PLOrk2009/AlexBourqueFinalProject

ChucKBass

I'm ChucKBass.

Description

I created an instrument to play bass along with a performer. After taking the fast Fourier transform of the audio from the performer a feature (the peak of the spectrum) is extracted that determines the pitch that ChucKBass plays. ChucKBass plays with a regular rhythm, but the note duration can be changed (you can think of them as whole notes, half notes, quarter notes, eighth notes). I decided to keep all the pitches within a pleasant and audible two octave range. For a little extra color and texture I added an upper voice that arpeggiates chords determined by the bass note and randomly stacked minor and major thirds.

How To Play

Once the program is running, you press [ + ] to fade in the bass and [ - ] to fade out. The default note duration for each bass note is 2 seconds, but you can make the bass play once per second by pressing [2], twice per second [3], four times per second [4], and you can go back to the default with [1]. The bass notes are determined by the sounds you make (and whatever else your mic picks up in the room). You fade in the upper voice in with [ } ], and fade out with [ { ]. You can hear the arpeggios a little after two thirds into my demonstration linked below.

Performance

You can hear me playing with ChucKBass here

Code

You can find the code here soon. I encourage you to play around with ChucKBass while playing your own instrument.

This project represents my own work in accordance with University regulations.

What to include on your project page

• A description of your project
• Your code
  • If it's short, you can make a new page for it like this one
  • Or, if there's a lot of it, put it in a .zip file so that people can upload it.
    • We suggest: put it in your public_html directory on your network drive, then make a link, e.g. to http://www.princeton.edu/~yourname/yourfile.zip. Let us know if you need any help!
• Instructions on how to run your code
• A sound or video recording of your piece. Going lo-fi and using built-in webcam from another laptop (e.g. PLOrk machine in studio B) is fine. But for audio, if you're using chuck, best to use rec.ck for writing chuck's output directly to a file.
  • See directions above on putting it on your network drive and linking to it

with a link off the wiki

and a link on the wiki