odd I/O phials
This is a page for incomplete/unifinished miscellaneousness in the realm of audible computer digital download files for public consumption. If a download link is emblazoned in red and gold, that means it's in the public domain and you can steal it all you want, the other stuff is i don't know because it probably has copyrighted samples or something. To be perfectly honest though, I couldn't care less if something I release into the public domain accidentally has a half-second of some record company's intellectual property in it, oh no, that's not public domain what a tragedy!
I'll be uploading everything in ogg format for the sake of saving space, but if you want a higher quality version of something please feel free to mailto: "emptyhalls at pee emm dot emm eee" for a flac or a wav. Everything is organized chronologically to the best of my ability, which isn't very good so expect some inconsistencies. Those curved buttons with the black bars are audio embeds, default volume is 100% so have your fingers ready on that slider or knob or whatever it is your computer has to control the audio output volume! Also, tracks I'm particularly proud of are starred 
2020
2019
Pre-2019
: attack
;p6 : decay
;p7 : minimum centre frequency
;p8 : maximum centre frequency
;p9 : minimum bandwidth in %
;p10 : maximum bandwidth in %
i1= 1/p3; one cycle
i2 = p9*p7/100 ; minimum bandwidth
i3 = p10*p8/100 ; maximum bandwidth
k1 linen p4, p5, p3, p6 ; envelope
k2 oscil p8-p7, i1, 1 ; varying centre freq
k3 oscil i3-i2, i1, 2 ; varying bandwidth
a1 rand 1 ; random numbers
a2 reson a1, p7+k2, i2+k3, 4 ; filter
a2 balance a2,a1 ; power balance
out k1*a2 ; output
endin
;CS16.SC
; FROM PITCH TO NOISE SLIDING UP
f1 0 1024 7 0 512 .3 512 1; controls centre frequency
f2 0 1024 5 .001 512 1 512 .4; controls bandwidth
; p3 p4 p5 p6 p7 p8 p9 p10
;instr start dur amp attack dec centre Bandwidth
; frequency in %
; min max min max
i21 0 2 10000 .5 .7 260 650 .1 20
i21 2.9 .1 0 . . . . . .
s
; FROM NOISE TO PITCH SLIDING DOWN
f1 0 1024 7 1 512 .3 512 0; controls centre frequency
f2 0 1024 5 .4 512 1 512 .001; controls bandwidth
; p3 p4 p5 p6 p7 p8 p9 p10
;instr start dur amp attack dec centre Bandwidth
; frequency in %
; min max min max
i21 0 2 10000 .7 .5 260 650 .1 20
e
7.5 Formants Formants Formants
It has been found that one of the major factors influencing timbre recognition in traditional
music is the enhancement of frequencies in certain regions of the audible spectrum that
particular types of instruments show. The enhanced regions are called formants.
This assumption is strengthened by the fact that there are significant differences in
waveform characteristics when different pitches produced with the same instrument are
examined.
Formants are due to the physical characteristics of an instrument and are independent of
the pitch produced.
For example, an oboe has its first and second formants at 1400 and 3000 hz respectively.
This means that if a 440 hz A pitch is produced, the harmonics falling in the 1400 and
3000 hz regions will be strongly emphasised as shown by the underlined values given
below.
440 880 1320 1760 2200 2640 3080 3520
Formant theory also applies to the most versatile of all instruments: the human voice.
Speech production theories describe human voice articulation in terms of pulses or bands
of noise produced by air passing through the vocal chords - pulses for voiced sounds and
noise for unvoiced sounds like P, T, K and other consonants. These sounds are then
filtered by the shape of the vocal tract, which changes dynamically according to the
position of the tongue, lips, jaws, etc, thus changing the formant regions. This principle is
used to produce very articulated sounds with instrument 22: A very rich pulse (maximum
possible harmonics )is passed through five band-pass filters in parallel with centre
frequencies in different regions of the audible spectrum: 500, 1000, 2000, 3300 and 4800
hz. These frequencies and bandwidths are made fluctuate by random number interpolators
(RANDI).
To enhance the articulation of the sounds the following steps are taken:
1. The frequency of the random number generators is varied by a function that makes
it fluctuate between a minimum and a maximum value given in the score by p8 and
p9. The control variable determining this frequency is kfrnd. In this particular score, frnd
the frequency fluctuates between 3 and 50 hz.
2. The fundamental frequency of the pulse generator is made to fluctuate by up to 1/5
of its value using the same function. The change in pitch provides for expressivity in
a similar way to that in which the human voice is articulated. The control variable
determining the frequency of the fundamental is kprnd.
The output of the filters is balanced with a sine wave especially generated for this
purpose. The reason for not using the pulse generator to balance it is that a pulse is an
extreme type of signal with most of its energy bursting very quickly followed by almost
silence until the next pulse appears. Therefore if it were used for balancing purposes, the
output would be distorted.
The graphical representation of this instrument 22 is shown below.
Diagram 29 Voice-like Instrument 22
The score contains a short and very articulated sound, using a fundamental of 70 hz and a
random number frequency that varies between 10 and 15 hz, followed by two other events
producing distorted versions by changing the fundamental, the duration and random
number frequency more drastically. Both sounds were used towards the end of the piece
Dreams of Being and can be heard in in Csound tape example 17.
The orchestra and the score are given next.
; CS17.ORC - FILTERED PULSE WITH FORMANTS
; A pulse is passed through 5 parallel bandpass
; filterswith varying centre frequency and
; bandwidth.
sr = 44100
kr = 4410
ksmps = 10