Bray

BRAY

an organic tube instrument for the Organelle

Bray is eight little brass tubes you blow through, and they don't always do what you ask. They sputter, honk, catch and settle like something alive: horse brays, donkey calls, big woody animal sounds. It feels more like playing a creature than a synth.

It doesn't play a scale. Every key is its own creature. The low keys are dark and sputtery, and they get brighter and buzzier as you go up. Hold a few and they start talking to each other.

Controls

Keys: each key picks its own bray, from dark and sputtery at the bottom to bright and buzzy at the top. Up to 8 at once.

K1 Press: lip pressure. Bring it up and the brays kick in.

K2 Size: the size of the tube. Full up is the classic Bray, and turning it down grows the tube up to two octaves deeper, even on notes you're holding.

K3 Tight: how tight the lips are. The middle is home base; move it and the brays change how they sputter and settle.

K4 Collapse: adds a lightning wobble and pushes everything into the distance. A little is lovely. Past 70% it stops trying to be musical, on purpose.

AUX: latches Bore Adrift and sets the tubes drifting. Press again to bring them back.

What you get

Bray.zip: the patch folder plus a README with the controls and install steps

Plain vanilla Pure Data: no externals, no WiFi, nothing to set up

Installing

USB: drop the Bray folder into the Patches folder on your USB drive.

WiFi (Organelle M/S/S2): upload Bray.zip through the Organelle's web page without unzipping it, then choose install from the patch menu.

Works on

Built and tuned on the Organelle M. It's plain vanilla Pd, so it should run on the other Organelles too, but I've only tested it on the M.

Made by GerbilHamster Records in Manhattan, Kansas.