In my second year of university, there was a module which taught us the basics of building instruments and effects in Pure Data. Pure Data is a cross-platform visual programming language developed by Miller Puckette in 1990 for creating interactive computer music and multimedia work. Although I initially did not enjoy the module, once I began experimenting in my free time I found excitement in building sounds using this code.
Growing up in church playing the piano I was used to performing. Whether it was in service, at funerals or in cafes I had developed confidence in performance, however, In my third year, I was encouraged to explore a different route in performance which is where my idea of performance in Pure Data came from.
Initial Ideas
I had previously created a Pure Data wave-shaper patch that incorporated Pafnuty Chebyshev's Polynomials, a mathematical sequence that relates to the cosine and sine functions. In mathematical terms, it is used to solve solutions in polynomials and approximating functions. In music language it acts as a multiplier to a sine wave creating harmonics, there are 11 polynomials and they can be used as individual or as a multiple. The sounds that are created can be completely noise based or with extreme delicacy can be used to created timbres similar to violin and guitar.
In my patch they used an initial input of a sine wave oscillator and were used in a noise based way. The sound coming from the patch was interesting and dynamic and I wanted to develop this patch further. One question that sparked my creativity for this performance project was.
Could I use this initial patch on an Analogue Modular synthesiser instead of a sine wave?
The answer in simple terms is yes however, there are many steps that I had to take to get this to work and to also work in a performative way.
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