Stochastic Étude 02
2026

Full B-Format and Binaural Mix

.scd Code

This short étude is part of an ongoing interest in stochastic composition and emergent form in computer music. Sixty short transients (recordings of electrical devices, analog glitches, vocal pops and percussive objects) feed a custom multichannel granular synthesis system built in SuperCollider. Rooted in the musique concrète tradition of treating recorded sound as an object, the piece asks how such an object can be fragmented, recombined and reframed in space, and how minimal material can give rise to dense, evolving textures.

The piece opens sharply and sparsely, moves toward a dense textural peak as grain durations lengthen, then recedes into a reduced sonic field. Continuously modulated grain windowing shifts emphasis between the sound of the window itself and the ringing of the sample material; in the denser passages, low-frequency components gather into a drone-like floor beneath the transients.

A randomised but value-constrained global envelope shapes the overall trajectory, influencing timbre, grain duration, modulation depth and spatialisation, while stochastic processes govern moment-to-moment detail such as grain triggering and buffer selection. Form is articulated horizontally through boolean operations tied to elapsed time, and vertically through conditional logic responding to the envelope’s values. Ring modulation, modulo processing and soft waveshaping add spectral complexity.

Originally composed for eight channels, the work is encoded as full-sphere 5th-order Ambisonics. Azimuth is randomised per grain event, and spatial density and motion follow the global envelope. Without a frontal stage or privileged listening direction, the work can be heard from any orientation, each one bringing different fragments into focus.