MOTM

While sitting here trying to catch up with the backlog, the mind wandered
to...

>>>>C H A O S  F A C T O R Y<<<<<

This is just a whim/point of discussion (to distract those waiting for me to
ship stuff).

The ChaosFactory is a 1U or 2U audio out module. Essentially, it is a
self-contained
analog synth that is constantly being randomly patched and played (Look Ma!
No hands!)

Several have asked about an "academic" chaos processor. These are basically
oscillators
with feedback that are sort of like Jimi at Woodstock. The trouble is, after
20 minutes of
sqeals, it gets sort of old.

What I'm thinking of is a "sloppy" synth "voice" that is controlled by a
"farm" of PIC uPs. Each
PIC supervises 1 little section (VCO, EGs...). Each PIC has an internal A/D
converter to
read a CV. The CV determines "the degree of chaos" in that section. For
example, a chaos
of 0 is like a drone (not much choas). A chaos of 10 on a VCO means it could
be 20Hz one
note and 20K the next, then silence for 4 minutes (extreme chaos).

I think it would be neat to have a big ROM with like 5000 musical "snippets"
(ie phrases of
songs from "Row Your Boat" to Bach to whatever) Not songs, just a few bars.
These are
interleaved with scale runs, random stuff, etc. There is no "speed" control:
that is random but
the chaos sets the *probability* of a deviation from a nominal. Sometimes,
it just drones, squeals,
outputs white noise, or sits there.

Too much Haloween candy on the brain again. Or, too much Skinny Puppy.

Paul S.

In a message dated 11/4/99 8:56:03 PM, synth1@... writes:

>What I'm thinking of is a "sloppy" synth "voice" that is controlled by
>a
>"farm" of PIC uPs. Each
>PIC supervises 1 little section (VCO, EGs...). Each PIC has an internal
>A/D
>converter to
>read a CV. The CV determines "the degree of chaos" in that section. For
>example, a chaos
>of 0 is like a drone (not much choas). A chaos of 10 on a VCO means it
>could
>be 20Hz one
>note and 20K the next, then silence for 4 minutes (extreme chaos).

Interesting idea -- what's the estimated price! Any other inputs? Additional 
CV input possibilities?

>I think it would be neat to have a big ROM with like 5000 musical "snippets"
>(ie phrases of
>songs from "Row Your Boat" to Bach to whatever) Not songs, just a few bars.
>These are
>interleaved with scale runs, random stuff, etc. There is no "speed" control:
>that is random but
>the chaos sets the *probability* of a deviation from a nominal. Sometimes,
>it just drones, squeals,
>outputs white noise, or sits there.

Er! Uh! You mean this isn't what musicians are supposed to do? Paul, you 
might want to forget those last few guitar lessons!

>Too much Haloween candy on the brain again. Or, too much Skinny Puppy.

Me too! This is the last year I buy candy that I like so I can eat it when 
nobody comes to the door!
JB

> From: "Paul Schreiber" <synth1@...>
> 
> While sitting here trying to catch up with the backlog, the mind wandered
> to...
> 
> >>>>C H A O S  F A C T O R Y<<<<<

Have you looked into Buchla's "source of uncertainty"? A much different
beast, but might give you some ideas. I would personally like to see more
inputs/outputs and flexibility than what you're suggesting, but it's
definitely a nice idea. 

> Too much Haloween candy on the brain again. Or, too much Skinny Puppy.

Can't have too much of either :) 

I would love to own such a module. If you could play with the ROM,
customize it a bit, that would be even better. If you're not familiar,
there's a lot of psuedo-random noisey/accidental "music" going around
now... not exactly similar to classical cage-ian randomness or even
microtonal Luening or Ussachevsky, but a different, less academic, breed.
I'm thinking of Pole, Pita, Oval, Pan Sonic, and other (mostly european)
artists/groups. 

Pole uses some broken analog filters, a waldorf 4-pole I hear, Pan_Sonic
uses custom (analog?) modules/sequencers, Oval uses mostly digital
editing. I'm not sure what equipment Pita uses, but hide your tweeters!!
:) I think such a module as Paul suggests would really fall in quite
nicely to some of these newer styles of electronic music which are
emerging. However I'm not sure if the demand would be high enough to
warrant a production run? 

later
Andrew

-| Andrew Schrock | aschrock@... |-

Just my $.02 -  I doubt I would be interested in purchasing such a beast
(since we are just whimmin' and discussin').  However, perhaps those on the
list that do not already have more chaos in their music than they can stand
will be attracted by this concept.  I have plenty of chaos simply trying to
hit the right notes and keep the right time.  And, I am personally trying
to introduce chaos in the life of one Curley Stooge via private mail.  And,
you guys thought I was just quiet this week. <snicker>

Speaking of catching up on backlog, is next week still a valid ship date
for MOTM-320s in kit form?

Larry Hendry

----------
> From: Paul Schreiber <synth1@...>
> To: MOTM listserv <motm@onelist.com>
> Subject: [motm] Proposed module: ChaosFactory
> Date: Thursday, November 04, 1999 9:55 PM
> 
> From: "Paul Schreiber" <synth1@...>
> 
> While sitting here trying to catch up with the backlog, the mind wandered
> to...
> 
> >>>>C H A O S  F A C T O R Y<<<<<
> 
> This is just a whim/point of discussion (to distract those waiting for me
to
> ship stuff).
> 
> The ChaosFactory is a 1U or 2U audio out module. Essentially, it is a
> self-contained
> analog synth that is constantly being randomly patched and played (Look
Ma!
> No hands!)
> 
> Several have asked about an "academic" chaos processor. These are
basically
> oscillators
> with feedback that are sort of like Jimi at Woodstock. The trouble is,
after
> 20 minutes of
> sqeals, it gets sort of old.
> 
> What I'm thinking of is a "sloppy" synth "voice" that is controlled by a
> "farm" of PIC uPs. Each
> PIC supervises 1 little section (VCO, EGs...). Each PIC has an internal
A/D
> converter to
> read a CV. The CV determines "the degree of chaos" in that section. For
> example, a chaos
> of 0 is like a drone (not much choas). A chaos of 10 on a VCO means it
could
> be 20Hz one
> note and 20K the next, then silence for 4 minutes (extreme chaos).
> 
> I think it would be neat to have a big ROM with like 5000 musical
"snippets"
> (ie phrases of
> songs from "Row Your Boat" to Bach to whatever) Not songs, just a few
bars.
> These are
> interleaved with scale runs, random stuff, etc. There is no "speed"
control:
> that is random but
> the chaos sets the *probability* of a deviation from a nominal.
Sometimes,

> it just drones, squeals,
> outputs white noise, or sits there.
> 
> Too much Haloween candy on the brain again. Or, too much Skinny Puppy.
> 
> Paul S.
> 
>

>From: "Paul Schreiber" <synth1@...>
>
>While sitting here trying to catch up with the backlog, the mind wandered
>to...
>
>>>>>C H A O S  F A C T O R Y<<<<<
>
>This is just a whim/point of discussion (to distract those waiting for me to
>ship stuff).

This sounds too cool! Sounds like my kinda module!

________________________________________________________
Dave Trenkel : improv@...  : www.peak.org/~improv/

"...there will come a day when you won't have to use
gasoline. You'd simply take a cassette and put it in
your car, let it run. You'd have to have the proper
type of music. Like you take two sticks, put 'em
together, make fire. You take some notes and rub 'em
together - dum, dum, dum, dum - fire, cosmic fire."
                                            -Sun Ra
________________________________________________________

hello,
i think the random scales / sequences etc would really have to be sync-able
to something for the best practical (and highly amusing halfway through a
gig) application, maybe a switch would be in order to enable internal or
external sync
otherwise, a module with huge possibilites - oops - lightbulb
and, maybe a feature where several can be slaved together and work in some
kind of unison, or at least not working against eachother - a programming
nightmare probably
still the thought of eight of them slaved together tickles my fancy..
must go - my lift to work has arrrived..
cheerspaulb

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.)
But here's why I'm saying it.
1.  Too many random patches are gonna end up giving you nothing.  I just
can't
see spending that much time with a module and getting zero payoff.

2.  Too little control of the whole thing.  I think if you could limit the
range of randomness,
or focus it in some ways (more than what Paul described), it might be more
to my
personal tastes.

3.  No repeatability.  What if it does just the perfect thing & you forgot
to roll tape?

Anecdote:  A friend /sometime collaborator used to play bass for an old
blues guy named
Blind Joe Hill out in LA.  So he walks into one gig, & it turns out they're
playing a party for
John Cage.  The idea is that there are all these different groups playing
different musical
styles & you have this chaos in the spaces between the groups.  Blind Joe,
though,
was not really hip to the avant-garde thing & thought this was a shitty
idea, & managed to
get two or three of the other bands to sort of sync up with him on a twelve
bar blues thing,
sort of defeating the whole purpose of the thing.
Mr. Cage was not amused.

tomr

tomr
-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Schreiber <synth1@...>
To: MOTM listserv <motm@onelist.com>
Date: Thursday, November 04, 1999 10:55 PM
Subject: [motm] Proposed module: ChaosFactory


>From: "Paul Schreiber" <synth1@...>
>
>While sitting here trying to catch up with the backlog, the mind wandered
>to...
>
>>>>>C H A O S  F A C T O R Y<<<<<
>
>This is just a whim/point of discussion (to distract those waiting for me
to
>ship stuff).
>
>The ChaosFactory is a 1U or 2U audio out module. Essentially, it is a
>self-contained
>analog synth that is constantly being randomly patched and played (Look Ma!
>No hands!)
>
>Several have asked about an "academic" chaos processor. These are basically
>oscillators
>with feedback that are sort of like Jimi at Woodstock. The trouble is,
after
>20 minutes of
>sqeals, it gets sort of old.
>
>What I'm thinking of is a "sloppy" synth "voice" that is controlled by a
>"farm" of PIC uPs. Each
>PIC supervises 1 little section (VCO, EGs...). Each PIC has an internal A/D
>converter to
>read a CV. The CV determines "the degree of chaos" in that section. For
>example, a chaos
>of 0 is like a drone (not much choas). A chaos of 10 on a VCO means it
could
>be 20Hz one
>note and 20K the next, then silence for 4 minutes (extreme chaos).
>
>I think it would be neat to have a big ROM with like 5000 musical
"snippets"
>(ie phrases of
>songs from "Row Your Boat" to Bach to whatever) Not songs, just a few bars.
>These are
>interleaved with scale runs, random stuff, etc. There is no "speed"
control:

>that is random but
>the chaos sets the *probability* of a deviation from a nominal. Sometimes,
>it just drones, squeals,
>outputs white noise, or sits there.
>
>Too much Haloween candy on the brain again. Or, too much Skinny Puppy.
>
>Paul S.
>
>

>sort of defeating the whole purpose of the thing.
>Mr. Cage was not amused.


cool

in reply to the other stuff  - you're absolutely correct (but then the rest
of us have nothing better to do ;-)

cheers
paulb (not been punched out tonight - and now i'm home - still time yet)

In a message dated 99-11-04 22:55:51 EST, you write:

<< Too much Haloween candy on the brain again. >>



paul,
sounds like it might be a bit on the expensive side but a very cute concept. 
for what i do, it would work nicely but i`m not sure someone doing more 
structured music would find it very useful ( but then, i`m an idiot so what 
do i know......). maybe just as a control voltage source ? sans sound 
modules, able to be patched whereever at will, it might work out to be much 
less expensive and more flexible overall. IMHO.
best,
dave