SECTION 1
2 3 4
5 Sequences 2:35 --> Mx2
F
H
Jx2
M-M'
D
1:05 --> L'
E
C
K
G
0:00
A' ---->
N -->
N
I
Time
Spectragram Sec.1, 1a, 1b
FFT
Section 2
2a
Section 3
Section 4, 4a, 4ad
FFT
Section 5
5a, 5b
Materials and Production Notes:
All tracks were generated in 4 stereo pairs with real-time granular synthesis (the GSX program) with the DMX-1000, using both fixed waveform and Frequency Modulation (FM) grains (and recorded onto 8-track analogue tape that was later digitized). 19 separate grain streams of fixed waveform grains (always sine wave), and 8 streams of FM grains were synthesized in real time with grain streams being assigned to either the left or right channels thereby keeping each track uncorrelated with the other. Each FM grain has a C:M Ratio, its own Carrier and Modulating waveform (ones that are not waveform #1, sine, are complex waveforms with a few harmonics around vocal formant regions), and a modulation index envelope that is a simple ramp from 0 to the maximum Modulation Index indicated, and back down in equal proportions. Grain shape is always symmetrical with the default being the attack/decay occupying 1/4 of the grain duration, with that proportion oftened being softened to 1/2 as indicated.
Most the dynamic interest in each of the track is obtained by using a ramp on the starting variables indicated in the tables. The speed of the ramp is controlled by the "Ramp" parameter in ms which indicates the time between increments or decrements. The amount of the increment or decrement is the INC variable (which is 1 unless otherwise indicated) multiplied by a scaling factor, e.g. Freq.+2. Ramps can be ascending or descending, and in order to produce an imperceptibly slow ramp, a "random ramp" is used where at each update point a random value of INC is added or subtracted. Hence for INC = 2, the values 0 or 1 will be randomly chosen, eliminating any obvious regular steps. In the table, the number of parameters being ramped and their individual scaling factors are indicated, such that multiple parameters can be simultaneously ramped, in similar motion (+,+) or contrary motion (+,-). A keyboard command (A, D) allowed ramps to change directions quickly, as well as to pause and then continue under manual control. The overall timing of the sections of a ramp are not specifically documented here, but when hearing the resulting track, the moments of change should be audible.
Note that in the table, variables that are different between the four stereo tracks are indicated in red so that they can be easily distinguished from those values which are the same (but still possibly ramped) between tracks.
Up to 32 tracks were mixed in the Sonic Research Studio at SFU onto 4-track tape in 1986, slightly revised in 1987, and mixed onto an 8-track digital tape in 2004. The use of a digital delay in the early quadraphonic versions (mainly to help fuse the tracks) was abandoned in the later octophonic version. The octophonic playback is distributed around the listener with the channels numbered clockwise. The original stereo pairs occupy alternating, not adjacent speakers, as indicated in the sequence documentation.
The Spectrograms were created with the SpectraFoo software using a logarithmic scale; the linear FFT diagrams are taken from Helmuth (2006).