Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: MOTM
Subject: Over The Top O.T.
From: mbedtom@...
Date: 2002-06-17
Any MOTMers out there play with Csound? Am curious to know if the results are worth the learning curve. Yes, Csound is about as far off topic as one can get. Yet, making interesting noises is pretty cool no matter how it is done. (Csound is a free, script-based music instrument definition language. One can create instruments, assemble them into "orchestra" groups and then throw MIDI sequences at them to be played. Search the web for "Csound" or go to www.csound.org for a taste. The source code to Csound is freely available, too. Programmer types can have their way with it.)
Another source of interesting noises is the VLF radio band. (VLF=Very Low Frequency) The noises you'll get are atmospheric disturbances. Some of the noises are pretty interesting, though. "Whistlers" are not uncommon and noises made when the Aurora Borealis peaks, are interesting as well. Hope to throw together a VLF broadband receiver and experiment here in the city. It only takes two transistors and a few passive components to make one. I have a schematic I'll gladly pass along if you e-mail me privately. The frequency band is about 700 - 13,000 Hz. No, that isn't a misprint... I said Hertz! But you only need an antenna that is from 3 to 10 feet in length, so there really is no size issue. There are a few sites in web-land that have sound samples. Some of the samples are quite haunting, but I have no idea how often the really cool sounds happen. Since these are natural sounds, it very possible to duplicate them on an analog synth. If any others are interested I'd be happy to share my observations.
Cheers!
Tom Farrand