The shaker test piece evolved from another shaker-like experiment we conducted and used in one of our performances. The name behind the ‘Shaker’ came about from the movements we were making to test the system, which resembles the movements you make when playing an acoustic shaker instrument. A Shaker is an instrument of organized chaos, this is because of the big number of tiny objects colliding inside this instrument and the reason you hear almost one sound is because the tiny objects are made with the same material, density and mass and they’re hitting the boundary of the “container” all at once.
In our experiment we wanted to expand this chaos into something digitally dynamic, something that can be triggered randomly but still have a big expression. Eventually, after trying out various sounds and approaches the best expression came about when we turned the sensor into a ‘Random Amen Break Shaker Generator’. Imagine all the tiny objects inside a shaker, but this time imagine all of them having different characteristics, in our terms, different sounds, triggers, effects, modulations and variations were being randomly generated by the movement of the dancer. The tricky part in this experiment was to find the best sounding quantization that made most sense with the choreography of the dancer. Playing and triggering a big number of sounds at one time can be fun, but not so musical and these quantizations used have helped to create a more musical flow to the application. This tool was then elevated into a full experience when random spatial sound placements were added to the audio being triggered by the shaker, making the shaker more dynamic and real. This experiment can be used in various other shapes and forms throughout any musical production and theater piece as well as in educational and scientific projects.
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