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2. Parsimonia
3. EMP Triangle
4. Sinew0od
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8. Sinew0od for Buchla
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3. Live Coding the Global Hyperorgan
© Mattias Petersson, 2025
The Composition
The harmonic affordances of this patch steered me into searching for ways of using the rotations of the EMP Triangle to create a three-part counterpoint using SuperCollider patterns. Here, the sequence of numbers generated by both the clockwise and the mirrored rotations were used as scale degrees and note durations. The original cantus firmus was used as a 'scale' (although not as a regular scale that is usually sorted from low to high). Thus, a reading of the triangle's first row in original rotation (i.e., the sequence [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8], plays back the cantus firmus in full.
Looking at the score above we see the three parts that are all sent to the Buchla 225e on MIDI channel 1, where it is handled by the 225e's voice allocator and played on the next available voice. The Buchla oscillators are set up so that the 261e corresponds to the internal bus A, the 259e on bus B, and the DPO:s B-oscillator listens on bus C. This entails that a monophonic line will always be played on the 261e, and if a second and third voice is added they will use the 259e and DPO respectively. However, by adding a randomized lag time to each note event, the voicing is varied for each performance.
There are several other parts that are triggered by similar patterns. First, the feedback controller part that could be understood as a soloist on top of the counterpoint described above. In the filmed performance of the piece above, this can be seen as activations on the second row of the Manta controller. Second, there is a low bass part derived from the cantus firmus, with a sequence of notes triggered whenever the feedback controller part hits the number nine in its sequence (the third row of the Manta). Third, the breath sounds from the original version were used in eight octaves, similarly triggered when another of the triangle patterns hits a nine (the fourth row of the Manta). Fourth, an automatic live-sampler listening to the Buchla is randomly playing back recent audio, transposed up or down in octaves and fifths (visualized on Manta row five). Fifth, a rhythmic trigger pattern, constructed by using the triangle sequences as subdivisions of a beat, is running throughout the piece. This was sent to the Buchla on a separate MIDI channel and used for live-patched articulation during the performance. Finally, there is an additional layer of pre-recorded and processed ambiences running in Bitwig Studio, functionally resembling the fixed, ring-modulated drones of the original. The Bitwig timeline also provides visual cues during performance.#container-weave, #container-editor {background-color: #000000}#container-weave a, #container-editor a {color: #969696}#container-weave a:visited, #container-editor a:visited {color: #969696}.tool-caption, .simple-text-editor-content, .simple-text-editor-content .x-window-mc, .html-text-editor-content, .html-text-editor-content .x-window-mc {font-family: 'nimbus sans l', sans-serif}
The Transcription
Although the same Sinew0od system was used for this version, the longer duration, and the quite different instrumentality of a modular synthesizer, required a more radical re-composition that, while using all materials and core components of the original, obtains a stronger work identity of its own. Departing from a deconstruction and analysis of the agencies of the piece, the transcription process resulted in a piece that is perhaps best understood as an entirely new composition with a score in the form of code, visual cues in the Parsimonia system, and a DAW timeline. Furthermore, it demanded a different approach to the performance interface, where this score, the exciter, the instrument model, and the feedback controller from the abstract model shown on the system page, could be controlled by several agents simultaneously - including me as a performer.
The Buchla Patch
An initial question while working with this version was how I could expand the duration of the piece. While the previous transcriptions stayed quite close to the original's form and duration, using the same cantus firmus and a focus on the melodic phrases derived from it, here, I started to experiment with harmonic properties. Here, I explored the Buchla system as a three-voice polyphonic synth, utilizing the 225e MIDI module in poly mode, using the quite simple patch shown above. In a regular poly synth, a set of similar voices is used that combine oscillators, filters, modulators, and other things. However, the present system comprises three oscillators (Buchla 261e, 259e, and the Studio.h DPO), very different in character from each other. Thus, the voice allocator of the 225e becomes an important agent in this patch. In playing triad chords manually on a keyboard, the voicing will be determined by the order of key presses because those will directly correspond to the order of oscillators used by the voice allocator.
All oscillators used are dual and, as shown in the patch above, the primary parts are patched to the 292e A-C channels, and those, together with the corresponding channels of the 281e, comprise the three main voices controlled by the 225e (by means of the internal buses). The modulation parts of the oscillators are patched to the inputs A-C of the 291e Triple Morphing Filter and are all set to pitch track (or hard sync in the case of the DPO), which means that they follow the pitch of the primary oscillator, although detuned a perfect fifth up. By using the same three envelopes coming from the 281e A-C channels as before, patched to the 'amp' control inputs of the 291e, a colorization, or 'shadow' can be added to each primary part. The 291e mixed output ('all') is then patched to the D channel of the 292e, and this is used both as a manually controlled mixer channel and automatically triggered by the D channel of the 281e via MIDI. There is also some internal feedback modulation in the 291e, where the separate outputs of the filters are patched back to their respective modulation input.
The Resonant Body
Where the previous three iterations of Sinew0od have all included instruments with physical resonant bodies, the Buchla synthesizer used here usually connects more or less directly to a speaker system. To add such a physical body to the Buchla, an electroacoustic wooden resonator was used. The Onde by La Voix du Luthier proved to work well for this purpose and also added acoustic quality to the sonic profile of the synthesizer. The Onde is comprised of two soundboards where the front is driven by a small transducer intended for the middle and treble registers, and the back is driven by a larger transducer providing the bass. Separate volume controls are available for the front and back.
A pair of Neumann KM-184 condenser microphones were used, one in the front, very close to and pointing to the center of the largest hole of the Onde, and one in the back in a similar position. The microphones were placed on one end of a stereo bar with one of the small speakers on the other, where the latter was positioned close and slightly angled toward the Onde. Thus, while the Buchla causes the two soundboards to oscillate from the inside, the small speakers modulate them from the outside by means of the Sinew0od feedback system. As such, the two signals cross-modulate each other in the acoustic domain and merge into complex sound waves, mediated by the wooden body of the Onde.
The Feedback Controller
In trying to achieve a similar effect of tuning the feedback through the instrument's physical body, similar to the previous versions, the microphones are fed through a set of eight resonant parametric equalizer bands (the BPeakEQ UGen in SuperCollider), tuned to the frequencies of the cantus firmus. This tuning procedure was quite a tedious task because the desired frequencies did not always resonate with the system. Thus, some of the equalizer bands had to be tuned to a frequency close enough, using a combination of frequency and Q values. Where the previous versions used a Max patch that injects these drones monophonically into the system, with their levels controlled by a volume pedal, here, the Manta controller within the Parsimonia DMI was used to independently control the levels of the eq bands. With all bands readily available on discrete pads, this enabled polyphonic control of the feedback. In addition, besides always being routed to the Onde, the Buchla signal could also be sent directly to the small speakers, using another pad. Thus, the boundaries between the instrument's resonant body and the feedback controller are a bit more blurred here, compared to the other versions.
Further, there are two sets of eight similarly tuned equalizer bands, represented as two rows on the Manta. One of them is a pattern-automated sequence that runs across the duration of the piece. The other is intended for live performance, and to combine human and non-human player agents. The basic instruction for the performer here is to manually play a mirrored sequence together with the automated one. This entails playing pad number 8 when the non-human agent plays pad 1, manually play on 7 when pad 2 is played automatically, and so on. However, there is also room for improvisation based on the sonic affordances of the system, discovered in the moment.
Patch 8: Sinew0od for Buchla
The Sinew0od system has been used as a starting point in an investigation of how translation and transcription can be used as artistic methods to understand and compose with the different agents within a cybernetic system such as this
Sinew0od for Buchla was commissioned by the Swedish Radio for the Art's Birthday broadcast on January 17, 2024. The commission included a live performance on stage to a local audience at Scenkonstmuséet in Stockholm, and radio listeners on the European Broadcast Union (EBU) network and had to be exactly 19 minutes and 45 seconds.
The video above is a full performance of Sinew0od for Buchla made by me, filmed in a studio at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, on March 12, 2025.
Photo taken by Mats Lindström during the first performance of Sinew0od for Buchla at Scenkonstmuséet, Stockholm, January 17, 2024.
One of the SuperCollider patterns that generates the top part (X) of the score to the left. It uses the number sequences from three different rotations of the triangle, read top-down right left and reversed.
The instrument used in this version is distributed over several modules, as seen in the flowchart to the left. First, Parsimonia functions as a centerpiece. It works both as an overarching performance interface and as a score, giving visual cues while playing, but is also divided into sub-modules, running pre-programmed sequences, adding performance effects and ambiences, and provides control over all these, including the feedback controller equalizer described above. The Manta setup presented in the table above shows how the six rows were used, where the green indicates cells that are played by nonhuman agents (i.e., the SuperCollider patterns). I usually set it up so that the pads that require the most intense interaction are in the bottom and top rows, leaving the four middle rows for functions that are not used so often. In this case, the manually played feedback controller with tuned eq bands is at the bottom row. The second row represents the second set of eq:s that are automated. In the third row, there is a bass sound, also triggered automatically.
Second, the interface of the Buchla system adds timbral control, providing the player with a sensitive interface for calibrating the sound to resonate with the Onde wooden speaker and the feedback system of Sinew0od. The live performance also involves adjusting envelopes and patching a rhythmic trigger pattern to different parameters.
In addition to the Parsimonia and Buchla setup, an arrangement of prerecorded files were played back during the piece using Bitwig Studio. Here, one of the original drones was reused, although slowed down and transposed to the fundamental note of G#, used in this version. Another reused sound was the breathing, which was distorted and adapted into a noisy ambience in Bitwig. In addition, a recording of a late rehearsal of the whole piece was used in three different transpositions as part of the ambience track. This idea came from the first version, in which I made the drone files in a similar way.
Above are two short videos from rehearsals. The first one was filmed in my studio, on January 15, 2024. The second was made during preparations for a second performance of the piece in Piteå, on January 26. Here, I used the Tonbord by luthier Georg Bolin as a replacement for the Onde. Intended as an amplifier for acoustic guitars, it was not as effective in providing a resonating body for the Buchla as the Onde. It was also less responsive to the feedback system, however playable.#container-weave, #container-editor {background-color: #000000}#container-weave a, #container-editor a {color: #969696}#container-weave a:visited, #container-editor a:visited {color: #969696}.tool-caption, .simple-text-editor-content, .simple-text-editor-content .x-window-mc, .html-text-editor-content, .html-text-editor-content .x-window-mc {font-family: 'nimbus sans l', sans-serif}