Make Noise SOUNDHACK MORPHAGENE - Morphagene Time Scales Explained

Time Scales of the Morphagene
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Introduction:
The Morphagene operates on several Time Scales, allowing the synthesist to explore sound and time at multiple levels and in
great detail. The power is so great that a full view of all time scales at once can be daunting, even for those musicians with a deep
understanding of tape and Microsound techniques. In the coming pages, you will nd a visual guide to the various timescales to
help you intuit the way the controls work together to explore the sound that is held within the Morphagene. This should serve as
a roadmap of sorts: a handy reference for nding your way through the forest. Thorough text descriptions of controls and
processes follow.
In the book Microsound,* Curtis Roads identies the following (9) timescales of music. Of which, Numbers 4-6 are accessible by
the Morphagene:
1. Innite. The ideal time span of mathematical durations such as the innite sine waves of classical Fourier analysis.
2. Supra. A time scale beyond that of an individual composition and extending into months, years, decades, and centuries.
3. Macro. The time scale of overall musical architecture or form, measured in minutes or hours, or in extreme cases, days.
4. Meso. Divisions of form. Groupings of sound objects into hierarchies of phrase structures of various sizes, measured in minutes
or seconds. [This time scale is represented in the Morphagene by the Reel and/or Splice]
5. Sound object. A basic unit of musical structure, generalizing the traditional concept of note to include complex and mutating
sound events on a time scale ranging from a fraction of a second to several seconds. [This time scale is represented in the
Morphagene by the Splice and/or Gene]
6. Micro. Sound particles on a time scale that extends down to the threshold of auditory perception (measured in thousandths of
a second or milliseconds). [This time scale is represented in the Morphagene by the Splice and/or Gene]
7. Sample. The atomic level of digital audio systems: individual binary samples or numerical amplitude values, one following
another at a xed time interval. The period between samples is measured in millionths of a second (microseconds).
8. Subsample. Fluctuations on a time scale too brief to be properly recorded or perceived, measured in billionths of a second
(nanoseconds) or less.
9. Innitesimal. The ideal time span of mathematical durations such as the innitely brief delta functions.