fades.net
Realtime online environment

About
Fades.net is a sound art piece conceived in the shape of multi-source sound sculpture. It's specifically designed to run via web in order to offer an exhibition set for non limited number of speakers and collective participation.
The work is based on a custom made pitch algorythm and a specific compositional structure.
Participants are invited to join the 'mise en scene' by connecting their portable internet devices to fades website so to share in the additive synthesis and in the evolution process of the piece.

How it works
Just connect to fades.net, press the start button and switch the lights off.

Technical needs
- internet wi-fi connection.
- portable devices compatible with Java with sound and video out.


Programming notes
Sound generation in fades.net is realtime. Every connection produces a unique sequence of sinewaves organized as follows:
DYNAMICS: fade-in/sound(color)/fade-out/silence(darkness) and again with new ramp time and pitch values.
In the center of the screen the frequency in hertz of every choice is displayed.
PITCH: two microtonal pitch maps are used in fades.net, both centered on the A440 fundamental. The first is in just intonation and privileges those ratios that are close to the fundamental. Small prime numbers are more probable than big ones, so that perfect fifths and fourths are more frequent than pitches that are far in the harmonic series.
The second system is driven by straight randomness, but chosen frequencies exponentially tend to approach the perfect A4 from below and above (see the graphic below).
Combining the two, the range of possible pitches covers the whole human ear or technical reproduction capabilities.
PAN: pseudo-random numbers are used to drive frequency, phase and waveform of various panner oscillators.
Sound is driven by a Java applet. Fullscreen and video features are made with actionscript and require the Adobe Flashplayer.

fades.net tuning graph (system B)