In a nutshell, I like to compose and perform experimental music, with a high emphasis on an organic and improvisational style. This improvisation and experimental approach also extends into the tuning systems I use. I believe the tuning choices are just as important as the traditional composition elements of melody, harmony and rhythm.
Winding back to where it all began, my father encouraged me to express myself musically, so whistling was my first “instrument”, a harmonica came next, followed by a recorder. This is where I learnt how to read traditional Western music notation (age 10 or so, from a book, no teacher). My father could not read music, instead played every thing by ear, I learnt this skill playing the harmonica, which also encourages improvisation. Later on I moved onto the organ (two keys plus foot pedals) and then the piano. The piano opened up orchestration as well as the balancing act of coordinating the left hand with the right hand. I also led a small music band at Bulli high school (Australia) and was a member of the school band led my Kim Irik. Kim was a wonderful inspiration of music expression and the pure joy of making music. As a side note, I also studied art in high school.
Then came a fork in my life upon finishing high school, music or engineering? I took the engineering route, completing my undergraduate Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering, then a PhD in Mechanical Engineering. I specialised in stress analysis through numerical simulation, my PhD was simulation of structural deformation, fluid flow and heat flow, all highly involved with programming (FORTRAN back then) and numerical simulation. My paid work in Engineering sharpened my computer programming skills and simulation via my keen interest in both mechanics and mathematics. My music interests were still trickling through, but it was only until many years later after we moved to New Zealand, that it got a serious boost. I got my self a copy of Ableton Live and my compositions started to expand. I was curious about creating my own synthesisers, Max for Live (from Cycling’74) came next, I could now create my own synthesisers within the Live environment. So perhaps you can see the merging of my skill set here, music, art, mathematics, engineering and a natural curiosity to experiment.
The next step in my synthesiser development was Max (Ref. [13]) standalone, not bound by the constraints of Ableton Live. But why? Micro-tonal and multi-instrumental was the driver. I wanted to explore micro-tonal music and do so in an improvisational sense. Sure you can conjure up a new scale in a spread sheet or use some one else’s scale and feed it into your synthesiser, but what if you wanted to change this tuning live? Max gave me the ability to do this, graphical user interface (GUI) of my choice (and size) and freely bidirectionally control the synthesiser from my midi driver, the Ableton Push2. The other driver was multi-instrumental, I had dreams of playing hardware synthesisers and merging this with software based synthesisers driven by midi controllers, or even a conversation between the two. Max allowed me to do this — midi input, midi output, stereo audio input, stereo audio output, all within the one instrument — perfect, I was in music heaven.
I am not just a computer nerd that likes programming, but my engineering back ground steers me towards practical solutions and tools, hands on tools, that I create for my self to perform and share with others to perform with.
My music interests evolved from folk music, acoustic performances, classically trained, influences from greats like Bach and the more modern takes of Bach from Wendy Carlos’s “Switched On Bach” (Ref. [3])(synthesiser heaven). My early days of music were mostly in Jazz, this is where I learnt how to improvise and not be a slave to reading the black dots on the page. Later interests were in Sound Scape music, not necessarily using traditional forms of structure/form/harmony but sound in it’s purest sense, the evolving timbre becomes the composition. I also play other instruments: Shakuhachi, Didgeridoo, piano accordion, guitar, electric violin, clarinet and jaw harp. On the synthesiser side, Soma: Pipe, Enner, Lyra 8 and COSMOS.
Having a passion for improvisational technique, led me to the instrument developer, Soma Laboratory, chief design and developer Vlad Kreimer (Ref. [4]). His philosophy in instrument design is human interaction, expression of human emotion and an organic playing style. Soma Laboratory instruments feature in most of my compositions, a marriage of analogue synthesisers and my digital creations in Max.
So this perhaps gives you an idea where I am coming from and where I am heading to — experimental, micro-tonal, organic music.
Indivisible:
So let’s loop back to my composition, “Indivisible” (Ref. [1])
https://normanfreund.bandcamp.com/album/indivisible
Dates:
14-Mar-2026 (inception), 15-Mar-2026 (finalised), 18-Mar-2026 (released)
Description:
An exposition of relative tuning schemes based upon prime numbers. All performances using the Soma Lrya 8 and Soma COSMOS with the help of multi-tracking digital recorder, FindTheBeat.
Prime number ratio schemes used:
Scheme 1:
3:5:7:11:13:17:19:23
Scheme 2:
43:47:51:53:59:61:67:71
Scheme 3:
3:4:5:6:7:8:9:10
Full derivations of final frequencies played in the details below.
Before each live performance. The Soma Lyra 8 was tuned to specific frequencies selected from the above three choices. In some cases, during the performance, the tuning was altered artistically.
The Lyra 8 has eight oscillators, so each tuning was limited to eight notes. The Lyra 8 does have some tricks up it’s sleeve for tuning adjustments beyond it’s eight dedicated oscillator knobs, master tuning knob for oscillators 1 to 4 and another master tuning knob for oscillators 5 to 8, plus a “Hyper LFO” to send frequency tuning pulses to the eight oscillators all with their own tuning modulation amount.
Part 1:
Relative Tuning ratios of
3:5:7:11:13:17:19:23
with a reference frequency 30 Hz
giving the absolute frequencies of
303/3=30 Hz 305/3=50 Hz
307/3=70 Hz 3011/3=110 Hz
3013/3=130 Hz 3017/3=170 Hz
3019/3=190 Hz 3023/3=230 Hz
The first oscillator with a frequency 30 Hz would normally be barely heard, but with higher harmonic content and combined with 50 Hz of the second oscillator gave an interesting beating effect.
Part 2:
Part 2 took a 1 second portion of Part 1 recording and played it back in three tracks simultaneously but at different speeds of x-1.6 (backwards), x1.6 (forwards), x3.22 to provide a background drone. The Lyra 8 was then played melodically over this freely improvising the tuning.
Part 3:
Relative Tuning ratios of
43:47:51:53:59:61:67:71
with a reference frequency of 215 Hz
giving the absolute frequencies of
21543/43=215 Hz 21547/43=235 Hz
21551/43=255 Hz 21553/43=265 Hz
21559/43=295 Hz 21561/43=305 Hz
21567/43=335 Hz 21571/43=366 Hz
The Lyra 8 has certain “sweet” spots for frequencies, the root of 215 Hz was one of these but was also conveniently 43*5. “Sweet” can have many meanings, here it just meant a frequency that gave a spectrum the suited the evolving mood this piece put me in.
This tuning was weird and pleasant all at once. The “sweet” spot soon turned into a gritty spot, ah the luck of the draw. This did put me on a different trip for this part. The COSMOS was purely for reverb for Part 3.
During the performance, once the feel of the tuning was established, I slowly began to erode it through small changes in tuning, then by the end the relation to the original tuning became irrelevant.
Part 4:
A three second portion of Part 3 recording was played back simultaneously at three different play back speeds of x-0.3 (backwards), x0.6 (forwards), x 0.7 (forwards), acting as a drone. Then improvised on the Lyra 8, freely adjusting tuning. Extensive use of artistic live adjustments of feedback gain and delay times native to the Lyra 8 were used here.
Part 5:
Part 5 provided a contrasting harmony, aiming for a more consonant tuning with relative tuning ratios of
3:4:5:6:7:8:9:10
with a reference frequency of 102 Hz
giving the absolute frequencies of
1023/3=102 Hz 1024/3=136 Hz
1025/3=170 Hz 1026/3=204 Hz
1027/3=238 Hz 1028/3=272 Hz
102*9/3=306 Hz
Just one track recorded on the Lyra 8, plus some creative looping on the Soma COSMOS using the Rhythmic firmware, algorithm #5 favouring 1/6 rhythmic ratios.
Part 5 is the calm before the storm.
Part 6:
Going off with a bang!
I used the same tuning of Part 5 but gradually increased the distortion amount. When using such low Just Intonation ratios like 3:4:5 … , distortion can work really well. This time the COSMOS was used only as a reverb unit, no tuning adjustments on the Lyra 8.
As the distortion was increased, different harmonics came to the fore.
There was also a sense of entropy going on here, starting with a pure tuning with little distortion, adding more distortion, a gradual erosion.
FindTheBeat is a digital audio processor I programmed in Max (Cycling’74), a six track audio recorder, allowing simultaneous play back of the tracks in their entirety or portions of them with playback speed alterations. The art work for the album cover is based on cyclic symmetry of 3,5,7,11 and 13 sections, mirroring the prime number aspect of the music.
Quack Quack:
Life does not have to be so serious all the time, the title of this composition reflects this, “Quack Quack”. Can one make music out of the sounds of ducks quacking? How would you go about this? I choose to do this with granular synthesis, using the Granie software based granular synthesiser I programmed from the ground up (Ref. [5]).
Granie is available for you to make your granular synthesis creations from:
normanfreund.gumroad.com/l/granie
Quack Quack combined my love of music experimentation, humour, micro-tonal music and improvisation. By the way, all my works are Artificial Intelligence (AI) free — keeping it human — keeping it real.
https://normanfreund.bandcamp.com/album/quack-quack
Dates:
09-Mar-2026 (inception), 13-Mar-2026 (finalised), 14-Mar-2026 (released)
Artists:
Music composed, performed, produced by Norman Freund
Artwork by Norman Freund
Description:
My afternoon walk has me pass by wet lands and water-ways inhabited by ducks. They have a very lyrical call, which has always amused me. After several months of modular synthesis development and music projects, thought I would mix it up a bit and return to granular synthesis using Granie and see what I can do with just a duck call and my Soma Enner.
Two duck recordings were made, both needed heavy noise reduction to cancel out unwanted ambient noise, mostly wind noise from automobiles, hard to escape it. Not to worry, part of the challenge. You can here the first duck recording in the introduction of the first track in this album free of granular synthesis.
Between two and three grain tracks were used from the duck calls. Granie can also record external audio to it’s master track and that is where the Soma Lyra 8 came in. Before recording I decided to conjure up a new microtuning scale, done by ear for parts 1 to 3 using, listening to the granular synthesis sounds as I progressed through the eight note tuning. Micro-tuning scales are not just about generic scales that work with any instrument but often rely upon the timbre and spectral content of the instruments they are played on.
i, f(i) [Hz], Cent
1, 7.5, 0 c
2, 8.9, 296c
3, 11.9, 799c
4, 16.4, 1 oct + 154c
5, 24.3, 1 oct + 835c
6, 33.5, 2 oct + 191c
7, 41.9, 2 oct + 578c
8, 55.1, 2 oct + 1053c
Then came Lyra 8’s turn. Playing each of the above eight notes, then tuning by ear the Lyra 8 to notes that I thought fitted together. Sorry, I did not reverse engineer the Lyra 8 frequencies used and document them here. The Lyra 8 tuning was largely left untouched during the performances.
For the final piece in this album, the granular synthesis tuning was changed to a prime number sequence, three grain buffers with the following tuning, each grain buffer played simultaneously:
i, Grain1_f(i) [Hz], Grain2_f(i) [Hz], Grain3_f(i) [Hz]
1, 10, 17,23
2, 13, 19, 29
3, 17, 31, 37
4, 19, 37, 41
5, 23, 41, 43
6, 29, 43, 47
7, 31,47, 49
8, 37, 49, 51
Each of the three grain tracks had different grain lengths and starting positions, the frequencies were synchronised during the performance according to the above table. During the performance, I would adjust the starting positions of the grains, using the rotary encoders of the Ableton Push2.
Extensive use was made of delay+feedback net works for both the Granie sounds and that of the Lyra 8. Lyra 8 performances used a modulated delay time tied back to it’s “HYPER LFO” (sends out blips at time intervals according to two time controls), this mimicked the “laughter” of the duck calls. Other times I would make live adjustments to the delay times and feedback gain, a conversation between the Lyra 8 and the Granie would ensue.
The Lyra 8 sounds were sent to the Soma COSMOS for either reverb effect or creative looping of themes.
Perhaps you would like to try out Granie for yourself:
https://normanfreund.gumroad.com/l/granie
What granular synthesis scene will you come up with?
Recent Project — CellAuto
My most recent project is incorporating game theory into a software based sequencer/synthesiser, called CellAuto (Ref. [6]). The game theory here, is Cell Automata, which to my knowledge was first introduced by John Horton Conway (Ref. 7]) in his game called The Game of Life, which is a subset of the more general Cell Automata (Ref. [8]). In simple terms, the life of cells are simulated in binary fashion, they are either alive or dead, and they can be reborn. The cells are arranged in a network, such that one cell has knowledge or connection to a number of neighbouring cells, here eight neighbours. To start off the process, cells are given life, in music or from an artist sense, this is the human creative input, cells that are alive make a sound according to the performer’s choice of tuning system (micro-tonal).
The performer decides on the rules of life and death. In the case of the Game of Life, the rules for a cell to be alive are:
- If a cell or home cell under investigation, for it to sing it must be alive and for this, it must have a total of between two and three adjacent cells that are alive.
- If the home cell under investigation, is dead and has exactly three alive neighbours, it gets reborn, thus begins to sing.
- Any other conditions cause the home cell to perish.
Pass through all cells of the organism community to check the life/death rules and at the end, switch life|death status accordingly. Every time the cell changes from a dead to a live state, a volume envelope begins and the cell sings at it’s predetermined frequency. Ask for another iteration and the life|death of the cell community evolves. Sometimes the evolution of life is very short, one cycle and the cells die, to cycles that repeat long or short and die eventually, or cycle indefinitely either in some identifiable pattern or a new pattern after each iteration.
There are many other combinations of life and death rules, treat the neighbours of the home cell, including itself as a nine bit binary number, 0 means dead, 1 means alive. So we have 2^9=512 possible neighbour combinations, and 2^(2^9)=1.34E154 possible rules to conjure up. (“^” means raised to the power of, like 2^3=8).
I decided to implement this Cell Automata using an Ableton Push2 midi controller which has a note play matrix of 8×8=64 notes, as a 64 voice synthesiser, with a micro-tonal scale of 64 notes, that is a cell community of 64 cells. To me, sometimes sequencer based electronic music can be a bit tool monotonous and mechanical sounding, whereas I prefer a more organic approach. CellAuto was to incorporate live note choices as with traditional instruments and the option of using the Cell Automata based sequencer. The next key element, was the scale choice and for the performer to be able to make tuning choices live during the performance. The evolution of life and death of the cells, may not be known a priori, so the performer may need to experiment with the tuning live. Rather than use a table based tuning system (i.e. figure it out in spread sheet), a formula based system was used, a hybrid of spectral, harmonic series and equal division of a Just Intonation interval, the inputs to this formula would be controlled by the performer live.
In simple terms the tuning of each note to a frequency f, is given as:
f = freq * S*(N/D)^(n/d)
where the performer could choose what the note pads were controlling, S, N, D, n or d (integers) whilst keeping the other parameters constant. In addition, there are dedicated buttons on the midi controller (Push2) to increment by one or decrement by one, parameters N, D, n or d. The reference frequency [Hz], fref is controlled either through the GUI or via a rotary encoder on the Push2. The 64 notes of the scale, can be mapped either sequentially or isomorphically with the performer free to choose the scale step increments per column and row of the two dimensional note pad layout. So the artist has total freedom of choice of tuning, live during the performance.
Some simple examples explain. Let’s say you want twelve equal subdivisions of the octave, with a reference frequency of 100 Hz, the tuning equation would then be:
f = 100 * 1* (2/1)^(n/12)
where n would be assigned to the midi pitch ID coming from the midi controller. Let’s say you wanted it to be an isomorphic layout (i.e. one chord shape sounds the same regardless of where you play on the two dimensional keyboard, just transposed up or down in pitch) of one semitone per column (column increment of 1) and one perfect fourth (row increment of 5). Getting bored with 12EDO? No worries, have the midi keyboard control the “d” parameter instead of the “n” parameter, for example.
As another example, let’s say you wanted a Just Intonation tuning of a sequence of 5/5, 6/5, 7/5 … for a reference frequency of 50 Hz. This would be achieved by:
f = 50 * 1 * ( (5+i)/D )^(1/1)
where i is assigned from the played midi IDs (offset accordingly) and for the two dimensional array pad, picked off sequentially.
There is a folding distortion module in CellAuto, so very low frequencies can be input yet still heard by the human ear due to the higher harmonic produced. The volume envelope is a finite time period exponential*linear and a true exponential decay, with controls over the attack period, exponential rise exponents and exponential fall components, all directly controllable via the rotary encoders of the Push2. With a 64 polyphonic voice synthesiser, with the possibility of spectral tuning, this opens up a whole new set of possibilities, the notes played can form the timbre content.
Here as some demonstrations and music videos of/using CellAuto in action:
Drift – Cell Auto Synthesiser + Soma Enner (Ref. [9])
https://youtu.be/2m4DhW63Aq4
Rest — CellAuto synth + Soma Lyra 8 + Soma Enner + Soma COMSMOS (Ref. [10])
https://youtu.be/ePs4nsAk8Yw
CellAuto Synthesiser Demonstration (Ref. [11])
https://youtu.be/z5nQlWPLWgA
Contact:
You can find Norman Freund on:
FaceBook — www.facebook.com/norman.freund.545/
SoundCloud — https://soundcloud.com/norman-freund
BandCamp — https://normanfreund.bandcamp.com/
GumRoad — normanfreund.gumroad.com
YouTube — https://youtube.com/@normanfreund/videos
References:
[1] “Indivisible”, Norman Owen Freund, 17-Mar-2026, Music and performance recording,
Album of six movements. Total 37 minutes.
https://soundcloud.com/norman-freund/sets/indivisible
https://normanfreund.bandcamp.com/album/indivisible (purchase)
[2] “Quack Quack”, Norman Owen Freund, 14-Mar-2026, Music and performance recording,
Album of four movements, Total 20 minutes.
https://soundcloud.com/norman-freund/sets/quack-quack
https://normanfreund.bandcamp.com/album/quack-quack (purchase)
[3] “Switched on Bach”, Wendy Carlos, 1968, Columbia Records.
[4] Vlad Kriemer, Soma Laboratory, https://somasynths.com/about-soma/
[5] Granie, Norman Owen Freund, Granular software based synthesiser, available at
normanfreund.gumroad.com/l/granie
[6] CellAuto, Norman Owen Freund, 16-May-2026,
Software based synthesiser featuring a Cell Automata based sequencer,
https://normanfreund.gumroad.com/l/CellAuto
[7] Conway’s Game of Life, Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conway%27s_Game_of_Life (attributed to
John Horton Conway, 1970).
[8] Cellular Automaton, Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cellular_automaton
[9] “Drift – Cell Auto Synthesiser + Soma Enner”, Norman Owen Freund, 12-May-2026,
YouTube Video
https://youtu.be/2m4DhW63Aq4
[10] “Rest — CellAuto synth + Soma Lyra 8 + Soma Enner + Soma COMSMOS,
Norman Owen Freund, xx-May-2026, YouTube Video
https://youtu.be/ePs4nsAk8Yw
[11] “CellAuto Synthesiser Demonstration”, Norman Owen Freund, xx-May-2026,
YouTube Video:
https://youtu.be/z5nQlWPLWgA
[12] Lyra 8, Soma Laboratory, hardware analogue synthesiser,
https://somasynths.com/lyra-organismic-synthesizer
[13] Max, Cyling’74, programming environment for digital audio and video,
https://cycling74.com/products/max