Author: Ken Zhang

When I first started getting into Eurorack, I mainly used it to make interesting and experimental sounds. But after spending more time with it, I realized it is also about making decisions. A modular system never really feels finished. There is always another module to buy, another cable to plug in. Sometimes, when I’m sitting…

For this week’s miniature, I want to try an approach that’s a bit different from how I usually make tracks in DAW. Since this brief asks us to experiment with indeterminate or generative approaches, I decided to create a dawless modular patch that allows the system to evolve itself. My initial idea was to build…

For this project, I chose to explore the use of Max/MSP for audio-visual work. I used Max/MSP to receive MIDI signals from Ableton Live, because I wanted to explore how external signals could control images in real time. Also, I wanted the visuals to feel connected to the music, instead of just being a separate…

For this creative practice assignment, I used Ableton’s simpler to process some long samples. My goal is to cut these samples into many short pieces and then use random triggering to discover some new combinations. First, I loaded a long audio sample into the simpler, then sliced it into many small pieces. After that, I…

My guide track is “Measuring Ruins” by Oneohtrix Point Never. I chose this song because it is ambient music with a good sense of space and mixing. It is closer to the direction of the final work I want to do. It sounds very wide and deep. Some sounds feel very close, such as small…

In this independent study, I chose to study pitch, frequency, and microtonality. I learned that frequency is a physical fact of sound. It refers to the number of times a sound wave vibrates per second, measured in hertz. If the frequency is higher, we usually hear a higher pitch; if the frequency is lower, we…