Wrongplanet Musicians' Showcase

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https://anachron.bandcamp.com/album/mus ... mpositions

I’m currently working on a PureData patch. Here here’s what I have so far—simple sequencer playing an atonal tune. My goal is to create a generative music composition algorithm. It’s a small start, but still a start!

it is very difficult to program a music generator.
here is my latest attempt.
it is cacophonous to almost every ear.
i must restrain it somehow with yet another layer of filtering for human mind compatibility. i never think i will achieve that though.
it's a long way in the future for even bright minds much more capacious than mine.

https://clyp.it/idebhbwr

Oh, I absolutely agree.

When I studied composition, we were taught to approach it from a number of different ways. One method that I really like is to take a blank sheet of paper and draw graphically what you want sonically and then write music that does that. You can use symbols that represent specific types of events, have a timeline, etc. I’ve seen students use flowcharts. There’s no right/wrong way to do it.

Some music, to me anyway, is about the process of creation, beginning with some kind of seed, or some kind of “DNA” if you will, and slowly emerging over time. Ambient and some space music has that kind of feel to it. Serial music does, too. So the role of compose is not to perform at the keyboard or deliberately plot out each note for himself or someone else. For me, it’s more: Here’s where I start, here’s where I’m going. And in between I want to handle each note THIS WAY. I’m imposing these rules on the composition, and it’s going to have THIS shape, and it will express itself like THIS.

Once you break down all your musical decisions like that, you CAN plot out each note, each dynamic, each tempo and timbre variation. However, after years of doing this and not really achieving much with it, I can tell you it’s laborious and time-consuming, not very satisfying, and doesn’t really pay off in terms of your audience. On top of that, humans are prone to errors and inconsistencies. And yes, I know those things are part of what makes human music appealing. But from the composer’s POV it’s distracting.

But if you know you want to follow a specific generative process or method, you really do save a lot of time and energy if you can automate the time and labor intensive bits—“the notes”—and focus more creative energy on the overall shape and nuance along the way.

You are correct that it will never be catchy. But that’s never the point with me. I could probably write a probabilistic algorithm based on existing melodies, but in that case it’s easier just to do that stream-of-consciousness style. No, my goal is for someone not to still be humming the tune, but more for her to remember how she felt while she was there. There’s a reason why generative music algorithms end up as part of art installations in museums and galleries. For the music consumer, this kind of thing is better suited to relaxation or just filling in otherwise dead sonic space.

I don’t believe that diminishes the human creative role at all. It just pushes creativity beyond “the notes” and emphasizes music creativity beyond the collection of pitches one might choose. In other words, the computer is picking the notes according to rules I would have imposed on myself anyway. Why spend hours on making sure all the correct notes are picked and played at exactly the right time when a scheduler could have done that and spared me all that time better spent elsewhere? All the computer is doing is realizing a composition based on ideas that I, a human, cane up with. So the role of human creativity is never lost, even when the performance is computer generated.

Wow, AngelRho, that is a great description of the creativity behind generated music. I've not listened to very much of it beyond some of Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith's work, but would like to find more, especially the kind that fills in the sonic space in a way that shapes or fits the mood, like a score. I haven't made any of my own, as my particular interests as a creator are not satisfied by that process, but as a listener, I can definitely be fascinated by the computer-generated patterns created by human-defined rules.

I also noticed on Smith's latest release, that some of the generated sequences seem to have been transcribed and then played on regular instruments (woodwinds and things). Kind of a neat idea.

Interestingly, as I think about generated music, in my head plays the Solaris (2002) score. I'm fairly certain the pieces are not generated, but it definitely has a similar looping, evolving, hypnotic quality to it, and is one of my favorite film scores.

"walking in New York"

https://clyp.it/qdiyghjw

i love my cat so much, i will be destroyed when she dies.
this is her (i thought it was a "him" at that stage.
she turned uop in my backyard as a stray and i immediately adopted her and she quickly warmed to me and me to her.


so here is a song dedicated to my cat who is called "pumpkin"
https://clyp.it/1haopi4m

Hey B9

I find your New York Tune Epic! Cleans away some cobwebs.

i always wanted to play "twinkle twinkle little star" so i recently did it.
it is elaborated on.
https://clyp.it/s00dgdsa

yeah whatever. s**t in terms of business and arrangement but i like it because i was thinking it all the way home from wollongong.


https://clyp.it/trmkszul

yeah something else
"i don't know how to love him" by lloyd webber.
https://clyp.it/ck522zbf