In a recent dream, I’m walking through some sort of outdoorsy outdoor hospital in Africa with my family. It’s fuckin’ hot and one of us is badly hurt. We’re following a big (I mean BIG African man and his smaller wife/lady/whatever. The dude is carrying a baby and the wife is hitting him and screaming). Some how, the dream me becomes convinced that this is a problem that I am personally obliged to fix. As I start attempting to annoy the aforementioned dude into some sort of subdued (ha! sub-dude) and suggestible state, we enter the nurses office. A rather disorienting commotion ensues and I find myself watching as Mr. Dude hurls his tiny baby at the desk in the corner. Upon landing, the baby explodes into millions of tiny pieces, which scatter all over the room. Some of them make words, though I can’t, for the life of me, remember what they said.
Archive for April, 2007
trigger bang bang
I’m making a generative Max/Msp patch. So far, I’ve got a swanky lil’ self programming FM drum machine. Using probability, the computer chooses when (and soon how loudly) it will play a number of different clicky drums. I’m using 8 random number generators to create numbers between 1 and 100 and then using “less then” (>) objects to create a percentage chance that a certain drum will hit on that beat (method borrowed from Nico Raftis). The kick drum, for example: has a 95% chance of hitting on step 1, a 5% chance of hitting on step two, a 20% chance of hitting on step 3, a 5% chance on step 4, a 50% chance on step 5, a 5% chance on 6, 20% chance on 7, and a 10% chance on 8. The drums are generated with the trusty “simpleFM” max help patch, and are soon to be scaled by a global volume generator (which will generate velocity scaling on all beats but the down). I’m building in swing for more humanization, and using FFT pitch shifting to add some dirt.
The drum machine will (most likely today) be combined with a generative drone patch I started a few weeks ago. This patch takes chunks of specific samples, runs them through a lot of granular delay, and (semi-randomly) creates tone clusters out of them. Right now the patch runs through 11 different iterations of this process and then loops itself, soon it will be clocked by the tempo generator in the drum machine.
I’m also going to build a bassline generator (generates squarewave hip hop basslines from a preselected structure. I’m thinking i’ll have a basic programmed bassline which the computer will fuck with) and a tempo synched vocal chopper (which will scrub through a buffer in tempo with the drums, generating — when hip hop acapellas are loaded– swanky machine drum vox chopps).
When it’s done, I’ll post a built copy.
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I’d like it if my sweat smelled like artificial cocoanut oil. I’d be willing to sacrifice my pheromones. If anyone can make this happen, send me an e-mail: matthettich@gmail.com. A reward will be offered. Special bonus to the first ten e-mailers.
lunar beach bonanza!
Dear Alfred,
I am writing to inform you of (and personally invite you to) the twenty-first annual celestial bikini-bash (taking place on the 7th of May, 2007). Dress is casual-professional. Please bring your favorite gin, tonic, and/or spouse/significant other. We’re looking forward to an exciting and engaging event.
Sincerely,
Dr. Float Anderson
