I'm looking to have a Max patch written that, it's very most basic form, takes 2 separate input signals, does something interesting based on them and outputs a third signal. If that sounds vague it's because I'm looking for someone to apply a little bit of their own creativity to the process, so I would like to keep the request nice and open-ended. That being said, you can read a little more about what I hope to get out of the process here. The "something interesting" could be just about anything, but here are some ideas to point you in the right direction:
- Ideally the output sound would be as unique and variable as possible. The aspiration would be to create a system where combining the right sounds as input could potentially result in any sort of interesting sound imaginable as output and wouldn't just degrade into noise.
- If you could then feed the result back in as a modulating signal, you could create an ever-changing instrument to play.
- The highest level of clarity and diversity in the output sound might best be achieved by reconstructing it from scratch, say via additive synthesis or "resynthesis".
- I say it shouldn't degrade into noise, but at the same time it might be kind of cool to have it gravitate towards playing percussive, atonal sounds at times, like a drum kit, where you had been playing melodically.
- Some sort of analysis of the incoming signals might need to be conducted (perhaps using the ZSA.Descriptors package). The more bits of information analyzed and used, the more responsive the output signal will probably feel to play (as in with a more traditional instrument like keyboard, not just by twisting knobs to create textures or drone).
- Possible angles might be wavetable synthesis (but with continuously-variable input streams rather than set buffers), spectral morphing or using envelope following to intelligently adjust parameters on a synth.
- One other possible goal could be to help shape sounds to work around each other in a mix - like estimating what octave a sound is in to make sure the other sound is in a different octave or change the filter of a sound based on the brightness of another one.
The above bullet points are just ideas, not requirements. If you have an idea you'd like to bring to life, bring it up with me and we'll hash it out and see if it's something I would be interested in paying to have done (and also how much that would be). As always, I must also stipulate any code created would need to be well-commented.
If you have any questions or comments (or know of something already in existence that accomplishes these goals, for that matter) please get a hold of me!
Here are some more details, taken from a conversation with a developer:
I would like to be able to use it as an abstraction anywhere down the road I might find it interesting or useful, but the primary use for it currently will be in a project of mine called The Amanuensis (https://github.com/to-the-sun/amanuensis). It's essentially a "smart" or automated looper. You start a free-form jam session and it joins in with you once it hears something it likes. You just keep playing and a song builds around you as you go. I would use the audio from the instrument I was playing as the "control" input and the looping song as the "modulating" input. Then the sound from my instrument would constantly be changing in interesting and dynamic ways based on the music I was playing along with. And since that music would be loops taken from what I just played in real-time, a feedback loop would be created that I think would have very intriguing effects.
I guess I would have to say I'm not interested in any particular aesthetic. I'm interested in ALL aesthetics. I would hope for the widest diversity of possible sounds to emerge, not anything in particular. Above all I would just like to be surprised by what I hear every time I use it.
The Amanuensis can be played with a guitar or any sort of analog input, but currently I usually use a keyboard to play VST synths/drum samples. As is, I have it set up to randomly choose 1 of 400-500 synth presets or an assortment of drum samples to play with, but I have to manually tell it to give me a new sound when I want one. If it could emulate that sort of diversity and at the same time automatically evolve into new sounds, that would be the aspiration, but I realize that's quite a high bar. So I'm just looking for something in that direction. Realistically I would use it on top of these presets/samples to add dynamic interest. I would find it very fun to explore and discover the way the sound changed based on exactly what I was playing along with at that given moment.
So definitely experimental. Tonal, but if atonal percussive sounds emerged at times also I wouldn't mind that it all. Here's a live-streamed jam session so you can get a better idea what I'm talking about:
This one starts out kinda slow; you can see in the beginning I can't find a sound I really like so I keep switching through them. In the end, the process produces recordings like
I think it should essentially have one particular function because I would want it all to be automated. I honestly hate twisting dials and fine-tuning parameters, so I think you could just set it up in whatever way was best for achieving what I've outlined here. It could maybe have a few high-level parameters for me to adjust, but wouldn't really need to have any at all.
