THE GARDEN OF SONIC DELIGHTS  (2015-16)
a soundscape composition with multiple digital soundtracks

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The Garden of Sonic Delights (2015-16) invites the listener to enter an imaginary soundscape (one that Murray Schafer might describe as a “soniferous garden”) richly filled with sounds that may remind us of the actual sounds of water, wind, insects and birds. Our visit will take us through the afternoon until the next morning, hopefully leaving us delighted and refreshed.

The piece was commissioned for the 2016 BEAST Feast and realized in 48 channels at the Technical University, Berlin, and the composer’s private studio assisted by Outboard’s TiMax2 Soundhub for spatialization.

Original recordings from the World Soundscape Project Tape Collection. Sound processing realized with Soundhack convolution and Chris Rolfe’s MacPod software, with spatialization created by Harmonic Functions’ TiMax2 matrix mixer, marketed by Outboard Inc (UK).

Scenes:	Entering the garden	Afternoon and evening	Nighttime and Dawn Chorus
Production Score:	Prod1, Prod2	Prod3, Prod4	Prod5, Prod6
Time:	0:00	5:20	7:45
Audio:	Part 1	Part 2	Part 3
Spectrogram:	Part 1a, Part 1b	Part 2	Part 3a, Part 3b

Materials:
All sounds in the piece were based on recordings of natural sounds in various environments (e.g. forests, meadows). Fifteen files were convolved with themselves using SoundHack to produce various hybrids, most normalized with high frequency boost, and some EQ'd with fades added; granular time stretching and digital resonators using Chris Rolfe's MacPod were also used (see parameters in the production files). Various ambient sounds provide a background, as listed below in Section IV.

I. Creek (Chemainus, BC) Resonated and Convolved with itself

 Creek 1 (Original source material, percussive section)

Creek 1 resonated & granulated	Resonated Sections	*self	*self*self
CreekRes1 (two voices)	CreekRes1a	CreekRes1a*self	CreekRes1a*self*self
	CreekRes1b	CreekRes1b*self	CreekRes1b*self*self
	CreekRes1c	CreekRes1c*self	CreekRes1c*self*self
CreekRes2 (four voices)	CreekRes2a	CreekRes2a*self	CreekRes2a*self*self
	CreekRes2b	CreekRes2b*self	CreekRes2b*self*self
	CreekRes2c	CreekRes2c*self	CreekRes2c*self*self
CreekRes3 (eight voices)
CreekRes4 (eight voices)	CreekRes4a	CreekRes4a*self	CreekRes4a*self*self
	CreekRes4b	CreekRes4b*self	CreekRes4b*self*self
	CreekRes4c	CreekRes4c*self	CreekRes4c*self*self
CreekRes5 (twelve voices)	CreekRes5a	CreekRes5a*self	CreekRes5a*self*self
	CreekRes5b	CreekRes5b*self	CreekRes5b*self*self
	CreekRes5c	CreekRes5c*self	CreekRes5c*self*self
CreekRes6 (16 voices)
Spectrograms		CreekRes1245a*self CreekRes1245b*self CreekRes1245c*self	CreekRes1245a*self*self CreekRes1245b*self*self CreekRes1245c*self*self

II. Natural Sound Convolved with itself, Stretched and/or Resonated

Original Source Materials	*self	*self*self	*self*self*self	Stretched	Resonated**+Stretch
Bee	Bee*self  Bee*self+rev	Bee*self*self  Bee*self*self+1oct  Bee*self*self+rev  Bee*self*self+rev+1oct
BirdAmb	BirdAmb*self  BirdAmb*self-1oct  BirdAmb*self+1oct
BirdFly	BirdFly*self	BirdFly*self*self	BirdFly*self*self*self
BirdSolo2	BirdSolo2*self	BirdSolo2*self*self  BirdSolo2*self*self-28	BirdSolo2*self*self*self  BirdSolo2*self*self*self-1oct  BirdSolo2*self*self*self-28		BirdSolo2*selfResStr  BirdSolo2*selfResStr+Rev  BirdSolo2*self*self-28ResStr
BirdSolo3	BirdSolo3*self	BirdSolo3*self*self  BirdSolo3*self*self-2oct	BirdSolo3*self*self*self  BirdSolo3*self*self*self-1oct  BirdSolo3*self*self*self-2oct		BirdSolo3*selfResStr  BirdSolo3*selfResStr+Rev  BirdSolo3*self*self-2octResStr
Eagle	Eagle*self  Eagle*self-1oct  Eagle*self-2oct  Eagle*self-3oct	Eagle*self*self  Eagle*self*self-1oct  Eagle*self*self-2oct  Eagle*self*self-3oct	Eagle*self*self*self  Eagle*self*self*self-1oct  Eagle*self*self*self-2oct  Eagle*self*self*self-3oct	Eagle*self-1Str  Eagle*self-1Str-1oct  Eagle*self-1Str-2oct  Eagle*self-1Str-3oct	Eagle*self-2Str  Eagle*self-2Str-1oct  Eagle*self-2Str-2oct
Flies2	Flies2*self	Flies2*self*self  Flies2*self*self+1oct  Flies2*self*self+2oct  Flies2*self*self+3oct
Flies3	Flies3*self	Flies3*self*self  Flies3*self*self+1oct  Flies3*self*self+2oct  Flies3*self*self+3oct
Fly1	Fly1*self  Fly1Comb			Fly1Str	Fly1Res
Fly2	Fly2*self  Fly2*self+1oct  Fly2*self+2oct  Fly2*self+3oct	Fly2*self*self  Fly2*self*self+1oct  Fly2*self*self+2oct  Fly2*self*self+3oct	Fly2*self*self+Rev  Fly2*self*self+1oct+Rev  Fly2*self*self+2oct+Rev  Fly2*self*self+3oct+Rev
Grasshopper	Grasshopper*self  Grasshopper*self-1oct  Grasshopper*self-2oct	Grasshopper*self*self  Grasshopper*self*self-1oct  Grasshopper*self*self-2oct
Squirrel	Squirrel*self  Squirrel*self-1oct  Squirrel*self-1octEx  Squirrel*self-2octEx	Squirrel*self*self  Squirrel*self*self-1oct  Squirrel*self*self-2oct  Squirrel*self*self-1+2oct
Cicadas	Cicadas*self
Crickets	Crickets*self

Production Score

III. Spatialization

Certain groups of sounds in the work (as noted by ** in the production score) are spatialized with the TiMax2 SoundHub, developed by Harmonic Functions. Our version uses it as a 16 to 8 matrix mixer where at every cross-point in the mixer, an "image" describes how the signal is routed to the 8 output channels in terms of level (dB) and time delay (ms). In this particular work, the images are all members of a family called Echo where one output channel is strongest (0 dB), and two neighbouring output channels on either side (skipping one channel each) drop off by about 6.0 dB with a 170 ms delay. The visual and numerical representations of some sample images are shown in the table below (with the relevant numerical values marked in red, the amplitude levels shown as faders, the delays shown with an up arrow fader, and the output channels listed on the bottom row).

In all cases a Trajectory is created by placing 8 or 12 such images in a row, indicated in the Production Score, where the sequence of images goes clockwise around the ring of speakers in the sequence Echo1, Echo2, .... Echo8 (note: in the production score, these images are referred to as 13, 14, ... 20, plus 45-52 for the 12-channel version). In all cases, the right hand channel is two speakers to the right (e.g. when the left channel goes to Echo1, the right goes to Echo3, etc. so the echoes overlap). With the trajectories interpolating between these fixed values, the effect is similar to a swarm of sounds moving collectively. Note that the speed of the trajectory depends on the length of the file, and in this work, one or more complete rotations around the 8 speakers occur during the entire file as noted, not always evenly, meaning that each file with its own duration will be spatialized at different speeds.

Echo1

Echo5

Echo8

IV. Ambiences

Certain ambiences are also used, some for more distant speakers, and one track closer as an original reference.

  Creek1 (percussive)

 Creek2 (smooth)

 Wind3 (with subtle resonance)

 Wind4 (with subtle resonance)

 Wind4A (with subtle resonance)

 Wind5 (with subtle resonance and passing cars)

 Insect1 (with car passing)

 Insect2 (with car passing)

  Insect3 (with fly)

 Forest1

 Forest2

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