SOMA ORNAMENT-8, User Manual

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ORNAMENT • 8 USER MANUAL
GENERAL REVIEW
ORNAMENT‑8 is an analog synthesizer of behavior for creating complex rhythmic patterns
and control signals. Since it inherits and further develops the principles laid down in the
LYRA•8 organismic synthesizer and the PULSAR•23 organismic drum machine, we called it
the “organismic sequencer”. The ORNAMENT is radically different from traditional sequencers
and is based on entirely different principles.
A regular music sequencer tends to produce user‑defined sequences of musical events (notes
and control parameters) that play at a given speed (tempo). Different sequencers differ
mainly in how this sequence of musical events is set and what modifications are possible. But
even in the most advanced and complex sequencers, there is still some memory containing
the given events which are reproduced at the given speed. This memory can contain many
options and patterns with a flexible system for switching between them and have various
playback algorithms, but the basic principle remains unchanged.
The fundamental difference of the ORNAMENT is that it has no clock generator and lacks
the very concept of tempo (playback speed). There is no memory that stores musical events
and there are no global control elements. Instead, we have a fully horizontal structure
consisting of 8 identical and equal cells. Each cell is a controlled delay line that receives a
pulse, which it holds for a certain time before it passes the pulse on. Each cell has two pulse
transmission modes, several control inputs and several outputs. By commutating cells (see
below for definition) in different ways, you create a dynamic structure in which pulses that
wander in the system are transmitted, added and subtracted, generating behavior that you
can transform into various musical events and controlling voltages.
We can say that the ORNAMENT is an electronic micro‑model of an anarchist society. When
you experiment with this system you can observe and explore the process of life arising
in incredible structures which have no discernable order other than the direct relations
between its equal members.
There is no Holy Book in which the events of the future are recorded. There is only the ever‑
present and continually arising “now” that flows and develops from moment to moment,
according to the relationships established within the system.
The ORNAMENT is similar to an organism where an ensemble of interacting organs cov‑
ered by various connections, generates the resulting behavior, which is a dynamic sum of
interactions. This behavior is not stored in any memory and does not follow directly from
the properties of individual organs, but is a meta-property of the system as a whole.
There is no main organ in the body, although for some time in some circumstances one of the
organs may turn out to be the leader and determine the behavior of the system. Similarly, in
ORNAMENT, in some patches, individual cells can have a dominant influence on the system,
but this will always be a property of the patch, and not a unique property of the cell itself.