WARREN BURT - Journal

1. Canon Study 3 October 2020

This is the first of 3 related studies exploring canonical structures and random information generation in VCV Rack. In this piece, the random generation system is provided by the Tiny Tricks Modulation Generator MG8 - this produces a different random Low Frequency Oscillator signal with each new trigger input. A different waveform with a different frequency and amplitude is generated from each output with each new pulse. Four of these are mixed together to make a composite signal which is used as an input to a sample-and-hold generator. So each time the "Flipper" button is manually pressed, a new set of LFOs are generated and mixed to make a composite random signal. Sometimes this mix will have a repeating element, and sometimes not. Surfing that is one of the attractions of this patch. The control signal resulting from this is delayed with the Xatto Time delay unit and transposed for the second two voices, making a 3 voice canon at a chosen interval of transposition. There are also 3 sampler modules, which are playing a loop (unsynchronized) from an earlier version of the patch. This patch was made on the iPad Pro running miRack, the iPad version of VCV Rack.

2. Sabaneiev-Scriabin Study. This piece uses a scale based on Russian musicologist/composer Leonid Sabaneiv's description of Scriabin's mystic chord as a series of members of the harmonic series. If you then apply the other six notes of a 12 note scale to similar harmonics, you get a 12 note scale made of all the odd harmonics up to 27, except 23 and 25. For this purpose I divide the scale into two six note chords - the mystic chord, and the "other six notes chord." These are put onto a Cartesian sequencer (called Grid Sequencer in this realization) which is moved about kind of randomly by a changing driving clock divided by 5, 7 and 27.31, each of which controls a different direction though the sequencer. Again, control voltages are delayed in the NYSTHI Xatto time, producing a 3 voice canon. The oscillators here are the Audible Instruments Resonator, a physical modelling module which produces quite nice percussion timbres. The sounds are then panned in stereo with the VCV Sound Stage module. In live performance, made with a Korg box'o'sliders, I'm trying to get a certain sense of elegant phrasing in the overall progression of the piece. This used VCV Rack on my Lenovo desktop computer.

3. Sabaneiev-Scriabin 2: The Rosella in my Front Yard.

In this piece, again using the Sabaneiev-derived 12 note just intonation scale that uses all the odd harmonics through 27 except 23 and 25, the random generation being explored in the Music Thing Modular Turing Machine. This is a random generator that produces both repeating and random patterns and, most interestingly, patterns that are somewhere between repeating and varying randomly. The output of this is applied to the NYSTHI Squonk sequencer, which controls the choices from a 12-note sequence consisting of first, the Scriabin mystic chord, and then the "other six notes of the scale" chord. An oscillator and gated noise make the main complex which is delayed through the NYSTHI Xatto time delays. These can be faded in and out, making various patterns of canonically delayed lines. Additionally, a much slower division of the rhythmic clock controls a single Audible Instruments Resonator, making a series of slowly moving metallic percussion sounds. The mix of all these voices is placed into a NYSTHI Twisted Mverb module, which allows you to freeze the reverb at any moment. In performance I do this both manually, and with a pulse output from the Turing Machine module. This has the effect of producing clouds of harmonic sounds that sustain, cutting out the original sounds. The switching on and off of the reverb freeze is fairly crude, especially when controlled by the pulse out from the Turing Machine, which gives the piece a nicely "torn" or "ripped" sound, to my ear. Again, the aim in live performance is to try and assemble an elegant succession of melodic and textural states. This was made on the iPad Pro using miRack, the version of VCV Rack for iOS.

I hope you enjoy these three small pieces. It was fun making them!