Iterations of z=z^2 + c as musical chords

[erstwhile]

Here's some fractal music I've composed in Supercollider using the technique of making a chord out of each value in a set of iterations for one complex point of the Mandelbrot function.

https://soundcloud.com/backtrace/sets/mandelbrot-set-sonifications

The music starts on a given pair of values for real and imaginary on the complex plane, and then iterates until the function reaches 0 or infinity.  Then the resulting values of that set of iterations are mapped to pitch, amplitude, and duration to generate a chord.  (so points with real values close to each other will have the same pitch, and with close imaginary values will have the same amplitude, attack and duration)  The angle and radius of that same point expressed as a polar number are also mapped to other instrument parameters ("distortion" vs clean tone, essentially). Each subsequent chord moves an increment up the real axis (x +  1/2^22, and the process repeats (2048 times for each piece I've recorded). 

You can hear the "orbits" especially in the second piece where there are lots of loops within loops and scales moving up and down at varying speeds.

I've played around with other sonification strategies based on the typical scheme of rendering the x axis as time and the y axis as pitch, but I think this technique of mapping the orbits onto pitches is more promising for creating something thats musical and that still can convey the symmetry and complexity of the M set.

Here's a blog post, with the source code in Supercollider:

http://backtrace.blogspot.com/2013/02/mandlebrot-sonifications.html

[tit_toinou]

That is so weird and awesome ! Thanks!

[menokefug]

Excellent.

[FractalStefan]

I'm currenly listening to your wonderful Mandelbrot music. Really, really cool! Especially the last 3 pieces are very "groovy".  

My personal favorites (Top 3):

8 Through The Heart Of The Bird Of Prey
7 Fourth Quadrant Borderlands
6 5 - Period Bulb

I like such long pieces like #8.

Thanks for sharing!

[DarkBeam]

  kewl result I like!