FM3 [disquiet0062-lifeofsine]

[petal]

I've been following the Disquiet Junto project for a while, and this week they had an interesting project that spoke to me:

This week's project involves making music from the basic building block of sound: the sine wave.

You will compose and record a piece of music using just three different sine waves, and nothing else — well, nothing else in terms of source material, but the waves can, after the piece has gotten underway, be transformed by any means you choose.

These are the steps:

Step 1: Devise which three sine waves you will employ. They should be different from each other in some evident way.
Step 2: The track should open with just one of the sine waves.
Step 3: Add the second sine wave at 5 seconds.
Step 4: Add the third sine wave at 10 seconds.
Step 5: Only at 15 seconds should you begin to in any way manipulate any of the source waves.

Deadline: Monday, March 11, 2013, at 11:59pm wherever you are.

Length: Your finished work should be between 1 and 4 minutes in length.


I used scope modular and created a simple 3 operator FM synth - Here's the result:

https://soundcloud.com/petalone/thomas-jeppesen-fm3

[kensuguro]

a very mature way of using fm.

[petal]

Thanks - I'm not sure I'd call it mature though, it's my first real venture into FM synthesis

[kensuguro]

well, I say mature because it's sort of picking up on very important details, like emphasizing when the fm actually starts creating extra harmonics, and also zooming into (evolving very slowly) when the third fm starts to kick in. It's definitely an exploration, but I think the points you emphasized summarized the effects of FM very well. It's almost like a teaching aid for explaining how FM sounds like. And all the way to feedback madness too. The slowness of the evolving sounds reminded me of the finer shades of simple 2 op or 3 op FM, which gets easily lost in more complex setups. It's much more mature than going berzerks with feed back, or making a bunch of FM bells or whatever.

I also like the fact that the various FM params were "performed", rather than playing a bunch of notes.

[petal]

Thank you for the kind words Ken. I'm happy to hear you enjoyed it!
I do get inspired by following rules as the ones listed above, and I enjoy exploring the sonic possibilities within these boundaries. It's the perfect adventure, where you just follow what makes you curious and catches your interest. I've known this for years, but never really gotten good at setting up rules for myself. Mental note...

If you like what you heard here, you should check out the other entries of this weeks Junto. There's a lot of good stuff there, which has all been created following the same five rules listed above:
https://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto



Cheers,
Thomas

[astroman]

I agree with Ken... your solution is 'keeping' the listener, and in fact it's a real track.
(listening to some of the other entries turned out quite demanding at times...)
it's a good idea to remind oneself on limits occasionally in virtually limitless DAW world

cheers, Tom

[hubird]

interesting approach, and it looks like all posibilities are represented in the soundcloud files.
Would it be possible to get a steady time devision somehow?
Something pulsating, througout the ongoing proces?
Probably not, as any third sine would destroy it immediately.
edit: found some exemples

[Marco]

I really like melody

[petal]

Hi Anabella,

I'm happy to hear that you like it, although I'm having a hard time hearing any melody in there myself

Cheers,
Thomas