Creation of a Real-Time Granular Synthesis Instrument for Live Performance

171 Pages·2012·0.8 MB·English

Creation of a Real-Time Granular Synthesis
Instrument for Live Performance
T. T. Opie
8th October 2003
Creation of a Real-Time Granular Synthesis
Instrument for Live Performance
Timothy Tristram Opie
BA (Hons)
Creative Industries: Music
Queensland University of Technology
A thesis submitted in partial ful�llment of the
requirements for the degree of
Master of Arts
th
7 of March 2003
Keywords:
Granular synthesis, music, instruments, real-time, performance.
Abstract
This thesis explores how granular synthesis can be used in live performances.
The early explorations of granular synthesis are �rst investigated, leading up to
modern trends of electronic performance involving granular synthesis. Using this
background it sets about to create a granular synthesis instrument that can be used
for live performances in a range of different settings, from a computer quartet, to
a �ute duet. The instrument, an electronic �sh called the poseidon, is documented
from the creation and preparation stages right through to performance.
Page: 3
Contents
Abstract 3
Acknowledgements 13
Preface 15
1 Introduction 19
2 Background 21
2.1 The Corpuscular Theory Of Sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
2.2 The Particle Theory of Sound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2.3 The Gabor Grain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.3.1 Signal analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.3.2 Hearing Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2.3.3 Deception . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
2.4 Granular Composition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
2.4.1 Tape Splicing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
2.4.2 Music V on a Burroughs B6700 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
2.4.3 Music 11 on a DEC PDP-11/50 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
2.4.4 Many programs on many computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
2.4.5 Real-time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
2.4.6 The next generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
2.4.7 Particle pops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
3 Live Performance 61
3.1 Australian and New Zealand Artists in performance . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
3.2 The Author’s performance experiences with granular synthesis . . . . . 66
Page: 5
Contents
4 Development 71
4.1 Ready, Aim...... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
4.1.1 Acoustic Granular Synthesis Machine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
4.1.2 Electronics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
4.1.3 Electronic and Computer Fusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
4.2 Building Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
4.2.1 Fritz Lang . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
4.2.2 Poseidon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
4.2.3 Control Styles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
4.3 Software Hacking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
4.3.1 The AudioMulch and Max/MSP Factor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
4.3.2 Csound . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
4.3.3 jMusic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
4.3.4 Granular Instrument Test Prototype Code . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
4.4 Software Algorithms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
4.4.1 Grain Length . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
4.4.2 Grain Envelope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
4.4.3 Grain Density . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
4.4.4 Grain distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
4.5 Programming with jMusic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
4.5.1 Spurt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
4.5.2 Granulator - The Audio Object . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
4.5.3 GranularInstRT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
4.5.4 RTGrainLine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
4.5.5 RTGrainMaker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
4.6 jMusic Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
5 Performance Outcomes 119
5.1 What About The Children? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
5.2 Adult Reaction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
5.3 Russian Film Improvisation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
5.4 Elucidation, a Poseidon and Flute Duet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Page: 6
Contents
5.5 Personal Re�ection on the Results of the Poseidon . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
6 Conclusion 127
Appendices 129
A Glossary 131
B Csound code for Elevated Music prototype 133
C jMusic code for Spurt 139
D jMusic code for Granulator - The Audio Object 141
E jMusic code for the GranularInstRT 149
F jMusic code for the RTGrainLine 155
G jMusic code for the RTGrainMaker 161
Bibliography 165
Page: 7
List of Figures
2.1 Representation of signal by a matrix of complex amplitudes [Gabor,
1946, p. 435]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
2.2 Representation of signal by logons [Gabor, 1946, p. 435]. . . . . . . . . . 32
2.3 Threshold areas of the ear at 500 Hz [Gabor, 1947, p. 593]. . . . . . . . . 34
2.4 16mm sound-�lm projector converted into an experimental frequency
convertor [Gabor, 1946, p. 452]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
2.5 Frequency convertor with sound �lm [Roads, 1991, p. 174]. . . . . . . . . 38
2.6 The contribution of individual slits and the resulting light output [Ga-
bor, 1946, p. 447]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
2.7 Frequency convertor with magnetic tape [Gabor, 1946, p. 453]. . . . . . . 42
2.8 Curtis Roads sitting at the Creatovox [Roads, 2001, p. 196]. . . . . . . . 48
3.1 Donna Hewitt in performance. Photo Mr Snow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
3.2 Close up of the poseidon control interface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
4.1 Circuit board of Dumb Controller designed by Angelo Fraietta. . . . . . 76
4.2 The electronic parts that went inside the poseidon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
4.3 The poseidon drying off. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
4.4 The completed poseidon connected to a computer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
4.5 Half a sine wave. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
5.1 Timothy Opie holding the poseidon. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
5.2 An example of the method I used to notate for the poseidon. . . . . . . . 124
Page: 9