Hell Cafe, by Nick Didkovsky
Please be patient while this applet loads a few audio samples from the server.
Quick Start
In the Nibblers and Scratchers window, click the button labelled "START"
Click the "build" button in the panel labelled snare.wav . Click the "mute" checkbox to un-mute it.
You will hear a repeated pattern, with 4 pulses and 4 divisions per pulse.
Change the "Divisions Per Pulse" text field from 4 to 8. Click "build" again and hear the difference
kick in on the next repeat.
Move the slider on the far right to adjust loudness.
Whenever you change values, no changes will take place until you click the "build" button.
The changes will occur on the next repeat cycle.
In the Long Licks window, type 12 into the "sec" field in the "TAPE LENGTH" section of the top panel.
Click "Start New Loop" and a 12 second loop will begin.
IMPORTANT: Occasionally click the Usage button in the Long Licks window to see how much of a load this is putting on your system. All sounds are generated in
realtime by JSyn, using your computer's central processor. So turn off a few instruments if Usage starts to exceed 60%.
Brief explanation of Nibbler & Scratcher fields:
Pulses: the number of pulses in the repeating pattern
Empty Pulses: the number of pulses which are rests (4 pulses with 2 empty pulses results in a pattern that plays on the "3" and "4")
Divisions per Pulse: 1 = qtr, 2=8th note, 3= triplet, etc
Repeats: how many times this pattern repeats before the entire collection repeats. Ex. one pattern of 8 with a repeat of
1 will take as long as a pattern of 4 pulses with a repeat of 2.
p(density): the probability that an odd numbered pulse subdivision will be sounded.
A liberating notion: Divisions per pulse can be any positive number, even fractional.
Try 8 divisions per pulse in one voice and 8.2 divisions per pulse in another. Divisions per pulse cannot be
lower than 1/pulses or you won't hear anything. For example, for 4 pulses, the lowest sensible division per pulse is 0.25,
while for 8 pulses, the lowest is 0.125
You can store and instantly recall up to 16 mixes.
* (C) 2001 Nick Didkovsky, Nick.Didkovsky@mail.rockefeller.edu
This applet use pure Java JSyn and no longer requires the JSyn plug-in