Category Archives: SuperCollider

Sounds created with SuperCollider program

Music for Panic Attacks

[play] Music for Panic Attacks (2006)

Over the summer, I was having problems with anxiety. I noticed that sometimes, if I exposed myself to stressful sounds, they would sometimes leave me feeling relaxed at the end, rather than more agitated. I set out to make something that would stress me into relaxation in this fashion. In stead I came up with this. During the summer, every time I heard it worked on it, it would reliably give me a panic attack. I played it on stage only once in August 2006 at the Luggage Store Gallery. It gave me a mild panic attack. I’ve decided not to play it again.

Other people note that it does not stress them out, so I seem to have found the magical combination to give myself (and nobody else) a panic attack.

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Èlègie

[play] Élégie (2006)

Cornetto and Computer / Cornet à bouquin et ordinateur

Cette pièce a un caractère mélancolique. Les notes sont instables, basculent de l’équilibre au deséquilibre, comme la vie vers la mort. C’est à la mémoire des proches qui m’ont quittés.

A piece with unstable notes. They glissando from equilibrium to precarity as life slides into death. This is a remembrance of my deceased mother and foremothers.

Recorded at CCMIX on 12 juin 2006. Played by Solène RIOT and I. / Joué par Solène RIOT et moi.

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Faux-bourdon Bleu

[play] Faux-bourdon Bleu
2006

An artifact-laden brassage where samples from french radio news are expanded and then compressed, creating a drone texture. The samples used include the France Bleu theme, the RFI news theme and some chanting from a protest.

De la synthèse granulaire avec beaucoup d’artéfacts. Il y a des enregistrements de France Bleu, RFI et une manifestation.

Performed at la Barbare, 11 Mars 2006

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Train Filter

[play] Train Filter (2005)

This piece uses GrainPIC to control filters over a sample of Broadway mid-morning traffic in NYC. Each filter is described by a cloud, which sets a resonant high pass filter and a resonant low pass filter, creating a resonant bandpass filter. The 1/q of each filter moves towards 1 as the cloud is played. The pitches of the filters move towards pitches in the Bohlen-Piece scale. The envelopes on each moment of filtering obscure the traffic sounds, so instead a train sound is evident.

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Rain Clouds

[play] Rain Clouds
2005

I’m writing a SuperCollider program based on Xenakis’ description of granular synthesis in Formalized Music. My program has a graphical interface very similar to UPIC. The working title for this program is GrainPIC. This piece is generated by a prototype of this program and is a proof-of-concept. Xenakis envisioned cloud synthesis with only sine wave grains, so the prototype only supports sine grains, however, I expect to change this shortly.

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Beep

Beep
2005

This piece moves through undertones of (2^x)/y. It starts with 32/21 and then adds in 32/19 and then 32/17 to create a triad. Then 32/21 drops out and 16/15 enters. As the farthest out note finishes, a closer one comes in so that the piece migrates from 32/21 to 2/2, always playing a triad.

These triads are AM modulated by low frequency pulse waves, starting at 2 Hz. As the piece progresses, faster pulse waves are added to modify new pitches. The pulse introduced are the base pulse times 2, then 3, then 4, then 5 and finally 6. They do not reach the audio range, although they flirt with the idea. The hard cutoffs of the pulse create interference patterns of clicking.

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Bell Tolls

Bell Tolls
2004

This piece plays triads with a sound that resembles wind chimes. It uses a spatialization algorithm so that each “chime” sounds like it is coming from a different location. The pitch of each new set of chimes is based on the pitch of the chimes that precede it. The pitches come from a 21-limit tuning table.

I wrote this piece while going through a divorce. It was intended to sound angry, but instead seems sad.

Des triades des cloches fausses.

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