Caos-Untitled

Justin Bennett
British

http://this.is/justin/
jb@bmbcon.demon.nl

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Technical Details.
The piece (caos-untitled) is a Max/MSP/Jitter collective
that will play a piece of 6 mins 40 secs repeatedly.
clicking on "start-stop" should intitalise and start the piece.
the stereo output can be chosen for checking that it works.
the loudspeakers should be set up as shown in the "info" window (click on "info").
that is: 8 loudspeakers spaced equidistantly around a circle surrounding the listening space.
If loudspeaker 1 is the central speaker then speaker 2 is at 45 degrees CLOCKWISE from this and so-on.
The distance from each speaker to the centre of the listening space should be identical.
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The piece, and the processes involved.
It starts very quietly. Then, loops from stereo field recordings move towards and around the listeners, eventually entering the listening space.
After about two minutes another sound starts. This is an unpredictable sample-playing algorithm that controls the pitch, volume, distortion and movement of mono samples of metallic sounds. After a crescendo (or not - it IS unpredictable!) this sound dies away and the piece starts over again.
The patch spatialises the sound using an M/S system. That is to say, sound in the program is treated as being placed in a 2d space by it's amplitude and angular direction. I developed this system for manipulating stereo field recordings and to organise them in space. Initially the patch was designed to produce a stereo output. Then I adapted it to be able to use any number and positioning of loudspeakers. It remains stereo compatible. In fact, it is possible to produce a stereo CD with this system and then play it back through the right software to re-spatialise the piece (see below)
Disadvantages of the system are...
It is best heard from the centre of the space.
It is sensitive to acoustic inbalances like strong reflections.
It is difficult to localise sound accurately between the speakers.
but i am working on it!!!