As it turns out, I have an even weaker grasp on digital audio (at the most basic, sample to sample level) then I had anticipated. While I remedy this, here’s something.

The patch is basically the same as my last one, but tailored specifically for Launchpad users.

“Well Zach, the last patch works just fine with my Launchpad. Why should I care?”

Good question, flimsy rhetorical device. The benefits offered by this version are that there’s no need to use nonome as middleware, making things a bit less convoluted, and it also looks like this:

Which makes it somewhat easier to tell what you’re doing.

Click here for your special offer.

Wasn’t thrilled about missing a new patch last week. Count this as last week’s contribution, and expect something more intricate by this weekend.

This is another one for the “spent several hundred on a grid of buttons and also don’t understand music” crowd. So, dudes like me who like the Monome but don’t have the patience to learn keyboards. 

Set base note and mode. Start from the first column, fifth row. That button is the base note you set. The rest of the buttons in the row are the degrees of the chosen mode. Moving up or down a row from any note transposes it an octave.

The first row allows you to switch between different modes. rows 2, 4 and 6 light up to help you see what you’re actually doing.

Four Kilobytes of Simplification.

Sorry, no patch this week.

As a consolation, have a few Alchemy presets of my devising. Right here.

This patch has gone through a major update since the first version I uploaded, so I figure I’d just rewrite this blurb.

Originally the patch has used a Jitter matrix of visual noise to create audio signals. These signal would be routed through filters and simple delay lines to create interesting textures.

This new version scraps the visual noise concept entirely, since the same results can be produced more efficiently with random number generation. White and pink noise generators are also included.

There are three simple biquad~ filters and two more involved delay patches. Rather than a simple delay line, this version has two patches that each contain three separate stereo delay taps, with feedback, right offset, filtering, and saturation controls. Feedback is possible, and encouraged! Signals can be routed to one of four outputs, each with individual volume and panning.

Download. 

this is a little more obscure, since this is designed for people who both

a) use a monome/nonome/fauxnome, and

b) don’t “get” harmony.

I fall into both of these categories, so I designed this little tool for experimenting with chord progressions.

Select a root note and a mode. the first seven columns represent different chords, major, minor etc. Hitting a button will trigger that chord for that note in the scale (pressing the third button up in the second column is a iii chord, the fourth of the first column is a IV chord.) In this way, you can experiment with different progressions.

Instead of triggering a specific type of chord, the eighth column will play whatever chord belongs to that scale degree in the selected mode. The appropriate buttons light up to make the progression more obvious. This gives you a simple, visual way to view and develop chord progressions.

Get it here.

Tah dah!

As I previously stated, this is a new design compared to my original version of Cascade, so it doesn’t have as many options. At this point, what it does is load eight audio files, and play back sections of them probabilistically. Click the column buttons to load files, the big one in the middle to trigger playback, and the little one on the side for reset. enabling the auto toggle will have the patch play back one section after another as each finishes. Once it’s played all the material, it’ll reset itself.

Download.

ver. 0.92 update: MIDI control, fades to prevent clicks.

An automatic sequencer using basic probabilities.

Briefly: Each of the eight notes will be triggered ten times. Each time a note is triggered, the odds it will be triggered again decrease. A note that plays ten times first has a ten out of ten chance, then a nine out of ten, etc. If the note isn’t triggered, then the one after it can be, and if THAT note isn’t triggered, etc.

Once the last note is triggered its’ final time, the sequence resets. Notes can be triggered from a metronome, any MIDI note, or the big button in the center of the screen. The velocity section allows for subtle variations in output.

Here it is.

I put this together for sequencing samples of found percussion. I’m working on another patch using this structure.

AWW SHIT VER. 1.5:

-More reliable internal structure

-A step sequencer that can be used to modulate note velocity, giving a sense of rhythmic coherency to the disorganized combination of different timbres. It doesn’t conform to any timescale, but just sends the next value any time a note is triggered. Adjust to your needs accordingly.

This patch is outdated. Download the new version here.

I designed Lofo in order to produce a set of LFO waveforms for Camel Audio Alchemy, which can be downloaded here. Operation is simple: Enter the number of steps you want, the number of possible values each step can choose from, and Lofo will create 2048-sample wavefiles that match your specifications.

Welcome. On this blog, I will post one Max/MSP patch of my own devising every week.

I have two motives for doing this:

1) To improve my patching skills

2) To share the tools I develop with people far more creative than I.

I’m always open to feedback. Feel free to contact me at zach at seasonalaffect dot com about anything.

So, let’s get started.