liquid space 02: drumuter

authors: Xavier Gazon aka etschaberry [ b ] LAb[au]

about:
It's a three dimensional sequencer, the ultimate combinatory audiovisual drum computer, triggered by motion, speed, directions, collisions, there is an infinite number of possibilities, it became an instrument of its own, I nicknamed it the "Drumuter".

Composing electronic music is about designing loops, which are constituted by a number of measures subdivided in the ubiquitous 4/4, filling boxes with sound samples triggered when the play head hits the box, nothing can be simpler ... and the instant drumbeat is there. Such a restricted or quite mechanic way of doing can be perceived as creative limitation but can be thanks to the computer almost unlimited storage and playback capacities, become a fantastic combinatory machine.

As simple as a cube divided in 10 on each of its axis can look, it holds 1000 smaller boxes, triggering and listening all these sounds can take a while even if played sequentially (linearly) but if one consider music as being the combination of smaller music elements or sounds, then even considering you can only use line-movements in this matrix exploring all the possibilities is quite endless. Drumuter uses such a matrix, composed of 1000 3D sound-objects triggered (playing sound) when a user's proximity has reached a minimum limit. If a user stands still depending on its exact position, he will hear either silence, either the same sound player forever and ever. If a user moves slower than the sample time he will hear successively all the line's (or loop pattern) sounds, moving faster cuts the sounds, slipping the faster it goes into clicks and cuts esthetics.

Looping users movement thanks to a collision box which replace the user on its displacement vector, music becomes the combinatory play of parameters as turn angle (0 to 360°), direction vector (forward, backward, up down) and speed (0 to 100 meters/second).