Proposal for a piece of minimalist music: For complex historical reasons the northern half of Japan runs on a 60 hz AC electrical grid whereas the southern half of Japan runs on a 50 hz AC electrical grid. Stand somewhere in the mountain precisely between the two grids with two speakers run on cables so one speaker is connected to 50 hz Japan AC and one to 60 hz Japan AC. Connect and disconnect the cables on rhythmic patterns. The 5/6 ratio of the two notes will generate a melodic chord
Proper music theory confuses me but I *think* the major chord is based on a 4:5:6 ratio so the 50/60 cycle hum combination should sound Major and bright and chipper. But 60 cycle hum is a very dirty, ugly buzzy sound and also it's quite low pitched so it will be like. Happy swamp monster. I think
@mcc Just throw some partials filters or formants on there and run wild
@aredridel @mcc The power is *supposed* to be a pure sine wave - if you're getting harmonics, there's distortion somewhere. That said, personally, I'd filter out the harmonics and then add a wavefolder to get them back in a controlled manner. 😉
@AlgoCompSynth @aredridel the main way I experience 60 cycle hum is I plug a record player into a speaker without a mixer. When this happens the 60 cycle sound is IME very harsh and buzzy. Does this mean the power in Houston, Texas where I experienced this is dirty? Or does it mean the record player is altering the signal?
@mcc @AlgoCompSynth @aredridel
An interesting question is where the mains frequency comes through to the signal path. If there are nonlinearities along that way, they will generate harmonics. (This is e.g. why the transformer buzz is a buzz: the path from changing magnetic field to position of movable conductive pieces works similarly to a kazoo, because those metallic pieces often behave like springs that get stronger the further you pull them.)
