Back to the bent piano wire instrument

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This is a work in progress...

Trying to figure out how to integrate this instrument into the work so far. It sounds more like a steel drum to me.

Mix the spring back in with the percussion

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Drop the sample a few octaves

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Here we have the .080" twisted piano wire instrument samples taken down a few octaves. Here's a picture of part of the instrument. It's made of .080" piano wire (very thick tempered steel wire), which is bent with a pair of plyers and a blow torch into interesting shapes. The wires are then brazed onto a steel plate, and magnetic transducers are attached to pick up the vibrations. Csound is used to drop the sample by 1, 2, or three octaves.

A few more notes for the balloon drums

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More notes for the balloon drums, including arpeggios instead of just repeating notes. I'm still trying to figure out how to have the 8 against 13 appear more rarely and not repeat so much. Indeterminate is not purely random, after all.

A bit more time

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Stay the same for a few bars, then change. The rhythm is 13 against 8. It doesn't sound as different as you might expect.

Just the balloon drums and the dry spring

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I keep removing more and more of the sounds to get more clarity. I deleted the bent spring and the welded piano wire sounds for now. I'll add them back. Or maybe piccolo?

Some Samples

Richard Boulanger is collecting samples to include with some Csound generating software. I volunteered to include the Finger Piano, Balloon Drum, and spring instruments I have been using, since I recorded them myself.

Here is a zip file.

Licensed under creative commons attribution 2.0.