RGMS-011
Released November 5, 2021
Sine Wave EXP No. 1, Davis Connors and Sean Kiley: November 2021
Untitled #1
The piece, Untitled #1, is seventeen sine waves performed thru improvisation, with each frequency selected for their harmonic structure. The idea birthed as an experiment, quickly formed a path. Each sine wave as an isolated instrument was controlled in real time, coming in and out of the foreground. The performance, mostly unadorned, is dry, featuring the slightest taint of reverb. The next layer of production involved specifying the pan location of each sine, essentially spreading out the harmonic results so as to make its cohesive intention more clear. The final product is the result of the first pass, the first performance, originally serving as a test run to conduct reconnaissance of the ensuing course. A second performance never manifested after the first become the object of intense reflection, searching for what elements were missing, what goal had been evaded, what mistakes required correcting…In the end, this unprepared performance came to be the final artifact, ultimately serving to demonstrate a deep raw human quality embedded in a simple technology.
Untitled #2
The goal of this experiment is to create a basis and model for an objective, scientific translation from light to sound. In this project, light’s physical properties are determined alongside the way in which these properties are perceived by the human eye; then, using only scientific understanding of the physics and phenomena of waves, light is ‘translated’ and reproduced as the closest replication in audible sound. The fundamental assumption, which this translation is based on is the ‘rule of octaves’ in sound, wherein a frequency exactly twice the amount of another frequency is perceived as the same, only registrally displaced. By calculating the frequency of a light wave and transposing it into the audible spectrum, the result is theoretically the same, only registrally displaced.
The resulting Research Publication: 'Towards More Objective Translations for a Non-Synesthesiac' makes use of the data gathered from a spectral analysis of an incandescent light bulb. The results are then inputted into a Max/MSP patch, which makes use of sine waves and additive synthesis to represent the object aurally. This sonic translation then serves as the foundation for the composition of Untitled #2.
Read the full Research Publication Here
Sine Wave EXP No. 1
"Untitled #1" Composed by Davis Connors
"Untitled #2" Composed by Sean Kiley
