if you build it

20 HP · effect

Keep a loop going and, one at a time, players walk out of the corn at the edges of the stereo field and play your part back with you as an old-time band. Change the part and they walk back in.

The IF YOU BUILD IT panel: black, with a ballfield at night seen from above in gold dots, the infield solid gold, the outfield fanning up toward the name. Nine round windows of bare circuit board stand at a side's places on it: three in the outfield, four round the infield, the pitcher on the mound and the catcher at the plate. White labels: IN L, CLOCK, OUT L and PLAYERS down the left; IN R, STAY, OUT R and LINE down the right; CORN and WALK, YEARS and BEHIND either side of the big FAITH knob, its CV jack under it. if you build it at the top, daylight noise at the bottom.

Turn a knob: drag it, roll the wheel over it or use the arrow keys; a double click puts it back. LINE takes a cable: click it to plug one in, and the newest man on the field steps over the line; click again to pull it out.

The players, the corn and the years are IF YOU BUILD IT's own. The 808s, the hook and the bass it holds up against themselves are made in the page as you listen.

example patches

The hearing, the players and the sound here are IF YOU BUILD IT's engine as it's designed, running in your browser: what it hears, when a part is held, who walks on and what each plays. The rest is a stand-in for a rack.

Holding

Every bar is held up against the one before it. While they match, the part is held, and the newest matching bar is the one the players learn. One bar that doesn't match, or a bar of silence, and the part is let go.

IN L, IN R: your part. IN R takes IN L when it's empty.
CLOCK: quarter notes, four to the bar. Empty, it listens for the repeat itself.
FAITH: how long a held part takes to bring each man. Down, over two minutes of an unbroken loop for each; up, a man every bar or two, the whole side out in under half a minute. Its CV adds to it.
STAY: a gate. While it's high they stay on whatever you play, playing what they learned, so you can play over your band.

The field

The corn is a rustle of leaves at the edges of the stereo field. The players walk out of it one at a time, centre field first and the battery last, each to his own place: left field on the left, the battery in the middle. Change the part and they walk back into it, newest first, a man a bar.

CORN: how thick the rustle. Down, nothing; then a breath of leaves, up to a wall that swallows the outfield.
WALK: how far out of the corn they walk. Down, they stop at its edge, wide and half in the rustle; up, right in to the plate, close, dry and loud.

The band

Each man plays the held bar back in his own voicing: centre field as it is, left an octave down, right a fifth up, short in double time, second on the offbeats, third an octave and a fifth up, first a drone on the bar's root, the pitcher an octave up and the catcher a thump on one and three.

YEARS: how old the field sounds, the players and the corn. Down, clean; up, a narrow band of hiss, crackle and wow, everything on it a hundred years old. Your part stays as it is.
BEHIND: how far behind and how loose they play. Down, a hair late and tight; up, a beat behind, every man to himself.

What comes out

OUT L, OUT R: your part, untouched, with the field round it.
PLAYERS: 1 V a man on the field, 0 to 9 V.
LINE: patch it and the newest man steps over the line. He leaves the field and plays only here, slower, lower and older over a minute, until he's hiss. He doesn't walk on again, and his window stays dark; LINE's label glows while he's out there.

The panel

Twenty HP, every part on the line's staggered grid and mirrored about the middle. Nine round windows of bare circuit board, a pale cold light behind each, stand at a side's places on a ballfield at night in gold dots. LINE's label is printed over a tenth window that glows a browned amber.

IN L, CLOCK, OUT L and PLAYERS down the left; IN R, STAY, OUT R and LINE down the right.
CORN and WALK, YEARS and BEHIND either side of FAITH, with its CV under it.