This example uses a few of the sounds from the Irix sound library to create an unusual mechanical blues. The three cyclers used are shown in Figure 5.
The first cycler is used to play a generified rhythm-and-blues bass line on the timpani (sound #1 in this rt session):
The following (long) playcycle command does the trick:
//timpani 12-bar blues
playcycle(howmany=24,snd=1, cycletransp(-2,-2,0,0, -2,-2,0,0, 3,3,5,5, 3,3,5,5, -2,-2,0,0, -2,-2,0,0, -2,-2,0,0, -2,-2,0,0, 3,3,5,5, 3,3,5,5, 3,3,5,5, 3,3,5,5, -2,-2,0,0, -2,-2,0,0, -2,-2,0,0,-2,-2,0,0, 5,5,7,7, 5,5,7,7, 3,3,5,5, 3,3,5,5, -2,-2,0,0, -2,-2,0,0, 5,5,7,7, 5,5,7,7), cyclegain(1,0.4),pan=0.7,rndat=0.01))
The cycletransp command cycles through the given transposition values, transposing the timpani sound to play the desired bass line. Pressing go! with just these lines and then copying and pasting the resulting playnote commands into an rt session with a timpani sound (or any other short, low sound) as sound #1 will allow the user to audition the bass line alone (copy this rt session to get started without having to load all these sounds).
The second cycler (identified by the tag=2 subcommand) plays a snare drum (sound #2 in this rt session) back-beat:
//backbeat snare
playcycle(howmany=24,snd=2,tag=2,cyclegain(1,0.4),pan=0.3,rndat=0.01)
The long spoke (at 9 a.m.) ensures that there will always be a snare hit on the backbeat. The other shorter spokes cause occasional hits on other beats, mixing it up a little bit. The rndat command adds a slight random variation (0.01 seconds) to the event times, and the cyclegain command cycles through two loudness values, ensuring that the back-beat will always be loudest.
The final cycler is a drum soloist. Sounds #3-17 in the rt session for this tune are an assortment of hand percussion, whistles, etc.... The playcycle command:
//wacky percussion solo
playcycle(howmany=24,rndsnd(3,17),tag=3,rndtransp(-1,1),rndpan(0,1))
randomly selects from those sounds and sprays them across the stereo field. A slight random transposition is thrown in for variety. The cycler itself has spokes of different lengths, causing unpredictable rhythmic patterns. Changing the seed value creates different "solos."
Listen to this example in realaudio (streaming--sounds lousy, but is fast) or mp3 format (download--sounds great, but is slow); you will need a Realaudio player for realaudio, or an mp3 player for the mp3 file.