News – Page 2 – Simon Hutchinson

20 February 20233 April 2023

Reaktor 6 Primary Sequencer

I set out to make a tutorial about making a simple sequencer in Reaktor 6 Primary, and got way too long-winded, so this first part is just about making a low-pass gate (LPG).

A low-pass gate is a low-pass filter that is functioning as a VCA. When it isn’t triggered, the filter’s cutoff frequency is subaudio, not letting any audio pass. When triggered, though, the cutoff frequency goes up, letting all frequencies through. In analog, too, this motion of the cutoff frequency is performed by vactrols, adding a quick attack and release that some compare to the sound of bongo.

In this video, I make a digital LPG, talking through the best numbers for an effective result.

0:00 Let’s make a sequencer!
0:54 Making our usual sawtooth synth
1:24 Explaining a low-pass gate (LPG)
2:06 Starting with a low-pass filter
2:35 AR envelope
3:01 Modifying the envelope
4:25 Multiplication
5:14 Subtraction
6:12 Switching to 1-pole filter
7:26 Resonance (not usual for an LPG)
8:21 Talking through the macro

Part 2, where I actually make the sequencer, here:

Part 3 here:

6 February 2023

Zoomscapes Updates

For the last few years, I’ve been messing around with internet-based, no-input feedback loops in collaboration with Will Klingenmeier.

What does that mean? Why would I do that? What does it sound like? All those questions are answered in the brief PechaKucha below:

Zoomscape Pecha Kucha – Understand it all in less than 8 minutes!

While I’m sure we’ll continue to mess with these ideas in the future, we’ve come to at least a short-term culmination of this project in a tape release of these experiments on bandcamp.

You can also retroactively join our “Tape Release Party” here:

Zoomscapes Tape Release Party from 2/5/23

To catch up on all of the previous experiments, check out this playlist:

23 January 2023

Pure Data Interactive Hardcore System (Pd Vanilla Interactive Drum Machine)

A Pure Data interactive system that plays hardcore drumbeats when it’s not receiving any audio input.

At the start of winter break, I wanted to make some music and burn off some steam. The “Interactive Hardcore Music System” was the perfect solution for both. Here, I talk through the Pure Data patch explaining how it works and how I’ve used it, and waxing philosophical about how things don’t need to be complicated to be sophisticated (and musically expressive).

Get the “Benjolin Synthcore” album on bandcamp:

Pure Data Clamping VCA with [clip~]

Creating an ambient music machine in Pure Data Vanilla with a “clamping VCA” that adds subtle distortion, imitating the envelopes in Roland TR-808.

I made a clamping VCA in Reaktor a few weeks back, and now here’s another example in Pd. Normally, amplitude envelopes in synths are a control envelope on the amplitude of the signal. When we use a “clamping VCA”, though, instead of controlling the amplitude of the waveform, we clip it at the desired maximum envelope. This means, when the VCA is all the way up, it sounds the same, but during the attack and release, we’ll get the addition of subtle (or perhaps not-so-subtle) distortion to our waveform.

I use [clip~] in Pd to achieve this effect, stealing the idea from Noise Engineering’s “Sinclastic Empulatrix” module, which, in turn, stole the idea from from the Roland TR-808 drum machine’s cymbal envelopes.

More Pure Data Tutorials:

26 December 2022

Kyma 7 Soundscapes (More Internet Feedback Loops with Spectral Evolver)

Using the latency from videoconferencing software as a delay for feedback loops, this time with Kyma 7 processing the signal at both ends, creating (noisy) evolving sonic textures.

During the pandemic, conferencing software quickly became a required part of work and education culture.

Of course, this technology’s ability to keep us connected has been and important part of keeping people safe, but we’ve also discovered the quirks of this mode of communication. Being bound to this remote interaction inspires curiosity about its potential for collaborative creativity. Musicians have know for a while about the issues of internet latency in coordinating remote ensembles, but what if, instead of attempting to recreate the conditions of a traditional performance in this new medium, we embraced the “space” created by this conferencing software?

In this performance, the audio signal is sent between the two Kyma systems, creating a feedback loop.

Feedback loops, such as when we put a microphone close to a speaker, emphasize the resonant frequencies—the imperfections—of a system. As we know, the audio of conferencing software is an imperfect connection, with latency, filtering, and audio compression artifacts.

This conferencing-software feedback loop, then, emphasizes these imperfections, bringing out the character of this communication medium as an emergent soundscape.

More explanation of these pieces here:

Check out Will’s channel here!

12 December 2022

Interactive Holiday Noise Machine

Doing some live processing of sleigh bells in Pure Data to create an “Interactive Holiday Noise Music System.”

Since it’s mid-December, let’s make some holiday music. If you’re sick of the standard cloying Muzak fare, though, you can make your own feedback delay sample-crushing interactive music system in Pure Data in an afternoon.

The main point here is getting a “trigger” from audio input crossing a loudness threshold. Once we have that trigger, we can use it to make changes in live-processing of a sound and trigger other sounds too. This is a simple idea, but its effectiveness is going to depend on what these changes are and how we play with the system.

0:00 Demo
0:26 Introduction / Goals
1:23 Input Monitoring
2:41 Direct (“Dry”) Output
4:08 Feature Extraction with [sigmund~]
6:55 Amplitude as Trigger
8:43 Triggering Changes in Delay
12:44 Sample-Crushing
17:03 Triggering an Oscillator
19:37 Oscillators into Harmony
23:35 Putting it all together
25:33 Closing Thoughts

More experimental Christmas music:

28 November 2022

Clamping VCA in Reaktor 6 Primary

Building a “clamping VCA” in Reaktor for subtle distortion, imitating the envelopes in Roland TR-808.

Normally, an amplitude envelope for your synths are just that: a control envelope on the amplitude of the signal. When we use a “clamping VCA”, though, instead of controlling the amplitude of the waveform, we clip it at the desired maximum envelope. This means, when the VCA is all the way up, it sounds the same, but during the attack and release, we’ll get the addition of subtle (or perhaps not-so-subtle) distortion to our waveform.

I use the “Mod. Clipper” in Reaktor 6 to achieve this effect, stealing the idea from Noise Engineering’s “Sinclastic Empulatrix” module, which, in turn, stole the idea from from the Roland TR-808 drum machine’s cymbal envelopes.

0:00 The “Mod. Clipper”
0:33 Clamping VCA
1:25 Simple Sine Oscillator
2:03 Mod-Clipping the Sine Wave
3:51 Standard VCA for comparison
4:58 Pulse Wave
5:41 Sawtooth Wave
6:34 Adding a Filter
7:35 Next Steps

Sample-Based Generative Melody in Kyma 7

Creating a 15-channel generative melody in Symbolic Sound’s Kyma 7.

I edited some pitches from the Schlappi Engineering Interstellar Radio into loops, and mushed some nature sounds together using Kyma’s SampleClouds. Now, by putting an amplitude generator on these two loops I can create a hybrid musical instrument of these two sounds. Take 15 pitches, 15 patterns of envelope, and send it to 15 speakers and we’ve got some Brian-Eno-style generative music with a constantly changing timbre.

This work was for my piece Perspectives of Place for Rolling Ryot’s “Ghost Line X Project”.

0:00 What are we doing?
0:37 Our looping samples
2:32 Staring the Kyma Sound: Sample
3:07 Adding an Envelope
5:04 The Second Sample and Envelope
5:54 Changing the Envelope
6:48 Repeating Triggers with SoundToGlobalController
8:12 Now do it 15 times (abridged)
8:48 Listening to all 15
10:36 Reducing the Density
12:48 Checking the new version
14:38 Closing, Next Steps.

Elektrosluch and Stereo Microphones

Listening to electromagnetic radiation around the house using a homemade elektrosluch.

I was cleaning up, and found an “elektrosluch” that I made a few years back, and figured I’d dust it off and make sure that it still works. This is a device designed by LOM-Instruments that converts the vibration electromagnetic fields into sound (specifically vibrations of voltage that we can listen to through headphones, more info here ).

Make your own with this DIY article.