Christopher Jakobi

For this project I used Max/MSP for sound design, effects processing, and for spectral analysis during post production. 

aurora

Aurora

As already mentioned in the description, this piece was realized with the help of a Max-Patch called "Drone Creator" shown in the picture.

aurora-drone-drone-creator

Aurora Drone (Drone Creator)

This project is a Max/MSP patch that uses eight buffers for loading a sound file in it or record sound live, and process it, as described above.

super-looper

Super-Looper

„Die Hamletmaschine“ is a performance for voice and live-electronics. Its text is based on the homonymous theatre piece by the German playwright Heiner Müller. The actor/actress recites Müller’s script, while all electronics are realized by a performer with the help of Max/MSP in real-time. The recording was made at the premiere on January 31, 2016 in Basel, Switzerland.

This piece makes use of three patches simultaneously. The first is variable pitch-shifting for the voice, the second is a Joystick patch and the third my "Super-Looper"-patch. 

die-hamletmaschine-performance-for-voice-and-live-electronics

Die Hamletmaschine - Performance for Voice and Live-Electronics

A lot of people asked me for my "Super-Looper" Max/MSP-patch, so I decided to build a version, that everybody can use without any additional controllers. After switching to presentation mode, this basic version has all controls on the surface. The full version is completely controlled via a total of about 200 Midi CC messages, so you will need some kind of hardware controller. If you want to give the full version a try, just contact me and ask for it.

Please feel free to leave a comment, if you like the patch!

A recent performance realized with the Super-Looper patch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vs-RNUv8HY8

super-looper-basic

Super-Looper Basic

As a fairly high amount of people wanted to have a look at my patch "Drone Creator", I decided to post it here as a tool for download. If you haven’t seen my project "Aurora Drone" yet, you should visit the site to listen to a piece created with the patch. (https://cycling74.com/project/aurora-drone-drone-creator)

The basic idea is to load two sound files into the patch and play them at very low varying speeds. The default setting is a speed between 10 and 20 percent, a new value is chosen by a chance operator every 10 seconds, and slowly accelerating or slowing from one value to the other. Both channels work independently. Additionally L-R-panning supports the sound-colour shifts.

The frequency for the chance operator as well as a minimum value and a range can be adjusted.

From my experience especially disharmonic, bell-like sounds, pads, or rhythmic musical materials fit very well, while vocals or stressed drum sounds might lead to unsatisfying results. But as this is only what I witnessed from my limited experiments, I am glad for other opinions. Don’t forget to switch to presentation mode after opening the patch.

I would really appreciate any feedback or audio files of your own results with the patch for further improvement, just write a comment.

Two examples realized with the "Drone Creator"

Aurora Drone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05xodlkD4s4

Grains: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qMeI6PJrYY

                          -----The following is the original description from my project "Aurora Drone"-----
“Aurora Drone” is the attempt to completely alter the character of a piece of music by playing it back at very low speeds. It is thus possible to change a very vivid Drum and Bass track into a minimalistic soundscape. With a Max/MSP patch that I programmed and called “Drone Creator” you can play up to two sound files at a time and the implemented chance operators immediately start to slowly modulate the play back speed (and therefore pitch) for both tracks independently, creating continuously changing layers of sound and rhythm. In this case I chose a Drum and Bass song called “Aurora” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqm1g8AFc8U) that I produced previously and which is played twice simultaneously at speeds between a factor of 0.1 and 0.3 of the original speed. Additionally both tracks are moving between the left and right channel contributing the shifting sounds in this piece.  With the Drone Creator it is possible to produce an immeasurable amount of sounds not limited to drones by the choice of the musical material fed into it as well as the variation of the parameters.

drone-creator

Drone Creator

The piece "Essay" is a first attempt at using the piano with live electronics. Besides the playback of pre-produced samples, it is mainly the pitchshift object, that Max is used for in this project.

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