Monday, February 11, 2008

Igneous Sounds

As requested, here are the five "igneous sounds" I came up with for my computer music class. There was an actual "composition" that used these sounds, but it was the kind of thing where the professor said, "Take five minutes to turn those sounds into a piece," and I chucked the things into the sequencer in somewhat random order. I was amazed that the professor liked it as much as he did, since I kind of thought it was crap. But here are the five component sounds.

Granite
Quartz left channel, frequency 500 Hz
Orthoclase right channel, frequency 200 Hz
Entire envelope played at one cycle per minute

Granodiorite
Plagioclase left channel, frequency 600
Quartz right channel, frequency 150
Entire envelope played at one cycle per three seconds

Diorite
Amphibole left channel, frequency 200
Plagioclase right channel, frequency 800
Entire envelope played at once cycle per ten seconds

Gabbro
Pyroxene left channel, frequency 180
Plagioclase right channel, frequency 120
Entire envelope played at one cycle per three seconds

Peridotite
Olivine left channel, frequency 400
Pyroxene right channel, frequency 600
Entire envelope played at two cycles per second


Considering the pace of the seminar, I doubt I'll get to use these again in the actual class, but if there'd ever be a reason for me to write a non-assignment electronic composition, sonifying geo-geekery would be a darn good one. I have some further sonification ideas percolating for the patches we've been given to work with this week, so I may have some different stuff to show soon.

2 comments:

McMoots said...

Awesome! I like the mafic ones the best.

Jessica Ball said...

Completely spiffy. You know, this could open up a whole new field of geology - one where you could learn about the Earth by listening to it.

Hey, if the scientists out at Etna could get funding for it, why not you? I'd back it.