Siqi Chen

[2024/11/11]

Music 256A, Stanford University

Sequencer Final: matrix chuckulator

This sequencer is a semi-finished prototype, where the user can play around with FM and explore a variety of timbres by modifying the values in a matrix:

Instructions:

Note:

My Reflection

I think there are still a lot that can be added to this sequencer. In my previous milestone I mentioned introducing complex numbers as matrix entries, something which I have not had the time to complete yet. I would like to keep working on it to make it playable with more variety.

Also, it was unexpected for me that this became a timbrel tool. The amount of freedom and potential of change in it made me really want to play around with timbre, and that's why I decided to give up on rhythms almost entirely and focus on FM. Through modifying a complex matrix one could potentially achieve very gradual timberal changes. I want to try out more mappings.

Download the ChucK file here: matrixcalc.ck

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Thanks to Kunwoo and Andrew for helping me with coding & design of this project! Also thanks Nick & Lejun for debug help.

HW3 Milestone2

Siqi Chen

[2024/10/30]

Music 256A, Stanford University

Music Sequencer Milestone B

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This milestone has A LOT to be updated. Some things I am still working on include:

Music Sequencer Brainstorm

When trying to brainstorm for the visualizer I had several ideas come up, and while they all seem interesting to me, they seem to have different difficulties and constraints. I've sketched out four design ideas I have in mind right now, and I would appreciate feedback on any of them!

1. Musical Matrix Calculator

This first design was inspired by a matrix calculator I used (A LOT) in my undergrad, and I was always amazed by the results of multiplying two matrix together. They could often lead to results I would never anticipate with my tiny brain (I bet they probably looked obvious to some math professors). But I thought this could be an attempt to sonify matrix operations!

If I end up choosing this project I am assuming there will be a lot of GText? Also I could perhaps include the imaginary unit, j, in honor of DSP :D

Maybe real numbers could be additive synthesis (nth order approx. of a square wave) and imaginary numbers could be subtractive synthesis?

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2. Periodic Table

The second idea is based on the Periodic Table -- it looks like a sequencer already! (@Walker) And thanks to Kunwoo's suggestion, maybe I could only allow existing molecules as inputs! Could be a fun educational tool? But some difficulties would be how I should render the molecules, and also how to deal with the time scale in this design. Probably not fun enough to have it go from left to right.

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3. Maxwell's Demon

The 3rd idea came from a thought experiment in physics called the Maxwell's Demon, which basically sorts particles based on their moving speed. (slow ones to the left and fast ones to the right, in this case.) If I end up doing this one I could see a lot of copy pasting from Senyuan's code (would it be too similar?) But overall, this seems like a feasible option in 3 weeks to me.

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4. Maestro Chef

The 4th idea is to have a cooking sequencer! The mappings are pretty much shown in the sketch, but the main concern here is probably designing the physics of so many moving objects.

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