draft: false
Name: Constancy
short-description: One Cornish dawn, forever. A CS-80-style supersaw through an Icarus feedback loop, moving only when you move through the morning's tide, sun and wind, with a scale-aware Turing machine for the rest of the system.
summary: |
  Constancy holds a single morning in memory: 17 April 2024 at Calamansac on the Helford River, the last day of
  the Music Thing Modular residency there, from first light to two hours after sunrise. **Time** (Main) moves
  through it; nothing else does. The real tide sets every envelope (plucky at low water, long washed swells at
  high tide), the sun sets the delay time and brightness and calls in the lead once it clears the horizon, and
  the wind moves a CV output, and a clocked, scale-aware Turing machine (after Tom Whitwell's) plays 1V/octave notes in the card's key for the rest of the system. The voice is a Vangelis-style supersaw through a fixed-point port of
  the feedback loop from Infinite Digits' [Icarus](https://github.com/schollz/icarus), over Equanimity's note loops
  and a pure-fifth drone. Sun (X) flies the loop close enough to burn; Water (Y) drowns or thins it.
Language: C++ (Pico SDK)
Creator: Matt Allison
Version: "0.3.2"
Status: Released
License: MIT
date-created: 2026-10-08
date-updated: 2026-10-08

contact:
  social:
    github: https://github.com/mrmattallison

uf2:
  - path: UF2/constancy.0.3.2.uf2
    name: Constancy 0.3.2

tags:
  - generative
  - sequencer
  - ambient
  - delay
  - synthesizer
  - polyphonic

panel:
  inputs:
    - id: AudioIn1
      name: Loop In 1
      type: audio
      description: Into the Icarus feedback loop only, not the dry mix
    - id: AudioIn2
      name: Loop In 2
      type: audio
      description: Into the Icarus feedback loop only, not the dry mix
    - id: CVIn1
      name: Time CV
      type: cv
      description: Added to Time, so an LFO or random source drifts the morning. +5V moves it about the whole window
    - id: CVIn2
      name: Water CV
      type: cv
      description: Added to Water. Negative drowns (lowpass), positive thins (low-cut)
    - id: PulseIn1
      name: Turing Clock
      type: pulse
      description: Each pulse steps the Turing machine once. Unpatched, it holds its note
    - id: PulseIn2
      name: Lead Phrase
      type: pulse
      description: The lead plays a phrase now, even before sunrise. Ignored while a phrase is playing or a new key is arriving. Unplugging never triggers it
  outputs:
    - id: AudioOut1
      name: Out L
      type: audio
      description: Voices, the Icarus loop and the drone, through Water
    - id: AudioOut2
      name: Out R
      type: audio
      description: Voices, the Icarus loop and the drone, through Water
    - id: CVOut1
      name: Tide
      type: cv
      description: Smooth random voltage, 0 to about +5V, centred on the tide's height; wanders wider and choppier as the wind rises
    - id: CVOut2
      name: Turing Pitch
      type: cv
      description: 1V per octave (calibrated with the Simple MIDI card), the Turing machine's notes in the card's key, two octaves up from the root (-1V to +2V)
    - id: PulseOut1
      name: Lead Trigger
      type: pulse
      description: A 10ms trigger on every lead note
    - id: PulseOut2
      name: Turing Trigger
      type: pulse
      description: A 10ms trigger with each Turing step whose bit is 1, as on the original Turing Machine

controls:
  switch:
    up:
      name: Levels
      description: Main = Turing machine, X = melody level, Y = drone level. Time, Sun and Water hold their values
    middle:
      name: Play
      description: Main = Time, X = Sun, Y = Water
    down:
      name: Play
      description: Same knob jobs as middle (Down is momentary)
    tap:
      name: New Key
      description: Tap down for a new key -- every melodic note stops, the drone glides to the new root, then the new key begins
  knobs:
    - main: { name: Time, description: "First light (04:17) to two hours after sunrise (08:21). The morning moves only when this (or CV In 1) does. Picks up only after passing its last value" }
      x: { name: Sun, description: "The loop's feedback and drive: gentle at left, long tails at the centre, burning to the right. Picks up only after passing its last value" }
      y: { name: Water, description: "Open in the centre; left drowns (lowpass), right thins (low-cut). Plus CV In 2. Crossing the centre never clicks. Picks up only after passing its last value" }
    - when: { z: up }
      main: { name: Turing Machine, description: "Fully anticlockwise a locked pendulum (1-8-1), random at the centre, fully clockwise a locked loop playing forwards; in between it slips now and then. Picks up only after passing its last value" }
      x: { name: Melody Level, description: Picks up only after passing its last value }
      y: { name: Drone Level, description: Picks up only after passing its last value }
  leds:
    - display: list
      items:
        - { id: LED4, name: Sun meter (bottom left), description: "The six LEDs fill from the bottom row to the top as the sun climbs; all glow together as it crosses the horizon" }
        - { id: LED5, name: Sun meter (bottom right) }
        - { id: LED2, name: Sun meter (middle left) }
        - { id: LED3, name: Sun meter (middle right) }
        - { id: LED0, name: Sun meter (top left) }
        - { id: LED1, name: Sun meter (top right) }
    - when: { z: up }
      display: list
      items:
        - { id: LED0, name: Turing pendulum (top left), description: "Brightens as the Turing machine locks towards the pendulum; dark at the centre (random)" }
        - { id: LED1, name: Turing forwards (top right), description: "Brightens as the Turing machine locks towards forwards" }
        - { id: LED2, name: Melody level (middle row) }
        - { id: LED4, name: Drone level (bottom row) }