Rocketboom Tech’s Ellie Rountree explains generative music and talks to laptop musician Luke Dubois about his work in this medium.

It’s not a very clear take on generative music, but it’s interesting to see this covered in (relatively) mainstream Internet media.

via ROCKETBOOM:

This episode was made in collaboration with Intel!

Generative Art
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generati…

Luke DuBois
http://lukedubois.com

For more information on this episode visit: http://rocketboom.com/generative-art

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Imaginary Landscapes is a profile of visionary composer, artist and producer Brian Eno. It brings into focus Eno’s seemingly disparate work in sound, vision and light, and explores his music in visual terms, based on landscapes and images that have shaped his life as an artist.

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).

Darker in tone, Trope immerses users in endlessly evolving soundscapes created by tracing abstract shapes onto the screen, varying the tone with each movement. Recommended for headphones and external speakers.

“Trope is a different emotional experience from Bloom – more introspective, more atmospheric,” explains Eno. “It shows that generative music, as one of the newest forms of sonema, can draw on a broad palette of moods.”

Trope is available for $3.99 in the iTunes App store.

Air

The iPhone music app was created by musician / software designer Peter Chilvers and Irish vocalist Sandra O’Neill. Based on concepts developed by Brian Eno, with whom Chilvers created Bloom, Air assembles vocal and piano samples into an ever changing composition, which will be familiar, but never the same.

Brian Eno’s Air

Air features four “Conduct” modes, which let the user control the composition by tapping different areas on the display, and three “Listen” modes, which provide a choice of arrangement.

For those fortunate enough to have access to multiple iPhones and speakers, an option has been provided to spread the composition over several players. Recommended for headphones and external speakers.

At $1.99, Air was a instant purchase at Synthtopia.

If you give it a try, let me know what you think of it!

This is a demo of a Peggy 2.0 based giant LED system, which can be used to play old-school video games, or make generative music!

Details below.

via SenorBon:

We built a giant LED board, about 6.5×6.5 feet, with 900 LEDs using ping-pong balls as diffusers.

It can play Conway’s Game of Life, Pong, and Sketch mode that allows you to create a starting pattern for Life. We output board state information to a MIDI board that allows us to make music based on what is displayed. This gets interesting with Life, creating minimalist generative music.

See pictures here.

Thanks to Evil Mad Scientists for their Peggy 2.0, upon which we based the circuit for our project.

This video documents Generative Music ProtoType, an “implementation of Brian Eno”, or at least a generative music sequencer, created in Max/MSP.

Part 2 below.

Click here to view the embedded video.

via kinksaiz

Brian Green is creating generative music in Ableton Live using sounds shared on Twitter as source material, and is looking for other musical techies to connect with on Twitter:

What i did in the video is i took the amazing software by soundplusdesign and i made a sound, i then went to the soundplusdesign twitter and another person i follow Ojects and i used a sound from each of them, i then used my generative set up with ableton and put each of the three sounds into a chain and started to mix them up together.

I have to be honest i was recently thinking of deleting my twitter i realized how its really not that usefull to me but i thought before i get rid of it lets try this tweet a sound thing out and im glad i have it now.

THE PLAN: so this is what i want to do im going to keep making videos of this little project, but what i want you all to do even if you don’t make electronic music, even if you dont make any kind of music download this program and mess around with it post some tweets of what you make.

Basically i want to follow a bunch of people who do use this and keep messing around with sounds we all create and make little videos and tracks such as the one below. Follow me and post a link to your twitter in the comments section of this page if you are doing this i will also post a little list of people who are tweeting sound as well as i come across them.

Details on Tweet A Sound here.

This is a quick demo fo Star Melody for iPhone (App Store link).

Star Melody is a generative sequencer and recorder, created by Amidio, the developers of Noise.io Pro:

We liked the Bloom concept but found it somewhat limited. That’s why we decided to expand it as much as we could.

Now you have 5 different sample sets. Each sample set consists of 2 playable instuments and a background drone layer (generated automatically).

You can define the length and speed (bpm) of the loop. Switch between the instruments with a finger flick/tap. Change note scales and actually see which notes you are playing. Transpose scales if needed.

Star Melody features the “Raindrop Matrix”, which allows accurate panning position of your instruments (left and right), and precise note launch.

Details below.

Star Melody at a glance:

• 16×11 multicolor “Raindrop Matrix”
• Spatial sequencing
• 13 transposable scales
• 15 instruments (5*3)
• Variable tempo, speed
• Record voice along with playing
• Built-in help

Advanced features:

• Record, play from library
• Export to .WAV/.CAF
• Direct export to Intua Beatmaker
• Built-in Wi-Fi server
• Upload own .wav loops to ioLibrary
• Cross-compatible with other Amidio apps
  (Star Guitar, Star Piano, Noise.io)

This is organofqwerty’s first attempt at a Tiction piece, triggering various instruments in Ableton Live 8.

About Tiction:

Tiction is a nodal music sequencer.

Each node represents an event, and a connection from one node to the next triggers the next event after a certain number of tics. Nodes send MIDI note messages and/or MIDI controller change messages when triggered. Connecting nodes in a circuit lets you start a repeating pattern when one of the nodes is triggered.

A node can change its pitch and controller values based on its position on the screen. When a node is triggered, it performs some physical action: either repelling or attracting other nearby nodes, or nudging itself in a random direction. The physical interaction between nodes allows you to construct complex, rhythmic melodies and effects without having to draw filter envelopes or touch a traditional sequencer.

It’s available as a free download for Mac, Windows & Linux.

Nodal, a generative music application, has been updated to run on both Mac and Windows.

The video above features a live performance of music created using Nodal 1.1 by Peter Mcilwain.

Nodal uses a novel method for the notation and playing of MIDI based music. This method is based around the concept of a user-defined graph. The graph consists of nodes (musical events) and edges (connections between events). You interactively define the graph, which is then traversed by any number of players who play the musical events as they encounter them on the graph. The time taken to travel from one node to another is based on the length of the edges that connect the nodes.

Version 1.1 beta version of Nodal is now available for download. It’s free, but future versions will require a registration fee. Details below.

If you’ve used Nodal, leave a comment with your thoughts!

Nodal Version 1.1

This version includes a number of enhancements and bug fixes over the previous 1.0 release. These include:

• Nodal is now cross-platform, working on both Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows platforms
• Nodal files can be freely interchanged between operating systems
• a redesigned user interface
• new keyboard shortcuts, including the use of the spacebar to start and stop playback
• Direct access to internal MIDI synths (Windows version only) so no external MIDI synth software is required.

The developers have received additional funding to continue the development of Nodal as a cross-platform generative composition tool. The current versions are free, but will expire on the 24th September 2009. Beyond that, they plan on charging a fee to purchase the updated version of the software. Fees collected will go back into further developments of the software. Updated versions will include technical support, a more detailed manual and tutorial guides.

Eric Archer has come up with a new music sequencer based on the Fibonacci sequence.

Here are the details behind it:

Fans of the Golden Ratio know that it is built-in to the Fibonacci Sequence, being the ratio of S(n)/S(n-1) when n is very large.

But lets make it more complicated.

The Lagged Fibonacci Generator is a generalized version that looks at a wider “history window”; instead of the two previous numbers, it lets you go back farther in the list with parameters j and k.

S(n) = S(n-j) + S(n-k)

These numbers are limited to whatever bit depth you choose to represent them. Whenever the addition generates a “carry”, it rolls over at zero again and outputs a carry flag. For example, if you’re using 8 bits, the m value is 2^8, or 256. What happens then is magic because instead of an ever-increasing string of numbers, you get a set of numbers that hop around back and forth between zero and m. The complexity of the sequence grows rapidly with larger j and k values, but its never random or chaotic.

Here’s the details on Archer’s demo video, above:

Here is an excerpt from my unreleased videotape “Thirteen Meditations on the Meaning of the Tao”.

The patterns are synthesized with a Lagged Fibonacci Generator (LFG) circuit built with discrete logic chips (CD4000 CMOS). The LFG is an algorithm sometimes used in cryptography to generate encryption keys.

I’m exploring it as a pattern generator for algorithmic art and music.

Although cryptographers like the LFG because its output is similar to white noise, I find that through creative electronic filtering, the intricate details of its cyclic patterns become visible, and we can appreciate the details.

Digital patterns from the LFG are converted to two analog outputs with separate hardware of my design. These analog waveforms were processed through an Electrix Filter Queen resonant filter, and visualized on a high resolution Tektronix X-Y monitor. The video was recorded to VHS with a camera pointed at the screen. The audio was recorded directly, and contains the same waveforms being displayed.

via EA78751, Make

Adrian Johnson’s Nano (App Store link) is an $.99 iPhone game for relaxation that combines artistic interactive visuals with ambient music. 

Johnson explains how Nano works:

I enjoy watching fish. I tend to work too much, and watching fish when I have the chance helps me unwind. There’s something meditative about moving one’s hand in front of the aquarium and getting the fish to school with you. 

In NANO the gameplay mechanic is akin to moving your hand in front of the aquarium glass. One manipulates the flow of particles by changing the electromagnetic field depicted by the gray lines. Different particle types have different masses and interact with the field at different speeds. Ultimately one wants to activate the spherical Assembler nodes by guiding benign particles to them and keeping malign particles from them. When all nodes are activated, the level is completed. In each level there are either two or three nodes.

If you’ve used Nano, leave a comment with your thoughts!

via Adrian Johnson in the comments.

Aura (App Store link) is a $.99 interactive ambient music generator for the iPhone/iPod touch. It lets you sit back and listen or create your own music by using touch and motion.

Check out the video above for a demo of Aura.

If you’ve used Aura, leave a comment below and let us know what you think!

LISTEN MODE

• Aura generates an endless soothing audio and visual experience.
• Seamlessly morphing and evolving.

CREATE MODE

• With Aura anyone can create original melodies by touching the screen.
• Each sound is controlled through pitch, loop length and decay, meaning your music constantly evolves as you dream of new ideas.
• Control the background harmonies or let them evolve independently.

Raymond May, Jr’s MIDI Game of Life sequencer is a free music sequencer made in the JAVA visual arts IDE and library Processing.

It runs a loop of varying lengths selected by the user through the game of life algorithm.  Each cell of the grid represents a pitch.  In the current implementation, like colors are the same pitch – cells’ octave can be scaled along the y axis.

This is well suited for generating drum sequences or melodic material on the fly.  The sequencer runs live and can be played as an instrument by drawing new cells while the game is running.

MIDI Game of Life is based on the original code by Ruin Wesen and makes use of their RWmidi JAVA/Processing library.

Download at May’s site

 The creators of the ”mind twisting hearing sensation RjDj” have released a new version of the app that promises to be trippier than ever, RjDj shake (App Store link). 

The video above capturs the Strike scene, demo’d by the author, Amaury Hazan.

Note: the RjDJ warns: PLEASE TAKE CARE, DON’T HURT ANYONE AND DON’T SMASH YOUR DEVICE!

Description:

You might be used to move to the music, but this time it is different: in seven different RjDj scenes your moves create or influence the music you hear.

Shake works on Iphone and Ipod touch. It is the second RjDj release after the RjDj album.

RjDj brings a new twist to walkmans or mp3 players. The music you hear is reactive. Some scenes need certain, sometimes wild, movements of your device to get specific musical reactions. -PLEASE TAKE CARE, DON’T HURT ANYONE AND DON’T SMASH YOUR DEVICE- Other scenes sound best when you dance or walk and others sound best when you twist and tilt you device slowly. In any case, we hope you will enjoy the RjDj mind twisting hearing sensation.

Shake features the following scenes: Amenshake by Roman Haefeli Meno and Satseauxmann by Moodbungalow MyFantasyGame.com by Christian Haudej Scrambler by Paul Brossier Strike by Amaury Hazan Urmawi by Frank Barknecht RjDj affects the perception of your reality. It is the soundtrack to your life.