polyalloy

it remembers what shape it was

20 HP

A slew made of a real black liquid, sealed in a glass down the middle of the panel. Your CV draws it up and down with nine coils, beams of light read where it's got to, and that's what comes out: the glide is the liquid crossing the glass. Hit it and it bursts, and your CV with it, and it heals.

The POLYALLOY panel: black, a wet checkered floor in gold dots running away towards the name, a black pool creeping down the middle of it to the foot, and a tall glass standing in the pool with a gold rule either side of it. SHATTER and QUENCH, a lit button and a black one, at the top with their jacks, SPLIT and SPIKE, LEVEL and HEAL down the sides, WHOLE and SET beside the glass, CAST and SPRUE under them, POUR and PULL's jack, SPREAD and SLOSH in the bottom corners, the big PULL knob at the foot. polyalloy at the top, daylight noise at the bottom.

The glass: your pointer or a finger is a magnet held to it. The liquid runs to it, stands up in thorns and follows your hand, and CAST goes with it. Let go and it pours back. On a keyboard, tab to it and use the arrow keys. 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. SHATTER and QUENCH are buttons. The patches step on by themselves until you touch anything.

Two voices, a low pad and drums in F minor at 118 BPM round POLYALLOY. Listen plays the patch from its top.

example patches

Everything POLYALLOY does here is its engine as designed, running in your browser: a model of the liquid, and the firmware that reads it and pulls on it. Your pointer stands in for a magnet in your hand, and the rack round it is a stand-in.

It pours

Inside the glass is a ferrofluid: a black liquid that's magnetic. Nine coils behind the glass pull it wherever POUR asks, a millimetre to the semitone, and sixteen beams of light read where it's got to. Nothing computes the glide: it takes as long as a liquid takes. It goes up slower than it comes down, because it weighs something, and it's slower cold than warm.

POUR: V/OCT in. Six octaves from the floor of the glass to the top.
PULL, the big knob, and its jack: how hard the coils pull. Low, it can't hold itself up. Noon is a slow pour. Full, it snaps, sloshes and leaves drops behind.
LEVEL: added to POUR. With nothing patched, it's where the liquid goes.
A magnet on the glass beats the coils. It's the one control with no place on the panel: keep it on a rail screw. The liquid follows it, and so does CAST.

It tears

Pull it two ways and it stretches, necks and comes apart. One input, two outs. Bring the two halves back and they only join when they touch, which is later than they parted.

SPLIT and its jack: how far apart the two pulls are. Up to about 2 o'clock it only stretches. Past that it tears. Full, it always does.
SPRUE: where the second piece is, as far off POUR as SPLIT says. While it's whole, the same as CAST.

It bursts, and it heals

SHATTER puts everything the coils have under the liquid and it comes apart, repelling itself, up and down the glass. CAST and SPRUE go to wherever the biggest pieces are, which is noise you can see. Then two wells walk in from the ends of the glass and herd the pieces together, and they merge, and the noise closes on the note it was.

SHATTER, the lit button, and its gate: it bursts. The cap stays lit until it's healed.
HEAL: how soon. Fully right, about a second. Noon, about four. Fully left, never: what's on the floor stays on the floor.
QUENCH, the black button, and its gate: held, the coils grab it where it is, halfway through a glide or in pieces, and POUR is ignored.

It stands up

SPIKE, the knob and its jack: a sound in the coils under the liquid. It stands up in thorns and shudders, and the shudder is on CAST, so a kick here kicks the note. It's a heavy thing, so it follows the bass and ignores the rest.

What comes out

CAST: V/OCT, where the liquid is. When it's come to rest where it was asked, CAST hands over to the note, so it lands in tune.
SPRUE: V/OCT, where the second piece is.
SPREAD: how scattered it is: nothing when it's whole, 8 V right after a burst.
SLOSH: how fast it's going, up or down.
WHOLE: a gate while it's in one piece.
SET: a gate when it's come to rest where it was asked.

Specs

Format

Width: 20 HP
Controls: a big knob, 4 knobs, a lit button, a black button, the glass

Inputs

POUR: V/OCT, ±3 V
PULL, SPLIT: CV, added to their knobs, 10 V the whole way
SPIKE: audio, ±5 V
SHATTER, QUENCH: gates

Outputs

CAST, SPRUE: V/OCT, ±3 V
SPREAD: CV, 0 to 8 V
SLOSH: CV, ±5 V
WHOLE, SET: gates, 5 V