I'm one of the supporters of a more 'academic' chaos module, myself. My
reasons being (in no particular order):
1.One could introduce true physical representations of real-world
turbulence dynamics into a synthesizer patch in _very controllable_ ways.
For instance, introducing a short 'blip' from a chaoscillator at the attack
of a percussive envelope would produce a unique, true-to-life chaotic
signature every time the envelope fires (try that with a sampler). I'm not
talking about a little noise chiff-I'm talking about an extremely short but
important interval when an otherwise physical body is set into motion (hit
with a mallet, a string plucked) and requires a short but finite time to
settle into its periodic motion. Not random envelopes-a very subtle
enhancement to envelopes.
2.A true chaos generator is ∗not∗ random. It is never predictable,
never precisely repeatable, but has defined parameters that can be
controlled.
3.It has "hey, look what I got" value. People throw the word "chaos"
around (like the 'Dark Star' module) thinking it means noise-it does not. To
be able to say that you have a true clinical chaos generator ought to get
one of us in Keyboard Magazine's "keyboard of the month" <bbg>.
4.When I preach "chaos oscillators," I think people believe what I
want is to just let the thing sit there making squealing noises. That never
crossed my mind (well... maybe just a little :-) ). I imagine introducing
the chaotic voltages from the unit in subtle ways into a patch to influence
the dynamic processes of other modules.
5.Imagine clocking effects like delay with a pair of chaos oscillators
(these things are not expensive circuits by the way). You wouldn't get
regular cyclic sound that we try to mask with detuned LFOs (I'm thinking of
the delay line in my old Stringz & Thingz as I write this).
6. Chaos oscillators can produce sophisticated 'filtered noise' sounds in
certain ranges without using filters that ∗can∗ be used for those 'chiff'
sounds.
(By way of explanation for the above epistle, I've been sending Paul some
materials on module ideas, and Wednesday's idea was a Chua-based
chaoscillator, so I feel partly responsible for this thread.)
-----Original Message-----
From:
hodad1@... [mailto:
hodad1@...]
Seems to me this would be a bit like playing the
slots--mostly nothing (or piddly crap) waiting for a big payoff. (Does that
sound a bit harsh? Sorry.)