Multiverse Hardware Edition

Multiverse is an idea / realisation I made back in 1999.Take any piece of great music, look beneath the surface of the sounds and notes, here between the timings of the previous, present and future musical events, lay complex but natural harmonic relationships which enable us to feel what is going to happen next in the music. I will refer to this as a polyrhythm.

It is through this medium of the polyrhythm, that emotions and feelings can be transmitted by the composer and received by the listener.

The notion of Multiverse can be considered another way. As Fourier discovered, waveform can be constructed by adding together sine waves of various periods, phases and amplitudes. A square wave is the addition of an even harmonic series and a triangle wave the addition of an odd harmonic series. The value of PI is the alternate addition and subtraction of inverse of the series of odd numbers.

Anything can be expressed as a waveform, jpgs, music and a rhythm. A waveform is after all just a series of values in sequence.

Polyrhythm

Multiverse synthesizes these polyrhythms, to produce limitless variety stunning, natural sounding rhythms. Multiverse contains NO PRE-PROGRAMMED rhythms. Rhythms are synthesized by mixing different musical time periods together to produce complex beat frequency relationships. When the resulting waveform rises above or below adjustable thresholds, note on and note off commands are generated.

Examples

Natural Geometric and Mathematical Progressions

Because the polyrhythms are produced by the interaction of the different musical periods and their relationships to one another,
The rhythms produced by Multiverse sound very natural, as they based on geometrical and mathematical relationships.

The square root of 2 has a lovely feel to it!

Panel Layout

Here is the Multiverse panel layout.

Mode

Multiverse has two main 'Modes', 'Arp' and 'Trig'. In Arp Mode notes played on an external keyboard are arpeggiated according to the Pitch Mix. In Trig Mode, all the notes played on an external keyboard are triggered according to the Rhythm Mix.

Modulators

There are seven Modulators, each with adjustable period and phase. The Modulator period and phase is synchronised to the MIDI clock / start and stop. The output from each modulator is a pure sine wave.

Mixes

Multiverse can produce 3 simultaneous polyrhythm mixes. Each 'Mix' is produced by summing adjustable amounts of each Modulator output.

Rhythm Mix

Used to produce note triggers. The Rhythm Mix signal passes through several stages of signal processing first:

1. Trigger. Sets the level that the signal must reach before a Note On is produced. The Velocity of the Note On is taken from the Velocity Mix.
2. Excite. Mixes in an sine wave component which is at the frequency of the shortest note quanta. i.e. 1/16 note for instance.
3. Length. Sets the level that the signal must fall below before a Note Off is produced.

Velocity Mix

1. Gain. Positive or negative gain is applied.
2. Offset. A value added or subtracted.
3. Modulus. The signal value is divided by the Modulus setting, the remainder is used as the result.
4 Action. In the event that the signal value exceeds the maximum possible values, for each the positive and negative polarity, three options are provided.
(a) Clip: The signal value is set to the maximum possible value.
(b) Mod: The signal value is divided by the maximum possible value, the remainder is used as the signal value.
(c) Mute: Inhibits any Note On produced by the Rhythm Mix.

5. Min and Max. Scale the Velocity Mix signal to fit within the Min and Max limits.

The passages Multiverse plays sounds absolutely awesome when the Velocity is mapped to the Filter Cut-off

Pitch Mix

The Pitch Mix

The Pitch Mix is similar to the Velocity Mix, except that the resulting signal is used to choose which of the notes held down on an external keyboard will be played, resulting in arpeggiation. (Only operational when in 'Arp' Mode).

Multiverse Demos

Here are some of the early recordings I made of the Rhythms Produced by one of the first prototype Multiverse built.

Detail View

Here is a detail view of the Multiverse Front Panel

The First Multiverse

Here is picture of the very first multiverse, wired on veroboard, with patch lead arrangement for the Modulators.

Production

I had completed development of all the Microchip PIC software, PCB design and enclosure, back in the year 2000. I have one working pre-production prototype pictured below.

Just before I was about to start production and marketing I got involved with an LED lighting project. The Spacewriter iBall was an interesting development that took me to Taiwan and all over the world.

The Multiverse project has remained 'on ice' ever since.

The Future

Although this Multiverse concept is now over 15 years old, I remain convinced that it is a brilliant dance music tool.

In 2009 I re-commenced development of a software version of Multiverse using Native Instruments 'Reaktor'. Hopefully I should be able to make the software version available soon.

Multiverse MIDI Control Code Designations