Orbitals // Audiovisual TouchDesigner Installation, Ambient Generative Music Phasing Tool

This project started out, as many of the better ones do, as a personal experiment (see Instagram Post), but was adapted for The Great Hall at Avant Gardner in Brooklyn, New York when I was asked to come up with an idea that might fit the lounge area of the venue space for the summer season. Throughout the months that The Brooklyn Mirage is in operation, guests come through The Great Hall on their way inside, taking in a calm and welcoming scene that waits for them to relax alongside should they tire of the dancefloor. Something pleasing and a little mesmerizing about the phase of things 🙂 On occasion I would build out slight variations on the patch to go with the nights theme, such as redoing the paths so that they were in the shape of clouds, or the Anjunadeep logo. Other nights I worked further on the front end UI for the patch, which allowed anybody on staff to make adjustments to color, sound, etc… with a fair degree of granularity. As this was initially meant to be a musical phasing tool, there truly is quite a lot more that this can do beyond just sitting and playing ambient triggers slightly out of phase – but this was a fantastic opportunity and a lovely way to give the loungers something to focus on during a break from the four on the floor outside.

12 paths, concentric circles by default. Each contains one orbital that will trigger a note when it reaches a slot on its path. Notes can be freely assigned per path and saved as custom scales which are easy to switch between. Note triggers are sent out via MIDI for easy synth/DAW integration + orbitals can trigger unique audio files. Each path can contain one or two trigger slots. Orbitals can travel the full length of the path endlessly in a loop, or in a pendulum/sinewave with adjustable amplitude.The more interesting behavior comes from adjusting speeds & phase. There’s an overall speed parameter & a ‘cascade’ which offsets speed for consecutive paths in equal increments. This allows for easy creation of Reich-esque phasing pieces & ‘pendulum’ music. Extra adjustments for visual & aesthetic stuff as well. Slow automation of speed and key changes make this a really nice machine for endless generative ambient textures.

See the original post here: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cn4aD4etau-/

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