by Ann Warde
In working on my tape composition, I developed an interest in using the Buchla synthesizer as a means of both sampling sound (not necessarily sound produced by the synthesizer) and panning sound between two channels. Because this could be accomplished in "real time", it appeared to be an intriguing way to produce "musical gestures" which could be edited and used as basic material. However, I found that in my initial settings a degree of rhythmic predictability was present in the gestures, and this presented a problem for me.
The sampling was initially accomplished through use of envelope generators applied to VCAs. Pulse waves from the "touch sensitive" keyboard were used as control voltages for triggering three envelope generators, whose voltages in turn were used to control four VCAs. The clock pulse from the five stage sequencer was used as a control voltage to trigger a fourth envelope generator.
To introduce greater rhythmic unpredictability, I used control voltages applied to various parameters of the five stage sequencer: variable voltage from the keyboard controlled the sequencer's pulse length, and the output of row A of the 16 stage sequencer was used to control the five stage sequencer's internal time.
In addition I worked with the following patches: a TV signal from one of the envelope generators as a control voltage for the internal time of the 16 stage sequencer; voltages from an additional envelope generator (from the Roland 100M synthesizer) as control voltages for this internal time parameter ; pulse waves and TV signals from the 16 stage synthesizer as triggers and control voltages for several different sequencer parameters; and random voltage outputs as control voltages for the pulse length of the five stage sequencer.