I fear the sounds of crickets at night will be replaced with the sounds of industrial noises... (Use headphones or stereo speakers!)

This track was the result of building a Multi-sample looper with PD Pure Data. There are 2 samples used. One is "clunk" by user spukken on Freesound, played in reverse, speed increased, with an auto-pan effect, with another sample "Metallic Pipe Rolling on Concrete in Basement" by Rutger Muller on Freesound, played back at variable speeds. 

The code and both samples are available in Version 0.1: 12/14/2014 of BHPDToolkit: http://TinyURL.com/BHPDToolkit 

Fear Of Industrialization

This is track is to demo my new 2.0 PD Modular Synth library BETA, which is available here: http://TinyURL.com/BHPDToolkit The patch is called "3OscDemo5-EchoReverb+Drums". The secret to the spacey sound, is a resonator circuit.  I call it BillEchoReverb. It's the large complicated block at the bottom. If you notice there is a 3-band formant filter inside the unit, in the middle of the feedback circuit feeding the delay. I'm still tweaking it, and learning how to use it. I'm still not quite getting that warm and fuzzy "Sound on Sound" style of tape delay, but I'm getting close.... 


Hiroshima70

This is a demo track for my "Ultimate 12-Band Flanger" patch written in Pure Data (PD) available in my BHPDToolkit on Github. This is dedicated to my friend and colleague at ShaleshockMedia, Cris McConkey, who was instrumental in documenting the history of the movement to Ban Fracking in New York. I know Cris would appreciate the technology I used, that I built a custom musical instrument for this.  Cris is on his way to Cuba to get an experimental cancer treatment. Peace be with you, mi Amigo. (WARNING! This audio contains subsonics, piercing pure tones, and overdriven, full-spectrum sound. Please turn down your speaker volume until you find a safe listening level.)

Comb Your Filters (turn down your speaker volume!)

There is Beauty at the Center of my Soul. 
(Yours too! No matter who you are.) 

Warning: I believe this music can induce a hypnotic state. Best for when not operating an automobile or heavy machinery. Basic track is 100% Pd: Pure Data, live performance. Compression: Adobe Audition. 

How did I make this? Certain of my gestures are latched by a step sequencer. There is an asymmetrical stereo delay inside the reverb unit. The octave scanning is done with "kbd.pd". This patch ("AutophaseDemoMain") is included in BHPdToolkit on Github. 

Beauty At The Center Of My Soul

This is the song of the forest, celebrating, in the voice of a Veery Thrush. The Veery is common to much of New York, but stays in the deep woods. You never hear a Veery in the suburbs. You have to find woods far away from human civilization. And right at dusk, as the sun is mostly set, the haunting sound of the Veerys arise out of the woods. To me, they sound like angels. There is no other bird call like this. So here, I imitate a Veery (sort-of). The setting is after a Great War: Greed vs. the Forest.  After great destruction, and when all hope seemed lost, a certain kind of human found a way to defeat those who wanted to destroy the forest for money. So the Veery Drone is both Joys and Sorrows. The Veerys cry for such great loss of life, but the celebrate and recognize a greater victory, that it could have been much worse. 

Tech Notes: Patch: "Hard Sync Experiment 5 best", which is my multi-mode one-voice hard-sync synth, going into an ADSR, then another ADSR for the filter (dual vcf~) into ducking reverb (duck not featured in this track) Mod puts an LFO on the filter freq. 

Veery Drone(Joys And Sorrows)

A drone for Salem Township, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, which suffered a terrible pipeline accident 4/29/16. This is dedicated to James Baker, 26, who somehow escaped the inferno, alive. --- TECH NOTES: Created with my Pd patch "even odd harmonics4 groovy detune flange". A simple wave, yet w/complex overtones, is passed through a swept resonant bandpass filter, 12-band flanger, and ducking reverb.  The photo is by R.J. Paouncic. 

The Salem Event (Drone)

My friend Charlie Moore told me, "The Susquehanna River is older than the continent." So that's really, really old. Why is our own government allowing us to dump poisons into it? Look it up: SPDES NY#0003808.  -- Some of my inspiration for this track comes from Mickey Hart, who scored Apocalypse Now (also a river journey). He used a "blaster beam" instrument to create some of the deep ambient tones, which I can simulate with my "virtual blaster beam" instrument. This track is 100% Pd Pure Data, except for 10 seconds of tape delay effect at the very end. (Adobe Audition). I have drums/bass layers, but I decided to release this first as an ambient track. This uses an instrument I made, which is a monophonic odd-even harmonic generator, into a BP filter, compressor, 12-band flanger, 12-band autopan, and ducking reverb. Email me for the patch: WilliamAHuston@gmail.com 

Susquehanna River, Crying

May there be peace on earth.

Free-form synth is an instrument I made myself using Pure Data. (Thank you Miller Puckette and the Pd listserv + FB group!)  I added the bells using a Korg M1 soft patch which came free with my keyboard controller, to add a tonal center and some slow, steady rhythm. Makes for some nice xenochrony ("strange synchronicity").

Lullaby - Prayer For The Earth Sun Nov 6 2016

This patch is called "Odd-Even Blaster-Beam Demo" Monophonic, just 1 voice, but can infinitely refine the harmonic structure! This patch is the KING of the Drones!  It contains the effects unit from my Harmonotron patch. This is 95% Vanilla Pd. Some minor fiddling in post :) Inspired by Fripp/Eno, SotL. The source track was recorded June 2016.  (I did some minor tweaks in post). Thank you Miller Puckette for making Pd, and giving it freely to all of us to play with and make incredible sounds like this. Pd makes me happy!  Thanks to the FB Pd group, Pd-list, etc. Welcome FB Group member # 12,000!

Another Green Ambient Airport Of The Lid

I came to a contaminated place looking for service work. I found here that the Earth is covered in a blanket of birdsong. This track is meant to be played at dawn or dusk, so the sounds of your local birds can be heard singing on top of this drone. I imagine this what all birdsongs added together sounds like. Think about it: All of the birds on planet earth are in contact with neighbors. Their language is inter-species. I have heard Robins talking to Woodthrushes, and Jays talking to Crows. Can we understand what the birds are trying to tell us?
Recorded in Dimock, PA, USA. Dedicated to the Carolina Wrens nesting on my porch.

Track produced with Pure Data. Patch is Polyphonic Harmonotron. It's based on a cluster (CMaj + DMaj), sweeping complex comb filters over the harmonics, so they fade in an out. I think this chord is based on the Tritone. I love the drone in the "second movement", which is more like a "stillness". There is so much "air". 

THANK YOU Miller Puckette for giving me and the world the tools to make beautiful sounds like this. Inspired by Eno, SotL, Namlook, Tetsu, Laswell, etc.

A Blanket Of Birdsong

Just a demo track of my Polyphonic Harmonitron (PD patch) into a simple stereo regenerative delay patch. A really nice pulsating psychedelic groove develops towards the middle. Use headphones if you can! (there are a couple of clicks at the beginning from bad edits. It's just a demo track so I didn't try to make perfect).  Externals: Freeverb, and Varun Nair's incredible compressor. 

Since I was a little boy, I have always dreamed about having a machine for making interesting sounds... Thank you Miller Puckette! You have set my soul free.

2018/08/23 Polyphonic Harmonitron w/Delay Demo Track

Instrument: Polyphonic Harmonitron (PD Patch). Initial track, with one overdub (bass track). Each track is the same instrument with different settings. Recorded Aug-Sept 2018.

Nice Poly Harmonitron Overdub Phat Bass Jam

This begins with an audio sample (a man being interviewed). This sample is bent, scratched, granulated, stretched, mangled, and altered through various effects (mostly created by me using #PureData) Ducking Freeverb, Stereo Delay, Compressor, Saturation/Distortion, 12-Band "Harmonitron" Flanger, and my latest: a Hilbert~ based Pitch Bend (creates a very bell-like shimmering effect, also like Single Sideband "Donald Duck" effect). This track uses no source oscillators. Only an altered vocal sample. CC-by-ATTR/NC please! Just send me a link to whatever you do with this! WilliamAHuston@gmail.com Thx!

2020 - 01 - 06 Alien Transmission (garbled)

Unix System Admin, Caregiver, Researcher, Videographer. I mostly do public service work these days. I hack Pd "Pure Data" (awesome free music software) in my spare time.  

WilliamAHuston

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