new thing

i've been using a new method and i'm starting to kinda get it under control. maybe.

correct me if i'm wrong but the melodies in this were atonal, no? and the beat was disjointed. i don't know if i would get really excited about listening to this. as i've said before i like for single tracks to be feature presentations. this track was kinda novel but it didn't leave me with any lasting impression. i do like the atonality of it though. an example of atonality (again someone enlighten me if i apparently don't know what that term means) that i like better would be left blank from autechre's ep7 (in the second half of the track.) maybe you'll end up making something like that in the future, but if you don't that's cool too, you gotta follow your bliss.

ya weird for sure. I'd dig a shift to bring it all into focus a bit more.

I can see this as an experiment though.

What's this new method you speak of?

welllllll... i wrote a program that generates all the sequencing. the program is pretty much done and functional, but there are lots of bugs to fix and features to add. in theory, it can be as generative or as non-generative as you like, depending how you set things up. i'm still learning how to use it.

as for antonality... :undecided: i'm no expert either. if i had to guess though, i'd say no. all the tones used: 50hz, 100hz, 200hz, 400hz, 800hz, 800hz minus 2 semitones, 800hz minus 4 semitones, 800hz minus 8 semitones. i made them in soundforge with the simple synthesis thingy, so that's why i describe them in hz and semitones. :P

thanks for the comments!

here's a slower, more reigned-in version of the above, for example. i turned one of the sections off. i also didn't pay any attention to the mix or throw effects onto this one.

I actually enjoyed listening to this generative music, how it goes with the flow. Not much concentrating @ the musical part. Nice algorithm you are developing, keep the geeqness up! ; )

I'm glad you told us it was algorhythmic composition - otherwise... woah. Anyway, us humans are safe for now!

What I listen for in music is heart, emotion, architecture, soul, coolness, logic, surprise, drama, etc... and here, it doesn't sound organized at all. I don't hear any work, any sweat, any taste, decisions, ideas, ... but then I realize that's all in the algorhythm. OK, cool, I like that, but it's not pleasant to listen to.

Vodor, do you like it?

i wouldn't say that i like it. not in itself. i think in itself, it just sounds "cool," and i do find it structurally interesting. it's more of a proof-of-concept though. i like what it is and what it represents. it basically means that my program works as i expect and that it's a suitable tool for making music. which means i can cuddle up with it more intimately at some point in the future to hopefully do something truly musical.

so i think you're entirely right. i didn't spend much time on it, honestly. the drums are all presets, and the tones were kept intentionally simple (as bare as it gets, really). the model used to generate the sequencing was quite simple and ad hoc as well. i'm still kinda just testing and polishing and retesting the tool, and am saving the serious music-making for later.

so i guess it is pretty self-indulgent at this point :P it was the first almost-track-like thing that it spat out, and i was excited and had to tell the world! i might've prefaced with all of this, but i don't like to contribute to preconceptions. if i say it's crap or hastily made, it takes away from the opportunity for others to think otherwise. :)

So this was all done with samples or did you also write a synth in there? Parts of it sound pretty usable already, good job.

it's all samples at the moment, though i guess the simple saw waves i generated in soundforge would be very easy to code myself. i plan on adding stuff like that in the future!

Are you planning to do complete tracks with just this software, or where are you going with this? Would be nice if it had some internal FX. And reverb, you gots to have more REVERB!

yeah, i do love reverb. :( i'm not sure if i'm hardcore enough to code stuff like that. i'm sure i could learn, but i don't know if i'd want to spend the time on it.

i sooorta plan on doing complete tracks. currently, it can output each instrument in its own track, so i can use other tools to add effects, edit, and mix. does that count as complete? :)

it also can't play live worth arse, which would be really nice. the rendering process is quite cpu intensive; any moderately complex model takes longer to render than to play. that can probably be cleaned up quite a bit though, cause i've coded most of it very quickly and brutishly. so that's one roadblock. the other is that i'd probably have to write my own real-time mixer. maybe it's easier than it sounds, but i doubt it!

That live thing sounds like a really good idea.

Doesn't SDL have a mixer in it? Or are you programming with a no-external-libraries policy?

i hadn't yet looked into external libraries. it'd be nice to avoid them, just for the experience and so that i can call it all my own, but if i'm not going to bother doing it myself, i might as well use them!

i had a look at the SDL mixer (i didn't know about SDL), and it looks awfully enticing. thanks for the heads up. :)