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Because of this, Sculpture requires you to take a more measured approach than you
would with a traditional synthesizer design in order to achieve a particular end result.
Keep the flowchart handy while you familiarize yourself with the interface and
programming. If you are methodical, and follow the flowchart, you shouldn’t encounter
too many surprise results.
Sculpture is an instrument that requires some investment of your time, but it will reward
you with beautifully warm and organic sounds, evolving soundscapes—or a harsh and
metallic “Hell’s Bells” patch, if you’re after that sort of thing.
Don’t be afraid to experiment—that’s what Sculpture was created to do!
Getting to Know the Sculpture String
The string is responsible for the basic tone of your sound. You can define its material—what
it’s made of—and determine its behavior when bowed, plucked, struck, and so on.
The string itself doesn’t make a sound unless it is stimulated—excited or disturbed—by
at least one object. Up to three different types of objects are used to excite, disturb, or
damp the string (make it vibrate or affect its movement). See Working with Sculpture’s
Objects.
Sculpture’s string and the excite/disturb objects play a similar role to the oscillators found
in traditional synthesizers. The string is considerably more sophisticated in concept than
simple oscillators, however.
In essence, you are creating the waveform, or base timbre, by mathematically describing
the string’s properties, and the properties of its environment. These include, among
others, the material the string is made of; the thickness, length, and tension of the string;
its characteristics over time; the atmosphere it is being played in (such as water or air);
and the way it is being played—struck, bowed, and so on.
Sculpture goes far beyond the mere creation of an infinite number of base timbres,
however. One of the key differences between Sculpture’s string and a traditional
synthesizer waveform is that the base timbre provided by the string is in a constant state
of flux.
Put another way, if Sculpture’s string is still vibrating for a specific note, retriggering that
same note will interact with the ongoing vibration. This is not dissimilar to the effect of
repeatedly plucking a guitar string, where the string is still vibrating when the next note
is played. This will alter the harmonic spectrum each time—which is why acoustic guitars
sound organic when a note is played repeatedly, and sampled guitars don’t.
323Chapter 14 Sculpture