Ithaca Trio

A dead hard-drive is a fun hard-drive

Oliver — Tue, 21 May 2013 19:53:41 +0000

So my new Macbook Pro’s hard-drive corrupted itself over the weekend. Lost a fair amount of unbacked-up work I’m ashamed to say. Rather than mourn the dead, I figured I’d have some fun with a corpse (so to speak…)

(ex)hard-drive rotary controller/turntable from owmtxy on Vimeo.

Its a really simple hack, just hook up some wire to the 4 copper pads under the platter (shown below), one acts as ground and any of the others act as your signal. Run it into the sound card and you’ve got a very low-frequency oscillator! In the above video I’m using the drive as a ring-modulator, and as a sample playback device with a [phasor~] and [lookup~] in Max!

Network no.1 for String Quartet

Oliver — Sun, 12 May 2013 18:35:09 +0000

I’ve mentioned the piece a couple of times on here over the last few months, but wanted to wait for a performance/recording to explain it a little more. So here we are at last: Network no.1 for string quartet.

The score is a hybrid of graphic and traditional, with a graph network diagram functioning as a map, and traditionally notated reference. Each ‘node’ on the map relates to an element from the separately notated gamut of sonorities. The edges of the map signify a potential route from one musical element to another. The length of an edge determines the duration of the element to be performed. So in this sense the map represents the time-space and structure of the piece, while the reference contains the sonic material.

As previously mentioned here, the work exists in a a state of non-linearity. Performers work independently, following their own paths across score ‘maps’. Routes are determined stochastically (and regenerated each time the network graphs are compiles), although each player may choose their own starting point.

The recording was made on Tuesday, 7th May, 2013.

Many thanks to the performers for their time.

Violins – Alice Dawkins; Hannah Packman

Viola – Katherine Lambeth

Violoncello – Claudia Chapman

Thanks also to Tony @Big_Pause for his patient advice during the programming stage.

Download the score generation used for the recording: Network no.1 – SCORE.pdf

Network no.1 proof-of-concept score

Oliver — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 15:07:20 +0000

Making some (small) headway towards realising the string quartet I finished last month, I made a short realisation of the piece’s opening last night in standard notation.

As it is, the piece exists in a state of non-linearity, only becoming ‘fixed’ through the course of a performance. As such this standard, linear score destroys the stochastic nature, but is useful for me to better understand how a performance might unfold. I’ll post a more concise summary of the piece soon, along with the full-score.

network_1_handwritten

I tend to put up short posts, images, quotes etc. relating to my research and compositions on my tumblr, so follow that for a bit of a taste of my current work.

Burble, Squelch, Bzzzzz, Blip-Blip-Bleeeeeep

Oliver — Thu, 07 Mar 2013 08:12:28 +0000

Still can’t figure this out…

synth test2 from owmtxy on Vimeo.

March Mix: Love Hangover

Oliver — Wed, 06 Mar 2013 18:19:33 +0000

Another month, another mix. All sorts going on here: New Orleans Soul, American Drone, a Charleston, Thai Funk, Nigerian Rock, Brazilian Folk… and Diana Ross.

Download the bastard here: http://www.mediafire.com/?379i7pdysvt0rbu (150MB, 320kbps)

March 2013: Love Hangover by Øliver Thurley on Mixcloud

Network #1 – score finished.

Oliver — Sat, 02 Mar 2013 20:10:43 +0000

So, just finished preliminary checks of my very first String Quartet scores. Quite exciting. Won’t post the full score just yet, but here’s a part of the Cello’s score: the network itself.

I’ll post a full breakdown at some point but essentially, nodes represent musical events (notated separately), edges represent durations for which the events are sustained, leading to the next.

Massive thanks to @Big_Pause for his invaluable help with the code on this one. Now to find a string quartet…

Beeblebrox and the Infinite Improbability Drive {Python}

Oliver — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 22:33:32 +0000

Trying to deal with an issue in my first String Quartet where performers were being faced with a probabilistic decision… being that musicians are not computers (shame), I’m looking at pre-calculating these probabilities, whilst trying to find a way to keep my score system indeterminate (more on that later). Some code I knocked up today to calculate probabilities for weighted edges in a graph network.

### Weighted outcome calculator for Network #1 (String Quartet #1)
# owmtxy, feb 2013 - python
# Input up to 5 probability percentages, and calculate a weighted outcome
 
import random
 
elapsed = 0
duration = 0 #int(input("Enter duration: "))
 
while(elapsed < 840): # While the elapsed time is < 14 minutes
    print("\nEnter probabilites, smallest first (0 for unused edges)...")
    # Enter each (accumulative) probability weighting (%)
    val1 = int(input("Weighting A: "))
    val2 = val1 + int(input("Weighting B: "))
    val3 = val2 + int(input("Weighting C: "))
    val4 = val3 + int(input("Weighting D: "))
    val5 = val4 + int(input("Weighting E: "))
 
    def makeRandom():
        randomVal = random.random() # Generate a random 'deciding' value
        randomVal = round(randomVal*100) #Scale it to a %
        return(int(randomVal))
 
    randomX = makeRandom()
    print(randomX)
 
# Compare the randomX value to the probability boundries:
    if(randomX <= val1):
         print("Outcome A")
     elif (randomX > val1) and (randomX <= val2):
         print("Outcome B")
     elif (randomX > val2) and (randomX <= val3):
         print("Outcome C")
     elif (randomX > val3) and (randomX <= val4):
         print("Outcome D")
     elif (randomX > val4) and (randomX <= val5):
         print("Outcome E")
     # Add the duration of the selected edge to the elapsed time
     duration = int(input("Enter duration: "))
     elapsed += duration
     print("Elapsed time: ", elapsed/60)
     # Repeat until we reach > 14 minutes

February Mix: Waiting Around To Die

Oliver — Sun, 03 Feb 2013 09:57:35 +0000

This month’s mix:

February 2013: Waiting Around To Die by Øliver Thurley on Mixcloud

Enjoy!

Pitch Deviation Calculator [.maxpat]

Oliver — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 15:50:57 +0000

Nothing complex by any means, but a useful little tool to calculate pitch deviations of harmonic spectra and microtonal scales.

Download: pitch_deviation.maxpat

3D Network Scores

Oliver — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 17:16:32 +0000