A Hardware Boolean Sequencer

Inventor

Hi everyone, I was recently complimented by several folks on my music software which is based on a thingie that I call a Boolean Sequencer. In fact, folks even expressed interest in making a hardware version of it which I think is way cool indeed! So I'm opening up a thread to discuss the topic here on electro-music.com.

So what is a Boolean Sequencer? It is just logic hanging off of a binary counter. Believe it or not, you can get awesome tunes by just putting a tangled mess of logic off of a binary counter. I like to use sum of products logic, but really any logic will do.

I should elaborate more, but let me end this initial post with a sample of Boolean Sequencing. Just play the audio file below to hear it.

If you would like to discuss the possibility of building a hardware version of a Boolean Sequencer, please post in this thread. I will be happy to share all details of course. Cheers and be good or else be really really bad, haha!

KNoW_Wave24.mp3

Description:

Boolean Sequencer Music Example

Filesize:

1.8 MB

Viewed:

1842 Time(s)

andrewF · Posted: Wed Feb 25, 2009 3:00 am Post subject:

sounds good!
would you be able to draw a block diagram of your thoughts

anything like this? -
http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~aland/PAPERS/ACMA2000forWWW.pdf

Inventor · Posted: Wed Feb 25, 2009 4:04 am Post subject:

Hi andrewF, that paper sure looks a lot like it, and it was published in 2000 so they got me by eight years! Nothing new under the sun, eh? Well in it's current form the Boolean Sequencer is a little bit more than that because it walks up and down a scale, but yeah that's probably the basic concept right there.

I always knew that this thingie was just an old idea which I had embellished, and now I see that is true. Ah well, it's worth making in hardware for synthesizers anyway. I'll work on a schematic for it soon, but here is a verbal description of the sum of products version.

You start with a binary counter. Say it's an eight bit counter. The bits each go into an AND gate and each AND gate has a SPST switch that sets it's other input to either zero or one. They all go into an eight input OR gate. Then you make some number of those structures, k of them, so that you have k outputs. You then have an adder that adds up how many outputs are one. Add that to a MIDI note and that gives you your frequency.

That's one example of how to do a Boolean Sequencer but there are many other ways, including walking up and down a scale which I do in the above audio sample. I'll try to get a schematic going soon.

fluxmonkey · Joined: Jun 24, 2005 Posts: 708 Location: cleve

great idea, looking forward to more detail. might this also be akin to grant richters hardware neruons?

b

Inventor · Posted: Wed Feb 25, 2009 2:53 pm Post subject:

Inventor · Posted: Sun Feb 28, 2010 10:50 pm Post subject:

I just googled "Boolean Sequencer" and this old thread from a year ago came up as second on the list, so I thought I would insert a link to the development thread which is here:

http://electro-music.com/forum/topic-36165.html&postorder=asc

If you read that thread (well, skim over it i guess cause it's long), you will find that the project originated as a single board with a Boolean Sequencer and a Karplus Strong circuit. It has since evolved into two boards, one for the Boolean Sequencer and another for the Karplus Strong.

At the time of this writing the Karplus Strong board has been manufactured and tested working, and will hopefully be available for sale soon. The Boolean Sequencer board is still under development and a first run circuit board is planned for later this year.

I hope you enjoy reading about these boards and listening to the music samples and radio shows linked in the development thread. Have fun and enjoy!

Les

Sound · Joined: Jun 06, 2006 Posts: 842 Audio files: 1

Thanks Inventor. I was impressed listening in radio electro-music your boolean sequencer.

I'm interested in. I'll build it.

Inventor · Posted: Wed Mar 03, 2010 8:53 am Post subject: