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TUNING digest 1010

🔗gtaylor@heurikon.com (Gregory Taylor)

3/11/1997 7:57:33 AM
>From: William Sethares
>Subject: mapping spectra

>A few years ago, Tom Staley and I wrote an article called "Sounds of
>Crystals" in Experimental Musical Instruments (EMI) that did
>something very similar (ref. below). We looked at x-ray diffraction
>patterns (spectra) and mapped them into the audio spectra. Many of
>the resulting sounds were exceedingly complex (*very* many
>nonharmonic partials), but there were some real standouts. One of
>our favorites was the sound of the morphine crystal, which we used
>for a piece titled "Duet for Morphine and Crystal" that appeared in
>the EMI compilation cassette that year.

Having broadcast the piece a number of times, I can personally attest
that a) it's quite listenable b) it seems to attract the attention of
a number of those community radio listeners in the habit of calling the
station when they hear something that interests them. I try and explain
what Bill's said above, and point out that he's in the process of
releasing a CD of his intriguing musics. Just out of curiousity, what
other XRD stuff sounded interesting? Can one generalize? I wouldn't
mind trying to map an essential oil like Melissa, which I could then
collide with the Allman Brothers tune of the same name....

Working on !12tET program number *4*,
Gregory


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