Sorry We’re Closed Until Further Notice
Copyright & A Brief History Of The Amen Break
As I’ve just finished reading Stephen Hawking’s “A Brief History Of Time” (for the fifth time)… And what with presently being in the throws of a massive sampling spree… Plus, having recently discussed the nuances of music copyright – predominately with regards to sampling non-descript breakbeats and rhythmic content – with a member of the PRS and MCPS… I figured this post was in order, as it refreshes my mind as to why I’m lifting breaks from my assorted funk and break-beat record collection… And, in doing so, it also pertinently raises some interesting issues that beg consideration regarding the over-protection of simple drum loops and recorded grooves…
So let’s enter this murky world of copyright control and start by asking a question that runs parallel to the ones we’ll be asking later on here… Should we patent the individual genes that make up the human body? And if we decided to, having trudged through the moral complexities of this question, then, by the same modicum, shouldn’t we patent grooves within the collective genres of musical expression too? After all, aren’t rhythmic grooves in music self-similar in their regulatory nature to the genes responsible for majestic orchestration of atomic machinery that yields and gives rise to the complex protein based, cellular matrix of our bodies? Except in the musical mode rhythm provides the temporal blue print in which melodic content rests, allowing discernible patterns of harmonious expression to conjoin and unfold through a timed composition of appreciable merit… If we were to remove rhythm, then the melodic context would become exceptionally abstract as it fell without timing over itself into a tormented and distressed performance, similar, but much worse, than the practise of an ungifted musician’s practise.
But as with genes… Who originally created these back-bones of musical form; of rhythmic timings? Who are the original originators that are due their royalties after each rendition??? At least with musical cadence and/or meters/grooves we might be able to scour through history’s books and ascribe a certain rhythmic pattern to a particular artist/composer/musician who first performed it… But even then, most rhythmic meters have been passed down with folk music, stemming from way back the distant past, where tribal people ‘jammed’ together during times of celebration… Then there was never the need to copyright their collective musical invention to protect and ‘monetary’ interests. Musicians gave freely and people gave freely to them in order to sustain their magical talents of song. Then in relation to genes… Well, we’re a tad more stumped… Perhaps we might offer the royalties derived from their use i.e. our lives, to our creator i.e. God… If indeed there even is a god… !?!? Either way, if all these entertained instances of copyright were the “given case,” then shouldn’t we even begin to patent and protect clichés in vocal communication, along with quotes and/or even words themselves? And shouldn’t companies like Roland then even patent the unique drum sounds from their TR-909 or TR-606… Or Fender their own Stratocaster sound??? I mean, what with the way copyright – nowadays – seems to ‘snap over’ and prevent any type of musical “recycling,” I’m really surprised how any musical/sonic artist using a computer can make a living from their trade. Isn’t all the “nit picking” by the big record companies just a scam for every last penny?
In order to understand this better, we need to be more specific… Let’s ask an important question. What is being copyrighted? Is it the sound itself… Or is it the arrangement of the sound(s)… Or is it the recording of the sound(s)?
For example, if I was to write a song, and then someone was to replay it, note for note, beat for beat, recording it all and then releasing it as their own record… OR even they were to simply and sanctimoniously re-record my song from the original master tape and, in their own self professed originality, release it as their own creation… Perhaps I would be justified if I said something about their misconduct and took them to court. But on the other hand, if someone lifted two seconds worth of a rhythm section that I had created/written, having found it while listening to a record that I had released, AND then sampled and rearranging those two seconds of sound into a new and funked out compositions of their ow, via their sampler or computer; compositions that showed no resemblance by own grooves… Then perhaps I wouldn’t/couldn’t be as upset as I would have been if the former direct case of plagiarism had occurred. In fact I’d personally feel flattered that someone was even listening to my music!
Saying that… Some would argue that the sounds that make up the recordings themselves should be copyrighted. As to why they say this, I still haven’t heard a good enough reason that allows me to understand this paradigm. To this note I must ask… But what happens if artists use the same presets as each other on a particular synthesiser, or even a use the same drums and microphones, along with an exact reenactment of their mic and drum placement, along with the same recording medium and mixing desk? Should the copyright of the sound then be enforced by the synth manufacturer? Nonsense… We know for a fact that synth manufactures do not ask royalties for the use of their instruments on albums, and they do not copyright their own synthesiser presets either. Why? Because then no one would buy their instruments for recording purposes. Can you imagine the royalties that Steve Via, Bob Dylan and others would have to pay out to their guitar manufacturers… AND – if we’re going to be fair about this – even the microphone, tape and mixing desk manufacturers should then get their fair cut, as all these give rise to the sound of the recording. This could go on and on, ad absurdum, until even the manufacturer of the components of the mixing desk, along with the guitar string manufactures, and the miners that provided the metal for the strings, get their royalties. !?!?
Being an audio engineer myself, I certainly feel that the ‘art’ of recording an artist for an album that is to be generally released needs to be taken into account too. The recording, mixing and mastering engineers all add their own bit of creative magic to the final mix/recording. And the engineers themselves do not want any old person recording their – and the band’s – work without someone at least asking permission before hand… But to police to perfection the use of snippets of famous recordings, or old bites from obscure CDs and diced samples of unreleased studio recordings in an Ocean Of Sound is almost impossible. Just as with Bill’s literal misunderstanding about how Daisy world could not possibly relate in anyway whatsoever to the complexity of the real world, I fear those big corporate firms are looking for a complete policing policy of ALL copyrighted material that is sampled/re-used by other artists, both big and small.
In my humble opinion… Perhaps these copyright laws shouldn’t be stifling the creativity of future artists who cannot afford drum machines or synths of their own just yet… Setting up a system of fear about “What will happen to me if I sample this?” can only discourage others from making art. As Giorgio de Chirico once said, “To become truly immortal, a work of art must escape all human limits: logic and common sense will only interfere. But once these barriers are broken, it will enter the realms of childhood visions and dreams.” I know that when I sample beats I am retouching past influences for inspiration in the present.
Bearing this in mind… Perhaps the record companies who impose stupendously strict rules on copyright should understand that if the use of any previous recording is recognisable in a new composition, and can be ascribed to original copyrighted (whether the music is copyrighted, or the recordings themselves are copyrighted) material, then it should be mentioned and – if necessary – royalties should be paid. But if the samples are beyond recognition, then surely it will also ‘slide’ free from copyright recognition? This is another grey area where much has to be discussed… While some might argue that without the original ‘sample,’ the ‘sampling artist’ couldn’t have made their creation, and so need to admit some sort of recognition to the ‘sampled’… Others might then well ask whether we should make note of every little idea, speech and action that we originally heard or saw performed by someone else, and then duly admit in a weekly addendum to our life’s story complete recognition of our unoriginality??? And it goes on and on… Where does this copyright fiasco end? And are their any hard a fast rules that are ultimately right? As far as I’m concerned, people that might take any aspect of life this seriously are loosing the plot about what it is to ‘Live.’
As you can see, copyright isn’t a simple affair… At the best of times, it’s a delicate and somewhat impenetrable mass of perplexing opinions, maddening morals and ludicrous laws. All of which seem to be set up to stifle any creativity that is centred on computer and sampler driven musical composition. And, as if anyone could unravel this tangled mat of constricting codes of conduct, I continually look to what Judge Alex Kozinski said during a copyright infringement law suite in 2003:
So here I will leave you with a video that was put together by Nate Harrison about how the Amen brake has forced us to consider what music and art really is and, thus, challenges us to understand how we shouldn’t overly restrict the creative use of prerecorded sounds simply for the sake of getting fat on our previous spoils, as The Winstons didn’t… Neither should we stifle the natural reinterpretation of melodic forms, otherwise we are directly suppressing the very process of evolution… A process that our brains naturally use to develop all ideas into new thoughts and expressions… It is the essence of the evolution of ideas.
Just as Andy Warhol re-used other people’s iconic pictures to weave his own brand of artistic expression, shouldn’t we musicians/sound designers/sonic artists – AND record labels – continually re-evaluate and rework our ideals into new modes of moderated liberalism to encourage others to push the boundaries of what art stands for… To see what art can become… ? While doing this we should recognise those who inspired us, for they left traces of their genius in our own reinterpreted expressions of musical form… I mean why should the companies selling these records get ‘nancy’ over new expressive home cured and brewed similes? Surely creativity follows the universal flow of self-similar realisation, ever expounding themselves in new narratives of form and rendition… All of which originated from their own varied memetic drives; drives that all our favorite artists themselves too once followed to get where they are, so as to guide them into expressing new majestic, novel and contemporary iterative interpretations of present analogical musings… Should we not be driving these natural feedback loops forward into ever more evolved and convoluted assimilations, so as to provide inspiration to future generations, allowing new genius to bloom and better temporal allegories be discovered and enjoyed… All in the name of our listening pleasure? Isn’t sampling just a type of Warholism???
Ultimately copyright a very grey area in law… And I can understand why record companies – especially after the advent of the sampler and computer – want to protect their artists’, as well as their own, rights. No doubt piracy has cost them big bucks, what with people being able to ‘burn-off’ near perfect copies of original CD releases for their friends, etc… So – of course – they’re bound to clamp down on any type of reproduction of their recorded copyrighted material. But when it comes to lifting nondescript rhythmic sounds from recordings… Perhaps the only royalty ‘samplers’ really need to pay the ‘sampled’ is through the direct purchase of their recorded works which are being sampled… Along with recommendations to friends and the general populous… Then I feel that this more than covers those ‘sampled.’ After all, good advertising isn’t free… When you’re down the “rubba” waxing lyrical to a friend about a new album you’ve just heard, one that they might like… Well… That’s better than a billboard in the centre of London.
All I will say is… Maybe if the ‘sampler’ achieves great acclaim for his/her work, then perhaps he/she should admit to any ‘sampling’ of original works, and, if needs be, pay a portion of their earnings in royalties to the sampled artist and recording, mixing and master engineers… ? But that is jut a suggestion.
The Orange Hut Gets “Apple Pro Certified!”
It’s now official. As of yesterday, we are… Apple Pro Certified! Give it a couple of weeks and we’ll even be listed in the Apple Pro Directory!
And we’re not stopping there… To make sure that you, our clients, get the best service possible, we’re going all the way i.e. we’ll be doing the “Logic Pro, Level Two” certification sometime within the next two months, which will bring us “up-to-scratch” with Apple’s “Logic Pro 9” on an Apogee “Symphony System.” In basic terms this means you’ll be getting pristine sound quality along with someone who knows the software inside out… Which is, no doubt, a powerful combination in the creative audio editing/mixing world.
Once there, we’ll even be providing one-on-one tutorials for those of you who want to get into the ‘swing’ of working with this powerful sonic editing and music making software. But more on that as and when we’re open for business again. For the meantime, we’re just happy to announce that we’ll be able to offer you a ‘peace-of-mind’ about our assured service.
Follow The Orange Hut On Twitter
We’ve just signed up to Twitter… So you can now follow our daily routine in the form of a series of tweets – though we’re not quite sure why anyone would really want to – simply by clicking the Twitter logo below.
If you add us, we might just well add you back! Unless you’re spammers… In which case we’ll ignore you. And treat you like spam! Ew!
SLAnet PatUrn – Patterns Seen Within Saturn’s Ring System
This track uses an algorythmic modulation that “naturally” allows rhythmic complexity to develop and evolve in a similar process to the way the Saturnian ring system has developed.
SLAnet PatUrn by the Orange Hut studio
Basically a self-consistent system of the Boltzmann equation and Poisson equation (as discussed in “Modeling of the Saturnian Ring System” by Griv, E., Liverts, E., Gedalin, M., & Yuan, C. in the Journal of Astrophysical Supercomputing using Particle Simulations, IAU Symposium #208, held 10-13 July 2001 in Tokyo, Japan. Edited by Junichiro Makino and Piet Hut, San Francisco: Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 2003., p.45 Bibliographic Code: 2003IAUS..208…45G) has allowed scientists to understand how the dynamic evolution of Saturn’s main A, B and C rings came about.
Saturn’s rings disk consists of mutually gravitating particles that are highly dynamic and subject to various instabilities by gravitational disturbances from more massive objects within the system i.e. like shepherd moons, etc. This dynamism mainly occurs because the evolution of the system is primarily driven by angular momentum redistribution.
In a similar manner within the rhythmic content of this track, lower frequencies present stronger gravitational like disturbances that have greater inertia, while higher frequency content are lighter and provide less gravitational disturbances. Timing cycles are centred on 8, 4, 1 and 0.5 bar divisions.
Nearly all the sounds were originally generated using our Arp 2600, and most of them were then modulated and “enhanced” using original patches that I developed in the Symbolic Sound Corp’s Kyma program.
We also used some of the original sounds that “Voyager 2” recorded while it passed nearby in August of 1982 at only a mere 110,000 Km from Saturn’s Ring system. These were effected, using Kyma, with formant filters and appear quite noticeably in the outro of the track.
The Orange Hut Joins 10:10
“It wasn’t the Exxon Valdez captain’s driving that caused the Alaskan oil spill. It was yours.” Greenpeace advertisement, New York Times, 25 February 1990
In line with the idea that, “if we don’t think about future generations, then they will never forget us…” we have decided it is time to follow through and bring the Orange Hut studio in line with an idea for sustainability as an effort to become a more efficient and eco-conscious organisation that is considering it’s impact on the global community and global ecology.
Just recently, while walking around the creative space, I’ve been noticing little differences… And while I initially couldn’t have told you what the differences were, they were definitely the direct result of something being missing… Something which was usually there – present and subtle. And after a bit of time it started to dawn on me what was happening… People were becoming more aware of their consumption and usage of electricity. I mean, when you’re working in a sonically insulated environment, one normally doesn’t have to be too concerned about thermal insulation, as they usually are one and the same thing. Good sound insulation = good thermal insulation and visa-versa. However, one of the things I have noticed over the years in all the recording studios in which I have worked is the “hideous” waste of electricity that goes on: whether it be in the form of left on amps, guzzling tube based electronics, or power sucking condenser mic pres (like the one that comes with AKG’s C12), it’s all so easy to overlook in the throws of passionate creative flow. Then there are the lights… And the cups of tea, where usually a kettle is topped right up to the max, just in case anyone else wants a cuppa… But that’s all gone!?
But now, whenever I come down into the kitchen, there is always just the right amount of water in the kettle for the right number of people who are over here working. And when there is nobody in a room, there is no light coming from that room. Even the familiar sound of the lone guitar amp left cackling by itself in the corner – a sort of soothing hum intermingled with the occasional crackle of static discharging from the tubes and connectors, something which I find really relaxing – is absent. When amps are not in use, the guitarists now switch them off… ! Even the mic pres, synths, tube compressors and computers are being switched off when not in use… No longer do I see screens with half composed scores or partially edited documentaries blazing away light while their operators are elsewhere, sourcing more creative juice for their endeavours… Even the display sleep settings are now left on 15 mins rather than never… And the computer hard drives are put to sleep after 30 minutes. We’re even composting too!? Something I thought I’d never see… And just the other day someone mentioned to me that it was probably time to reach into our own pockets – something totally unheard of here – and pitch in together for a solar thermal microgeneration unit that will meet some of our hot water needs… I mean we’ve even got bunk beds in the spare room now, so people don’t have to drive back and forth between home and work each and every day…
I’ve got to say I’m enjoying these new dimensions of living that we’re all injecting into the equation… Because, in this mindful action, I’m glad to report there is a deep sense of calm growing within me; an all pervading stillness; one which fills me with a sense of hope that we might actually be ready to achieve a 10% reduction in our carbon emissions this 2010. The musicians, editors and creatives are all finally doing it, and not just talking about it… But the best bit (as I’m sure they’ll be telling you) is that… I’m not bloody nagging them anymore!
Thus it’s time we – here at the Orange Hut – took that 10:10 pledge to demonstrate to everyone we know (and to those we don’t know) just how committed we all are about reducing our carbon foot print to make that change for a cleaner, greener world. By thinking about what it means to be sustainable, we’ve begun supporting renewable energy sources rather than finite, dirty and expensive ones many of us still use. But most importantly, we’re having fun doing it! And would you believe we’re even saving money too!
So if you fancy joining in the fun, then why not sign up today and click the 10:10 logo below!? After all, many hands make light work!
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step…” Chinese proverb
“Sticks in a bundle are unbreakable.” Kenyan Proverb
“A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.” Old proverb
Plain, Simple and Free
“Nothing so liberalizes a man and expands the kindly instincts that nature put in him as travel and contact with many kinds of people.” Mark Twain
As of late, I’ve become a bit of a smart phone “junkie.” Apparently it’s never far from my side… And whenever I get an E-mail, text message, or MSN IM invite “ping” through, I pounce on it with blatant disregard for whatever I was doing, and subsequently get “locked” into a protracted, orgiastic flow of creative multi-media communicability. Well… At least that’s what I’m told!? Told by a friend who’s a devout technophobe i.e. he “still” rings me up on his 1960s rotary dial telephone to ask me how to set his VCR to auto-record a program that he wanted to watch on television later, but now can’t, as he’ll be out and about doing the soical… Perhaps the next time one of these communicability frenzies arises, I should become more mindful of it!?
Putting that somewhat freaky picture of social addiction to one side… I’ve got to be honest and say that I am thoroughly enjoying my smart phone for the pretty amazing little tool that it is. For me it’s the “Swiss army pen knife” of social and media interaction… One that seamlessly blends the day-to-day running of my business with the more informal social pursuits of my spare time. It’s a tool that is so handy it keeps nearly every aspect of my life “flowing” beautifully. No more personal organizers, mobile phones, cameras, dictaphones, Sat Navs and all the chargers that come with these devices… Nor anymore little scraps of paper with various E-mails, telephone numbers, names, titles of books, etc… scrawled in barely legible handwriting (with implements that range from empty BiC biros to freshly lit match sticks), littered throughout my pockets and back-packs… Now it’s all kept in just one little slim line device… Which has just one charger. I like to think of it as the palm grease for my informational groove (and ironically, just as I began to tap out this sentence, Herbie Hancock’s funky-cut entitled “Palm Grease” begins to play on the media player)… And I thank Zen for this new found simplicity! At the best of times I’m a minimalist i.e. I even sometimes begrudge having to take my laptop into the field with me. So to have a device that razors away all the old clutter of my “information-driven-life” is like having a close-shave and hot towel down at the barbers each and every day. It fits snugly over the non-linear dynamical discharge that occurs between the synaptic clefts of my brain’s complex neural network, providing my mind with joyous notions about the ethos behind a simplistic life.
Despite the condensed functionality and simplicity that this device has brought through its great design… I’ve had readjust my body and mind to a sort of 24 hour state of open communications… And, as a result, I have noticed that I’m getting a lot more work coming in. It seems the 8 hour working days, along with my geographical location, no longer dictate the way in which I deal with my clients… Even if I’m out on a recording job in the Scottish highlands (as I was just recently), when I switch my device on, I’m suddenly only a stone’s throw away from any clientele communication. When you deal with information, it’s handy to be able to access it anywhere, anytime and disseminate what you need to to your clients. With with this smart phone, I can now upload any client’s work to a public shared folder on my local “Cloud” and access/edit/amend any data that I need to. Everything is integrated into this ergonomic palm held device.
Which smart phone did I go for? Well… As 3 out of the 4 computers here at work are Apple Macs, and my laptop is a MacBookPro, I naturally chose the iPhone over a Blackberry or a Google Nexus type smart phone, mainly for ease of integration… And I’ve got to say, I haven’t really regretted my choice at all thus far.
But as far as my lifestyle has become more productive, I have become very aware of how sensitive my response to this new technological gimmick has become. And, with regards to this, I do have one important gripe with the iPhone… That is the totally lame collection of ringtones that it comes with. In fact… Just the other day, while I was waiting in a bus terminal’s departure lounge, I noticed how near-on twenty fellow iPhone owners were all using the same ringtone as myself on their iPhones!?! Needless to say that, while I was doing my best to catch up on some shut-eye after the long night out before, I ‘subjectively’ heard ‘my’ phone go off with such a regular frequency that I barely had time to lie back down and close my eyes again before I was jolted back into consciousness by someone else’s incoming message or phone call! What a pain it is to be disturbed by a ringtone that isn’t even your own!!!
So as to avoid this torment, I searched high-and-low for an original ringtone that I could use… And I hate to say that I have come across NONE that suit my needs!? What with Apple solely using their own unique .m4r files for iPhone ringtones (which is based on their own .m4a compression system using the Apple Lossless Encoder), rather than the ubiquitous and trusty .mp3 format, customization/personalization is made all the more difficult for any iPhone user. No doubt you can buy someone else’s ringtone packages via the iTunes store, as I have done. But, be warned, you will probably find a bourgeois amalgam of sounds that range from crying babies, horns hooting, cars screeching, airplanes flying overhead, all the way through to bubbles popping, twigs snapping, people cheering, thunder storms booming, keys-a-jangling, etc… None of which resemble a telephone in the slightest… But all of which become either highly annoying after the first two or three rings (someone almost got lynched the other day in a cafe up North for their phone’s offensive ringtone) OR they become easily inaudible over certain types of everyday ambient noise i.e. while driving in a car OR down the local watering hole!!!
Thus I began to ponder about the sonic aesthetics of the “ringtone.” And I came to the conclusion that… A telephone should sound like a telephone… Not like my dog barking, nor my favorite tune of the week playing, or any other cluttered idea that seemingly provides me with some delusional personalized “depth” to my own individuality. For me, a ringtone should be nothing more than a ringtone i.e. it should alert me to the fact that someone is trying to “ring-through” in order to talk to me. Thus it should be easily recognizable as a telephone… And, within limits, you should be able to recognize your own telephone’s ringtone, so you know that it is your telephone which is in fact ringing, and not someone else’s… It should also be able to cut through all but the highest of ambient noises, remaining simple, elegant and unconceited in the process. Why should you have to pollute the environment with more banal ambient noises that might only serve to annoy and/or irritate others? Silence is rarely found in today’s culture… And thus, for me, silence is golden… When it needs to be “broken,” it should be done so with delicate, specific and mindful intent.
Bearing in mind these criteria, over the last few days I have strung together a collection of “no-frill” ringtones for any iPhone user among you who might share similar sentiments to my own. These ringtones are based on sounds that I have recorded live in the field and then re-synthesized in the studio. In the process I have pillaged, pilfered and studied many ringing devices, both old and new alike. And on the whole, I was irrevocably drawn back to the simplicity and commonality of the alarms found on antique machinery that our fore-fathers might have known. These machines ranged from rotary dial telephones and old mechanical calculators, through to old Singer antique sewing machines, typewriters, and Victoria copying devices, all of which I easily managed to acquire through FreeCycle, or found at local Car Boot Sales. For me, nothing quite beats that fervent “ring-ring” pattern of metal striker upon metal bell, providing the true essence of what all modern alarm ideals are based upon i.e. the alert that bids one to pay attention to whatever it is that needs attention paid to it.
A Singer Model 12 antique sewing machine that was used as a sound source for some of the ringtones below.
Much fun was had compiling these sounds, and along the way I met many an interesting person who made me very aware of just how far mankind has come technologically i.e. by exchanging most of the manual aspects of the classic, antique “machinery” design for the “lazy” electronic dependence of power grid modernity. While these “tocsins” certainly aren’t anything flamboyant, they are simple, understated, elegant and timeless… Centred around the essence of this common, yet classic, antiquarian alarm design, the idea has been modestly evolved into several novel electronic derivations, so as to provide one with a comprehensive selection of ringtones from which to be alerted by. But, probably more importantly, you’ll be able to hear these ringtones over much of the “usual” everyday ambient noise… And do so without annoying too many people in the process and/or getting confused about whether that is in fact your phone, which is ringing, or someone else’s…
Oh… And did I mention they are free too!?
Please Note: These are provided in the .m4a file format, which will not work on the iPhone directly as a ringtone! So… In order to change them into iPhone ringtones, once you’ve downloaded the files you’ll need to convert them into the .m4r format. This is simply done by changing the “.m4a” suffix to “.m4r” i.e. change the “a” to an “r” just as you would when changing a file-name on your computer. It’s really that easy… Then all you have to do is open them in iTunes. Once in iTunes, you can then sync your iPhone and, providing you have selected the right settings, the ringtones should automatically be uploaded to your device ready for use.
If you have any comments about any of the above ringtones, OR if you have any personalized requests, please feel free to leave a note below, and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.
OR… If you are using an Apple Mac computer, you can try creating your own ringtone by using the “iPhone Ringtone Maker” application.
In honor of the late Edward Lorenz, I proffer the following brief insight into the basis of his life’s work… And, as a sort of token for this insight, I feel compelled to offer some of our own interpretations; interpretations, via the medium of musical/sonic form, that are derived purly from his enlightening expositions.
Picture 1. Edward Norton Lorenz - May 23, 1917 to April 16, 2008
It is the findings and implications gleaned from Lorenz’s body of works that has so inspired me to further study their implications. As a result, I feel much the better for having glanced at the beauty behind the ‘irrational,’ which is seemingly so characteristic of certain types dynamical system. While the significance about the way various basins of attraction might interact with one another would no doubt have eventually come to light within the scientific community (something that was first alluded to by Jules Henri Poincaré), it was Edward’s work which hastened the inevitable birth of a new science proper – namely the science of non-linear dynamical systems – and so proffered to erudition a better analogy with which to understand the unpredictable eddies and flows that swirl around us all daily.
The Lorenz attractor, named after its founder, is a fractal structure corresponding to the long-term behavior of the Lorenz oscillator. The Lorenz oscillator is a “3-dimensional” i.e. it has three variables, dynamical system that exhibits chaotic flow, and is well noted for its ‘lemniscate’ shape (a term used in algebraic geometry to refer to an object that has a likeness to the figure eight’s form).
The oscillator was originally used by Lorenz as a simplified model for convectional flow within earth’s atmosphere. The map (see both figures 1 and 2 below) shows how the state of a dynamical system (the three variables interdependently fluxing through time within a 3-D phase-space plot) evolves in a complex, non-repeating pattern.
Figure 1.
Figure 1. appeared in the Nature journal 31 August 2000, pp 949 as part of an article titled The Lorenz Attractor Exists, written by Ian Stewart. It was created as part of an OpenGL interactive viewer and rendered on a farm of Dec Alphas using ProRay.
In 1961, Lorenz had managed to create a skeleton of a weather system from a handful of differential equations. He kept a continuous simulation running on an extremely primitive analog computer that would output a day’s progress in the simulation every minute as a line of text on a roll of paper. Evidently, the whole system was very successful at producing “weather-like” output – nothing ever happened the same way twice, but there was an underlying order that delighted Lorenz and his associates.
…Line by line, the winds and temperatures in Lorenz’s printouts seemed to behave in a recognizable earthly way. They matched his cherished intuition about the weather, his sense that it repeated itself, displaying familiar patterns over time, pressure rising and falling, the airstream swinging north and south. (GLEICK, J. Chaos: Making a New Science.)
What Edward Lorenz had discovered was a chaotic system. Even though a computer had control of the simulation, and certainly possessed the capability to generate random numbers at will, there was nothing random about any portion of the way the simulation was supposed to work. It merely followed the laws of calculus as set down by Sir Isaac Newton himself and outputted a day’s worth of virtual weather at the end of each minute. Lorenz’s initial brush with chaos is described best by James Gleick’s own words, from Chaos:
One day in the winter of 1961, wanting to examine one sequence at greater length, Lorenz took a shortcut. Instead of starting the whole run over, he started midway through. To give the machine its initial conditions, he typed the numbers straight from the earlier printout. Then he walked down the hall to get away from the noise and drink a cup of coffee. When he returned an hour later, he saw something unexpected, something that planted a seed for a new science.This new run should have exactly duplicated the old. Lorenz had copied the numbers into the machine himself. The program had not changed. Yet as he stared at the new printout, Lorenz saw his weather diverging so rapidly from the pattern of the last run that, within just a few months, all resemblance had disappeared. He looked at one set of numbers, then back at the other. He might as well have chosen two random weathers out of a hat. His first thought was that another vacuum tube had gone bad.
Suddenly he realized the truth. There had been no malfunction. The problem lay in the numbers he had typed. In the computer’s memory, six decimal places were stored: .506127. On the printout to save space, just three appeared: .506. Lorenz had entered the shorter, rounded-off numbers, assuming that the difference-one part in a thousand-was inconsequential.
It was a reasonable assumption. If a weather satellite can read ocean-surface temperature to within one part in a thousand, its operators consider themselves lucky. Lorenz’s Royal McBee was implementing the classical program. It used a purely deterministic system of equations. Given a particular starting point, the weather would unfold exactly the same way each time. Given a slightly different starting point, the weather should unfold in a slightly different way. A small numerical error was like a small puff of wind – surely the small puffs faded or canceled each other out before they could change important, large-scale features of the weather. Yet in Lorenz’s particular system of equations, small errors proved catastrophic.
And there is the show-stopper: small errors prove catastrophic! Lorenz entitled a 1972 paper, “Predictability: Does the Flap of a Butterfly’s Wings in Brazil Set Off a Tornado in Texas?” and the title stuck. Today, sensitive dependence on initial conditions is referred to as “The Butterfly Effect.”
For the purposes of experimentation, Lorenz created a new system with three nonlinear differential equations:
dx / dt = a (y – x)
dy / dt = x (b – z) – y
dz / dt = xy – c z
It was a reduced model of convection, similar to the swirls of cream in a hot cup of coffee, only much, much, much simpler. And yet, the shear complexity, along with the never ending richness of form that it generated, demonstrates the sovereign and almost “God-like” majesty that lies behind two simple basins of attraction… The resulting unpredictability woven into their subtle networks of force are truly startling!
Ever since my first glance at one of these phase-space extrapolations, I have had a deep sense of longing to port this ideal into the sonic realm so as to investigate rhythmic form, wondering whether listening to the chaos inherent within a Strange Attractor might in some way provide deeper insight into the aural aesthetics of never repeating, endless novel flow.
Figure 2.
So without further ado, I offer a snippet from an on going project called “Strange Attractions…” A project that allows us to ‘simply’ port over some of the visual ideas seen above i.e. data flowing through 3-D phase spaces, into sonic gardens of chaotically grown rhythms and melodic modulations. While some of these recordings will no doubt sound like true chaotic flows, others will have a more musical coherence within their temporal passage. This is a direct result of some re-structuring on our part. Nonetheless, non-linear systems still reside at the core of these compositions, and thus, despite their preternatural arrangements, chaos can still be found within their flow… For it is the chaos built into the programs that we use which provides our sensibilities with the novel and diverse fragments of rhythmic undualtion from which we assimilate our sonic forms… And, just as the non-linear dynamics inherent within our body’s own biological system provides the impulse for action, we see a type cynosure functioning for our seemingly “conscious” selves, and thus the guidance is derived from that universal law of “God, or Nature.”
We hope you enjoy listening to them as much as we enjoyed making them:
Track 1 – Lorenz Experiments – Version 1.54
Kyma Strange Attractor Patterns (Pitched Metalic Spectra) by the Orange Hut studio
Track 2 – Lorenz Experiments – Version 4.692
Strange Attractions (Lorenz’s Rough Mix) by the Orange Hut studio
Track 3 – Lorenz Experiments – Version 0.78 a.k.a. Rhythm In The Numbers (Hexadecimal Mix)
Rhythm in the Numbers (Hexadecimal Mix) by the Orange Hut studio
Lastly… A big thank you to Edward Lorenz. R.I.P.
