A virtual instrument for physics-based musical gesture: CHON
Rodney DuPlessis · 2022
Physical metaphor provides a visceral and universal logical framework for composing musical gestures. Physical simulations can aid composers in creating musical gestures based in complex physical metaphors. CHON (Coupled Harmonic Oscillator Network) is a new cross-platform application for composing musical gestures based in Newtonian physics. It simulates a network of particles connected by springs and sonifies the motion of individual particles. CHON is an interactive instrument that can provide complex yet tangible and physically grounded control data for synthesis, sound processing, and musical score generation. Composers often deploy dozens of independent LFOs to control various parameters in a DAW or synthesizer. By coupling numerous control signals together using physical principles, CHON represents an innovation on the traditional LFO model of musical control. Unlike independent LFOs, CHON’s signals push and pull on each other, creating a tangible causality in the resulting gestures. In this paper, I briefly describe the design of CHON and discuss its use in composition through examples in my own works.