Songbird by Dillon Bastan

Songbird is a MaxForLive audio instrument. It features a simulation of a flock of birds, each bird having its own model of a syrinx (a bird vocal organ) as well as a model of a simple birdbrain that controls the syrinx to create different syllables. Each bird’s position, speed, angle, etc in the flock can be mapped to various parameters as modulation sources. This device yields anything from textures, drones, rhythms, harsh/haunting/noisy/pretty tones, generative soundscapes, odd melodies, and of course different sounding bird calls!

The design of Songbird is a collaboration between Dillon Bastan and Alina Kano

SONGBIRD CONTENTS

The device, user manual, 29 presets

SONGBIRD FEATURES

• A boids or flocking simulation with up to 32 birds with several parameters:
• Rate, alignment, grouping, separation, sight radius, and force strength
• Option to visualize sight radiuses
• Randomize flock function
• Save flock state function and a function to revert to saved state on transport start
• Various parameters that are able to be mapped to several qualities of the flock for modulation:
• Index spread, X position, Y position, Angle, Speed, Proximity to neighbor, Density of neighbors, Birds in sight, Brain modulations,
• Random spray
• Several parameters for the bird brain model which create syllables (envelopes)
• Several parameters for the syllable qualities
• Parameters for making phrases or songs from the syllables
• Wavefold, FM and AM options
• Simple reverb parameters

WINDOWS USERS: 10+ . Windows needs to follow these instructions for bird images working – USING VIDEO