Progress on the Mutation Synth
I built a prototype (and probably final model...) of the case for the mutation synth.
Here it is in all its finely crafted glory:
I have a bad habit of always leaving physical construction until too late, and it always takes longer than expected. After shattering yet another sheet of acrylic, I went to the hardware store and bought a proper set of drills.
Once the physical model is built, however, testing the performance of a system becomes much faster, and more interesting. However, I tend to spend too much time testing and refining the software and electronics before really thinking about construction, let alone performance...,
What does it do?
The four toggle switches at the top control whether mutation is happening (or not happening) for four parameters of the music.
The four knobs control the intensity of mutation. Some of the parameters have a directionality. In this case, centering the pot slows mutation, moving it to either extreme expresses that valence (eg. overall pitch up or down, mood happy or sad, etc.) The parameters I'm working with now are transposition, permutation, rhythm and sound type. In effect, the pots allow you to tighten or relax the fitness equation, much like a genetic algorithm.
The two rows of four buttons allow saving and restoring the state of the synth. If you come across a mutation that sounds good, you can save it into one of four slots, and just as easily recall it.
I am trying to avoid control over individual voices - I like the model of interacting with an algorithmically generated "ensemble". I will probably end up making two of the voices "altos", two "tenors" and the last two "basso" drones. However, I might add individual cut switches for each voice.