Queen of Cage

Queen of Cage

free download: https://www.remodevicocomposer.eu/maxforlive/queen-of-cage/

programmed by Remo De Vico

#chess #chessgame #ableton #sound #sounddesign #music #musicproducer #duchamp #cage #queen #electronicmusic #sampler #maxmsp

On the night between March 5 and 6, 1968, in Toronto at the Ryerson Theatre, Marcel Duchamp and John Cage play a game of chess on stage. Reunion is the title of the performance. They play a single match; it is Duchamp’s last public appearance—he would die a few months later. Duchamp wins, even though he gives his opponent the advantage of a piece by playing with one knight fewer. The chessboard, like Cage’s prepared piano, is modified: the 64 squares contain an equal number of photocells sensitive to movement, and each photocell is connected to a sound-generating system that resonates throughout the theater with compositions by Gordon Mumma, David Behrman, David Tudor, and Lowell Cross, the latter being the creator of the prepared chessboard.

Queen of Cage is a Max for Live device inspired by that historic chessboard.

You have two different modes of use.

Sampler Version

You can load up to 64 samples into the squares and explore the chessboard by moving the queen or by using MIDI with the X and Y knobs. At the center of each square the pitch plays at normal speed and decreases toward the edges. You can drag samples directly onto the upper part of each square. (very important!!!)

Synth Mode

By clicking the Sampler button you can enter Synth mode. By moving the queen across the squares you will activate an FM synthesizer designed for extreme noise usage; each square will be a surprise. Of course, an aleatory and random function inspired by the work of John Cage could not be missing. It operates at four different speeds, allowing you to create interesting generative sequences, both in Synth mode and in Sampler mode.

Small Secret Tricks

The first has already been mentioned: you can drag a sample onto the upper part of each square. I chose not to add visual indicators in order not to clutter the graphics, which I preferred to keep clean.

The second concerns the use of the queen: you can mute everything by moving the queen to the outer frame of the chessboard, or that square will play in a loop. This means that if you leave the queen on a square and click on Sampler or Synth, you can make both play, creating interesting connections.

The third concerns the outputs: each of the 8 rows of the chessboard has its own dedicated stereo output. This allows you to create families of samples and therefore build dedicated effect chains in Ableton Live (9 Stereo outputs in total). This will help you a lot in the spatialization of the sound.

Tips

When using Queen of Cage, I recommend recording everything onto a new audio track, especially to save your improvisation. To save your preset, click the Save button on the device in the Instrument Rack.

Curiosity

There are more than 2,000 connections in this patch.

PDF included in the download

check out my music on https://www.remodevicocomposer.eu/