Transform Audition Tool

The electronic sound transformations applied to get used to it man thats the way we live now are determined partly in advance, and partly on the fly, responsive to how the piece is performed. The result is a zone of uncertainty -- but not chance or randomness! -- within which the transforms will deploy with nearly limitless variability.

Our Transform Audition Tool below simulates some of the different transformations that are possible -- minus the zone of variability that can only come into play during a live performance. In the one-minute extract of the piece used here to model there are 14 fragments,12 of which present three choices of a transform to apply, and two meant to be heard in all performances as untransformed piano sound. We represent the transforms here as colors, so that upon selection your choice will layer over the fragment of the score it applies to.

To audition a set of transforms select one of the colored bands from any set of consecutive fragments and press the 'Play' button.

Calculating

The selection of three colors / transforms is not the same for every fragment in the example. Note fragments 10 and 11 happen to offer the same set of choices.

The total number of possible transformations from this example that could apply to this one minute excerpt from the score is 312 = 531,441. And that's before any variability based on how fragments are performed is factored into the spectrum of possible transformations.

The 14 fragments shown are part of the score itself that come into play during any performance (except those without electronics).

Notes:

  • The fragments that have no transform option (no color choices) are intended to be heard without any transform and will automatically play when they abut a selected fragment.
  • The playback begins from the first selected fragment and ends when it encounters a fragment which has not been selected.
  • Clicking in the progress bar will go to that location in the current audio rendering.