Hello !
I would like to share an observation concerning the order of arguments for the pluck, strike and felt connections.
The online doc for felt (Modalys - Felt Hammer Connection) states that the first two arguments are the access and initial position on the striking object and the following two arguments access and initial position on the stroken object. The same order goes for pluck and strike. Looking though LISP and mlys.lua instruments you will see that sometimes arguments of the striker and the strikee has been swapped - and yet they still produce sound !
Look for instance to the “Modalys for Max Instrument series” (found in the extra menu of Max if Modalys is properly installed) opening the mlys.lua editor of any of the 3D examples you may see the felt connection initialised like this:
local cxfelt = modalys.create_connection{ kind="felt”, name="cxFelt”,
where1=accIn, initialposition1=0, where2=malletAcc0, initialposition2=0.1,
thickness=0.01, f0=1e9, alpha=2.3, epsilon=0.83, tau=40e-04 }
Look closely at the second line (the one saying “where1=….”) and compare order of arguments with the online doc. They have been swapped.
Or if you look to the ModaLisp examples “ex 1 - plucked string” you will see the pluck connection initialised like this:
(make-connection 'pluck my-string-plk 0 my-plectrum-plk 0.1 (const 50))
Again with swapped parameters. But it works and does not produce any different sound if you correct the order to :
(make-connection 'pluck my-plectrum-plk 0.1 my-string-plk 0 (const 50))
Both versions sound identical. Suggesting that it really is the interaction of accesses which counts rather than “who hits who”. I would therefor like to ask : can one conclude that it does not matter whether you strike an object with a mallet or if you strike a mallet with the object? However curious this may sound would that always be true? Can anyone tell if swapping these specific parameters may carry any significance? From theoretical or practical point of view? Any comments are wellcome.
Best Hans Peter