The weekend was a tangle of patching in TouchDesigner, which was a good lesson in what I should and shouldn’t do in TouchDesigner. In other words, what would usually be a few simple lines in code is rather longwinded to construct in a visual programming environment. It was definitely a learning experience.
Capitol piece
I’ve been making micro-iterations of this for the past few weeks. There are still a couple of annoying things that I can’t seem to fix (the most notable being an unexplained colour fade when the ceiling colours change—I don’t recall having any fades in that part), but I think I’m nearly there.
Phase
I’ve brought this back to how it was in the first iteration (with a few bug fixes) and it’s done, at least for the assignment submission. After a discussion with Shaun last week, the idea of bringing this (and my other browser-based works) to a physical space is sounding a bit more interesting. Shaun’s idea to convert the interface from requiring a physical device (e.g. mouse, or my other idea to have a 4×4 grid of buttons on a podium/plinth) to something that allows the viewer to gesture with their eyes or hands, is very intriguing. It does raise a question of accessibility, but that’s something that can be addressed in the future.
Collaborations
Lightning sculpture
I’m loving the sound process for this; it’s nearly done, but I have a few more ideas on how to vary the sound over time so it has more of an arc*. I’m amazed that the few moments of fuller-frequency sound have retained the airy, ethereal feel of the original idea, while still hitting exhilarating due to a combination of the unexpected bursts alongside the sub bass and extended chord voicings.
I’m also pretty interested in the way the background noise (originally unintentional and just a byproduct of the synth patch I used needing an extreme volume boost), and how it plays a part in the ethereal/mesmerising feel. My initial thought is that it makes it seem like the sculpture itself is producing the sounds, and it’s being recorded by a camera mic with the gain up, with the autogain ducking the volume when the big chords hit. But it also ties in with the name of the sculpture—lightning—and could represent rain. There’s also the nano-augmentation aesthetic, which I’ve touched on in previous posts; the game Deus Ex has a similar aesthetic and is an underlying inspiration for my sound design in this project.
Two new ideas I’ve had for this in the past week have been to use some close-mic paper scrunching, through an FFT filter like DtBlkFx, to provide an alternative sound / layer to the high frequency twinkles. The other idea is a more experimental one, using the sound of a finger on an audio cable plug to create a buzz whenever the lights are off, as though the lighting is being unplugged at that point.
* – We’re working on converting it into a live, generative performance/installation too. Obviously in that context, there won’t be as much opportunity for a tightly tailored sound experience, but it may be possible to automate a lot of it, and have controls in the TouchDesigner patch which influence not only the light, but also the sound.
Capitol piece
The latest version is sounding a lot more complete, with only a few things I need to work on:
- Increase volume of distorted drums
- Fade in the intro pad; there’s a weird sound right at the beginning that sounds odd
- (low priority) Add a melody / arpeggio in the foley drums section
Other than that though, I think it’s definitely hitting the exhilarating feel, partly through the use of distinct, unpredictable sections; something that I struggled with initially, but now that I’m tightening up the transitions, they’re working more effectively.
On a technical level, exporting the stems from Renoise and cutting things up / timestretching in Reaper was a fun process, and something I’d like to do more in my personal work. I’ve used techniques like that in the past, though mostly with my hardware synth work, where it’s almost necessary to go through and cut things together after recording. So, using partial composition in one software environment and then finishing it up in another, is an interesting new experience that allows one to take advantage of the best features of both.