Memory Collage Scrambler (2022)

for sarah Belle Reid

Memory Collage Scrambler was developed in late 2021/early 2022, to assist in creating audio collage material for Sarah Belle Reid’s forthcoming electroacoustic opera. Sarah had petitioned a number of patrons to provide audio for her opera—recordings of them describing their memories or dreams—in order to create soundscapes for her opera. Rather than tediously editing/collaging audio by hand, we decided it made sense to create an autonomous process that could create collage-like sonic structures from folders of .WAV files.

I had previously been experimenting with audio buffer manipulation/glitch techniques in Glitch Patch and other patches. Simultaneously, I was going through an intense period of fascination with Eventide audio processors, Don Buchla’s 288 Time Domain Processor, and multi-tap delays in general—as such, I opted to make a multi-tap delay the central feature of the patch.

The patch looks at a folder of .WAV files, and randomly plays small segments of them. Each time a new segment is played, a trigger is sent throughout the application in order to randomize any/all sound generation/audio processing parameters. The sampled sounds are played through a 16-tap stereo delay, with the option for latching/dynamic glitching behavior. The final audio output may be recorded to a .WAV file.

I have used Memory Collage Scrambler for a number of my own pieces, including many sections of my forthcoming album Friends Unraveling. Several variations of the patch were created, including several versions that make use of the chorus/delay/reverb found originally in B400V. Ultimately, I adapted the patch for use with live audio input—eventually evolving into the Multi-Delay + Latching Glitch Processor.

The original, purely sample/delay-based Memory Collage Scrambler is available through Sarah Belle Reid’s Patreon. There, you can access the original .maxpat file and a standalone .app for Mac computers, as well as video documentation of how it is meant to be used.