Mix and Splay

Here’s a cool trick. You can use multichannel expansion to generate complex sounds, and then mix it all down to mono or stereo with Mix or Splay:

// 5 channels output (watch Meter window)
a = { SinOsc.ar([100, 300, 500, 700, 900], mul: 0.1) }.play;
a.free;
// Mix it down to mono:
b = { Mix(SinOsc.ar([100, 300, 500, 700, 900], mul: 0.1)) }.play;
b.free;
// Mix it down to stereo (spread evenly from left to right)
c = { Splay.ar(SinOsc.ar([100, 300, 500, 700, 900], mul: 0.1)) }.play;
c.free
// Fun with Splay:
(
d = {arg fundamental = 110;
    var harmonics = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9];
    var snd = BPF.ar(
        in: Saw.ar(32, LFPulse.ar(harmonics, width: 0.1)),
        freq: harmonics * fundamental,
        rq: 0.01,
        mul: 20);
    Splay.ar(snd);  
}.play;
)
d.set(\fundamental, 100); // change fundamental just for fun
d.free;

Can you see the multichannel expansion at work in that last example? The only difference is that the array is first stored into a variable (harmonics) before being used in the UGens. The array harmonics has 9 items, so the synth will expand to 9 channels. Then, just before the .play, Splay takes in the array of nine channels and mix it down to stereo, spreading the channels evenly from left to right.¹

Mix has another nice trick: the method fill. It creates an array of synths and mixes it down to mono all at once.

// Instant cluster generator
c = { Mix.fill(16, {SinOsc.ar(rrand(100, 3000), mul: 0.01)}) }.play;
c.free;
// A note with 12 partials of decreasing amplitudes
(
n = { Mix.fill(12, {arg counter;
    var partial = counter + 1; // we want it to start from 1, not 0
    SinOsc.ar(partial * 440, mul: 1/partial.squared) * 0.1
    })
}.play;
FreqScope.new;
)
n.free;

You give two things to Mix.fill: the size of the array you want to create, and a function (in curly braces) that will be used to fill up the array. In the first example above, Mix.fill evaluates the function 16 times. Note that the function includes a variable component: the frequency of the sine oscillator can be any random number between 100 and 3000. Sixteen sine waves will be created, each with a different random frequency. They will all be mixed down to mono, and you’ll hear the result on your left channel. The second examples shows that the function can take a counter argument (just like Array.fill). Twelve sine oscillators are generated following the harmonic series, and mixed down to a single note in mono.