The sync issues were why I was trying to stay away from muxes etc. I thought a single clock to time everything and nodes that only needed a single connection to work. For the moment I think I’ll stick with 4 notes until I get all the logic worked out. If necessary I could then make an 8 note unit etc.
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The hack for that, I think, is to use a sample and hold on the synth voice’s 1/oct input triggered by it’s gate. You won’t get legato note changes, but you also won’t get changes in pitch during the decay.
Anywho, I made a router for this type of aleatoric composition I’m calling “the snake.” Snake Sequence Router.audulus (97.9 KB)
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I do not have Audulus but will get it when V4 is released.
I have not followed the discussion very well but it seems interesting enough. I like midi fx and midi generative improvisation. Is this similar to Scale Player, MIDI Processor plug-in for Mac & Windows. By RF Music. https://www.kvraudio.com/product/scale-player-by-rf-music There is a free lite version of it available in a recent Computer Music Magazine.
Am I way off base? Sorry if so. Let me know.
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I would like some more information on what’s going on here for the rest of us idiots. How is the pattern being decided? What is the purpose of the 3 different 4x4’s?
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Sorry, the module posted in this thread was just kind of a sketch. The idea is to have to clock pulse trigger a bunch of different sequencers a little bit out of phase. It might make more sense if you check out the software the video was using – http://nodalmusic.com/
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@RobertSyrett I think you’ll like this. I fine tuned the single shot sequencers. I used a quad node to simplify the wiring. Each unit has an input and an optional loop. There is a start module to kick things off. The minimum number of units to loop is 2 because each unit needs one clock to reset. If you want 4 or less steps use two units and simply set the unneeded steps to zero counts. The 1 per octave output of each unit goes to zero when the unit is inactive so they and the gates can be added to drive a single oscillator. I built an external input unit in case you wanted to switch chords or other values, an alternating switch (flip-flop), a 4 node demux, and a random switch. The demo uses several different oscillator types (I love that mixed unit you came up with), and has loops, single paths, random switches etc. The tune leaves something to be desired, but I was really more concerned with the building blocks. I know you’ll be able to do something wonderful with the units. For a long delay use an inline unit(s) with the step count set to a high value. I haven’t come up with a reliable stop module because of the feedback delays, but the reset stops everything. Press the start button to start the sequence.
Single shot sequencer V1.1.audulus (2.6 MB)
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Crazy! So all those sequences are triggering each other in different ways in a feedback? It’s gonna take me a little while to reverse engineer that, but I’d love to give it a go.
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It’s actually not too complex. The “chain” output of each sequencer can trigger the input of the next unit in line. You can loop them back, feed them to another unit, a demux, flip-flop, random etc. Each unit or group of units (if you add the o and g outputs together) can drive some kind of sound. The conga units are just using the gate outputs, but rather than adding the two chained units outputs together, I used then separately to drive two congas. The demux drives four different bells depending on the current setting and whether the random switch passes the start signal.
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Using Audulus to control samples like pianos over MIDI has been a DREAM of mine for a long time. I did one way back in Audulus 2 days where I used a sine oscillator and pitch detection in Ableton to create an algorithmically generated piece - it was charming the ways the pitch detection got it wrong.
I think what this illustrates is just how closely real composition hews to algorithms. If I have this chord in this key then (usually) only this certain set of chords will sound good after it. If we trained by ear, we just know this naturally without being cognizant of the underlying algorithm that is our societal music norms.
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Audulus 4 might not be released until next year. You still have plenty of time and usefulness to get a lot out of 3!
I was hopping for the Spring or Summer release.
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That’s not going to happen - we still have a lot of work left to do for Audulus 3, including implementing AUv3 and MIDI out.
If it comes out before the end of the year, it will be a miracle. Taylor is working on another app right now that takes up a lot of his time, so once he gets that one in a good place, he’ll start on Audulus 4 dev.
@biminiroad The reason I added the external input unit is so I can easily sequence some chords as well as melodic lines. I’m pretty pleased with the way these turned out, and I’m looking forward to trying to put together something more engaging. The current demo was slapped together without too much care as far as the actual musical output was concerned, as I was more interested in getting the modules to interact properly. @RobertSyrett has quite a flair for this sort of composition and I’m sure he can come up with something more harmonious
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Yeah I’ve been digging the background music in the patch tutorial videos he makes!
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I think its the other way around, we developed algorithms to describe what was happening intuitively with creative composition. Still it is remarkable how close you can get to random and remain within musically accessible so long as you are also repetitive and diatonic.
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I disagree, but maybe it’s just semantics - the algorithms are present in the intuition, which is culturally shaped as well. The algorithms we create to describe what is there are just abstractions of the actual algorithms that are present there. It’s why music theory is a bit like physics - it both describes what’s there already, and predicts what’s possible.
Giant Steps by Coltrane is a great example of this. He didn’t intuit the chord progressions, but used the algorithm of the Circle of Fifths to guide his composition, finding new amazing music that was hidden there within the structures that naturally evolved.
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Giant steps’ motif can actually be fount in the pages of “Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns”, a copy of which Coltrane was rarely without according to Quincy Jones.
I think we are having one of those conversations where we are saying more or less the same thing, but disagreeing somehow. To me, the algorithm is a set of instructions, so naive compositions get an exemption from being described as algorithmic. But this is very much like the old zen koan: Two monks are arguing if it is the flag that is moving or if it is the wind which is moving, so they go to the master and he tells his students, “Neither, it is your minds that are moving.”
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Sure, so the set of instructions for intuitive composition might start with the scale, then go to measure and beat counting, and so on.
It’s the same way in your other post about the Golden Ratio - it’s not like the plants are following the formula, but the formula describes it. And yet the formula does exist in the world in this abstract way.
What I mean in particular about algorithms is the set of “rules” your brain gets fed when thinking about what is possible in music. When you hear a “wrong” note, you hear it as wrong because even if you’re not trained in music, you have these socially-indoctrinated algorithms for what is and is not appropriate in music, similar to how you can tell when someone uses a wrong word from the context of the conversation or the culture.
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Definition of a philosopher; or, how one does philosophy
See phi·los·o·phy - fəˈläsəfē - In the end, full agreement is not preferred.
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One thing I really like about long drives are podcasts. I can’t always sit at home and listen, but on the road I love them. So I figured I would post a link to these, as some of you might also appreciate being in a situation where you have no choice but to listen to a radio program for an hour.
@robertsyrett posted a video interview on another thread from Why We Bleep: Episode 4, which was really entertaining.
However, Episode 1 concerns the subject in question on this thread about “socially-indoctrinated algorithms” and the like, so I decided to post a link to it on this thread.
Here is the discussion with Tom Whitwell, creator of the Turing Machine, if anyone hasn’t already listened to it.
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