word for word

it means every word

20 HP

Set word tiles down its spine and it sings them, a syllable a gate, on the note you send it. Nothing is recorded: the voice is made from nothing. Swap two tiles and the line says something else. It hears your clock and starts each consonant before the beat, so the vowel lands on it.

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. STEP clicks between three stops. AGAIN is a button. The tiles are yours: drag one to another slot or off the panel, or click one and then another to swap them; with one picked, the up and down keys move it and Delete takes it off. The patches step on by themselves until you touch something.

A dark rack, and a voice singing what's on the tiles. The tiles work before and after: Listen plays the patch from its top.

the tin click a word, then a slot; or drag it on

example patches

Everything WORD FOR WORD does here is its engine as designed, running in your browser: the voice, its consonants before the beat, the choir. The tiles are drawn: on the module they're small black tiles you hold, each carrying its word, and writing one is done over USB. The band is a stand-in rack.

The tiles

Eight small black tiles stand down the middle of the panel, held on by magnets, each with a word cut through it. It sings them in the order they stand. Take a tile off and the song closes up round the gap. Swap two and the line says something else. The word being sung lights up through its own letters.

Each tile carries its word, so it's that word in any slot. A tin of printed tiles comes with it, and blank ones: write a word onto a blank and it's that word until you write it again. A blank that's never been written sings "la". A tile with only a comma or a full stop is a rest.

AGAIN: a button, and a gate: back to the first tile.
WORD: a voltage picks the tile it sings from next, a volt a tile. Leave it unpatched and it walks down the line and round again.

Singing

Each gate at SING sings the next syllable on the note at NOTE. While the gate's high the vowel holds; when it falls the word ends with its last consonants. A singer starts a consonant before the beat so the vowel lands on it, and it does the same: it hears when your gates come, round the line, and starts each syllable's consonants that much early. The first time round it sings at sight, a little behind.

STEP: three stops. Fully left, a syllable a gate. In the middle, a whole word a gate, its syllables spread across the time till the next. Fully right, the whole line a gate, said at a speaking pace on a tune of its own, NOTE its key.
SLUR: clipped and quick at the left, legato at noon. At full every note slides into the next and a gate's fall is ignored, so nothing stops.

The singer

The voice is made from nothing: a pulse through a throat's resonances, and a hiss for the consonants. It's an old kind of singing machine, clear and a little uncanny.

AGE: a child's short throat at the left, a grown one at noon. Past that it gets older and lower, and at full it shakes.
BREATH: a pressed, clean voice at the left, an airy one at noon. At full the voice goes and only breath is left, every word still there.
VIBRATO: a straight tone at the left. At noon a slow vibrato comes in once a note has settled. At full a wide wobble, at once.
CHOIR: one voice to eight, each a little longer or shorter in the throat, a little late and a few cents off. Near the top two of them drop an octave.

What goes in

SING: a gate, the next syllable.
NOTE: one volt an octave, 0 V middle C.
WORD: 0 to 8 V, the tile to sing from next.
AGAIN: a gate, back to the first tile.
AGE, BREATH, CHOIR: CVs, added to their knobs.

What comes out

LEFT, RIGHT: the voice, and the choir spread between them.
MOUTH: how open the mouth is, 0 to 8 V, shut on every consonant. Patch it to a filter and the filter sings along.
SPACE: a trigger as each new word starts.
STOP: a trigger on the line's last syllable.

Specs

Format

Width: 20 HP
Controls: 8 word tiles in slots, 5 knobs, a three-stop switch, 1 button

Inputs

SING, AGAIN: gates
NOTE: 1 V an octave
WORD: CV, 0 to 8 V
CVs: AGE, BREATH, CHOIR: added to their knobs

Outputs

LEFT, RIGHT: audio
MOUTH: CV, 0 to 8 V
SPACE, STOP: triggers