A new phase of experimental composition – Numerology
Numerology
Not that numerology.
The step sequence from Five12 software, Numerology.
I’ve had it for a while and been enamored of its possibilities, but until tonight I never put it together with my main sequencer, Digital Performer.
I used numerology to run staccato sounds from the John Cage Prepared Piano Gigasampler library, using G-Player.
Numerology allows for building, on the fly, of very complex patterns of sound – pitches, velocities, gates and a whole lot more.
I ran two instances of the Cage prepared piano sounds and two variations of a similar rhythm, one with 16 beats per ssequence, the other with 12. That builds in a bit of natural counterpoint as the two sequences spin around a common point, sporadically meeting up along the way while evolving new syncopations. I improvised on a variety of parameters along the way – key, individual pitches, octave transposition, note duration and such, just letting them play out against one another with one instrument panned left, the other right. It becomes sort of a Steve Reich meets Conlon Nancarrow type of thing. In real time, these shifting syncopated sequences from Numerology are triggering prepared piano sounds on G-Player within my Digital Performer sequence, which, in turn, is recording the sequences for later playback, analysis and editing.
Just in the infancy of working with this but it seems an incredible tool to add to the arsenal.
– Daniel Buckley 10/31/12