Digital Morphophone Environment. Computer Rendering of a Pioneering Sound Processing Device
This paper introduces a digital reconstruction of the morphophone,
a complex magnetophonic device developed in the 1950s within
the laboratories of the GRM (Groupe de Recherches Musicales)
in Paris. The analysis, design, and implementation methodologies
underlying the Digital Morphophone Environment are discussed.
Based on a detailed review of historical sources and limited
documentation – including a small body of literature and, most
notably, archival images – the core operational principles of the
morphophone have been modeled within the MAX visual programming environment. The main goals of this work are, on the one
hand, to study and make accessible a now obsolete and unavailable
tool, and on the other, to provide the opportunity for new explorations in computer music and research.