Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Tau Dub: What and How



Tau (2 π) is a suggested replacement for Pi. I wrote Tau Dub as part of the Tau Day gig / filming at RiAUS yesterday. You can see Tau Dub at the 11:26 mark in the video below.




Tau Dub uses Max/MSP for data generation and Ableton Live for sound generation. The first 614 digits of Tau are used, as follows:

6 2 8 3 1 8 5 3 0 7 1 7 9 5 8 6 4 7 6 9 2 5 2 8 6 7 6 6 5 5 9 0 0 5 7 6 8 3 9 4 3 3 8 7 9 8 7 5 0 2 1 1 6 4 1 9 4 9 8 9 1 8 4 6 1 5 6 3 2 8 1 2 5 7 2 4 1 7 9 9 7 2 5 6 0 6 9 6 5 0 6 8 4 2 3 4 1 3 5 9 6 4 2 9 6 1 7 3 0 2 6 5 6 4 6 1 3 2 9 4 1 8 7 6 8 9 2 1 9 1 0 1 1 6 4 4 6 3 4 5 0 7 1 8 8 1 6 2 5 6 9 6 2 2 3 4 9 0 0 5 6 8 2 0 5 4 0 3 8 7 7 0 4 2 2 1 1 1 1 9 2 8 9 2 4 5 8 9 7 9 0 9 8 6 0 7 6 3 9 2 8 8 5 7 6 2 1 9 5 1 3 3 1 8 6 6 8 9 2 2 5 6 9 5 1 2 9 6 4 6 7 5 7 3 5 6 6 3 3 0 5 4 2 4 0 3 8 1 8 2 9 1 2 9 7 1 3 3 8 4 6 9 2 0 6 9 7 2 2 0 9 0 8 6 5 3 2 9 6 4 2 6 7 8 7 2 1 4 5 2 0 4 9 8 2 8 2 5 4 7 4 4 9 1 7 4 0 1 3 2 1 2 6 3 1 1 7 6 3 4 9 7 6 3 0 4 1 8 4 1 9 2 5 6 5 8 5 0 8 1 8 3 4 3 0 7 2 8 7 3 5 7 8 5 1 8 0 7 2 0 0 2 2 6 6 1 0 6 1 0 9 7 6 4 0 9 3 3 0 4 2 7 6 8 2 9 3 9 0 3 8 8 3 0 2 3 2 1 8 8 6 6 1 1 4 5 4 0 7 3 1 5 1 9 1 8 3 9 0 6 1 8 4 3 7 2 2 3 4 7 6 3 8 6 5 2 2 3 5 8 6 2 1 0 2 3 7 0 9 6 1 4 8 9 2 4 7 5 9 9 2 5 4 9 9 1 3 4 7 0 3 7 7 1 5 0 5 4 4 9 7 8 2 4 5 5 8 7 6 3 6 6 0 2 3 8 9 8 2 5 9 6 6 7 3 4 6 7 2 4 8 8 1 3 1 3 2 8 6 1 7 2 0 4 2 7 8 9 8 9 2 7 9 0 4 4 9 4 7 4 3 8 1 4 0 4 3 5 9 7 2 1 8 8 7 4 0 5 5 4 1 0 7 8 4 3 4 3 5 2 5 8 6 3 5 3 5 0 4 7 6 9 3 4 9 6 3 6 9 3 5 3 3 8 8 1 0 2 6 4 0 0 1 1 3 6 2 5 4 2 9 0 5 3


All sonic material has been derived from the first 614 digits of Tau, converted as amplitude points to a continuous audio waveform. This waveform has then been processed to yield percussive material as well as pitched material.

Tau Waveform

Manipulating the Tau Waveform


Rhythm is generated from working with sets of eight digits from Tau (6.28...). Four digits are combined and then represented as a set of sixteen bits. These two groups of sixteen bit values are then compared with each other and processed using logic gates, which can be chosen by the user. The possible logic gates include the usual (and, or, nand, nor, not etc). A total of eight percussive sounds are mapped from eight possibilities of these logic gate combinations. Each logic gate combination represents a rhythm in a linear phrase, where a set bit represents a triggered percussive event. The timing of each percussive phrase is set by a global tempo / transport function as well as a phrase-by-phrase division of this global tempo (from 1/4 notes and 1/6 notes to 1/32 and 1/24 notes).

Rhythm Generation

Percussive Sounds


Control data, used for effect automation, is generated by creating sum and difference waves of the logic gate results, and then routing these to a range of effects.

Sum, Difference and Average Control Waves

Routing Data to Effects Automation

Pitch-based data is generated by looping a predefined length Tau, scaling each digit and playing this as a note whilst snapping the pitch to a major scale degree. The duration and timing of each note is set by a global tempo / transport function as well as a phrase-by-phrase division of this global tempo (1/4, 1/8 or 1/2).

Generating Pitches


Tau Waveform Synths


Tau Waveform Synth Chain

3 comments:

Virgil Disgr4ce said...

Is the Tau Dub recording available anywhere? :D

Poppi said...

There's not many people in the audience – was this performance open to the public, and if so, where was the publicity??

Sebastian Tomczak said...

Yo - the event was mainly for the video recording, so it was not publicised very widely.

But yes, it was open to the public.