Music 256A final

CodySynth 3D

by Cody Hergenroeder

Ultimately I decided this project wasn't about creating a stem player; I realized I wanted to use the petals of this recursive flower to create a novel control mechanism for one of my favorite and well-enjoyed ChucK projects: the CodySynth. While this creation falls short of being the ultimate tool to precisely explore the vast possibilities for sound synthesis in CodySynth, it is great at being what it is: a 3D platform for spatialized sonic exploration.

WTF is a CodySynth?

Since this project uses the CodySynth ChucK file, let's explain what CodySynth is. Long story short, it's a highly-customizable FM synthesizer built in ChucK. OSC1 is where the main sound comes from, and OSC2 modulates OSC1. The LFO modulates a bunch of other parameters. Each of these features, and more, can be tweaked to your liking.


CodySynth is all about customizability.

WTF is CodySynth 3-D?

CodySynth 3D is an audiovisual experience where you get to move a falling ball around the screen and hit panels to effect change on CodySynth. It's almost as if you're floating through the inner hyperspace of CodySynth itself...

Each time you hit a panel, your current falling speed (indicated by your sphere's BRIGHT-ness) will set a parameter on the synth. Here is the current list of parameters modulated by the panels:

Instructions

Use the arrow keys to move around and experiment with different sounds. Use the Spacebar and Ctrl keys to change your height and control your vertical speed.

Hit a panel to modulate a CodySynth parameter, but watch out: your vertical speed when you hit the plane will be used to control the parameter!


You'll get a read-out telling you exactly what you just changed.

If you fall through the floor, you have a Squidward moment that randomizes the parameters of the synth! This capitalizes on the aesthetic of the liminal space, something I was first exposed to by the linked Spongebob scene. If you're familiar with this scene, you will understand why I sampled it for my project. Words can't describe the depth of existentialism this scene filled me with as a kid, and I was happy to note that I accidentally recreated its details in this project.

Build Files

Known Issues

There is a known issue with CodySynth--certain configurations of settings with high feedback or high filter resonance/Q value end up creating a loud screeching noise that cant be stopped for 5-10 seconds. Please be vigilant with the mute button, and reset the synth by falling through the floor if this happens to you.

Future Work

If I had more time, I would have completely re-done the recursion system. Right now it is cobbled together with glue and strings, and that is obvious from its ad-hoc appearance. I would have created a much more robust and customizable recursion system serving as a true ode to the possibilities of 3D soundscape exploration, with different arrangements of shapes leaving you feel like you had gone some place different.

I am very happy with the work I did on CodySynth to make it compatible with Chunity and the code cleaning I did, but I would also have liked to have gone through a more in-depth design process with the project, tailoring it to be a joyful way to change the parameters of CodySynth rather than simply *a way*.

CREDITS

Adding force to a Unity obj




Final Project: Milestone 2

"Petaled Stem Player"

This has been one of those projects that never had the moment where you work hard and things suddenly start clicking together into a wonderful synthesis. I still feel this project questioning what it is exactly and how it wants to be used. I was inspired by the Donda stem player and enjoying playing around with this project as a kind of DJ tool to toy around with different loops of my song and cycle through different stems. However, this project's main feature of infinitely falling is a clunky control scheme that seems to hinder its ability to be a fun toy to make music. The falling is prone to bugs and unintended movements, and currently is not a fun mechanic. I'd like to redesign this project with the time I have left to be fun and have its core mechanics support each other. This may require dropping the 3D falling altogether or altering it substantially.




Final Project: Milestone 1

"Recursive Song Explorer"

This project was inspired by the rescursive pyramid sequencer idea below combined with the "audiovisual environment"--an intent to make a project that would allow me to sonically explore a song I made. I was also inspired by Portal and in particular this incredible game. So the question is: what's going on here? Well, I made the player this falling blue ball. Each platform the player falls on will change the sound in a certain way, basically changing the settings of a granular synthesizer of the song. Currently, it is configured such that falling on a platform to the left/right will change the size of the audio loop playing; falling on a platform forwards or backwards from the center will alter the speed/pitch of the playback, and going up/down will change the initial position (currently the player only moves down).




Final Project: Milestone 0

Recursive Pyramid Sequencer

This project takes inspriation from my music sequencer created in hw3. Each square you can click on actually contains the entire sequencer inside it (could be two half pyramids making 1 square). Each time you click a square, camera zooms in on the square you just clicked, becoming the entire sequencer, with all the same lights lit up. Depending on the x,y of the square you just clicked, a different transformation is applied to every single sound (eg LPF gets added or changed, HPF gets added, bass freqs get boosted, Delay gets added). This idea sounds like it would get messy, fast—but I’m also extremely compelled by a recursive idea since watching this video on making a game-within-a-game.

Guitar Hero esque Idea

I find myself continually compelled to create platforms that enable users to explore the features granted by ChucK from a UI other than the MiniAudicle interface. Having buttons and knobs makes for a great music generation experience. I’m imagining that one could have the opportunity to play a ChucK osc as an instrument while being able to tweak it to their specifications (delay, pitch, other effects?). This would be a reverse-guitar hero kind of thing, where you play notes. I’ve already built a platform that would serve as a suitable base for this project, that being my hw2 audiovisualizer “VaporRave”.

Audiovisual Environment

Items placed around a house, like the “home alone” project, or around a landscape. I could make it a deconstructed version of this song, where by interacting with elements you turn on aspects of the song. Exploration-based. What I like about this idea is that it would enable me to re-contextualize a song I’ve already made by taking its stems and putting them into a universe where they can each be enabled and disabled individually, or tweaked individually. This is a great idea to extend the universe in which the song exists, to redefine the song, allow the song to transcend what it was previously defined as, to play the version of the song you’d enjoy most. The most exciting element of this rediscovering the song is the ability to take sonic elements of the song I enjoy and try to pin them down to 3D objects and textures. This song provokes a very curious and specific mindstate in me, and I'd like to try to capture and express that in a 3D soundscape.