distances bending

supercollider patch for distances bending (future tones) composed and performed by clara de asís and rebecca lane.

materials

the code and its player have four different voices at their disposal: difference tones, noise flute, breath noise, and future tones.

tones

difference and future tones are generated live by supercollider oscillators.

the difference tones range from 20 to 160 herz. we call them difference tones because their frequencies are defined by differences between some of the frequencies played by clara and bec.

the future tones range from 800 to 6000 herz. at the times when they are played, they anticipate tones that clara and bec will play later in the piece.

samples

noise flute and breath noise are samples provided by clara and bec.

noise flute consists of eight mono samples (the files S2_480_mix.wav, S2_560_mix.wav, S2_640_mix.wav, etc. are named according to frequency; in the score, these will be sample a, b, c, etc.).

breath noise is a single stereo sample that lasts for around five minutes. in one-hour versions of the piece, it is triggered once, at the 35-minute mark.

organization

in 2023 a one-hour version of the piece was presented (at oscillation and again at p.a.s.).

this version had six sections numbered II to VII. the table in DB 1H Time distribution table V3.pdf sets out the framework within which the code specified scores for playing the samples and tones.

for example, in section II, the palette is constrained to:

• difference tones at 20 40 herz,
• noise flute samples a–c,
• future tones ranging from 800 to 1100 herz.

the hand-written notes in IMG_3122.jpg specify minimum and maximum numbers of occurrences for each class of event.

for example, in section II, these are:

• difference tones: at least 0 events, at most 1 event,
• noise flute: at least 0, at most 2 events,
• future tones: at least 1, at most 3 events, no frequency to be played more than once.

code

init.scd

• instructions for setting up Babyface sound card with bbfpromix (linux)
• initialize server
• set up SynthDefs \difference, \future, \mono_sampler, \stereo_sampler
• amplitudes for the samples are hard-coded as arguments to \mono_sampler and \stereo_sampler
• populate Dicts and set up TUI triggers (with durations) for tones
• load samples
• instantiate sample synths and set up TUI triggers for samples

generate-score_2023.scd

• each section of the piece gets a Dictionary containing its sound materials (frequencies, sample identifiers) and its start time and duration (in minutes)
• post the temporal contraints we're working with
• specify the events and post them: this is the score a player can play from
• re-initialize some variables (in case we want to generate a new score)

triggers.scd

• pink noise for sound checking
• code blocks for triggering events. for each block, the first line or lines functions as a play button. for tones, the amplitude is also set (and can be altered) here. example:

( ~play_dTone.value(
	"20hz", amp: 0.18, out: 1); )
~dTone_synths["20hz"].set(\gate, 0);

• note that samples don't have amplitudes modifiable at in the trigger blocks; as noted above, they're in init.scd
• the last line in each trigger block is the stop button