Brain burp (for synthesists)

[niftyprose]

Hi chaps, Google couldn't help with this -- needs actual human smarts, I think.

30 years ago, when I was playing around with computer video and graphics, I saw implementations which were obviously just computer gates. So you'd take two sources and combine them using a NOR gate, f'rinstance. It was primitive but had a lot of brio.

Is anyone aware of a similar approach to sound? I happen to be interested in combining two sources via a NAND gate, but I'll take any suggestions going...

[Ghost Hip]

If I am understanding you correctly, sounds like the modular synth world would have that. Lots of logic modules for and, or, nor, nand, etc. Make Noise Maths would be an end all be all for such things but there are definitely simpler solutions where you plug in two sources and there are outputs for each equation like the Blue Lantern CMOS Party.

There may be a better alternative than diving into eurorack synths I am not aware of though.

[coldbrightsunlight]

Yeah I do this in Eurorack a bunch. It produces very fun results.

In meatspace outside of euro/other modular systems it's certainly possible (logic gates could be built into any format) but I don't know of any specific devices that do it.

In the realm of computers I think this would be easy enough to do in Max but otherwise... Maybe? I've tried googling for plugins but the existence of Logic the DAW makes that tricky.

[crochambeau]

Do you mean using the NAND (or any other combinational logic) to affect external signals, or would the logic gates be the source of the signal? Any combinational logic is just going to produce a high or low state (there's a gray area, but surfing is a complex subject).

If you're talking about just getting sound out of them, searching the term "Lunetta" on the wider web might produce satisfactory results.

If you're wanting the logic to guide analog channels, you'll need to implement some CMOS switches (4066, 4051, etc), and live with or resolve any switching noise.

[coldbrightsunlight]

That's a really good point. I was just considering mixing multiple audio signals in logic gates. But there is much more that can be done.

[niftyprose]

Thanks to everyone who replied to this. My stompbox concept inevitably mutated into something that doesn't require logic gates, but it was nice to hear everyone's thoughts. Lunetta, huh?

[MrNovember]

As far as I know, this is complete unobtanium, but are you thinking something along the lines of the Granular Convolver?
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcNa22CGmDE[/youtube]

[tremolo3]

I once tried to create some patch using logic gates on my NM but failed miserably.

So naturally, I went to read some documentation and had to take a break of a few months from the idea after I came to the part where they showed a really simple arpeggiator using note detection, crossfade and logic gates modules.




I have enough nerding in a screen from 9 to 5, but this is quite a challenge and I have the feeling one can do complex compositions ala Autechre after crossing the door