Geiger seed

Hi everyone!

I'm developing an instrument which makes extensive use of geiger oscillators to trigger midi events.
I just realized that when multiple geiger oscillators are initialized at the same time and their parameters are equal (Pitch and Random) the output is exactly the same for all of them. I guess they are based on a constant seed which is not being altered for every new instance of the geiger object.

That's a pitty if you want each geiger to behave differently, so i'm trying to find alternatives.

First thought was to use a delay module fed with a periodic trigger and randomize delay time to obtain randomly timed events,
but i wanted to ask you prior to get hands on work... Maybe someone has a better suggestion or found this issue already and has a nice solution for it...

thank you!

 

build your own Geiger.

It's just sending pulses whenever a random generator hits a number lower than the probability setting.

here's a simple core version using the library random gen.
you can see that the random seed is editable.

Clock dividing SR.C would be handy or scaling the probability input. As it is, you need to use small numbers … like e.g 0.0003

 

I like the solution based on probabilty,
but what if i want to be able to morph from periodical to non-periodical pulses?

 

Ok, having the periodic output is as easy as rising the probability to 1.

Because i want the output of this "geiger" rhythms to be played by a real string quartet, i switched the SR. C clock with a song position based clock. That way i make sure that the fastest events are slow enough to be played by a human, and i also make sure that they appear quantized to the tempo grid... at the end i need to print a regular score, so better not to deal with a mess of silence symbols and tiny note durations...

ColB, thank you again... I owe you a collection of beers!!!!
drop a line if you ever come around Barcelona!!!!

Again, the macro is attached just in case anyone needs it in the future...

 

Yes, that works.

It's still different from what the Primary Geiger module is doing.

Here's a slightly more complicated version that is much closer to the Primary modules functionality.
The main difference is that in the Primary version, the pitch rises as you increase the randomness. In this one, the pitch remains constant.
It's easy enough to have it rise like the Primary... or to fall. just a change in the internal scaling of the random number. For a rise like primary, its scaled 0..1. For steady pitch, -1..1, for a fall. -1..0. Pretty simple.

 

the kodiak shift sequencer has a very complex solution for this. but you can easy grab that macros and chain them.
i have made use of it in the kodiak dark mods.

 

this Geiger is powering a new kik, you can use 2 or more and sync or de/sync no probs... its designed by Dietrich.

can u post alink to the Geiger Quartet when its recorded please!

 

here NI is chaining the random modules for each parameter. the chaining makes sure everything got different random values. haven`t really looked inside, but it works in a very musical way somehow.

 

Wow, thanks a lot for your help!!!

colB, your module works exactly as expected... and it is very nice to have this tweaking abilities for the speed of the periodic clicks... thank you very much!!

cal, Dietrich Geiger is also marvelous... a great substitution for the primary geiger module. And yes! i will post the geiger quartet as soon as it is ready! we're performing 15th December as part of a light and sound show inside a gothic church... I'll publish the video with the whole thing soon after the performance and i'll keep you updated!

Thala, thanks for pointing out the solution on the kodiak sequencers... I'll take a deep look into it as soon as i find some time, it really gives very nice results and would be nice to understand how it is done

thanks!!!

 

It's a convoluted alternative to just passing the OBC memory for the random generator between all the modules.
Instead, they duplicate the generators LCG process for the seed setup, so that each module processes its seed with a single random LCG cycle and passes it to the next.
The final outcome is the same (assuming they all get triggered by the same events), but it's much simpler to just share the OBC.
Sharing the OBC also means that even if some RND macros are fired more often, you won't get situations where they catch each other up and all send out the same value.

 

and here it is!


First part of the string performance, until the large glissando, is written using the geiger notes generator with the fixed random seed

 

Impressive!!

 

I like that. Reminds me a lot to the 24 cd box to Philip Glass' 80th birthday I ordered last month.
Impressiv light show.

 

Wow...super nice!
Checking the other videos on your Vimeo!

 

The small lights of the cell phones disturbs the show massivly.

 

massively is a bit too much, but it’s like in museums these days, many people film instead of watching :-/

 

yes, it's amazing how humanity nowadays experience everything through the filter of a screen....

 

with unreal colors, which is a shame in museums...

 

but nice piece, bravo !

 

Like photos of a trip. I like to live in the present and have no cellphone or camera.
Enjoy the moment!