Yesterday, I uploaded a new piece of  generative music called “The Blues I” to YouTube and Soundcloud.  they can be viewed/listed to below.

Sooo… what on earth is generative music? You can think of it as music that is generated by a process.  In this case, it is generated by software called VCV Rack. This free software models hardware called a Euro Rack synthesizer which is a modular synthesizer.  Modular Synthesizer?  Well that is an electronics rack and all the electronics that you might find in a more normal commercial synthesizer which most bands use these days. The difference is that the user puts the electronics parts (modules) into the rack and uses movable jumper cables to connect them in any way the user wants.  Thus the user can make a very large array of sounds.  The modules start with oscillators for the sound wave creation (sine waves, square waves, triangle waves, saw waves, etc), filters, envelopes, low frequency oscillators, voltage controlled amplifiers to modify the sounds.  After you have those, you can add many more sophisticated modules.

VCV Rack is still in devlopment (version 0.5) but it already has a large following and a goodly number of developers making new modules for it, some free, some for sale, some for a donation.  It is completely addictive!  You will see the model I built for the music in the YouTube below.

I built in the basic beat and the bass with a small amount of randomness to happen over time.  The lead voices (I designed  what they sound like) use randomly generated notes for their parts constrained only by the beat and the musical scale that I chose.  Hence it is generated music.  I was surprised at how musical it sounds.

YouTube version:

Soundcloud:

Hope you find it interesting.

Namaste,

Cy

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2018 Cyril Ball