An attempt at a synthesizer version of an organ piece of mine (see below). Here, I use extreme stasis - just one note is played. Variations and structure are provided by the (new) PO-16 pattern oscillator.
The PO-16 oscillator is based on a lecture by Karlheinz Stockhausen where he explains how he speeds up rhythms (periodic patterns of percussive sounds) in order to get sounds of specific colours. Pulses are entered as 16 step sequences and played back very quickly (here up to 16 steps per oscillator period). This results in sound colours ranging from classic to very complex. In this case I am using simple sawtooth like colours but - through changing the number of steps for each pattern- a polyrhythm is created that corresponds to harmonics. What is special here is that these harmonics are not sine waves but can have colours given by the patterns.
Both pieces sound a bit like they were made with a harmonic VCO.
I have a few questions:
Are you planning to make this module available (I need to get my hands on it to “get” it)?
I watched part of the Stockhausen lecture you linked yesterday and I had trouble understanding what he meant by “colors”. Is this a reference to synesthesia or are the colors a metaphore?
Yes, you can play a guitar in such a way that you do not hear the fundamental+lower harmonics but upper harmonics which is a different set of harmonic amplitudes and thus a different colour.
