Camera
Rotate
Left Mouse Button Drag
Move
Right Mouse Button Drag
Zoom
Middle Mouse Button Scroll
Well and Spheres
The next controls relate to the UI elements and will be explained from the top left to the bottom right in the way they appear.
Sound Sphere Selector
Selects the sphere to manipulate
Lower the number the lower the frequency is. Higher the number the higher the frequency is
Speed
Changes the speed at which the sphere plays sound
Waveform Selector
Selects the type of the sphere's sound wave
All Waveforms Selector
Changes all sphere's waveforms to the selected waveform in the previous selector
Number of Spheres Selector
Changes the number of spheres present. This resets all of the spheres' settings
All Values Randomizer
Randomizes all values, except the number of spheres
Spatial Audio Toggle
Toggles between normal audio and spatial audio (Stereo Headphones Recommended)
Speech sphere Recorder
Starts the recording for the speech sphere (HAVE AT LEAST ONE SOUND SPHERE MOVING BEFORE ACTIVATING THE SPEECH SPHERE)
Sound Sphere
Each Sound Sphere has a speed, which is represented by the radius of their trajectory. The bigger the radius the faster the sphere.
Sound Spheres make a sound each time the pass through their initial position, represented by a ghostly stationary grey sphere.
The higher a sphere is in the Well of Wandering the lower the frequency of it's sound, the lower it is the higher the frequency is.
Waveforms
There are 4 waveforms to choose from: Sine, Triangle, Square, Sawtooth
Each type of waveform has a unique sound, making different arrangements of different types of waveforms fun!
Speech sphere
Press record and do a short sound.
The Speech sphere will then bounce around the Well of Wandering and each time it collides with a Sound Sphere it will play the recorded sound with a high reverb modifier.
It works better when the sound is made right after pressing record and stopping the recording right after the sound is finished.
IMPORTANT CRASH INFO!
Have at least one Sound Sphere moving before activating the Speech sphere as having no moving Sound Spheres tends to crash it!
The Speech sphere is very temperamental and will crash the Well of Wandering most of the time its used. Its unfortunate :(
If it does not work on your browser, try Google Chrome, as it worked the best on my tests.
Play around with the values of the controls and find sounds you enjoy!
As a generative music tool, the Well of Wandering is meant to be learned through experimentation, so go find your unique music!
Fresh Start
Try a full fresh start from the beginning, adjusting each value individually and try to build a sound you enjoy! This will help you understand what each sphere and control does, while also letting you build you own music of choice! It's also the best way to start if you want to be in control of what you are building, not only for a first time.
For the first time I recommend going with a low amount of spheres, either 5 or 10.
Change all Waveforms to Sine or Triangle
Randomizing all values and changing all waveforms to sine or triangle is a great way to get a quick start into a nice and unique base sound. Then you can adjust individually other values, and choosing some specific spheres to have a squared or sawtooth waveform for specific lead notes.
Psychedelic
Select 25 or 50 spheres, turn Spatial Audio on and press randomize. Quickly change all waveforms to either sine or triangle before the square and sawtooth waveforms destroy your hearing capabilities. Close your eyes and let the Well of Wandering take you on a journey.
Chaos
Select 50 spheres, turn Spatial Audio on and press randomize. Change all waveforms to either square or sawtooth. Prepare your noise receptors as it will be a direct attack to your hears and soul. I whole heartily don't recommend having the volume too high. I HOLD NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR WHAT MIGHT COME!
The Well
For a project that had to work with sound we decided to go with a generative music idea, where the Well of Wandering appeared from. We decided to go with a sort of instrument that could be fiddled with, but also would mostly work by itself. Spheres would have a orbit path that they needed to travel in order to play their own sound, and they would sort themselves vertically, each level being its own frequency. This created a sort of well shape, and the chaotic but harmonic sine sounds would give this wandering of the mind experience.
The project then culminated into this audio experience that can create many unique and cool sounds, which we were pretty happy with.
Even though I am not a particularly sound enthusiast, I actually ended up really liking doing this project with sound and music, and I am interested to work again and do more projects centered with audio experiences and generative music.
Credits
This project was part of a group work
Members
Eduardo Gonçalves
Linkedin
