Step into the world of GroovePortal, a dynamic and immersive audio mixing experience designed for live performances. Discover a new dimension of sound manipulation as you venture into a multidimensional space, blending samples across many layers of sound.
Overview
GroovePortal is a multidimensional spatial audio mixer designed for live performance. Users create their own performance space by placing down samples on a 2D plane. Each individual sample can contain any number of additional layers (each with their own sample space). Once the performance space is set up, the user enables Performance mode, mixing and blending the samples as they navigate through the space.
GroovePortal is built on top of the CNMAT RBFI object, a graphical display and editor that expands upon the built-in nodes object by adding support for weighted nodes, multiple cursors, and multiple dimensions of points. RBFI is the core component of GroovePortal when interacting with points, layers, and warps.
GroovePortal is built on top of the CNMAT RBFI object, a graphical display and editor that expands upon the built-in nodes object by adding support for weighted nodes, multiple cursors, and multiple dimensions of points. RBFI is the core component of GroovePortal when interacting with points, layers, and warps.
Features
- Dynamically add new buffer~ and groove~ objects to support loading as many samples as your computer can handle.
- Create unique sample spaces comprising multiple layers that can be traversed, allowing you to craft intricate spatial relationships between audio samples.
- Navigate the sample space to mix and blend audio samples based on their spatial properties.
- Adjust blend strength and timestretching parameters in real-time.
- Save your configurations, sample placements, portals, and more as presets for instant recall.
How to Use
Prepare (Buffer Mode): In Buffer Mode, the user interacts and sets up the buffers. This includes setting the number of buffers, and loading samples into specific buffers. The user can also preview the sample that is loaded into each buffer.
Establish (RBFI Mode): In RBFI Mode, the user interacts with the RBFI space by placing down points, changing the size and scale of each point, and adding additional layers by creating portals. Additionally, the user can adjust the blend strength (how each point's amplitude is calculated) and the tempo (timestretching parameters). The user can save these configurations to a preset, and load previously saved presets in RBFI mode. The user can also activate Audio Preview mode to hear to what the current configuration sounds like, and make adjustments as necessary.
Explore (Performance Mode): In Performance mode, the user traverses the space they set up in RBFI mode in order to mix the samples (corresponding to the placed points) in creative ways. How the samples are mixed depends on the placement of the points, their circle radii, the blend strength, and the position of the cursor. The user can warp through portals (that were set up in RBFI mode) in order to transition to new sound spaces. Both the blend strength and tempo parameters can be adjusted on-the-fly to add dynamics to the performance.
Establish (RBFI Mode): In RBFI Mode, the user interacts with the RBFI space by placing down points, changing the size and scale of each point, and adding additional layers by creating portals. Additionally, the user can adjust the blend strength (how each point's amplitude is calculated) and the tempo (timestretching parameters). The user can save these configurations to a preset, and load previously saved presets in RBFI mode. The user can also activate Audio Preview mode to hear to what the current configuration sounds like, and make adjustments as necessary.
Explore (Performance Mode): In Performance mode, the user traverses the space they set up in RBFI mode in order to mix the samples (corresponding to the placed points) in creative ways. How the samples are mixed depends on the placement of the points, their circle radii, the blend strength, and the position of the cursor. The user can warp through portals (that were set up in RBFI mode) in order to transition to new sound spaces. Both the blend strength and tempo parameters can be adjusted on-the-fly to add dynamics to the performance.
Program Layout
Controls
Most major functionality of GroovePortal is controlled by a DualSense Playstation 5 controller.
You will need to plug the controller into you computer before starting the GroovePortal application.
Once the application is opened, you will need to select the DualSense Wireless Controller option
from the Dropdown menu and then enable the Toggle in the PS5 Controller abstraction.
You will need to plug the controller into you computer before starting the GroovePortal application.
Once the application is opened, you will need to select the DualSense Wireless Controller option
from the Dropdown menu and then enable the Toggle in the PS5 Controller abstraction.
Switch Modes
Buffer Mode
RBFI Mode
Performance Mode
Read About the Technical Details
Programming Design
The above images are a sample of the patch layout and programming. Additional details can be found by downloading the source patches from GitHub. To learn more about the mechanics and technical details of GroovePortal, please read the Technical Details documentation above.