Shnths

A Shnth is a wooden instrument. It understands the manipulation of 4 flexible bars, 2 radio antennae, 9 buttons and a mic and will talk back in stereo. It speaks shlisp, a lisp dialect, and will mostly do as it is asked.

In winter of 2023 I had two weeks of residency at BEK, exploring this instrument, and its potential for quadraphonic interaction.

I set up 2 shnths for the occasion, in order to have 4 channels of input: a practice of composing/coding for two pieces of equipment that are not too happy to be synchronously connected via USB, nor eager to be hotswapped.

Part of the coding practice was to dig into generative code through the lisp parser that compiles into the ARM processor on the instrument, to explore using the vastness of “presets” the instrument can offer, as well as pushing sample capabilities by speeding up the sample rate and doing multiple calls for sample operators for low-fi sample extravaganca.

To manipulate the spacing of the four signals, I built a small tool for moving sound in Ableton, using a Grid and seamstress to communicate position and volume between points in space.

GIT for patches and tools. To be continued.