anguish by daylight noise

anguish

carry them off

20 HP

A voice: eight lambs crying in the dark, pitched to one chord, from a soft bleat to screams. They don't stop on their own. Hold CARRY and you carry one away while the flock falls behind you; run too far and you're caught, and it's gone for good. It's quiet only when the last is gone.

The flock

Eight lambs, each with its own throat and its own quaver, crying on their own time: no two cries start together, and between cries they breathe. They cry one chord over EWE, and they don't stop.

EWE: one volt an octave, the root they cry on. Each lamb sings its own note over it: the root, the fifth, the octave, the minor third, then the same an octave up and the seventh.

CRY: a soft bleat fully left, a child's cry at noon, screams fully right: their voices crack and break up an octave, and they hardly breathe. Its jack adds a CV, five volts half the knob.

FLOCK: a switch, eight clicks, one lamb a click: one at noon, all eight at seven o'clock. Each new one comes in on its own, nearer than the last; one a click takes away falls quiet, its eyes still open.

SPREAD: fully left all on one note; at noon the chord; fully right each lamb on a pitch of its own, wandering, as a real flock is at night. Between, their voices glide apart.

DARK: how far off they are, from half a metre to sixty. Close is dry and raw; far is muffled and drowned in the night's echo, and their eyes dim.

WAKE: patched, they cry only when it fires: every lamb at once, each a hair late, for as long as the gate is high.

Carry one off

The only way to quiet them is to take them, one at a time. Hold CARRY and the last of them to come in is in your arms. It goes quiet against you, a breathy whimper on its own out, while the flock falls away behind you: further, darker, its pitch sagging as you run. Let go and it runs back to them.

CARRY: the lit button and its gate. Its cap beats like a heart while you run, faster as you're about to be caught.

RUN: how long you run before you're caught, from half a second to a minute; six seconds at noon. Caught, the one you carried screams once and is gone for good, and you're dragged back. Fully right, you're never caught.

SPRING: the black button and its gate. A new flock comes in, one lamb at a time.

The eyes: each lamb's two shine while it's there, bright as it cries; they go dark in your arms, and stay dark when it's gone. The lamb's own two eyes light while you carry it.

What comes out

LEFT, RIGHT: the flock, each lamb where its eyes are, the echo wide.

ARMS: the one you carry, alone, dry and centred: its whimpers and its breath, its scream when you're caught, and nothing otherwise.

HUSH: a gate, high once the last lamb is gone, until SPRING. Into a drum machine's stop, it brings the whole rack to quiet.

Inside

One board sits 10 mm behind the panel with everything on its front: the jacks, the knobs, FLOCK's switch, both buttons, the 20 LEDs and the whole circuit, the USB-C in a notch in its right edge. Each eye has its own white LED in a cell of a black printed baffle, so every lamb's eyes read as a pair in the dark; the lamb's own eyes have two each, above and below the pupil. An RP2350 runs the eight lambs and the one in your arms on both its cores.

The ANGUISH panel carrying one: the lamb's own eyes lit, the flock's eyes round it in the dark, its knobs, FLOCK's switch and buttons on.

Drag it or use the arrow keys to turn it; click it to take it apart.

Specs

Format

Width: 20 HP
Depth: 20.8 mm behind the panel
+12 V: about 55 mA dark, 125 mA in usual play, 175 mA at the busiest (estimated)
−12 V: about 3 mA (estimated)
+5 V: not used
Controls: 4 knobs (CRY's big), an eight-way switch, a lit button, a button

I/O

EWE: 1 V an octave, the flock's root: 0 V is middle C, −3 to +5 V; on its own 24-bit converter, calibrated to a cent; safe to ±12 V
CRY: a CV: ±5 V adds or takes away half the knob; safe to ±12 V
WAKE: a gate: rising past about 1 V, a cry from every lamb
CARRY: a gate: high past about 1 V while you carry one
SPRING: a trigger: rising past about 1 V, a new flock
LEFT, RIGHT: the flock, about 1 V RMS at noon, peaks near ±5 V, never past 7 V
ARMS: the one you carry, about 0.8 V RMS while it whimpers
HUSH: a gate, 0/5 V, high once all eight are gone

Engine

Brain: RP2350, both cores, at 46.875 kHz, 32-bit float
Throats: nine: the eight lambs and the one in your arms
Light: 20 white LEDs, 200 frames a second
Power cycle: it wakes to a full flock of eight; only the calibration is kept