Concept:
With our project, we wanted to use the unique instruments that some of the group members owned in a live performance manner. In the end, we discovered that both the Omnichord and the Mbira have peaceful and dream like qualities to them. We decided, then, to pair up these two instruments to make a dream-like live performance.
Mbira
Omnichord
Max Patch:
The max patch is structured to allow the user to create loops of live instrumentals in real time, while projecting a granularized version of the loop through a speaker across the room from the dry sound. We decided to use granular synthesis to further the trancelike direction we wanted our piece to have. The user can control grain parameters such as duration, rate and slope by adjusting the range for each parameter. For every grain produced, the parameters are randomized based on the current ranges selected. This gives the piece a sense of movement and change. The user can also control the levels of all speakers within the patch, and create crossfades between the dry and wet sounds for each loop. We used the grooveduck object to handle the loops, and the 03h granular synthesis library along with the poly~ object to create the grains. We also utilized the parallel parameter of the poly~ object to parallelize the computation of each grain in order to reduce CPU load.
In terms of changes to make in the future, one change that we would make would be to utilize a high-pass filter on the Mbira to remove the physical sounds that might have been generated from the way it is played. We could also utilize movement between the speakers and a more solid sense of sound direction to prevent the piece from becoming stagnant.
Link to the Max Files:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B3dc0Zpl8OsBMk9MeFJPTGRCVzQ?usp=sharing