Sirius Institute Update - The Sirius Institute now has non-profit status through an alliance with the Human-Dolphin Foundation. Gifts made to the Sirius Institute are now tax-deductable.

We have talked with Jim Nollman who has played music to many dolphins and whales. He has offered the use of his equipment which includes amplifiers, underwater speakers and hydrophones. He has pointed us to the best hydrophone designer he has found over his ten years of work. He advises that the weather in Vancouver will make contacts with free Orcas difficult until June.

We are therefore still exploring for places to do the work. Candidate areas include: Vancouver Aquarium, Mirage Hotel, Hawaii, Long Marine Lab, Freeport in the Bahamas, Dolphins Plus in Key Largo, Key West, and Marine World-Africa USA.

Amiga, Vocalizer and whale sounds - We have installed A/D and MIDI hardware on our newly arrived Amiga 2000 and are proceeding with the analysis of Orca sounds to determine their scale. We are comparing the MIDI output of the Vocalizer with the actual whale sounds, to determine what whale sounds trigger the Vocalizer. The notes in the MIDI stream can then be related to actual frequencies in the whale sounds.

Other equipment sought - We want a flexible synthesizer, sampler and recording system that will respond to the whale sounds and play back to them various timbres. At some point, we want some range or pattern of whale notes to change the characteristics of the instrument during playing. We want DAT recordings of the sounds and also record of the MIDI notes played by the whales and the people.

We require a microtunable synthesizer that will be able to match its scale to the whale scales. Among the candidate systems are: New England Digital, Fairlight, Korg and Ensonic.

Sirius Institute

Iao Valley Lodge Suite 3

R.R.#1 Box 518

Wailuku, Maui, HI 96793

Phone: 808-244-9573 / 213-281-8241 / (213) 315-1022