The sound source of latest Notstandskomitee songs since summer 2007 is the softwaresynthesizer
Minicomputer, a Linuxapplication created by Malte Steiner. It provides 8 monophonic independent synth voices which can have different sound programs. The synthesis doesnt emulate any existing engine of the past but create some new sounds with a certain twist. 2 oscillators with standard and exotic waveforms are coupled together to provide complex sound scapes via FM. The output is feed into a morphing formant filter which is composed of 3 filters switched in parallel. One lowpass filter provides the bass fundament and 2 bandpass filters add further formants. Each filter has 2 sets of settings between which can be morphed. Not less than 7 envelope generators and one additional modulation oscillator provides dynamic changes. Although its not finished, it already can be retrieved from the
SVN repository at Sourceforge. It has some bugs but at least worked already in studio and live without crash.
The synthesizer runs on Laptop with the Linux distribution 64 Studio and is driven by the midi sequencer SEQ24. Excerpts of the first live concert from 16. june 2007 can be seen here:
Next step is to finish realtime live 3D visuals. While Notstandskomitee uses non realtime computer animation videos since early 90s, they were not synced to the music which was rather unsatisfiying. Like the project
Elektronengehirn this project is pursueing the synthesis of audio and visuals to a Gesamtkunstwerk. For several years Malte Steiner works with
realtime 3D systems but only recent improvements regarding CPU and GPU performance and the availability of open source game engines like
Ogre were convincing enough for the inclusion in Notstandskomitees live concept.
Although not finished yet, the results lookings encouraging. The animations were generated in realtime on the same laptop and controlled by the midisequences.
The live debut is planned to be at
Piksel 2007 in Bergen, Norway November 2007 along with the official release of
Minicomputer as free open source.
