Silence

Onde

cybero's picture

Onde - _1024 Particle Warfare Vertex Displaced visualisation of a track named in honour of one of the first ever electronic instruments.

Uses _1024 Particle Warfare plugin , emitting from structures with an image emitter derived from a resized square ratio waveform image provided by Kineme Audio Tools.

The Onde or Ondes Martenot , was invented by Maurice Martenot, sounded similar to a theremin and had timbral controls.

Pre integrated circuits, vacuum tube based, a steampunk's delight :-), creating sound by means of varying the frequency of oscillations in the instrument's vacuum tubes.

Since commencing the composition of this visualisation I've had a chance to read up further about the Onde. It would be interesting to create a composition that more truly reflected the actual mechanics of the original instrument. Its original sounds are listed below.

Onde (O) A simple sine wave timbre. Similar in sound to the flute or ocarina. Creux (C) A peak-limited triangle wave. Similar in sound to a clarinet in high registers. Gambe (G) A timbre somewhat resembling a square wave. Intended to be similar in sound to string instruments, as the French title would suggest. Petit gambe (g) A similar but less harmonically-rich timbre than Gambe. The player can control the number of harmonics present in the signal by using a slider situated in the control drawer. Nasillard (N) A timbre resembling a pulse wave. Similar in sound to a bassoon in low registers. Octaviant (8) A timbre with a reinforced first harmonic whose intensity in the signal can be controlled by using a slider. This setting is analogous to the 4 foot stop in organ terminology. Souffle (S) A timbre often described as white noise, but in fact pink noise of indefinite pitch.