22.12.05 DrumPad.xls + Realtime Fourier synthesis, Excel sounds.
The 'inappropriate' use of a commercial software for different purposes is one on the infinite possibilities of data processing, that can be shared on the net, or can be extended as we more and more reappropriate it. DrumPad.xls by Thomas Wilburn make a drum machine out of some Excel script, associating key to drum samples, that can be triggered also by external devices as gamepads or joysticks. But the bigger potential of this work hasn't been exploited yet. Applying calculating strategies to frequencies would have an ambivalent result: avoiding the programming code knowledge needed to apply the same transformations and using the sound shaping possibilities from a pure mathematic perspective, i.e. a symbolic one. Even in the Realtime Fourier synthesis - Sound generation application by Erich Neuwirth, the Excel potential is used for sound synthesis, but only through a scrolling bar interface. On the contrary, the fascination of powerful sound transformations, triggered by operational symbols, and the functions' acronyms could have been reflected in the sound variations, opening the accounting processes world to the musical construction.