Time, silence and data sonification

Synthesizer with an amplitude envelope

The FM synthesizer from earlier, this time with an amplitude envelope. Press a key to play the sound evelope

base_freq = 220;
modulation_ratio = 2;
modulation_depth = 400;

let carrier, modulator, envelope;

function setup() {
  createCanvas(400, 400);
  
  carrier = new p5.Oscillator(base_freq);
  modulator = new p5.Oscillator(base_freq * modulation_ratio);
  
  modulator.disconnect();
  modulator.amp(modulation_depth);
  carrier.freq(modulator);

  carrier.amp(0)
  carrier.start();
  modulator.start();
  
  envelope = new p5.Envelope(0.05, 1, 0.1, 0)
  
  freq_slider = createSlider(200, 1000);
}

function keyPressed() {
  envelope.play(carrier);
}

What are some extremely long sounds? How long has the morning choir of birds been going on? Birds evolved around 60 million years ago, but when did they start singing? When did the ocean start to make a noise? How long is the Big Bang? Do sounds ever go away and end, or do they just decay to very, very low in amplitude and frequency? What about some short sounds? How long is your heartbeat?

Synthesizer with sequencer

This program runs through a sequence of data points, and uses them to change pitch of a little data melody.

data = [14, 22620, 16350, 9562, 14871, 17773];

base_freq = 220;
modulation_ratio = 2;
modulation_depth = 100;

let carrier, modulator, envelope;

function setup() {
  createCanvas(400, 400);
  
  carrier = new p5.Oscillator(base_freq);
  modulator = new p5.Oscillator(base_freq * modulation_ratio);
  
  modulator.disconnect();
  modulator.amp(modulation_depth);
  carrier.freq(modulator);

  carrier.start();
  modulator.start();
  
  carrier.amp(0);
  
  envelope = new p5.Envelope(0.1, 1, 0.1, 0);
}

function keyPressed() {
  playSequence(data);
}

function playSequence(data) {
  datum = data.shift() / 10;
  console.log(datum, data);
  carrier.freq(datum);
  // modulator.freq(datum / 10);
  envelope.play(carrier);
  
  if(data.length > 0) {
    setTimeout(() => {
      playSequence(data);
    }, datum / 10); // milliseconds, ie. 1000 = 1 second
  }
}

Can you guess where the numbers data, set on the first line come from? They are from Mace took on week 16 of 2023... according to his smartphone. Try your own data, e.g. your steps, number of calories in your meals, how many emails you received in the past year, the weather in your neighbourhood. The sequence can be as long as you want. Think about different value ranges, e.g. human hearing between 20-20000 Hz for carrier frequencies, and 1000 milliseconds is the timeout is one second. You you use the envelope also to change frequencies or amplitudes of the carrier or modulator(s).

Try out different envelope parameters by making the beginning ("attack") or end ("release") of the sound longer, change the timeout between sounds.

For exploration

• Choose an episode of the Composing with Process podcast production by Mark Fell and Joe Gilmore for MACBA RWM, listen through it, and summarize it. What was it about, and why did you choose it? What was interesting, what was boring, what was surprising? A fun story? Something strange? What sounds did you hear, from the perspectives of causal, semantic and reduced listening?
• Read one of the following two texts
  • Döbereiner, Luc. „Models of Constructed Sound: Nonstandard Synthesis as an Aesthetic Perspective“. Computer Music. Journal 35, Nr. 3 (2011): 28–39. https://doi.org/10.1162/COMJ_a_00067.
  • Haworth, Christopher, und Georgina Born. „Music and intermediality after the internet: aesthetics, materialities and social forms“. In Music and Digital Media. A Planetary Anthropology, herausgegeben von Georgina Born, 378–438. UCL Press, 2022. https://doi.org/10.14324/111.9781800082434.
• Download and install Pure Data (alias "Pd"), a free and open source programming language. We'll use it in the next section.
• Watch Sound Simulator's video Let’s Start With Just 3 Objects! Intro To Pure Data (Pure Data Tutorial #1)