Strange Attractor
A chaotic oscillator and fractal texture generator. Create pulsating tones, slowly changing rhythms, drones and rich noises. Use as a standalone oscillator or as an audio effect.
Essentially a feedback system, but one that includes nonlinear elements so that complex and unpredictable sounds emerge dependent on the system's history. Seed oscillations with the input and steer the system with subtle changes of parameters.
To Use
The system consists of a circular buffer whose length can be set with the Length controls, from 100 to 100,000 samples. It can be cleared with the Clear button. The buffer is continuously fed with a mix of the audio input and two playback paths, A & B, the rates of which are set with the Rate controls. These feedback paths also include nonlinearities, the Loop Gain, and a Low Pass filter.
To use as an audio effect, keep the Loop Gain well below 1, and try longer buffer lengths. For chaotic oscillations, use Loop Gains approaching and greater than 1. Playback rates very close to 1 are a good place to find more tonal oscillations, whereas bigger and smaller values tend to produce noises and sweeping textures.
A Max for Live device for Ableton Suite