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v0.0.1 — first release

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@github-actions github-actions released this 14 Aug 02:46
· 22 commits to main since this release
v0.0.1
efad2ee

A drawn-sound instrument after Daphne Oram's Oramics machine, and the printable sheets people draw on to feed it.

Which file
macOS, Apple Silicon Oramics-0.0.1-arm64.dmg
macOS, Intel Oramics-0.0.1.dmg
Windows Oramics-Setup-0.0.1.exe
Linux Oramics-0.0.1-x86_64.AppImage

The .zip and .tar.gz builds are the same apps without an installer.

These builds are unsigned

Signing needs an Apple Developer account and a Windows code-signing certificate, and this has neither.

macOS — Gatekeeper will refuse it. Right-click → Open once, or:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/Oramics.app

Windows — SmartScreen will warn. More info → Run anyway.

Linux — chmod +x the AppImage first.

What it does

Ten strips of drawn control feeding a monophonic four-timbre voice, the way the machine did. Three of its constraints are modelled rather than approximated:

  • Flying-spot scanner. Timbres come from running Wrench's edge-tracking servo over a painted slide at audio rate, not from a wavetable. Timbre therefore changes with pitch, the loop rings inharmonically, a gap in the enamel drops the spot, and no two cycles are identical.
  • Pitch in whole Hertz. The painted code is the frequency — relays switched banks of resistors, so the scale is linear rather than logarithmic, and the tracks are weighted 1-2-4-2 from the film's lower edge, not 8-4-2-1. Relays latch and don't move together, so decimal carries sweep through frequencies nobody painted.
  • Optical amplitude. Level was set by shining a torch bulb at a photoresistor, so no envelope has a sharp attack.

Each is a switch. Turn them off and you leave 1969.

Print the sheets with pnpm template. A sheet is exactly 30.000 seconds — 1 cm to the second, one tenth of the original film speed — and corner fiducials mean print scaling and scan DPI can't affect the timing.

Not yet

Importing scanned sheets. You can draw, paint, hear and print; the scan-back half isn't written.

Independent reconstruction, not affiliated with the Daphne Oram Trust, Goldsmiths or the Science Museum. GPL-3.0.

Assets 20
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