I EMAILED PETER
ELSEA
JUNE 2006
While trying to figure out how I should map the various medias of The Emotion Organ, I wanted to explore if it was possibloe to detect musical chords using Max, and apply matched "hits" to other media. I have prevuiously asked others about this process, but have not found any practical, existing Max patches for this purpose, and have not an inkling of how to make such a patch myself. I think the kind of thing I'm looking for is a bit old-school in relation to current day electronic music practices.
Additonally I am not trained as a musician/composer, so even the issue of what makes a chord a chord - is difficult for me to get my head around. Convinced that such patches must exist, I performed the usual goolge search and found Professor Peter Elsea's tution page on just this subject. Though his approach and patches were clearly documented on his website, there were no actual patches for download, so I wrote him the following email:
From: amanda@pobox.com
Subject: Max patches for chords
Date: 4 June 2006
Dear Peter,
I have visited your website and am particularly interested in your work regarding
chords and max.
(http://www.sfu.ca/sca/Manuals/247/Max/ElseaMax
Tuts/Max&Chords.html)
I am a research fellowess at the Norwegian Theatre Academy, Østfold
University College, Norway, and the title of my project is "Mind, the
gap. Synaesthesia and contemporary liv art practice." My website is here:
http://www.notam02.no/motherboard/synaesthesia/
As part of my project I am developing a synaesthetic instrument called "The
Emotion Organ". What I am attempting to do is to revamp a pump organ
from 1895 via a physical computing process to give it synaesthetic capabilities,
so that when played it emits unusual combinations of diverse media: its original
sound, electro-acoustic sound (distributed to 6 speakers constructed of old
gramophone horns), projected imagery, lights, aromas and kinetic elements
( such as a spinning fan that becomes a projection surface, the speed controlled
by both the organ's knee leavers for controlling volume, and the footpumps).
At this point I would like to tell you that I am not a musician, but am educated
as a dancer and choreographer. I have been working with digital technology
in various contexts since 1995.
I have spent a over a year restoring the instrument - learning how to do it
myself, but with the help of experts when I reach barriers that I cannot overcome
myself. I have also attended several physical computing workshops to develop
the electronics/sensors/software etc, part of the organ. The software I am
using for controlling mapping each media onto the other is Max. I have only
used max prior to this project in very simple ways, so I am pretty much a
novice. While I have several qualified consultants for the Max scripting of
my project it is hard to find people these days who can give me practical
examples/patches of more traditional musical compositional techniques such
as scales and chords. Most people seem to be in the realms of granular synthesizing,
filters, sampling, etc. I was therefore delighted to google onto your site.
Now, under the 61 key keyboard of my organ I have installed a sensor strip
(light) that detects note on, off and velocity of each key ( I have many other
sensors installed in the organ, but it is particularly the keyboard part I
would like to ask for your help on). What I would like to do is to be able
to detect various chords and then use the data to trigger other media. Say,
a chord in D flat played on the organ may produce the color purple in the
projected imagery - or/and the smell of an Egyptian mummy (via my electronic
aroma dispensing system) - or vice versa. I hope you get my drift! I am still
working on the mappings!
What I would like to ask you is - could you share your actual max patches
for detecting chords with me, as described and illustrated in your website?
While this may seem a cheeky request given that you provide clear visual examples
of the patches, I can learn much more speedily when I can gain access to the
patches themselves and would be absolutely delighted if you could help me
out.
Kindest regards,
Amanda Steggell
To which he replied:
That looks like an ineresting project. I'll watch your website to see
how it comes out.
Here's the most recent version of my chord catcher
pqe
--
Peter Elsea
Director, Electronic Music Studios
University of California, Santa Cruz
http://arts.ucsc.edu/EMS/index.html
Delighted, I tried out his patch on the organ, but was dismayed to get no matches, even though I thought I was playing different chords, and had the correct inputs and outputs.
I mailed him again:
Dear Peter,
thank you so much for sending me your chordcatcher.
I have hooked it up to my organ (61 key sensor strip) and been trying to find
out what to do with the inputs and outputs!
Looking at the "stripnote" object connected the note in to the first
inlet and velocity to the second - but did not get any matches. Did I do it
correctly?
In other words, what data do the inlets accept?
Lastly, would you mind if I included my correspondences with you on my website?
with best wishes
Amanda
And he mailed back:
Sorry-
I haven't looked at that stuff for years, and a trick I was using does not
work any more.
Here's a more contemporary version.
You also need a new Lrem, as there's a bug in the last version.
pqe
- So I hooked up to the organ agin and tried the new patch. I think it is working now - at least I'm getting some reults - but without more knowledge of music it is hard for me to say whether it is working properly or not. I'll have to pull out my old music theory books, practice playing the organ, and get my head around this. I'm not sure if i will use the notion of chords to trigger/manipulate other media yet. Possibly just combinations of keys would be sufficient - but at the moment I think it is worth pursuing.
LINKS
Peter Elsea
Director, Electronic Music Studios
University of California, Santa Cruz
http://arts.ucsc.edu/EMS/index.html
MAX TUTORIALS
http://www.sfu.ca/sca/Manuals/247/Max/ElseaMaxTuts/
Max&Chords.html