Re: hive mind music (Was Re: Using Phrazer live - pros & cons?)

[Mark Sottilaro <sine@zerocrossing.net>]

check this out as well, I played with the demo and it seemed pretty
sweet:

http://www.ableton.com/

will synch to midi

Mark Sottilaro

jim palmer wrote:

> those using windows might want to investigate directmusic.
> it's part of directx now and allows the composition of music
> that responds to programmable input's.
> it is mostly implemented with midi and used for games,
> but it's possible uses are far greater and it can do synthesis
> and sampled audio as well...
>
> it is based on the superjam technology that microsoft acquired
> from blue ribbon sound works (anybody remember them?)
>
> this is yet another thing that i have been meaning to get into,
> but haven't had the time...
>
> >...
> >
> > Depart from traditional percussion arrangements.  I was
> > considering taking atomic elements of electronic percussion and
> > processing them so that they have more of a rhythmic element
> > besides *Wack!, quickly fade to black*.  For example, instead of
> > having a kick drumish sound consisting of a click and a sine wav
> > fading out, what about a kick drum with more than one *wack* in
> > it (so to speak) or different kinds of *wack* that imparted some
> > kind of rhythmic meaning and would make that atomic sound more
> > like a rhythmic phrase, without necessarily becoming one itself.
> > Get a waveform convoluter and see what happens when you convolve
> > a trad. percussion sound with something else entirely, like
> > crickets, or speech.  Get a bucket of various tidbits like these
> > together and see what happens when they overlap, patterns would
> > form.  In other words, stop considering a drum sound as a drum
> > sound necessarily separate from other drum sounds (like kick
> > versus snare versus hat, etc).  Give your kick some hat groove
> > aspects, make your snare hit trail some bleeps or something at
> > the end.
> >
> > The real groovy trick would be to get stuff like this happening
> > in response to your playing of course.  I play around with a
> > piece of shareware software called Tuareg, a wav arranger with a
> > very simple interface premise that leads to some very intuitive
> > arrangement futzing.  I posted a blurb on it a while back in
> > response to a query regarding audio plugins, even though it
> > wasn't an audio plugin (oops, sorry Rick), and I'm not
> > suggesting you could use this live (needs a new version with
> > zero-crossing processing and external midi control of all
> > functions), but I've literally started out with a single pattern
> > and easily come up with a dozen or more interesting variations
> > in the span of a half hour, just by futzing with the gating and
> > rearranging tools.  Those two elements alone had tremendous
> > potential.
> >
> > One idea I had was to somehow use midi or instrument audio
> > signal/voltage (this would be best imho) to act as a control
> > element that had some kind of direct relationship to what the
> > musicians are doing, have some way of manipulating this
> > relationship (perhaps by having one musician's signal modulate
> > another's), and then plug this into both tone generation sources
> > and direct modulation of said sources through triggered gating,
> > delays, or some other kind of processing.
> >
> > For example, let's say you've got a guy on bass playing some
> > notes.  Split the audio signal from this instrument into two
> > channels.  One channel would go out to the mix like normal, the
> > other channel wouldn't end up directly in the mix at all but
> > would be used as a control signal.  Maybe gate this control
> > signal to give it more of a switchlike shape (on/off, low/high,
> > etc).  Then, send this signal to a triggered gate, or set of
> > triggered gates, perhaps after sending it through some kind of
> > delay that would track tempo from the bass signal itself, or
> > some other signal like a tap, or the midi clock from a looper
> > device or sequencer.  Now, feed a tone source consisting of
> > either prearranged rhythmic loops (perhaps cross faded with
> > other loops, and have the cross fade controlled by some other
> > signal - like another musicians audio, or even percussive
> > sounds/loops generated by the other musicians like string
> > noises, instrument body tapping noises, or synths played by
> > other musicians, or whatever).  Now, imagine a band of musicians
> > all generating these signals and interrelate them in various
> > ways, and stand back!!!  The result might be hard to control or
> > predict, depending on the complexity of the interrelationships,
> > and what the musicians are doing.  But the potential for
> > something interesting and dynamic is fascinating, and this
> > approach would be just as applicable for other types of
> > arrangements besides percussion (like having the musicians
> > trigger volume/filter/other envelopes for each other, or for
> > each other's delayed signals that wouldn't be audible until
> > triggered).
> >
> > *brains begin oozing out onto the floor*
> >
> > Of course, it might be kinda tricky to get that tight ass,
> > swinging funk groove with this approach, ya never know.  Nothing
> > like a drummer but a drummer, maaaaahhhhhn .....
> >
> > Love,
> >
> > Mike
> >