holocene

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Hardware: monome arc4. Software: electric dharma wheels. More about the monome arc4 can be found at http://monome.org Please go to monome.org for more information, including how to buy.

I received a production-run arc4 with the final firmware on Friday. This signaled a mad scramble to update my work for that and the latest serialosc with arc support so it'll be ready when people start receiving their units in a few days. So what do I do on Saturday? Make a new app, of course. Sure, that totally sounds like the responsible thing to do.

After receiving the arc4, I thought it might be a good idea to produce an example that demonstrates a 'bank' of encoder values that you can switch between. That gave birth to an application idea involving triggering modal notes from a pool of probabilities across three octaves of scale degrees. There is a separate bank of pitches depending on clockwise or counterclockwise rotation so you can shift the harmony with a simple gesture. The weighting of scale degrees is programmable and editable in real time on screen or with a MIDI controller. This allows for a more controlled structuring of compositional development over longer periods of time. The speed of the rotation determines how often a note is triggered, and can also be used as a modulation parameter for the FM synthesis engine.

Relevant synthesis parameters are also editable on the arc as the notes are triggered. The state of these parameters is overlaid on the LEDs, so interesting patterns emerge when this mode is engaged. There was a really awesome bug where switching editing modes also transposed the output modally, so I built in a score feature that allows you to advance a programmed chord progression with a button push.

A sit-the-arc-in-your-lap-and-doodle app has been on my mind a lot and I have at least three good starts in this area, but other priorities have often pushed these out of the way. The prototype arc2 I had lacked the mounting bracket for the USB cable and the logic board was floating free inside the enclosure, so I always had to use it (carefully) on a stationary, flat surface. It is really nice to have an arc that can be moved around or used in the lap. My cat disagrees.

I recorded this video, holocene, as a demonstration of this app, which I'm calling electric dharma wheels. This is the raw output from the electric dharma wheels, with some Eos reverb added after the fact.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• monome
• arc
• arc4
• stretta
• amblent

[Tyskiesstiefvater]

hello

very nice

can i use your audio for a remix?

[stretta]

@Tyskiesstiefvater Sure. It is a creative commons attribution only license.

[MrDeekaph]

WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT THING AND HOW DO I GET ONE!

[stretta]

@MrDeekaph monomes are built in small batches. They announce a date ahead of time when they take orders. The sell out in minutes or days. I wouldn't bother mentioning this except that the next order date is SEPTEMBER 9TH 2011. This will be the first batch of arcs since the initial run six months ago. If you're interested, now is your chance, or wait however many months until the next batch while people complain they're impossible to get.

[SMKennedy]

EXPLAIN

[stretta]

@SMKennedy There is a decent sized explaination in the complete video description. Did you read that?

[edoguard]

thumbs up if Bon Iver brought you here

[V19torrent]

You deserve so much more credit. I'd actually put this in league with trent reznor's recent work.

[tunnelscope]

@stretta PLEASE TELL ME how you made that really pretty sounding pluck in the beginning!

[aeryalmusic]

Aphex is not so far from here.

[birdatthewindow]

This is sexy. I want one.

[tojamon]

p e a c e

[CastAThinShadow]

this is rad

[Luis1vo]

Looks like an out of earth device. Increible.

[Luis1vo]

@edoguard NO

[alan98pl]

thanks for that :D