map21 Multiple vector source + translation matrix (2023)

map21 Multiple Vector Source + Translation Matrix is a special-purpose MIDI controller designed to interface specifically with the map01 Delta Scan Mapping Interface and map02 Delta Scan Mapping Interface + Windowed Temporal Drag Processor. It, and the other devices from the Mapper series, explore the peculiar musical and performative implications of combining chaotic sound generation structures with arbitrary, instantaneous, and random re-mapping of gestural user input structures. It is the first device in the map2X sub-series—the controllers from the Mapper series.

The Mapper series as a whole began with the map01 Delta Scan Mapping Interface, a chaotic sound-generating structure. I had always intended to make Mapper a modular system—but not in the sense of the typical modular synthesizer. The idea was that there could be a general-purpose sound-making structure, which could be controlled via MIDI. Then, there could be a series of controllers designed specifically to address that sound-making structure. It was my assumption that, if I were able to create a sufficiently interesting sound-making structure, developing new controllers could be a way to get significantly different sonic results from it. I also assumed that it could be potentially interesting to create controllers whose local mapping to that sound-generating structure could be modified instantaneously—so that, potentially, the implications of the present control mapping may not even be immediately clear to the user…requiring them to exercise a particular flavor of attentive, careful listening in order to learn the instrument as they play it.

map21 began simply as a way of testing ideas about arbitrary and randomized control mappings for the map01 Delta Scan Mapping Interface. The idea of the arbitrary data routing matrix was inspired by UI concepts in some of Donald Buchla’s instruments—namely, the 210e Control and Signal Router and the (unrealized) 209e Matrix Potpourri. The original concept was simply that a controller could be coupled with a data routing matrix, and that the matrix routing itself could be arbitrarily defined or randomly defined. I suspected that, by making randomization of a data routing matrix a performable process, new and interesting modes of interaction might emerge.

Joysticks felt like one of the most pure, simple, direct, and intuitive input structures to use as an initial testing ground for adding MIDI control to the map01 Delta Scan Mapping Interface; initially, their use was a more-or-less practical decision. Happily, in initial tests, they proved to be unexpectedly satisfying—and so, I proceeded to design a controller that coupled joysticks with the routing matrix idea I had been imagining.

Eventually—after a lot of sketching—I arrived at the current design for map21. The center of map21 is a Translation Matrix: a data routing matrix which produces eight outgoing messages, each mapped directly to a specific parameter of importance on the map01 (or, more recently, map02) Delta Scan Mapping Interface. Each column on the Translation Matrix relates to a specific destination; each row relates to a specific data source on map21 itself. Data sources include: left joystick X and Y axes, right joystick X and Y axes, and random number generators with two distinct means of simple stochastic data generation, whose behavior is governed by the Timing Clock Interval and Random State Generator Behavior controls.

Users may select specific mappings for each destination using yellow buttons at the bottom of the Translation Matrix. Alternatively, users may choose to instantaneously randomize the state of the matrix, or to instantaneously clear the matrix—opening up many new avenues for exploratory playing methods. It is possible, for instance, to set the map01 or map02 to be silent when no control is received from map21; by performatively randomizing and clearing the Translation Matrix, you can create distinct and punctuated gestures with spontaneous, unpredictable data mappings.

In performance, I have found that I personally gravitate toward a playing position in which the “clear” and “randomize” buttons are located beneath my left and right thumbs, respectively, with the joysticks between the index and middle finger of each hand—enabling easy and instantaneous access to the most critical performance controls.

map21 is fully functional, but still considered to be in prototype stage. As of January 2025, its development has been paused in order to give more time to newer instrument concepts.