[PD] Music Made with Pd

martin brinkmann mnb at martin-brinkmann.de
Thu Feb 10 15:11:52 CET 2011


On 02/09/2011 01:02 PM, Pedro Oliveira wrote:

> But about the technical setup it was my first time ever performing live with
> Pd, so I kind of created an "ensemble" of possibilities I could work with,
> however limiting myself to only four channels...

i think it depends on what is going on in a 'channel', whether 4 is a
limit, or the maximum number of things one can handle as a solo
performer. if it is basically a volume level, even much larger numbers
should be possible, while a single complex granular synthesizer
might be enough for a single player.

> One of the channels deal with, yes, granular synthesis (thanks to the
> nqpolywrap object) using long samples from the recordings (from 20 to 60
> seconds), but what makes them interesting is the range that I allow the
> grains to be selected from.

i have never heard of this object (i use pd vanilla, with only a few
externals most of the time, so it is probably included in extended?)
how are the grains selected? in my granular patches i have only used
position+random jitter so far, but more complex patterns, or a mixture
of grains from different positions might be interesting too. maybe
a good idea for a new granular patch...

> The second channel has another really simple synth based on two phasors,
> plus buckets full of reverb and some samphold to add "dirt".

that was probably what i thought was the 'resampling effect'. (not
completely wrong though ;))

> The third channel is a so-called bass where I generate a random table with
> six values, and play them with the Monome so everytime I generate new values
> for the table I get new notes I'm not aware of, therefore I have to think
> really quick.

did you generate the values 'manually' on demand, or by some kind of
automatism (a metro for example)? i think both could be
quite challenging, while the latter variant provides less control
for the human performer...

> Yeah, that's it. I tried to keep it really simple to avoid overwhelming my
> processor and to be able to control as many parameters I could with the
> devices. I don't know if it was clever, but it was my own way of solving
> it...

large sets of parameters are always a problem, and some kind of
automation might be necessary to deal with the complexity.
i think the concept of 'scenes' can help a lot, like switching (or
crossfading) different pre-programmed sets of parameters.

bis denn!
     martin



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