The first prototype version Chaosynth (the 1993 version) runs on Unix (tested on Sun (Solaris) and Silicon Graphics (Irix) platforms) and Linux, and it uses Csound to synthesise the sounds. Csound is a software for sound synthesis in which one specififes a synthesis algorithm in an orchestra file and a list of synthesis parameters in a score file. When the Csound compiler is activated, it compiles these two files and produces the sound. The system generates the appropriate score files for a standard Chaosynth orchestra.
The control panel is shown in Figure 6. It is the main window of the interface; it allows access to file menus, generation of output and access to the mapping controls. It also enables the adjustment of the size of the grid, specification of ChaOs parameters (resistances and capacitance values), size of the particles (in seconds) and number of iterations.
Figure 6: The control panel
There are two panels of sliders to set the oscillators: the Instruments panel (Figure 7) and the States panel (Figure 8). The former allows the specification of the amplitude of the oscillators; up to 25 oscillators can be configured (beta version). The latter allows the specification of frequency values to be associated to the states of the cellular automaton; up to 40 frequency values can be associated to 40 different states (beta version).
Figure 7: The Intruments panel
Figure 8: The States panel
BACK to Chaosynth main
NEXT