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Colors of Noise (White, Pink, Red, Brown, Blue, Purple, Green Noise Explained)

I love noise. Here, I explain the different “colors” of noise (and why they have those chromatic names).

From our dear friends white noise and pink noise, to less familiar characters such as brown noise, and green noise, each type has a particular frequency spectrum and therefore different uses in synthesis and sound design.

  • 0:00 Introduction
  • 0:16 White Noise and Spectra
  • 1:03 Pink Noise
  • 1:45 Logarithmic Perception and Pitch
  • 2:53 Red/Brown Noise
  • 3:58 Blue/Azure Noise
  • 4:13 Violet/Purple Noise
  • 4:29 Grey Noise
  • 4:53 Green Noise
  • 5:20 Velvet Noise
  • 5:35 Hot Pink Noise in Kyma
  • 5:48 Black Noise

More fundamentals of synthesis and MIDI here:

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Circuit Bending Super Edit (Tinkerbell Wand to Expressive Instrument)

I’ve just posted a re-edit of my series introducing circuit-bending old toys (cutting the three-video series down into a more reasonably paced single video). Circuit-bending is the creative customization of consumer electronics with the goal of inventing new unique devices for sound-making, visuals, or other expressive goals.

In this series, now edited into a single video, I take you through my process with some toys from the start, including explorations, experiments, and, importantly, failures. I continue work through transforming this Tinkerbell wand, testing out different resistors and switches to see what I might add to increase its glitchy expressive range.

I’m a composer and sound-designer, not an electrical engineer, so my goal is to find fun sounds that I can use in creative ways (rather than any kind of serious circuit design).

0:00 Intro
0:22 Selecting toys to bend
0:52 Testing with new batteries
1:52 Opening up the Tinkerbell wand
4:42 Opening up the whack-a-mole
7:20 Poking around with test leads
10:40 Recap, equipment
11:11 Examining the components
12:20 Speeding up the clock
14:17 Slowing down the clock
15:19 Varying the clock
18:58 Switches
22:17 The “glitch switch”
24:40 Considering packaging (instrument morphology)
25:19 Tools & equipment
26:15 Updates/Plan
28:32 Installing the “Glitch Switch”
30:48 Installing the Toggle
31:47 Changing the LED
32:47 Installing the Potentiometer
34:17 Adding RCA audio out
35:18 Putting it back together
36:08 Esoteric Etude
38:31 Closing


More circuit-bending and handmade electronic music here:

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Pure Data Mid/Side Ring Modulation: Patch from Scratch (no talking)

Having some fun using mid/side stereo for sound design in Pure Data vanilla.

Here, we encode our stereo signal into mid/side with some simple math, then ring-modulate and delay the side material before decoding back into left-right stereo.

0:00 Bleep bloops in left-right stereo
1:12 Creating a mid/side encoder & decoder
2:19 Adding ring modulation to only the sides
3:23 Adding a delay to the sides
4:49 Expanding the range of ring modulation

Click here for a deeper explanation of mid/side stereo and synthesis:

More no-talking Pure Data videos here:

Subscribe on YouTube for more videos.

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Random*Source Serge Resonant EQ (ResEQ) & Stereo Processing (Mid/Side)

Exploring some ideas of using mono effects for stereo processing with the Eurorack Random*Source Serge Resonant EQ.

The Serge Resonant EQ is mono, so, usually, if you want to do stereo processing, you would need two of this (expensive) module to process your signal. With just a single module, though, if we mess with the two “comb” outputs, and consider mid/side processing, we can create some compelling stereo outputs.

0:00 Introduction, I/O overview
0:47 Mono signal in, mono signal out
1:10 Using the “comb” outputs to stereoize the signal
2:01 Mid/side processing the “comb” outs of a mono signal
3:14 Processing a stereo signal, side only
5:10 Processing a stereo signal, mid only
6:20 Changing the source material, side-only processing
9:16 Closing, next steps, mid-only processing

More on mid/side processing for synthesis here:

Gear in this video (affiliate links):

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Matrix Mixing with Computer and Outboard Gear

Running audio out from the DAW and feeding back through outboard gear.

The main idea here is a feedback loop starting with output from my computer, running into a compressor, then to a reverb, then back to the compressor, then back to the reverb, etc.

0:00 Intro: The Plan
0:39 Digital Setup
1:18 Analog (Outboard) Setup
1:44 Demonstration
3:55 Next Steps and Considerations
4:31 Take 2

Check out more videos on audio cybernetics and feedback:

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Artificial Neurons for Music and Sound Design (5-minute lecture video)

Video presentation I made for the 2024 “Explainable AI for the Arts” (XAIxArts) Workshop, part of the ACM Creativity and Cognition Conference 2024.

A lot of these points I’ve discussed elsewhere (see playlist below), but this quickie presentation brings together these ideas, focusing on the aesthetic potential of this approach.

Check out the complete playlist for more hands-on creation of neurons and neural networks:

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Reaktor 6 Matrix Mixer

Building a matrix mixer in Reaktor 6 primary, and then exploring its possibilities for sound design.

I’ve been a little obsessed with matrix mixers lately, because they feed my desire for unique sound design applications (and feedback). A matrix mixer is a combiner module that can route multiple inputs to multiple outputs, often allowing you to adjust how much of each input signal goes to each output. While sophisticated, they’re pretty easy to build in Reaktor or other software, and can maybe be useful for some next-level synthesis applications.

0:00 Intro / Why Matrix Mixers?
1:18 Starting the Build, Simple Sine Oscillator
2:50 Matrix Mixer Macro
3:55 Visible Ports for Panel Patching
5:37 First Mixer of the Matrix
9:46 Duplicating It for the Matrix
10:48 Matrix Mixer Basics
12:05 Delay and Feedback
15:29 Adding a Second Delay
18:44 END OF LESSON. Unless…
19:59 Adding Ring Modulation
21:43 Building a Complex Patch
24:45 Other Examples of Implementation
25:58 Final Thoughts, Next Steps

Beginning Reaktor 6 Tutorials:

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Mixing Synths: Early Reflections for Added Dimension

Adding some subtle dimension to your synthesized instruments with early reflections.


Synthesized instruments, unlike recorded sounds, have never existed in the acoustic world. This means that these synthesized sounds are 100% direct signal. To add some subtle dimension to these synthesized sounds, then, we can craft some “early reflections” on these tracks.

Here, I demonstrate this concept using ChromaVerb in Logic Pro X.

0:00 Introduction
0:55 Understanding Reverb and Early Reflections
2:18 Creating Early Reflections
3:18 Project Setup
4:26 Early Reflections Aux Track
5:15 ABing on the Synth Track
6:19 Why Separate these from the Main Reverb?
6:40 ABing on the Whole Arrangement

More Logic Pro X videos here.

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Compression-Controlled Feedback Loops in Your DAW

Creating DAW-based feedback loops, then using side-chain compression to regulate them.


Here, working on a project with @SpectralEvolver , I show in Logic Pro X how we can use a compressor side-chained to a beat to control a feedback loop for some noisy, industrial sounding music that sounds evocative of the artist Emptyset. I found this was a great way to create a chaotic sound, but keep it under control (and out of the way of the drums).

0:00 Intro
0:29 The audio tracks
1:15 Side-chain compression
2:03 The feedback loop
3:13 Controlling the loop with compression
5:00 Emptset
5:13 Two aux tracks sending to each other
6:23 A note about time-based effects
6:50 Will it blow up?!
8:06 Closing, next steps

Check out Emptyset’s bandcamp here. Here’s Emptyset talking about their ionospheric propagation work, “Signal”:


More Logic Pro Tutorials from me here: