ARP2600 - Fundamentals of Music Technology - Cyborgstudio.com

SECTION FOURTEEN: PATCH DIAGRAMMING AND ANALYSIS - 117FINAL THOUGHTSPatch analysis is not as difficult as most people make it out to be. It is important to recall what was saidin Section 3 about complex patches: they are really just a collection of simple patches which are alloccurring at once. When one stops to consider a large patch such as the ones presented in this section,they seem much less intimidating when one considers them as a simple FM patch, a switching patch,etc.There are some patches which are very difficult to predict, even if one can figure out how they work.Examples of these patches include series modulation, cross modulation, patches which use sidebands,and patches which include feedback of audio signals as control signals into the patch. Sometimesseveral of these techniques can be combined to produce results that no one could have predicted! (CDtrack 83) In situations like these, if one is asked to describe the patch, one is much better off justdescribing the processes which are occurring and summing up one’s observations with a guess at whatthe patch will sound like.Perhaps the most important thing to remember is to state the reasons that a particular sound shouldsound the way it does. In a testing situation, a teacher can give no credit for a description of soundwhich is totally incorrect, but partial credit could be given if the processes which are at work aredescribed along with the sound.If one is learning the art of patch analysis for an academic setting in which one is going to be tested,beware the “John Cage” patch. John Cage was a composer whose most notable work is one composedentirely of rests, and the players play in silence. It is very easy to create a very elaborate-looking patchwhich will produce no sound at all. This sort of trick question is easiest to pull off when a patch isdictated as text rather than in diagram form, but a clever person can make a diagram look convincingwhen it is really not.