Biosynth Concerto
A Noise-art Performance Piece

"Biosynth Concerto" consisted of myself, controlling the volume of pre-recorded noise-art on one computer, and five performers, accompanying on a software synthesizer I had written in Lingo and which had been loaded onto each of their computers.

Hear the performance

To the left is a working Shockwave embed of "Monophonice Biosynth." Click on it to start it up, then tap some of the indicated keyboard keys to play it. If you don't have the Shockwave plugin, you can download it here.

"Monophonic Biosynth" is a simple, monophonic (one note at a time), keyboard-triggered software synthesizer that has been enhanced with responsive graphics.

The sounds are flanged, pitch-shifted, and time-stretched recordings of my voice, harmonizing with itself on the interval of an octave.

Scripts test for both specific key depression and release, advancing to one of thirteen frame-sets corresponding with one of thirteen possible notes and animations.

I created the background noise-art track, "nightmare.mp3", almost entirely by accident.

I used to own a four-track tape recorder that recorded at 9 feet per second. I sold it, and eventually bought a cheaper one that records at the standard tape speed of 4 feet per second.

Nightmare.mp3 was made by playing back a recording on that first four track, of noodling with a phaser pedal, short-wave radio, modified keyboard and drum machine, backwards and at half-speed.

Five performers each accessed the Biosynth via the web, and I loaded up nightmare.mp3. I played my mp3 in a media player program, adjusting the volume as necessary, while the other performers were only instructed to "play along" with the noise using their software synthesizers.