In 2000 I began to design the Elementary Signal Engine (ESE) as an alternative approach to the synthesis and control of microsounds and the placement of these around µƒ. The name was inspired from Denis Gabor’s reference to acoustic quanta (Gabor, 1946). The synthesis part is termed Particle Wave Streams (PWS) and was originally presented in London at the Modular 2002 conference at TVU in 2002. The Wavehole filter was first introduced at Modular 2003 and recently as a mature implementation at Reproduced Sound 24 Brighton, UK in 2008. The filter was created to dynamically generate -µu through omission. It employs variable amplitude pulse masking. The ESE continues to be developed at the University of Portsmouth in the UK and schedule for public release in 2010. In creating a real-time particle synthesis environment I decided to avoid the maximum fundamental frequency pre-calculations required in FOF synthesis and the fixed amplitude pulse masking programmability found in the very few available public implementations of Pulsar Synthesis. For an audio tool to be truly flexible and offer smooth parameter elision from any state to another it is necessary to eliminate any kind of localized binary switching. The ESE was conceived on this basis. There are no switches in the system. The wavehole filter has been designed to afford the user with a tool to morph any arbitrary grouping of microevents. This can be controlled through pre-programming, generative, algorithmic or live performance processes. Because it employs classic wave modulation synthesis, it can also be used to control individual cycles in subtractive and additive synthesis thus allowing the system to exhibit wave or particle behaviour (hence Particle-Wave Streams).
[Independent control of waveholes permits individual control of sound particles] Further Developments Wavehole filtering can be extended beyond the inclusion or omission of particles and permits the independent processing of other microsound parameters. It is possible, for example, to filter the pitch as in Glisson synthesis (Roads, 2002, p121), or pan individual particles. Conclusion The wavehole filter is capable of creating a wide variety of particle fission and fusion effects. Though it can be effective in re-creating other established fundamental frequency manipulation techniques, its strength is in the ease with which arbitrary patterns of sound particles can be transformed without interruption. The ESE has become useful tool for playing with the relationships between the positive and negative aural space mentioned earlier and controlling aural lines, points and spaces. |
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