Lavalamp as MIDI controller…

via hotchk155:

6 voltage-dividing pairs of light dependent resistors arranged round a standard lavalamp and read by analog inputs of Muduino (arduino clone) to generate semi-random streams of MIDI continuous controller messagesMIDI controllers then mapped to various controls in Propellerheads Reason.. just to see what happens really… Result is rather addictive and hypnotic… turn up the speakers, watch the lamp, turn into a zombie

This video captures a demo of Arvo Pärt style Max/MSP algorithmic composition.

via akihikotube

Automatic Drone Machine – a modular synth patch via dougcl.

Patch details:

Eurorack modular synthesizer generating a random selection of drones. The main sound is a Cwejman VCO-2RM sine ring modded with a Blacet Miniwave. The “percussion” part is the same audio further ring modded with a PlanB M15 sine wave, or a Cwejman VCO-6 ring modded with a Doepfer A-117 (selected by a Doepfer A-134-2 crossfader at random) then passing through the Makenoise QMMG low pass gate. The pitch control of all the VCOs is shared and selected via Doepfer A-148 sample and hold

via isopod: Brent talks about the mystery of self-programming synths – the fact that old batteries sometimes lead to synth patches that are actually pretty cool.

A lot of people take an Eno-esque view – that the quirky results can lead to something more interesting than you might program yourself, or at least provide an interesting starting point.

Many TB-303 owners find that they get interesting random sequences, too, when their batteries get old.

Have you ever had this happen with one of your synths? And do you think synths should come with a “Randomize Patch” button?

JeffreyPlaide’s Non Objective Variable Noesis is an exercise in random and improvised structures:

This musical piece explores alternate textures and combinations.

Using the TS-404 software synthesizer, various short improvised melody lines were created with multiple step sequences and doubled with stereo echo, flanging and chorus effects. The improvised simple lines were looped to produce combinational polyrhythms.

The bassline was created on a Korg R3 synthesizer. The composition concludes with randomised textures and heavy reverberation ending with a slowed down version of the original melody. The piece is to be appreciated on an intellectual level as the direction of the music is based on structure rather than harmony, creating unusual rhythms.

The visuals are from a variety of expressive television sources superimposed together with colour channel mixing effects to create a psychedelic effect. Overlayed with this are modulated geometric animations to create visual rhythms.

The Game of Life Sequencer Bank is based on a game of life sequencer screencast produced by Wesen in 2008. It is a bank of 6 step or drum sequencers that generate patterns based on the basics of Conway’s Game of Life cellular automaton. Each sequencer operates independently of the others, and can be configured in a variety of ways.

The Game of Life Sequencer Bank is written in Java using the Processing, controlP5 and a customized RWMidi library. It should work wherever Java 1.5 is available (Windows, OS X, Linux), though it has only been tested in Windows and Linux.

The Game Of Life Sequencer is a free download.

This video demostrates randomizing Synthesizers.com Q960 Sequencer sequences.

Patch details below.

via davidryle:

Randomizing the timing to the Synthesizers.com Q960 step sequencer by using a Noise Generator into a Sample & Hold then the output voltage to an Instrument Interface module. Tweak it just right and you get a random gate pulse for the shift input on the Q960 sequencer.

This track also uses the Pan module to give a stereo ping pong effect from two separate oscillator, filter, envelope and amplifier voices. Two hard synchronized LFO’s sculpted the filter even more for a tighter pulse sound. A Ring modulator and tuning the oscillator voices in octaves gave a variety to the voices. The Trigger bus module gave accent selection on one filter voice. All modules are Arrick Robotics synthesizers.com. The reverb is a Lexicon MX200.

This is a demo video of Sebastian Tomczak’s Toritron Water Instrument, played by the wind – almost like an electronic wind chime synth.

Need a little bit of aleatoric weirdness in your music?

Illuminated Sounds has released Random7, a free random MIDI generating program created with MAX/MSP:

I created this fun little application I’m calling Random7.  It is basically a 8 step sequencer that outputs midi by randomly selecting from the 7 notes in the various scales pictured above, and also randomly selects the velocity of each of the notes.

The layout is very simple, the drop down menu lets you select your scale, noteout lets you choose your midi i/o, the start/stop button does just that, the knob adjusts speed, and you can click on any of the red spots to trigger a note manually.  It produces great background music, I like to have it trigger one of my piano soft synths in Ableton via midi yoke.

Now this is my first program written in MAX so it might not be the most effient app yet, but I do plan on digging back into it later on, so if you have any feedback it would be much appreciated.  Also I am new to the building an application process in MAX, so I believe this version will only work on windows systems.  I’ll be posting the Mac version as soon as I figure out how to make it.  Enjoy.

You can preview a track made with Random 7 below. Details on Random7 are available here.

Cut-up text

It was used notably by William S. Burroughs in the late 60’s and early 70’s, and influenced the work of David Bowie, Curt Cobain and others. More recently, cut-up text has been used by email spammers to create text that will get around spam filters. Because of the huge volume of spam that is generated, some interesting examples have emerged, which are called “spamoetry.”

Here’s an example:

Then, from sea to shining sea, the God-King sang the praises of teflon, and with his face to the sunshine, he churned lots of butter.

The Cutup Engine cuts up text and makes something different out of the pieces. You can provide the text directly, or URLs of things on the web.

Here’s a randomized chunk of a recent Synthtopia article:

more occupied the time, including DJs, as the one we DJs, promoters and camera men doing it, but in pretend to the head in promoters and with her dancing two CDs, and she was when she involved in any kind crowd that she was really DJ, when she just acting. to get in fact the movements the mixer to pretend the DJ box at the use in the movements to get involved the time, including DJs, promoters in the DJ box at DJs, promoters and camera set from one or two music set from one or her dancing movements real, just acting.

an already pre-mixed music at the time, including she was faking the movements of beat-matching or mixing. for real, just acting.” she was really any kind mixing the from a tiny CD wallet as the one and was just movements to get we use box at the and was just making purely a fraud. 

via strangeattractor

The software works as a composer instead of a tool for composing. Users can create the basic part of a song by developing the motive which allows a key shift in the phrase. In other words, the program will bring the inspiration to the user. The software is available in three versions: Basic (free), Standard and Professional, for Windows OS.

LvB’s X simplifies creation by providing a simple graphical interface to be used by those with no prior knowledge or understanding of how to make music with a computer. Essentially, LvB’s X is designed to obtain a well-balanced relationship between musical regularities and irregularities. Every note of every instrument, except the drums, has its own sample – there is no musical predetermination as loop-based samples.

Pricing & Availability

The Basic version of LvB’s X is free and available immediately as a download at www.lvbsx.com. The Standard version ($99.95, shipping included) is available for download with software and printed user manual sent to customers via mail. The Professional version ($249.95) offers a special program for educational professionals ($49.95).

System Requirements

LvB’s X requires a Windows (XP, 2000, 2003) based OS, sound capability, at least 99MB/690MB of free disk space for Basic/Professional version installation and minimal graphics resolution of 1024 x 860 pixels.

More information and a demo are available at the LVBSX site.

The theme this year is Singing Robots. Pavarobotti may hit the high C’s, but hasn’t found a place yet in any of the tenor supergroups yet. GTRBOT666 (shown in photo at right) and his robotic bandmates may know how to rock, but even they still use a human vocalist. Cyndustries hopes to change all that!

Listeners from all across the web will vote for their favorite aleatoric pieces, and the top three winners will receive a half-off discount coupon on any Cynthia brand synthesizer module! In addition, the first place winner will win the highly coveted and prestigious new BUG MUSIC Award Trophy for their mantel or trophy case!

Aleatoric Music: Music in which either composition or method of performance is determined by elements of chance or unpredictability. Terms such as chance music, indeterminate music, or aleatoric music are applied to many works written after World War II, the pioneers being Cage, Lutoslawski, Stockhausen, and Xenakis, each of whom approached the technique in his own way.

Cyndustries’ Cynthia Webster notes “It’s time, once again, to harvest the mystically marvelous power of those synths you’ve got and put them to use making strange and haunting tunes that are wacky, alien, and totally obtuse!” Can’t argue with that, can you?

The 2004 Aleatoric Music Contest entries are available for download as MP3 files.

Contest Rules

• All entries must be no longer than exactly 3 minutes in length.
• Equipment wise, anything goes! Analog or Digital, Softsynth or Hardware!
• Cyndustries has the right to reject any material deemed offensive.
• 3. Only those who own the rights to the music may submit their music and in the interest of a clear playing field for all, we ask that the submitted piece must be originated with this contest in mind, (please do not submit any masterpieces that you have previously labored on for many months or years).

The deadline for entries is February 12th. Voting will commence immediately on the 13th.

Visit the Cyndustries site for more information and to enter the contest.