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"We were working in some really high-frequency ranges at one of the shows, and I could see that some people w... ere very uncomfortable with that."

"Experimental" is a broad term used to describe Whitman's music and all the music that can be heard at the Sonic Circuits Festival, which begins Saturday at various area venues. The festival, now in its 10th year, boasts a range of music and bands -- from the expansive, intergalactic prog-rock of Magma to the minimalist, ambient guitar textures of Fennesz. The offerings are not exactly mainstream, but to Whitman, his aim is no different than that of more middle-of-the-road artists.

"Ideally any great music should make people experience a wide range of emotions. It influences them to feel certain ways," he says. "I try to make people step out of their day-to-day life a little bit and experience something new, have different kinds of sensations. That's music at its core. It's what it does when it works."

Experimental electronic music has always spoken to Whitman, 37, who grew up in New York and now lives outside Boston. At age 12, he began experimenting with sounds on his Commodore 64 computer. His parents worked for the telephone company, and he was obsessed with switchboards. "I was kind of a nerd," he says. He delved into electronic music, and it became his lifelong passion. "I'm still fascinated with it," he says. "It's become this very comforting area of music for me."

In 1997, Whitman graduated from Berklee College of Music in Boston with a degree in music synthesis, or electronic music. Today he performs at least once a month, and many of his records have been reviewed by the music Web site Pitchfork. Eight years ago, he started at an online experimental-music distribution store, Mimaroglu Music Sales, selling enough albums to live comfortably.

Whitman has composed a wide range of music: dance, art punk, even chamber music, and he plays the guitar, bass, clarinet and drums. But for most of his career, electronic music has been his calling.

His instruments are an electronic circuit (an oscillator), a feedback mechanism (a controller), an audio production piece (a mixer) and a sequencer that plays back the music. For performances, he has a rough idea of how he intends to manipulate the equipment, but mostly he considers what he does improvisation.

"The music I'm making right now is closer to processed music, or systems music, where I come up with a setup or an instrument, or a certain approach to music and then I realize that [through] hardware or software, and I try to play different variations of it for different people," Whitman says.

"It's very hardware-based, analog, electronic-based, very volatile. It changes vastly from night to night, just by making minor adjustments. The cables carry audio signals, but they also carry triggers that will tell something to start and stop . . . it's very math-oriented. It's like looking at a very bad-looking algebra problem, but it's all happening electronically in real time."

That means there is plenty of room for error. "If something breaks, it really breaks," Whitman says. One mis-patched chord, and the audience can be met with sudden, complete silence.

"Hopefully I'm good enough at it that I can keep it together and make interesting music out of it, and, more often than not, I'm surprised with something that comes out of the box that maybe wasn't exactly what I intended or maybe even it was an improvement on what I intended."

Whatever happens, Whitman is not trying to force his music on anyone. He loves it, and hopes it will make people think and feel.

"I try to just create a palette [so] that maybe people can reflect inwardly. It's hard to explain. . . . It's like when you go to a movie, you don't just feel happy for two hours, you're taken on a roller coaster and there's conflict and there's resolution, and I think a good narrative set of experimental music or any kind of music will have a very similar outcome."

Keith Fullerton Whitman Appearing Wednesday with Expo 70, Ancient Ocean, Li Tieqiao and Voilet at the Fridge, Eighth and E streets SE. Show starts at 8 p.m. 202-664-4151. Tickets: $12. 202-664-4151. For a Sonic Circuits Festival schedule, visit http:/ / www.dc-soniccircuits.org/ festival/ 2010. The Download: For a sampling of Whitman's music, check out: From "Late Fall": "Medford Massachusetts November Thirtieth" From "Schoener Flussengel": "Interlude" "Lixus" (analog version) "Weiter" "From Playthroughs": "fib01a" Keith Fullerton Whitman