HUMAN/COMPUTER COLLABORATION USING ALGORITHMIC COMPOSITION & SYNTHESIS IN MAX/MSP
Click for BACKGROUND INFO on the HUMAN/COMPUTER COLLABORATION module
Click for BACKGROUND INFO on the HUMAN/COMPUTER COLLABORATION module
ADDRESS: locitunes.com/Once-One-Is-One/MAX_PAGES/HC_COLLABORATION_1
This page covers work for the COLLABORATIVE PRACTICE module of my Sound & Music Production degree.
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This section of my site is devoted to a module from my Sound & Music Production degree: The Collaborative Practice module. For this project, I have explored human/computer collaboration for the production of music, and have used Max/MSP/Jitter throughout. To extend the collaborative element of this project, I am creating this website to share my findings with people interested in the subject. Below you will find a number of sub-projects, involving Max/MSP patches for algorithmic composition & synthesis, and some documents on the use of them as human/computer collaborative productions.
LINK: COLLABORATIVE-PRACTICE DOWNLOADS PAGE
ARPEGGIATOR_ALGORITHM: An algorithmic compositional Max patch for producing flexible monophonic pitch patterns.
The patch (based on the working principal of an arpeggiator) involves a stored array of pitch intervals (the bar-graph), which is used as the basic pattern template. These pitches can be read through using the following parameters:
The combination of range constraints and scale quantisation makes the ARPEGGIATOR_ALGORITHM patch a very musical sounding algorithmic composer. A simple pitch array holding an arpeggiated pattern, such as 0, 4, 7, 4, 7, 4 - the 3 intervals of a major chord in a familiar pattern, can be used within a NOTE-RANGE of 0 to 12 (a single octave), and a KEY-SCALE of C Major. Then, by changing the CHORD-OFFSET from 0, to 5, to 7, and back to 0, the result will be a very musical arrangement of the chords C, F, G, C; using chord inversions that one might expect from a pianist.
TOPOLOGY_MUSIC: An algorithmic compositional Max patch for producing 2-line polyphonic pitch loops from 2D images (by default, from noise-maps).
This patch came from previous work on trying to source compositional data from images; it plots a circle around a user-defined point within the 2D screen, and reads the data from those pixels in a repeated loop, as it spins round and round. The following parameters set up the way the circle reads the data:
As well as the circle-settings, there are a series of parameters to control the noise-map - which provides the actual data. The noise-map being used in this screen-shot is a Voronoi algorithm (based on a distance weighting). The noise image can be translated & rotated beneath the 2 pitch-reading circles. Other noise algorithms are also available.
The TOPOLOGY_MUSIC patch uses a similar scale quantisation system used in the ARPEGGIATOR_ALGORITHM patch, and also has further trasposition settings (for octave and note interval).
JAVASCRIPT_FORM: An algorithmic compositional Max patch using the basis of FORMAL GRAMMARS to create composition data
(MIDI pitch/velocity/duration). By stipulating Fragments; which are short collections of a few notes (pitch/velocity/rhythm/legato),
further formal structures can be created by fitting Fragments together into Phrases, which are then put together to form Verses.
Scores are then made up of different Verses.
Once a composition has been completed, it can be altered by changing any of these elements; such as changing a single note within a Fragment,
which could then change a large amount of note-data in the entire composition.
The Fragment, Phrase, Verse and Score attributes can be set using the graphical interface -
made up of Max's multislider objects, colour-coded according to the musical attribute they are affecting.
As well as these interface elements, the PERFORMANCE_CONTROL sub-patches were also developed in this patch, for use
with various synthesis patches created for the COLLABORATIVE-PRACTICE module. The PERFORMANCE_CONTROL patches
are available as stand-alone patches, controling data such as filter frequency, synth attack-time etc.
CELLULAR AUTOMATA: A series of algorithmic compositional Max patches using realtime or stored cellular automata simulations to provide pitch, velocity & duration data for realtime composition.
For further information on CA & CA in music, see the CELLULAR AUTOMATA PAGE, where there are links & downloads, and a media-player holding CA based musical experiments.
