Yet Another Music Sequencer
April 16, 2011 4:20 PM Subscribe
A cellular-automaton-based music sequencer. For when you're ready to upgrade from the (multiply) previously posted Matrix
Watch this demo for inspiration.
Cool mechanic, but boy am I tired of every single music webtoy using the pentatonic scale + digital delay.
posted by speicus at 4:37 PM on April 16, 2011 [3 favorites]
posted by speicus at 4:37 PM on April 16, 2011 [3 favorites]
I love that you can "save" works by sharing a link.
Here's a pleasant little loop I made. It actually took me a while to find a series of cells that spawned random evolution of sound - I guess I build the starter cells a little too symmetrically.
posted by The demon that lives in the air at 4:38 PM on April 16, 2011
Here's a pleasant little loop I made. It actually took me a while to find a series of cells that spawned random evolution of sound - I guess I build the starter cells a little too symmetrically.
posted by The demon that lives in the air at 4:38 PM on April 16, 2011
These are always fun, the ability to share links definitely makes it more compelling though.
If you set up symmetrical pairs along one axis, you can make them shift about with another pair on the centre line, like this, and get some interesting loops.
posted by lucidium at 4:56 PM on April 16, 2011
If you set up symmetrical pairs along one axis, you can make them shift about with another pair on the centre line, like this, and get some interesting loops.
posted by lucidium at 4:56 PM on April 16, 2011
I found this really interesting. After some trial and error I came up with this
posted by errspy at 5:46 PM on April 16, 2011
posted by errspy at 5:46 PM on April 16, 2011
ChucK is a programming language for making sound. It can, for example, output automata structures to OSC (sorta like MIDI) messages, which can be translated into sound through PD, Ableton Live, Max/MSP and other applications.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 6:08 PM on April 16, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 6:08 PM on April 16, 2011 [1 favorite]
Cool mechanic, but boy am I tired of every single music webtoy using the pentatonic scale + digital delay.
Technically it's based off of Phrygian mode without a 7th scale step.
Agreed on the delay.
posted by aloiv2 at 6:39 PM on April 16, 2011
Technically it's based off of Phrygian mode without a 7th scale step.
Agreed on the delay.
posted by aloiv2 at 6:39 PM on April 16, 2011
It's cool how much variation you can get from a simple set up without it falling into straight out chaos or a simple loop. Try loading this one and holding down space.
posted by lucidium at 6:51 PM on April 16, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by lucidium at 6:51 PM on April 16, 2011 [1 favorite]
This is really great. I wish it didn’t bog down after eight or nine cells (translation: I wish Flash for OS X didn’t suck), though.
posted by spitefulcrow at 7:09 PM on April 16, 2011
posted by spitefulcrow at 7:09 PM on April 16, 2011
This goes much better with the Thelonious Monk I have going in the background than I would have expected.
posted by brennen at 7:32 PM on April 16, 2011
posted by brennen at 7:32 PM on April 16, 2011
This takes me back to 1968, when I was a "museum guard" in a tiny two-mansion science museum in St. Louis (Clayton). We had a Tic-Tac-Toe interactive computer game. Hi tech at the time (well, except for telephone connections to mainframe computers).
Not to be a hater, but...this is pretty much the same thing. A pianist could do this in his sleep.
But, on the other hand, for an untrained musician to be able to use her visual/spatial skills to create music is certainly a good thing. So: I take back the hate. Games and music are fun.
But...just before I hit POST, someone mentioned Thelonious Sphere Monk in connection with this. ARGGHHH: you just harshed my carefully honed mellow!
posted by kozad at 7:37 PM on April 16, 2011
Not to be a hater, but...this is pretty much the same thing. A pianist could do this in his sleep.
But, on the other hand, for an untrained musician to be able to use her visual/spatial skills to create music is certainly a good thing. So: I take back the hate. Games and music are fun.
But...just before I hit POST, someone mentioned Thelonious Sphere Monk in connection with this. ARGGHHH: you just harshed my carefully honed mellow!
posted by kozad at 7:37 PM on April 16, 2011
I am in love with this. Being new to the whole idea of generative sequencing, might there be more advanced (but hopefully free) versions of the general idea that might function as FL Studio plug-ins?
Also, is anyone working on a three-dimensional version? What about a four-dimensional version that can send pulsing sawtooth waves back into the past in an evolving, ever-recursive wave that threatens to tear apart the multiverse?
posted by infinitywaltz at 8:10 PM on April 16, 2011 [2 favorites]
Also, is anyone working on a three-dimensional version? What about a four-dimensional version that can send pulsing sawtooth waves back into the past in an evolving, ever-recursive wave that threatens to tear apart the multiverse?
posted by infinitywaltz at 8:10 PM on April 16, 2011 [2 favorites]
But...just before I hit POST, someone mentioned Thelonious Sphere Monk in connection with this. ARGGHHH: you just harshed my carefully honed mellow!
I live to serve.
posted by brennen at 9:17 PM on April 16, 2011
I live to serve.
posted by brennen at 9:17 PM on April 16, 2011
This is awesome.
I'd love to post what I have, but it's still a work in progress. I'm trying to get a harmony that devolves into chaos for a while and then reforms. But It always reaches a steady state.
Maybe I'm behind the curve, but I think it might have something to do with putting an up element in the lower right corner, and another up element 4 blocks above it. It seems to turn into a tornado of sound. It twirls left but will eventually find balance. I'm almost to the point I think it can be mathmatically proven.
Anyway, here's what I have. Make it sound better, please.
posted by chemoboy at 12:14 AM on April 17, 2011
I'd love to post what I have, but it's still a work in progress. I'm trying to get a harmony that devolves into chaos for a while and then reforms. But It always reaches a steady state.
Maybe I'm behind the curve, but I think it might have something to do with putting an up element in the lower right corner, and another up element 4 blocks above it. It seems to turn into a tornado of sound. It twirls left but will eventually find balance. I'm almost to the point I think it can be mathmatically proven.
Anyway, here's what I have. Make it sound better, please.
posted by chemoboy at 12:14 AM on April 17, 2011
I like the teetering on the point of falling nature of the output Just need to work out how to repurpose it ...
Hmm, ringtone ...
posted by fallingbadgers at 2:15 AM on April 17, 2011
Hmm, ringtone ...
posted by fallingbadgers at 2:15 AM on April 17, 2011
Technically it's based off of Phrygian mode without a 7th scale step.
Ah, there are more tones in there than my fiddling originally found. I'd argue that it's more like F major minus a G (with that prominent F major triad on top), but the nice thing about it is that the sense of tonic changes depending on the patterns being played.
posted by speicus at 8:44 AM on April 17, 2011
Ah, there are more tones in there than my fiddling originally found. I'd argue that it's more like F major minus a G (with that prominent F major triad on top), but the nice thing about it is that the sense of tonic changes depending on the patterns being played.
posted by speicus at 8:44 AM on April 17, 2011
Also it's remarkably how every single thing people have posted here sounds the same. I guess it's all the same samples, timing, scale, etc? Has anyone made something that sounds different? It'd be neat if there was a way to glitch it to get some bending.
posted by Nelson at 9:59 AM on April 17, 2011
posted by Nelson at 9:59 AM on April 17, 2011
My Album:
Intro.
Big sound, little sound.
Order, Chaos, Order.
Outre.
Fun Fun Fun.
Johnny Appleseed.
Stairs Ants Stairs.
Fat Ninja.
Ankh.
Outtro.
posted by Monkey0nCrack at 2:05 PM on April 17, 2011 [1 favorite]
Intro.
Big sound, little sound.
Order, Chaos, Order.
Outre.
Fun Fun Fun.
Johnny Appleseed.
Stairs Ants Stairs.
Fat Ninja.
Ankh.
Outtro.
posted by Monkey0nCrack at 2:05 PM on April 17, 2011 [1 favorite]
Cool mechanic, but boy am I tired of every single music webtoy using the pentatonic scale + digital delay.
OK, I decided to shake it up a bit (don't click yet if you're running Safari, see notes below).
Same basic automata mechanic, but with a twist on the triggered behavior. And no delay, definitely not just a pentatonic scale. :)
Requires Java. If you're using Safari, it may crash your browser (it crashes Safari 4 on my MacBookPro running 10.5.8 for no reason I can figure at the moment). Works fine for me using Firefox 3.6 and Chrome 10, but I'd appreciate any crash/bug reports, particularly since I haven't tried this on Windows or Linux.
posted by weston at 6:00 AM on April 27, 2011
OK, I decided to shake it up a bit (don't click yet if you're running Safari, see notes below).
Same basic automata mechanic, but with a twist on the triggered behavior. And no delay, definitely not just a pentatonic scale. :)
Requires Java. If you're using Safari, it may crash your browser (it crashes Safari 4 on my MacBookPro running 10.5.8 for no reason I can figure at the moment). Works fine for me using Firefox 3.6 and Chrome 10, but I'd appreciate any crash/bug reports, particularly since I haven't tried this on Windows or Linux.
posted by weston at 6:00 AM on April 27, 2011
(Quick follow up to my comment above, I nixed the Safari bug and did some limited Windows testing on XP, should work in IE8, maybe 7, probably not so much in 6, but the audio timing may be a little off.)
posted by weston at 2:57 PM on May 9, 2011
posted by weston at 2:57 PM on May 9, 2011
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posted by CitoyenK at 4:28 PM on April 16, 2011