Audio recording of the following sctweet:

play{i=Impulse;f=Stepper.kr(i.kr(5),0,[57,66],75,LFClipNoise.kr(2,12,7)).midicps;SetResetFF.ar(i.ar(f),i.ar(f.rotate*2));}// #sctweets

Inspired by the "high-pass filter" on the Atari POKEY chip and rendered using Supercollider, this is not 8-bit music but 1-bit music. No post-processing of any kind was applied before mp3 conversion, not even to remove DC offset.

A note on the POKEY "high-pass filter." For years I was mystified by what this effect actually does. It clearly has beating or sweep effects not consistent with its description in "De Re Atari." After looking at some waveforms, doing some experiments and reading the sparse information available online about the chip, I concluded that what it is actually doing is a sort of pulse-width modulation. This synth, I believe, will perfectly emulate the effect in Supercollider:

(
{
    var inputFreq = MouseX.kr(100, 1000, warp:1);
    var cutoffFreq = MouseY.kr(100, 1000, warp:1);
    var in = Impulse.ar(inputFreq);
    var modulator = Impulse.ar(cutoffFreq) + Impulse.ar(inputFreq, phase:0.5);
    SetResetFF.ar(in, modulator);
}.scope
)

For the tweet, I have eliminated code that is only really relevant when the "cutoff" frequency is lower than the "input" frequency.

https://twitter.com/capmikee


sctweet 20131004

Track #2 from Fuse Box's 1991 cassette release "Life in the Circus"

02 Living In The Circus

My pace (i.e. two steps) is pretty close to 5 feet. That means in 6 paces I walk 10 yards. This morning I was walking at about 108 steps per minute and trying to count feet and yards along with my paces. I couldn't really do it, but I thought I could make a piece of music that did. Here the bass represents footsteps, the tinkly sound is feet and the bells represent yards.

100 Yards

I loaded some audio files into Forester and let it run for 20 minutes. For the short version, skip to 18:00.

Forester: 
http://leafcutterjohn.com/?page_id=1767

Sources: 
https://soundcloud.com/mike-ciul/2-04-garden-at-the-end-of-the
https://archive.org/details/benedettinautical (Track 10)
https://archive.org/details/mike_ciul-upic (Track 6)
https://archive.org/details/02Onomatopoeia2 (Track 10)
Mike Ciul, Vernon Coffey, Solomon Douglas and Michael Coffey, recorded 1983
Birdsong at University of Pennsylvania, recorded 2014

Forester Run, Feb 13 2016

1990 unreleased cassette by UK duo Fuse Box (Mike Ciul and Robert Lowe)

1-01 Blue Eyes

Live electronic experiments from 1996, featuring Mike Ciul, Jim Speer, Helene Zisook, and others

1-06 The Many Talents of Krohg

1-07 Wanton and Flagellum vs the Reverend Philadelphia Thrower

2-01 Tower of Rassilon

2-03 Thousands of Words

2-04 Garden at the End of the World

A Rumi poem with sounds. Composed for Thomas Meyernick's compilation of under-60-second works called "Droppings."

Mike Ciul

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