generative music

Audio Damage’s Chris Randall joined the iPhone Cock Fest today, introducing Plinkton (App Store link), a generative ambient music app, released under the Naughty Panther moniker.

Naughty Panther describes Plinkton as an application that lets you “create a rhythmic groove over a bed of smooth ambiance.”

Plinkton is less Kenny G, though, and more ambient Pong.

The app lets you select from three background tracks and 4 “plinkton sounds”. The “plinkton” moves around the screen, triggering sounds as it bounces off the edges of the screen.

Plinkton can also act as an OSC sender, letting you use it to trigger other apps.

Plinkton sells for $.99.

This video looks at using Sounder to create generative music in Ableton Live.

Sounder is a $20 visual application for Windows designed for making ambient music environments. More info is available here.

via jackrealdrummer

Sunday Synth Jam: This is a semi-autonomous synth jam, via Eric Archer:

I’d like to make music free of the cliched compositional motifs I’ve picked up from years of listening to pop tunes in America. Still, I grew up in the 1980s, and the sonic qualities of electro/new wave/industrial are dear to me.

Entertain the notion of playing an “automatic composing machine” that can synthesize sounds like this. The system in this video was built between 2007-09, using 1970’s and 80’s technology. Its analog sounds are controlled by digital algorithms that generate rhythm and melody.

When playing it, my role is to set the tuning, sculpt the tones, and create flow by switching elements in and out of the mix.

Brian Eno has had a career as producer, musician, sonic innovator and experimental artist that spans four decades.

He’s produced, arguably, the most important recordings by U2, Talking Heads, David Bowie, Robert Fripp, Devo and others. He also pioneered the genre of “ambient music.” More recently, Eno’s helped create “sonic-art” app Bloom and the video game Spore.

Eno sat down with Minnesota Public Radio’s Steve Seel to discuss the recording studio as canvas, the idea of discovery and risk in music making, as well as his recent reunion with longtime collaborator David Byrne. The interview includes a discussion of Eno’s forays into “generative music,” his concept of composer as gardener, and his ongoing interest in the idea of surrender in music.

Ableton Live 8: This video demos a Max For Live “Game Of Life” interactive cellular automata note pattern generator.

Code available at 2rem (.zip).