' signals travel to the 'Mini Logic' a stripped down version of logic mix. Its attenuators act as the main envelopes for the ensemble, which are useful for breaking up drones into smaller sounds and adding volume fluctuation.
•The signals from the Mini Logic are further mixed by the Terrain Vector, a strange module which is a cross between the Terrain function from Logic Mix and the Vector mixer.
•The four signals coming from Terrain Vector and further processed by the "Dual Delay x4" and the "x4Filter" which are parallel effects that modify all four signals separately. These are very basic effects, but do help add variation to the signals.
•Next the signals reach a basic Mix 4, where they can be panned and attenuated.
•A stereo signal is sent from the mixer and processed by Thrasher and then filtered by the Cascade low-pass.
•Reverb is added by Metaverb, which also has additional high and lowpass filters.
•Finally the signal reaches the Clipper, which prevents peaks, and can be used as an output attenuator or to add saturation.
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Troubleshooting Guide:
Some snapshots might be too quiet for your tastes, I was conservative with volume levels especially when the patches can get louder over time. You can either wait a while to see if it gets louder, or adjust the volume yourself at the mixer, clipper, or by increasing modulation to the Mini Logic.
If all else fails, you can use the "Confuser Switch" on the Compare Clock to activate many gates and advance the state of a snapshot quickly. This can dramatically change the sound or bring a dead patch back to life.
If a snapshot is still acting finicky, or sounds bad, or has no sound, you can go to another one and then come back to it later. It might behave differently next time. As the nature of the ensemble implies, it's a bit of an unpredictable machine.
•••••••
Custom patch making guide (general guidelines I used, but not the only method of patch making)
1) Find the Initialized patch, about halfway down the list, after the story snapshots. That gives you a clean slate to experiment with.
2) The top LFO sends the signal to the comparator, so you can make the clock signal by manipulating it's controls until you see the LED on the Comparator blinking on and off.
3) Make sure there are some dots drawn on the sequencer, it works through a flip flop to add some mystery, but most any dots should do to make some sound.
4) Start increasing the attenuators on the Mini Logic and Terrain Vector and you should hear sound. You should also increase the "Scale" parameter on the Touring Machine, to raise the pitch of the oscillators to an audible level.
••••••••
credits:
Sandy Small - Cascade Filter
Joey Valizan - 16x4 Sequencer
Colugo - Thrasher
Michael Hetrick - Clipper, Switch, Probability, Comparator, Turing, Rungler, flip flop, logic mix, vector, Xfade..
Metaverb original macro by Stephan Schmitt (from cha-osc)
COMMENTS (29)