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Cellular Automaton Music Generator
- bgraves 15y agoThis is a really great project! Here's one that I made: http://www.earslap.com/projectslab/otomata?q=1n204g7b7b6x6q4u http://www.earslap.com/projectslab/otomata?q=1n204g7b7b6x6q4...
- mkrecny 15y agoThis is awesome!
- bf84 15y agoVery nice! I remember Native Instruments had a Game of Life-based drum pattern sequencer in one of their Reaktor packages.
- safeaim 15y agoYup, it's called Newskool. Awesomeness in a box!
- trafficlight 15y agoI want this as a VST.
- Flow 15y agoThis was very interesting, look what I made after 5 mins of tinkering: http://earslap.com/projectslab/otomata/?q=06020n0j89796949 http://earslap.com/projectslab/otomata/?q=06020n0j89796949
- kissickas 15y agoThat was cool, but unfortunately it starts to loop pretty quickly.
- Stormbringer 15y ago"That was cool, but unfortunately it starts to loop pretty quickly." Have you listened to modern pop music??? :D
- bajsejohannes 15y agoThis seems like a great idea for background music for a game. Repetition shouldn't be a problem at least.
- endtime 15y agoEquilibria can occur - run Flow's program for a minute or so: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2454842 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2454842
- bajsejohannes 15y agoIndeed. Another fascinating approach to generative music is to code it out, and add some randomness, like this guy who does a pretty good stab at imitating Keith Jarrett: http://homepage.mac.com/digego/study_in_keith.mov http://homepage.mac.com/digego/study_in_keith.mov (25MB mov file) This really shouldn't have the problem of repetition. You even make events in the game affect the music, to make it less monotone, and add to the mood of the game. It has been tried, but as far as I know no one has actually published something like this yet.
- icefox 15y ago> You even make events in the game affect the music This is really what makes it _very_ interesting in my opinion. The whole super compressed non-looping music is nice, but having music that responds to your actions in real time can be amazing. More than having music for each level you can have music for each bad guy and even better how the bad guy is "feeling". Speed up the sequencer when they are mad. Start out with a bunch of cells and remove them as a way of showing the health left.
- SeanDav 15y agoReally pleasing sound and interesting idea!
- d0m 15y agoAwesome; only suggestion I might add is a way to step back - or go to beginning (without copying the link I guess)
- rasur 15y agoSome excellent work there, and interesting Supercollider projects too. Nice one!
- SkyMarshal 15y agoSupercollider projects? Googled that, but I'm just getting the cancelled particle accelerator...
- wheels 15y agoThis is pretty neat, but the idea is by no means new: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5u5vBAMcLUE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5u5vBAMcLUE
- shock-value 15y agoUsing cellular automata to generate music may not be new, but I haven't seen this specific method used. Nor have I seen anything that compares to the way it subtly changes as it develops while still maintaining a steady beat without resorting to resetting the pattern as in your example. (Correct me if I am wrong though; I'm not a musician.)
- _delirium 15y agoThis is the classic one from 1990 I believe: http://tamw.atari-users.net/camus.htm http://tamw.atari-users.net/camus.htm I do think the one linked in this post is a particularly nice one, and yeah the way it develops while maintaining a beat I think is fairly unusual.
- wbhart 15y agoAmazing. It would be really cool to be able to change the number of rows and columns and also the instruments and tones/chords for each row/column. It's fun opening more than one browser tab and having more than one of these going at once. I refer you to my comment about needing to be able to change the instruments.
- wallflower 15y agoSee also: Wolfram's Tones http://tones.wolfram.com/ http://tones.wolfram.com/
- wickedchicken 15y agoThe problem I have with WolframTones is it tries too hard to sound like traditional human music and fails pretty badly at it. Procedurally generated music systems that don't attempt to emulate previous kinds of music fare far better (including the original link). An older example would be the original drum machines and keyboard synthesizers -- they were originally meant to function as affordable replacements for real instruments (a drum kit, piano or string quartet) and sounded pretty terrible when used in that fashion. Only when people started viewing them as instruments in their own right did they work well (and create previously unheard sounds and genres in the process).
- evolvingstuff 15y agoThis is quite fun to play around with! Many of the other CA-based music generators I've seen have sounded rather atonal and random compared to this one. Here's one I made using symmetric initial conditions (doing this makes for somewhat interesting visual patterns as well): http://www.earslap.com/projectslab/otomata?q=0q1q2q3q8w8y8p8f887868580905010b4y5y6y7l7v701j1d1o4535253a6h5n2c http://www.earslap.com/projectslab/otomata?q=0q1q2q3q8w8y8p8...
- evolvingstuff 15y agoAnd another: http://www.earslap.com/projectslab/otomata?q=0q0o88801y1f7b752a2l6j6n3h3b5f5c http://www.earslap.com/projectslab/otomata?q=0q0o88801y1f7b7...
- adriand 15y agoThat one is excellent - visually as well as auditorily pleasing. In terms of interesting evolution I keep coming back to this one I just sort of randomly put together: http://www.earslap.com/projectslab/otomata?q=04046g043q515p3j132x647t http://www.earslap.com/projectslab/otomata?q=04046g043q515p3...
- jerf 15y agoThat's partially the result of the chosen scale. Run a set of "up" arrows from the top left to the lower right and it will play the scale. Then go back to just playing around, and you'll hear how that choice colors the results. A different scale choice would have different results. This would combine well with bajsejohannes's idea; you could exert some control over the scale while letting the automata run free.
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- mmcdan 15y agoI hope this gets made into an iphone/android app. I would definitely play around with this on long trips.
- mitko 15y agoThanks a lot - this is the first time I actually create a melody that sounds good and it is sooo easy
- nphase 15y agoI want this as a monome app.
- effn 15y agoThere is some discussion about this app on the monome forum: http://post.monome.org/comments.php?DiscussionID=11648 http://post.monome.org/comments.php?DiscussionID=11648
- babyshake 15y agoIs there any way to interact with this programmatically via SetVariable calls made in javascript? I have some ideas for alternate input methods...
- deathbob 15y agoWhat a beautiful and fun idea. Here's one I did that develops really nicely. http://www.earslap.com/projectslab/otomata?q=062m4l6s8q2p610q86 http://www.earslap.com/projectslab/otomata?q=062m4l6s8q2p610...
- k4st 15y agohttp://earslap.com/projectslab/otomata/?q=06122n3x4j5d6o7t8q8s7h6z7b818j7656 http://earslap.com/projectslab/otomata/?q=06122n3x4j5d6o7t8q... Very fun!
- scythe 15y agoA surprisingly short loop: http://earslap.com/projectslab/otomata/?q=3z3o43503s http://earslap.com/projectslab/otomata/?q=3z3o43503s and some lame attempt at "chaos": http://earslap.com/projectslab/otomata/?q=1h4o2n http://earslap.com/projectslab/otomata/?q=1h4o2n (though of course these are just finite state machines and they all loop eventually)
- boredguy8 15y agohttp://earslap.com/projectslab/otomata/?q=8g804u08022p4q4s http://earslap.com/projectslab/otomata/?q=8g804u08022p4q4s I like this one because the two left-right components switch the period of the beat on the 5th and 9th rows (themselves also alternating pitch and period) while not breaking the base beat. I do with the "make link" would let you 'bookmark' a phase: the way it started out went through some cool sequences before stabilizing into this.
- bhrgunatha 15y agoIf the grid is numbered 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 ... I had to investigate the primes Primes less than 20 all up: http://earslap.com/projectslab/otomata/?q=1q2q4q6q1t3t7t http://earslap.com/projectslab/otomata/?q=1q2q4q6q1t3t7t all right: http://earslap.com/projectslab/otomata/?q=1w2w4w6w1y3y7y http://earslap.com/projectslab/otomata/?q=1w2w4w6w1y3y7y all left: http://earslap.com/projectslab/otomata/?q=1r2r4r6r1i3i7i http://earslap.com/projectslab/otomata/?q=1r2r4r6r1i3i7i all primes up : http://earslap.com/projectslab/otomata/?q=1q2q4q6q1t3t7t0o4o1d3d0j4j6j1x7x4n6n32720666 http://earslap.com/projectslab/otomata/?q=1q2q4q6q1t3t7t0o4o... all right : http://earslap.com/projectslab/otomata/?q=1w2w4w6w1y3y7y0p4p1f3f0k4k6k1c7c4m6m33730767 http://earslap.com/projectslab/otomata/?q=1w2w4w6w1y3y7y0p4p... all down : http://earslap.com/projectslab/otomata/?q=1e2e4e6e1u3u7u0a4a1g3g0l4l6l1v7v406034740868 http://earslap.com/projectslab/otomata/?q=1e2e4e6e1u3u7u0a4a... So many ideas... there goes my Sunday afternoon...
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- Stormbringer 15y agoOn my setup it sounds better if I don't have too many notes going off on the same beat. Try: http://earslap.com/projectslab/otomata/?q=0o1l2a3t584x6v72 http://earslap.com/projectslab/otomata/?q=0o1l2a3t584x6v72 to see what I mean
- TimothyBurgess 15y agoI know these kinds of comments are typically frowned upon... but I can't help it. THIS IS FREAKING AWESOME! As a professional musician (and computer engineer) I can pretty much immediately pick up/follow/regurgitate nearly any musical pattern... which leads to 99.9% of music boring the crap out of me. But with this after clicking a few dozen times randomly... the music actually sounds great and doesn't bore me... it's soothing even! Math is beautiful.
- peregrine 15y agohttp://earslap.com/projectslab/otomata/?q=2e3e4e5e6e7u8s8h8z8b81756656463626120m0c0k0f0p1y http://earslap.com/projectslab/otomata/?q=2e3e4e5e6e7u8s8h8z... Making things not only auditory appealing but visually appealing also. This one has some interesting patterns.
- agscala 15y agoWhat part of music theory is applied to something to like this which makes all of the tones sounds very nice with each other?
- gintas 15y agoIt seems to be using the pentatonic scale, which is generally easy to deal with. It is also quite limited though, with only 5 pitches available out of the standard 12 in an octave.
- prez 15y agoAll 12 pitches would sound horrible, you need at least a diatonic scale. Q: Which scale is used in this? How did you come up with it? A: D A Bb C D E F A C are the pitches. I used the scale some models of Hang drums are tuned into. Changing the scale could be a nice feature...
- mmphosis 15y agohttp://earslap.com/projectslab/otomata/?q=025q511184446t5j22 http://earslap.com/projectslab/otomata/?q=025q511184446t5j22
- zmitri 15y agoStarting working on a JS version so I can use it on an iPad. It's pretty rough right now, but on its way. Need to add in the html5 audio and more complete collision detection. http://www.zmitri.com/static/automataJS.html http://www.zmitri.com/static/automataJS.html
- zmitri 15y agoIt's working decently now, same link as above, if you'd like to try it out.
- drstrangevibes 15y agohttp://earslap.com/projectslab/otomata/?q=8k1q5q6k http://earslap.com/projectslab/otomata/?q=8k1q5q6k
- nazgulnarsil 15y agoI accidentally created my most interesting one the first time and lost it forever.
- simcop2387 15y agohttp://www.earslap.com/projectslab/otomata?q=0q2q4q6q8q0z2z4z6z8z0828486888 http://www.earslap.com/projectslab/otomata?q=0q2q4q6q8q0z2z4... made this one by playing with the url itself. interesting format, each note is two characters describing X position and Y+direction it looks like so XYXYXYXY. I built a table of the Y, the X are just 0 indexed numbers ^>v< 0 qwer 1 tyui 2 opas 3 dfgh 4 jklz 5 xcvb 6 nm01 7 2345 8 6789
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- simcop2387 15y agohttp://www.earslap.com/projectslab/otomata?q=0q0q8r8r88880707 http://www.earslap.com/projectslab/otomata?q=0q0q8r8r8888070... an otherwise impossible to construct (i suspect) beat.
- simcop2387 15y agohttp://www.earslap.com/projectslab/otomata?q=0q0q8r8r888807071t1t7y7y2o2o6p6p3d3d5f5f15157474212160605v5v3b3b4j4k4l4z http://www.earslap.com/projectslab/otomata?q=0q0q8r8r8888070... another interesting one visually and acoustically