CYCLONIUM: A software for composing. A creation by Vincent Lesbros, PhD in Artificial Intelligence, to be discovered on this video.

Abstract

Historically, sonographic representations of sounds are based on two types of scales: linear or logarithmic (Xenakis, 1971; Roads, 1995; Lesbros, 1995, 1996; Xiaoying, 2008). These two kinds of scales introduce beats between sounds produced by adjacent lines of the image. In a linear scale, for example, of 1 Hz by pixel, a beat of 1 Hz will appear if any horizontal line has a thickness of more than 1 pixel. In a logarithmic scale, for example, of 192 ppo (pixel per octave), a beat of one 16th of semitone will spread. Here, we introduce a new kind of scale in order to use hand drawn sonographs, avoiding this particular beat effect. We extend the usual additive method to frequency modulation and add a way to spacialize sonographs in stereo channels. We propose different kinds of filters to control rhythm and harmony, and finally, we expose a way to compose music tightly linked with a video by creating sonographs directly from video frames.

Introduction

If music and painting pull at your heartstrings, you may like to create a correspondence between the two, turning a simple brush stroke into a flight of lyricism, letting colour set the tone and the power behind the brush bring new vivacity to a piece of music.

While so doing, you will want to know all the ins and outs, understand the underlying physical structure, the theory of light (QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter; Richard Feynman, 1985) and the fundamentals of sound synthesis. UPIC (Unité Polyagogique Informatique du CEMAMU), Phonogramme (Vincent Lesbros 1991) and Sonographe (Vincent Lesbros 2004) have paved the way. Cyclonium is the fruit of more advanced research, aiming toward a faithful reproduction of spontaneity and in-depth understanding.

This article focuses on three points developed in our new framework Cyclonium: frequency scales with regard to timbre, the geometry of rhythm associated with mathematical series and potential cohesion between musical composition and the temporal progression of animated images, such as those in videos or in films.

The standard use of Sonographe consists in the design of a two dimensional image, structured from left to right in time, and from bottom to top for the bass frequencies up to the treble ones. The image is thus translated into sound by a logical computer process: a formula in line with physics, taking place in a discrete world, where the real numbers are reduced to artificial and incomplete representations.

The game consists in transmitting, in the best possible way, the author’s creative energy during the rendering of the final result, by transforming the initial trace left on paper into speaker vibration.

The choice of language is paramount in what it is possible to express (1996, Claude Hagège, L’homme de parole). « Composer c’est programmer, programmer c’est composer » wrote Giuseppe Englert. (Giuseppe G. Englert, 1989).

Cyclonium builds a bridge between the efficiency of the C language and the flexibility of Smalltalk with a constant concern to help visualize the manipulated elements and processes of transformations and calculations. The latest version automatically generates the C code and the interface for the programs expressed by the user in the Smalltalk environment by drawing graphical schemes.

By composing a piece of music on paper with a brush, you will be able to obtain a comprehensive, heuristic and intuitive vision, with no holds barred as to your creative gesture. Translating the strokes, the colors and the textures, takes you closer to the physical structure of the image and sound. If you do not actually reach their physical structures, their IT ersatz is at least created.

Cyclonium offers a discrete space-time at the level of the sample in the sound domain and at pixel level in the graphical field, as well as special tools for linking visual and sound aspects, opening the door to any new creative metaphor significant in these spaces. Images can thus be translated into sounds through the programming activity. Moreover, it is also a way of creating first-hand what moves us, namely images and sounds.

In conclusion, a simple rule in the programming space can give rise to complex phenomena, usable in the artistic effervescence, and yet to be described. Cyclonium is an exploratory tool to reveal these phenomena, raw material for creation.

Sound samples

Sound samples on SoundCloud