faithful

they know the words

20 HP

Play it a tune and a congregation sings it back: twelve people and a reed organ in a cold church, late, flat and quavering. Each cup makes them younger. At the seventh they turn, cold and perfect, a note ahead of you. Dawn takes them one by one.

The FAITHFUL panel: black, in gold dots the inside of an old wooden church at night, seen down the aisle, the empty pews running down both sides to the foot. Under the name a tall round-arched window of bare circuit board, twelve square panes under a fanlight of seven rays round a half sun; under it the big FAITH knob on the altar, and seven small cups up the aisle to ROOM. HYMN and LINE at the top corners, CUP and DAWN jacks either side of the window with their buttons under them, AGE and ORGAN either side of FAITH with the AGE and FAITH jacks, YOUNG and ORGAN, TURNED and SUNG down the middle, LEFT and RIGHT at the foot. faithful at the top, daylight noise at the bottom.

Turn a knob: drag it or tap either side of it, roll the wheel over it or use the arrow keys; a double click puts it back. CUP and DAWN are buttons to press: a cup, and the sunrise. The patches step on by themselves until you touch anything.

A sequencer plays a slow hymn line into HYMN and LINE, and the congregation and its organ come out of LEFT and RIGHT. Listen plays the patch from its top.

example patches

Everything FAITHFUL does here is its engine as designed, running in your browser. The sequencer and the drums are a stand-in rack.

The tune

HYMN, LINE: the tune, a note on every rise of LINE (unpatched, every new semitone on HYMN), sung at its exact pitch in their own range, the bottom row of panes an octave down.

They pick it up as it repeats. Once they've heard the same notes at the same gaps twice running they know it, and drag less.

The congregation

FAITH, the big knob: how many sing and how hard, from one or two mumbling at the back to all twelve bellowing.
AGE: how old they are: how late (up to half a second), how flat, how wide and slow the quaver, how far they slide into each note, how breathy.
ORGAN: the reed organ, right on LINE: none, then a soft reed and a pedal note, then every stop out. The louder it is, the tighter they follow it.
ROOM: the church round them, from a small stone room to a cold nave twelve seconds long.
FAITH, AGE, the jacks: their CVs, added to the knobs.

The cup

CUP, a lit button and its gate: a sip. Each cup makes them a seventh younger, brighter and tighter, and lights one up the spine; one wears off every ten seconds.
The turn: seven at once and they turn. One cold voice in twelve, dead on the note, every note held to the next, and once they know the tune, each note sung before you play it.

Dawn

DAWN, a lit button and its gate: the sun comes up in the fanlight and the youngest go first, each a bright flare and gone, until the organ is alone. After the day the night falls, and they come back old.

What comes out

LEFT, RIGHT: the church: the twelve spread across the pews, the organ in the middle, the room round them.
ORGAN: the organ alone, dry.
YOUNG: how young they are, 0 to 8 V: 8 V once they've turned, nothing while they're gone.
TURNED: a gate while they're turned, until the dawn takes the last.
SUNG: the room's own gate on each note: late behind LINE while they're old, ahead of it once they've turned.

Specs

Format

Width: 20 HP
Controls: a big knob, 3 knobs, 2 lit buttons

Inputs

HYMN: 1 V/oct, ±5 V
LINE: gate, rising past 1 V
CUP, DAWN: gates, rising past 1 V
FAITH, AGE: CV, added to their knobs, 5 V the whole way

Outputs

LEFT, RIGHT: audio, never past 4.5 V
ORGAN: audio
YOUNG: CV, 0 to 8 V
TURNED, SUNG: gates, 0/5 V