containment by daylight noise

The chase

A ghost flies about on its own: it darts from place to place, and jinks when a stream gets close. Two streams chase it, A from above and B from below, each a follower with a writhe and a crackle riding on it, closing in while they hold it between them.

HAUNT: patch a CV here and it's the ghost, so a sequence becomes a tune the streams chase. Unpatched, the ghost flies on its own.

DART: a clock in. Patched, the ghost moves only on its beats, and catches and releases land on them too.

SLY: how the ghost moves. Fully left it barely stirs and is caught over and over; at full it darts six or seven times a second, always to wherever the streams aren't, and is never caught. With HAUNT patched, how far it dodges off the tune.

CHASE: how hard the streams follow. Fully left they drift after it and never catch it; at full they lock on and catch it every few seconds.

GAP: how far apart they ride. Wide and safe fully left; at full they ride right on top of it, catch it fast, and cross all the time.

WILD: the writhe and the crackle. Smooth followers fully left; at full they thrash, whip past the ghost and cross each other constantly.

CHASE and GAP's jacks: CVs, added to their knobs; 5 V turns one the whole way. A ramp into GAP closes them in phrase by phrase until they cross; a drum's envelope into CHASE makes them lunge on the hit.

Caught

Hold both streams on the ghost for half a second and it's caught. CAUGHT goes high and the ghost's voltage spirals down to the floor, tighter and faster as it goes, into the trap. The streams follow it down and rest there until the next one gets loose and flies up out of it.

TRAP: how long it's held: a quarter of a second fully left, about three seconds at noon, half a minute at full.

The lights: three columns on one scale, +5 V at the top and −5 V at the foot. A's ribbon, the ghost's wisp and B's ribbon are each lit at their voltage, so three lights level are three CVs at one voltage. The slot across their foot is the trap, lit while it's shut.

Crossed

Never cross them. If the streams pass each other anywhere but on the ghost, CROSSED goes high and all three CVs run backwards through the last second or so, upside down about the point where they met. Then the streams come out the other way up, wild for a moment, and the ghost gets away. On the ghost they may cross: that's how it's held.

What comes out

A, B: the two streams, crackle and all. Into a filter, a folder, or a second voice's pitch.

GHOST: the ghost, or what comes into HAUNT with its dodges. Through a quantiser it's a lead line.

CAUGHT: high from the catch until the next one gets loose.

CROSSED: high while everything runs backwards, about a second.

Specs

Format

Width: 20 HP
Controls: 5 knobs (WILD's big)

Inputs

HAUNT: CV, ±5 V: the ghost when patched
DART: clock, rising past 1 V
CHASE, GAP: CVs, ±5 V, added to their knobs

Outputs

The streams: A, B: CVs, ±5 V
GHOST: CV, ±5 V
CAUGHT: gate, 0/5 V, high while it's caught
CROSSED: gate, 0/5 V, high while it runs backwards