damon holzborn(dot com)

Code

Quaxtrip

Quaxtrip is a set of Max patches that makes low-latency uncompressed audio and messaging interconnections over the internet, intended for musicians wishing to play together remotely.

Quaxtrip runs Miller Puckette’s Quacktrip Pure Data patch within Cycling ‘74’s Max. Quacktrip, in turn, is an implementation, in Pure Data, of Chris Chafe’s JackTrip network protocol, based on jacktrip.pd by Roman Haefeli and Johannes Schuett. It establishes a low-latency, point-to-point connection between two sites, with no audio compression. Quaxtrip allows up to four of these connections, allowing an ensemble of up to five players at once.

Learn more and join the discussion on the Lines forum or download the patch at GitHub.

Exquisite Coasts

Exquisite Coasts is a shared patch game created by Damon Holzborn and John O’Brien. In the spring of 2020, as the Covid-19 lockdown got under way, we started talking about ways to collaborate remotely after realizing that we both owned a Make Noise 0-Coast semi-modular synthesizer. By sharing patches—the state of the synthesizer, including the positions of the knobs and how the signals are routed from one part of the synthesizer to another—we created pairs of solo pieces that shared a common configuration.

The name is borrowed from Exquisite Corpse, a collaborative image or text game developed by the Surrealists, where a work is created either by using some set rule that all of the participants have to follow, or by revealing to the next participant only one part of what the previous person contributed. In this spirit, Exquisite Coasts uses a tight set of technical constraints as an artistic challenge that encourages a deep exploration of the instrument. These guidelines are designed to foster creativity, provide a useful method to get to know your synthesizer, and engage with a wider community of music makers.

Since Exquisite Coasts was first published, the game has expanded to include additional synthesizers from which to choose. Now, in addition to the 0-Coast, we’ve added additional small semi-modular instruments from Make Noise (Strega, 0-CTRL) and Moog (Mother 32, DFAM, Subharmonicon, Werkstatt). Learn more and join in at ec.rustle.works.

Coast Express

Coast Express is a MIDI settings manager for the Make Noise 0-Coast semi-modular synthesizer.

For the Web

The easiest way to use Coast Express is the web verstion. Visit https://ce.rustle.works in the Chrome browser to get started.

For Max

The Max version is conceptually similar to the Max for Live patch that Make Noise distributes, with the following differences:

• This patch is for regular Max, rather than for Max for Live. (Note that you can still use this even if you don’t own Max. Max is available as a free 30-day fully functional demo, after that period it’s save disabled, but that will not effect your ability to run Coast Works unless you want to make changes to the Max patch. This feature used to be available separately as the “run time version” but it’s no longer separate.)
• Buttons instead of pull-down menus are used for easier interaction.
• On-screen widgets (These are meant as convenience tools for testing, not really as a performance tool.):
  • A keyboard to send MIDI notes
  • A dial to send Mod Wheel
  • MIDI clock out
• The interface is reflected in Mira, so if you have an iPad you can interact with it remotely.

Download the latest release on GitHub. Make sure you place the Coast Express folder in your Max search path (and restart Max, if open).

Alternative Reference Manuals

These guides are cheat sheets for the Expert Sleepers Disting mk4 and the Mannequins W/ Eurorack modules. Neither is meant as a replacement for the official documentation, but rather as quick reference guides to refer to while using the modules. They are designed to be mobile-friendly, so you can view it without being tied to your computer. You can save each guide to the homescreen of your mobile device for easy mobile access.

• Disting mk4 Quick Guide
• with w/

Learning Crow

This is a series of scripts I’m sharing while I learn to write applications for the new Monome Crow, a Eurorack module that connects to Norns or computers running Max, Max for Live, and other serial-enabled applications.

1. Dual-clock Quad LFO
2. Curved Random
3. Voltage Utilities
4. Krowll

More to come.

Tap Hear

A web app rooted in a listening exercise by Pauline Oliveros I was exposed to as an undergraduate studying music. Tap Hear is an ephemeral notebook for focused listening.

Start listening at taphear.rustle.works.

Park.js

Park.js is a modular composition and performance system developed with the Web Audio and Web MIDI APIs. It aims to combine the conceptual simplicity of a modular-style step sequencer with the algorithmic flexibility of a live coding language. Park is in development and will be made available publicly soon. Send me a note if you’d like to be notified when Park.js is available.

In the meantime, you can get a taste of Park with TextXoX. TextXoX is a text based drum machine for the web that uses a slightly simplified subset of the features of Park.js in order to create a simple, but hopefully fun and powerful, drum machine.