Nervous Squirrel has introduced a new Eurorack module, Conway’s Game, that uses the classic Game Of Life to create evolving musical trigger sequences.
Conway’s Game is a cellular automaton pattern generator that also functions as a MIDI to trigger converter. John Horton Conway’s “Game of Life” algorithm is generated and displayed on an 8×8 LED matrix, with the activity of the cells mapped to the 64 outputs below.
The MIDI input can also be used to control 64 separate trigger outputs.
About Conway’s Game of Life
If you’re not familiar with Conway’s Game of Life, it uses a simple set of rules to create infinitely evolving patterns.
Imagine a grid of cells, each of which can be in two states, either alive or dead. The following rules determine what happens to each cell, depending on the state of neighboring cells.
For each step in time:
- Any live cell with fewer than two live neighbours dies, as if caused by underpopulation.
- Any live cell with two or three live neighbours lives on to the next generation.
- (Any live cell with more than three live neighbours dies, as if by overpopulation.
- Any dead cell with exactly three live neighbours becomes a live cell, as if by reproduction.
The generated patterns can then be used as an interesting source of triggers, which can be used to sequence drums, envelope generators, or any other modules with trigger or gate inputs.
Pricing and Availability
Conway’s Game is available now for £420.00 GBP.
via CDM
Well, a hardware version of Native Instruments NewScool, twenty years after the fact. How utterly exciting.
can’t wait for the Mandlebrot VST. *eye roll*
what other silly synthesis techniques will the coming year bring?
really sucks that you are forced to buy this product. oh wait! you literally do not have 2
This isn’t a synthesis technique. It is a method of procedurally generating gates. It also not new, cellular automata have been used in generative compositing since the 90’s.
To each their own. Whatever makes you c**e really.
Why is everyone on this thread being so negative? I think systems that have chaotic or fractal properties are very useful for sequencing… Also, just cos an idea isn’t new Disney mean it’s not good. Diatonic scales have been around for a while and they’re still useful