Here’s another module I’ve coded in Max! While everything else I’ve done so far is an attempt to emulate a previously existing module, this one is an original: a two-track looper and sampler called “petit chemin de fer des sons concrètes,” or, “little concrete sound railroad.”
It’s inspired by modules like the Keen Association “Jardin des Sons Concrets,” and by, of course, the Phonogene. The metaphor behind its interface was a happy accident brought about by the particular look of the time markers, and encouraged by Pierre Schaeffer’s “Étude aux chemins de fer.”
Each control section lays out both samples side by side, so that their respective speeds, lengths, and start points can be seen and manipulated in an intuitive manner. So far I’ve topped the samples out at ten seconds maximum, to keep the scale of the controls comfortable, but I’m thinking now I should really have a “multiply” switch to extend these times. As well as figuring out how to best control this module with the others in my virtual west-coasty system, which at this point has brown larger than my hardware synth!
