presence

they were always there

20 HP

Every sound that ends in your mix stays on as a ghost, one to a room of the house, and stands just under what's playing, band by band, where you can't hear it. When the music thins they're there, all of them, where they always were. Look, and they're gone.

The PRESENCE panel: black, a tall old house at night in gold dots under the name, its tower and two gabled wings one window of bare circuit board cut into fourteen rooms, a flagstone path running down from its front steps to the foot. LEFT and RIGHT in at the top corners, KEEP and NEAR under them, STILL and CORNERS under those, the LOOK button under the front door with STILL's jack and LOOK's gate either side, the big HOUSE knob under it, SEEN and FULL out at the edges, the two GHOSTS outs below them, LEFT and RIGHT out at the foot corners, TAKE between them. presence 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. LOOK is a button: hold it to look at them, let go and they've moved. The patches step on by themselves until you touch anything.

A dark groove in F minor into LEFT and RIGHT: four bars, then a breakdown. Listen plays the patch from its top.

example patches

Everything PRESENCE does here is its engine as designed, running in your browser. The groove is a stand-in rack.

What it keeps

PRESENCE listens to the whole mix in sixteen bands. When a band that has held lets go (a chord released, a long note's tail, a fill's last hit), it keeps the second and a half before it as a ghost, and plays it back softly in a room of the house: a slow, quietly moving hold of that moment, at the pitch it was played.

HOUSE, the big knob: how many it keeps and for how long. Fully left one ghost for four seconds; at noon eight, each for 25 seconds; fully right fourteen, one to a room, kept for good, a newcomer sending the oldest away.
KEEP: what becomes a ghost. Fully left only a sound held two and a half seconds and let go; at noon anything held a quarter of a second; fully right every sound that ends, every stab and every hit.
TAKE: a gate that keeps the last second and a half now, whatever KEEP says.

Just under the mix

In each band, while the mix is sounding there, the ghosts in that band are held under it, so the music itself hides them. Where the mix falls quiet they stand at their own level. So they show only where and when the music makes room: a breakdown, a stop, one note alone.

STILL: how far under the mix they stand. Fully left 36 dB, gone until the room is empty; at noon 18; fully right level with it, right at the edge, a second song under the first.
STILL, the jack: its CV, added to the knob.

Where they stand

CORNERS: fully left they all stand in the middle, behind the mix; at noon each at its own room's side of the house; fully right out past the speakers, wide and round your head.
NEAR: how near. Fully left far off down the halls, dark and small; fully right close, bright and 9 dB louder, at your shoulder. The lower floors are nearer than the attics.
The house lights with them: a room glows faintly while its ghost is hidden under the mix and more as it stands clear; the one standing out is brightest.

Look

LOOK, a lit button and its gate: while it's held they're gone and every room is dark. Let go and they've moved, each a floor further down the house: nearer. Left alone they drift back up.

What comes out

LEFT, RIGHT: the mix, untouched, with its ghosts.
GHOSTS: a pair, left and right: the ghosts alone, just as they stand in the mix.
SEEN: a gate, high while one stands out above the mix.
FULL: how full the house is, 0 to 8 V.

Specs

Format

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

Inputs

LEFT, RIGHT: audio, ±5 V, the mix
STILL: CV, added to the knob, 5 V the whole way
LOOK, TAKE: gates, rising past 1 V

Outputs

LEFT, RIGHT: audio, the mix with its ghosts
GHOSTS: audio, a pair: the ghosts alone
SEEN: gate, 5 V while one stands out
FULL: CV, 0 to 8 V