Re: Randomness, was Re: Steppophonic

["Per Boysen" <perboysen@gmail.com>]

Please don't assume I'm against randomness! I love to play around with
it in RMX, Ableton Live and M. A little randomness is indeed needed
for a generative music creation process. But in a music instrument
that is to be played with a certain grade of expression random
functionality has to be avoided.

Experimental techniques, like prepared piano and having someone tune
your guitar to unknown intervals, is a different chapter though.

per


On Mon, Jan 19, 2009 at 2:08 AM, Dennis Moser <sinsofmachaut@gmail.com> 
wrote:
> That was what was so excitiing about my first efforts with Elysium ...
> "Randomness" parameters ... instead of simply having each new note 
>"inherit"
> the preceding ones' parameters, you can throw in a "random" dimension to 
>the
> parameters.
>
> The result is a very slowly evolving piece, constantly shifting and 
>changing
> ...
>
> Mark Phillips also included a large degree of randomness into Wave 
>Surfer as
> it is generating its sequence.
>
> Hence, I thought these two might have some value when combined.
>
> Best to all,
>
> Dennis
>
> On Sun, Jan 18, 2009 at 5:37 PM, Per Boysen <perboysen@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> On Sun, Jan 18, 2009 at 11:06 PM, Jeffrey Larson <jeff@zonemobius.com>
>> wrote:
>> >
>> > Very cool!
>> >
>> > This doesn't look very difficult, the UI would be the hardest part.
>> > What's more important Steppophonic or an AU Mobius :-)
>>
>> I'm not sure I should answer that because I'm totally biased. But if I
>> have to answer it anyway I would say that Steppophonic would be more
>> fun. I don't think I will ever use Moibus AU for live playing because
>> I'm so happy with the standalone version Mobius run beside MainStage
>> (instead of the AU Mobius as a plug-in under MainStage).
>>
>> But I would rather prefer an AU Steppophone than a VST. It's so much
>> extra work to run VST plug-ins inside AU only hosts. But it can be
>> done. I've set up a lot of "VST to AU shells" with the Bidule AU
>> plug-in. What you have to do then is to set up all bindings inside the
>> Bidule plug-in to connect the VST's parameters to the Bidule's
>> parameters. Then when tweaking the Bidule's prameters in the host's AU
>> system the correct VST parameters will be targeted inside the shell.
>> The downside is that everywhere in the host's system you will be
>> seeing parameter names like "Bidule plug-in parameter 3".
>>
>>
>> > >> if instead of physically placing ALL the beats onto the grid (or
>> > >> grids, if you are switching between) why not use some element of
>> > >> randomness, like a probability value to place 10% swing factor on
>> > >> beats?
>> >
>> > If you let the resolution of the grid be set very high, it becomes 
>less
>> > like a step sequencer and more like an ordinary sequencer.  So if you
>> > play keyboard well you could use fine resolution and enter patterns
>> > with as much swing as you want.
>>
>> That would take away the coolness of my idea. The point is that it IS
>> totally quantized, that you can't go wrong if playing in sequencer
>> DOTs manually from a MIDI drum pad. Everything should be hard
>> quantized to the grid. If you want a finer resolution, simply raise
>> put 2 in the Tempo Multiplier field to run the sequencer pattern at
>> the double speed related to the global tempo. If using a 32 step
>> pattern grid at double tempo it will equal a 16 step grid with
>> quantization set to 16th notes instead of 8th notes. It's as simple as
>> that.
>>
>> As for "human feel" and "variation" I think that should be provided by
>> the player/operator in the way he refreshes the sample now and then by
>> kicking an a fresh audio slice (rather than swing or groove factor
>> affecting the grid positions).
>>
>>
>> > > If I can just find a sampler that will let you sample into RAM in
>> > > real-time from an audio input there is already a finsihed sequencing
>> > > machine for it in Numerolgoy.
>> >
>> > That's interesting too and very simple.  I would imagine a Max hacker
>> > could do one of those in a day.  Control parameters could be as simple
>> > as this:
>> >
>> >  triggerChannel - notes received on this MIDI channel trigger the
>> > sample,
>> >    rate adjusted relative to middle C
>> >
>> >  recordEvent - any MIDI event with channel to start/stop recording
>> >  resetEvent - any MIDI event with channel to clear the sample
>> >
>> > And of course:
>> >
>> >  undoEvent - revert to the previous sample
>> >  redoEvent - undo an undo
>>
>> Interesting! So it could be that simple. But to hook it up for
>> sequencing in Numerology it has to be an Audio Unit plug-in.
>>
>> Greetings from Sweden
>>
>> Per Boysen
>> www.boysen.se
>> www.perboysen.com
>>
>
>
>
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