Tine

Tine is a tunable 3rd-order pingable resonator based on the Gamelan Resonator circuit from Pygmy Gamelan (1973), an installation by the sound artist Paul DeMarinis. The circuit was analysed by Kurt James Werner and Ezra J. Teboul (AES Convention Paper 10542, 2021), who found that it uses an active filter topology with no known precedent, distinct from the Bridged-T and Twin-T designs common in analog drum machines.

When pinged, Tine produces metallic, bell-like ringing tones. The damping control varies the ring time from short percussive thumps to a long sustain close to self-oscillation. Tine is 8 HP and has a single monophonic audio output.

Why it sounds different

Most pingable filters in analog drum machines are 2nd-order designs such as the Bridged-T and Twin-T. Tine’s 3rd-order topology differs from them in three ways:

• It rolls off more steeply above the resonance (18 dB/oct rather than 12 dB/oct).
• Its phase response is different, which changes the shape of the attack.
• It has two zeros, which put notches in the spectrum.

As a result the ring sounds more metallic than a typical 2-pole resonator, and closer to struck metal than to a filtered impulse.

Damping and amplifier gain

In the original circuit, the ring time is determined by the LM3900 Norton amplifier’s finite voltage gain (approximately 3500x). The circuit is stable only because that gain is finite; with infinite gain it would ring forever. Tine makes this amplifier gain available as the Damping parameter, so you can sweep from heavy damping (low gain and a short thump), through the LM3900’s own gain (a moderate ring), to the edge of stability (a very long sustain).

Controls

Inputs

Outputs

VCA mode (anti-click)

VCA mode is on by default, and you can toggle it in the right-click context menu. When a new ping arrives while the previous ring is still decaying, VCA mode crossfades between them:

1. Output envelope fades down over 2.5ms
2. Filter state is cleared
3. New pulse fires
4. Output envelope fades back up over 2.5ms

This removes the click that occurs when a new impulse interrupts a decaying oscillation. With VCA mode off, pings fire immediately with no fade, so they respond without delay but can click.

Patch ideas

Metallic Ping Voice: Patch a clock to TRIG and a sequencer to V/Oct. Each clock pulse produces a pitched metallic tone, and Damp sets whether it is a short percussive hit or a sustained bell tone.

Gamelan Bell: Set Freq low (-2 to -3 octaves) and Damp high (0.7-0.9), and trigger Tine from an irregular clock or a random trigger source. The long, low-pitched ring resembles gamelan percussion.

Damped Drum: Set Damp very low (0.1-0.2) and Freq in the bass range for a short, percussive hit. Modulate Damp CV with an envelope to vary the ring time from hit to hit.

Resonant Drone: Set Damp to maximum (1.0). The filter is then close to self-oscillation, so even small trigger inputs or noise produce sustained tones. Modulate Freq slowly to make the pitch of the drone change over time.

Polyrhythmic Bells: Use several Tine instances at different frequencies, clock each from a different division of a master clock, and pan them across the stereo field to build a gamelan-like ensemble. Add Note set to its Slendro or Pelog scale to drive each Tine’s pitch in a gamelan tuning.

Max for Live

Tine is also available as a Max for Live instrument for Ableton Live. The DSP is the same code as the VCV module, compiled unmodified rather than reimplemented, so it rings identically.

You play it differently, though. MIDI notes ping the resonator and set its pitch, and velocity sets the level, so you play it from a keyboard or a MIDI clip rather than patching a clock into it. Tune becomes a semitone offset on top of the incoming note, four octaves either way. Damping, Gain and the VCA anti-click mode are ordinary Live parameters, automatable and mappable like any other. V/Oct, the ping trigger and Damp CV are all still there as signal inlets for modulation from inside the device.

The device requires Ableton Live 12 with Max for Live, which is included in Suite.

Download Tine for Max for Live (3 MB, macOS and Windows)

The device is self-contained: drop the .amxd onto a MIDI track and play it. There is no installer and no other file to install, because the audio engine for both platforms is frozen into the one .amxd file. The macOS build is signed and notarised, so it opens without a security warning.

Historical context

The Gamelan Resonator was designed by Paul DeMarinis in June-July 1973 for his Pygmy Gamelan installation, part of David Tudor’s Composers Inside Electronics group. Six copies were built, each tuned to a different five-tone scale using whatever resistors and capacitors were available. The circuits played on their own in galleries, pinged by shift registers that were clocked by stray electromagnetic signals picked up on simple antennae. The circuit’s topology has no documented precedent: Werner and Teboul surveyed dozens of analog drum circuits, active filter textbooks and op-amp datasheets and found nothing with a similar arrangement.