November 25, 2022 0

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Slate + Ash Choreographs (KONTAKT)

A malleable, open system of interconnecting signals, pulses, and patterns, CHOREOGRAPHS explores the principle of designing sound through sequences of movement. It is a map of perpetual animation, where dynamic forms dance in space, shape, and time.

PATTERNS OF CREATION

With over 150 individually modulatable controls scattered throughout its signal path, CHOREOGRAPHS has movement at its beating heart. Three sample-based oscillators feed into a refined architecture of unique musical devices to form a sound design environment that begins as a polyphonic synthesiser, but augments into a drum machine, drag-and-drop sampler, or granular processor. Movement is injected almost anywhere by selecting from a broad range of modulators including complex LFOs, MIDI CC, fluctuating random signals, and highly versatile step-modulators.

BODIES IN TIME AND SPACE

Like a choreography, a synthesis system is a map of motion, a blueprint of moving parts. CHOREOGRAPHS is an exploration of this idea; an instrument where movement finds its own sonic expression. As the choreographer plots out the movements to be performed, CHOREOGRAPHS sets the parameters for the performance to emerge. It is the meeting of the composition and the performance: half-spontaneous, half-designed.

AN ASSEMBLY OF WAVES

CHOREOGRAPHS is comprised of a large collection of expertly sampled analogue, digital, and modular synthesisers, drum machines, acoustic instruments, and noise sources. Over 400 sample sources cover everything from the warmth of prized analogue classics to the plucks and bursts of modular oscillators; the bell-like twinkles of physically modelled materials to the rompler-like blend of acoustic samples. Included also is a bank of characteristic noise layers — crackling static, buzzing amplifiers, fumbled cloth, scraped membranes, distant bird calls — that layer together to break down generic synth sounds into half-erased, dusty textures.

SONIC CONSTELLATIONS

The CHOREOGRAPHS preset library contains over 650 patches, each of which can be picked apart within the engine. Anything from churning, tangled arpeggios to heavy drones dripping in reverb; buckling swirls of deep bass to cross stitched rhythms of sharp percussion; beastly, cinematic gestures to circular pulses full of kinetic repetition; and angular polyrhythms that twist and turn at will, untethered from the traditional four-bar grid.

HARMONIC GEOMETRY

Central to CHOREOGRAPHS is the ability to complexly modulate pitch. As in modular synthesis, the pitch of a voice can be detached from the triggering of its envelope. This blows wide open a whole new methodology of harmonic sequencing — pitches are continuously and instantaneously updated, allowing for intricately plotted sequences, LFO driven melodies, and uniquely fragmented polyrhythms. Everything feeds into a scale quantiser, intelligently pulling pitches into line, turning chaos into harmony.

CIRCLES IN TIME

The Euclidean sequencer in CHOREOGRAPHS spawns abstract sequences based on geometric divisions and mathematical symmetry. Four lanes of rotating circular triggers play against each other, carving out overlapping polyrhythms with a unique gravitational pull. Each lane sits in its own orbit, creating evolving harmonic progressions, phasing counterpoints, and angular percussive structures.

CURATE + CREATE

CHOREOGRAPHS is as much a sampler as it is a synthesiser. Samples are loaded into the engine by simply dropping them into any of the three voice slots. Once loaded, a myriad of voice shaping parameters can chop them into shape. As well as starting from scratch, dragging a custom sample into any of the 600+ preset patches is an instantaneous way to get something novel out of it. Custom impulse responses can also be loaded by dragging them onto the convolution effect slot, allowing for an infinity of spaces.