Music with driving beats and beefy synths. Some algorithmic, some not. While none if it exactly standard EDM, it will still make you want to wiggle a bit.

Music for Chair Dancing

Partially and more fully algorithmic jazz created using generative systems developed as part of the MUICA project. Pieces are listed in REVERSE chronological order (newest first). See individual tracks for information on how the pieces were created.

Algo-Jazz

Analog synth and partially algorithmic music.

Cthulhu Wants a Jelly Donut

System: Kulitta (algorithmic composition framework & AI) with jazz chord spaces and simple foreground algorithm.

Another example produced by an implementation from my research. This one has more standard harmonies produced using the same implementation and slightly different grammar to the first example I uploaded.

EDIT (18-Feb-2014): downloads were disabled for some reason...should be enabled now.

Monadic Algorithmic Composition Example #2

Example of output from a Temporal Generative Graph Grammar. This example is from an earlier version of a system later named Kulitta.

EDIT (18-Feb-2014): downloads were disabled for some reason...not sure why. Hopefully they are enabled now.

Random Number Seed 6 in C Minor

System: Kulitta (algorithmic composition framework & AI) with classical chord spaces and simple foreground algorithm.

This is an algorithmic example uploaded for use at an upcoming conference. If any other listeners get deja-vu between this and "Random Number Seed 6 in C-Minor," they are indeed from exactly same system (called Kulitta) and using the same pre-specified form (although, for various reasons, this one has no added algorithmic dynamics or other expressive elements in the performance). However, at the time "Seed 6" was produced, the system was restricted to 3 voices, whereas this untitled example has 4 voices.

UPDATE: downloads were originally disabled by mistake, sorry. They are enabled now.

Monadic Algorithmic Composition Example #3

A combination of field recordings, sound manipulation, and partially algorithmic work at the score level.

The Tree People

Partially algorithmic work with a new Java-based library I'm working on.

Some Fight Music

This was the result of having a harmonium, a good place to record it, and time to do so all happen at once. 

Caramel Latte

This is an older work of mine. It uses some virtual instruments designed with the Euterpea library for Haskell. For example, PVC pipe-sounding instrument was designed that way.

Brodmann Area 4

Composed by Kulitta, performed by me. More information on Kulitta can be found on my research page: donyaquick.com/kulitta

Etude by Kulitta

My husband's chainsaw was misbehaving so he was tinkering with it. All I heard was a sick beat waiting to be extracted. Opens with about 45sec of being silly with the sampling and then the gloves come off.

Brrngrngrng

The central beep-boops are sampled from recordings of an audio-level generative system I built recently involving Python, a Raspberry Pi, a breadboard, and a bunch of of wires.

Orbital Decay

Composed in a text editor using Kulitta as an algorithmic composing tool. The first half was created using a non-harmony-based Probabilistic Temporal Graph Grammar (PTGG) for melodic motion. The resulting scores were rendered to audio with one digital and one analog synth with ring modulation. The second half was created using a harmony-based PTGG more like those from my dissertation and rendered with digital synths. More information on Kulitta is available at: http://www.donyaquick.com/kulitta

Vesicularia

A short sonic doodle remixing a guitar riff from an extremely old track I had back in my MIDI-only days.

Morph 2025

Chorale-like short piece created by Kulitta and rendered to audio in Sonar X3 with Kontakt. Retardando added manually. 

Kulitta Short Example 1 (Chorale on Strings)

Algorithmic work with Kulitta. I used Kulitta to generate the percussion and piano. I arranged that material and did some sound manipulation work with it, which used in parallel with the original phrases in many places. High percussion was rendered with virtual instruments I created.

Tandava

Work with analog synthesizers and audio manipulation.

IO Error

Partially algorithmic work using Euterpea to produce everything for the opening instrument. Other parts were added manually. Code for the opening instrument's material was <50 lines of code (<10 lines for the bulk of the material and the rest for subtle adjustments).

Blue Lambda

Source material for this was generated using this program:
https://github.com/Euterpea/Euterpea2-Examples/blob/master/MUI/Interactive.lhs

Zero-Order

Partially algorithmic work using Kulitta. Material generated by Kulitta was used for the two percussive instruments that open the piece - both of which are from a few long, unaltered examples of the output until other instruments come in. The repeating motifs in those instruments thereafter are also from Kulitta but shorter segments (down to ~ half a measure) that I arranged manually. All other parts are of my own making.

Perplexity

Algorithmically generated music with Haskell/Euterpea. 

Pitch contours were created using a pattern-based generation I've been working on recently for the MUSICA project. Rhythms are from a stochastic system similar to the Temperley's "pips" model (which is typically represented as stacked dots). Both implementations were done in Haskell with Euterpea. Kulitta appears as a guest percussionist on hand drums. All musical parts were coded in a text editor and the sections then arranged in a REAPER (a digital auduio workstation) with some delay lines.

Dot Matrix

Algorithmically generated jazz for three parts: bass, harmony, and lead. Generated using stochastic algorithms implemented with Haskell & Euterpea. An output score in MIDI format was rendered to audio with virtual instruments in a digital audio workstation.

Image taken from this visualization of the piece: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4TYrjNNW9o&feature=youtu.be

33rd & 5th

Partially algorithmic composition using a pattern-based generation algorithm with Euterpea. The standard drum kit (not the hand drums) and the fast arpeggiated plucked instrument are my work. All other instruments' parts, including the opening plucked instrument, were built out of algorithmically generated sections.

Tiger Lily

Largely algorithmic bebop. My alterations were high level section arrangement (to yield repetition in a few spots) and a bit of tweaks to the start/ends of large drum sections to make it smooth. The rest is the work of some infinite jazz generator algorithms I've been working on for the past few months.

An explanation of the title:
Picture an elegant woman with a large Gucci purse getting on the subway in NYC. She sits down one seat over and sets her bag in the seat next to you. A while later, you hear raspy, gurgling noises. You look over and, sticking out of the top of the bag, there is an animated mass of fur that looks like the sort of thing you pull out of a drain. You can't tell whether this animal is actually looking at you because its eyes are pointing in different directions. Teeth are sticking out at odd angles. It becomes unclear whether it's growling or if this is simply how it breaths. Does it want you to pet it? Does it want to brutally murder you and eat your soul? There is no way to tell, so you awkwardly look straight ahead and keep an eye on it from the reflection on the windows. The train comes to a stop, the creature sinks back into the abyss from whence it came, and the woman gracefully exits with her handbag of horrors. You have just experienced an Ugly Purse Dog.

Ugly Purse Dog

Visualization on YouTube: https://youtu.be/G8pNVkpHD6U

Electronica featuring two piano parts, each put through a delay line synced to multiples of the tempo. The melodies you hear are half played notes and half what was played in the past. 

This is a hand-made piece. It is not algorithmic unless you consider delay lines as such, which I don't really.

Snow In March

Algorithmically generated jazz from ~300 lines of code. There are no human-made notes in this, and there is no high-level arranging either. It's a solid, single generation that can also continue indefinitely without ever repeating. This is the first of my algo-jazz series to be hands-off to this degree.

Post-code human influence in this was the choice of random seed to kick it off, choice of instruments, a bit of track-level volume shifting to match the instruments, adding reverb, and fading the start/end. 

The code was written in Haskell using the Euterpea library along with a concise  jazz type system and generative framework that I've been working on over the last year. The output from this code is a MIDI stream or file. A separate algorithm was also used in post-processing the MIDI to introduce very minor volume and tempo irregularities in the notes to help soften the effect of simultaneous note onsets.

Hypnotize

Mostly algorithmic music in the style of some old game soundtracks The title is a nod to the particular track that inspired this work. The vast majority of this is output from a couple hundred lines of code using Haskell/Euterpea. The bass and high synth were piped out through a MIDI interface to two analog synthesizers (Korg Volca Bass & Keys) and the audio fed back into the computer. The harmony is using a digital synth (Izotope).

This algorithmically generated except the occasional long slide notes; there is no way for me to easily export that kind of very specific, long-lasting performance feature from Euterpea (not without writing a whole new MIDI back-end anyway), so those were played by hand after everything else was recorded. The other, smaller slides you hear are a glide setting on the analog synths as they respond to Euterpea. Aside from those long slide notes, the entire rest of the piece can actually carry on indefinitely - much like a looping game soundtrack, except that this one can be generated in real time without repeating itself.

Aquatic Level

Pondering the sculpture known as The Cube at Astor Place in NYC.

This is using Haskell/Euterpea and is largely using the models described here: http://donyaquick.com/generative-jazz/

Funny story to this: this piece was done almost entirely during a lengthy power outage. I had 70% battery left on a MacBook pro and decided to see how far I'd get. To conserve power and stretch my available time, I also did it largely outside my DAW with just Simple Synth, so it sounded really tacky until I was almost done with it and put it through better instruments. In the end, my battery got me very close to the final product! I just did a bit of mixing-type stuff the following day when the power came back on. Naturally, the code is hideous due to my battery-induced rush, but hey - it works.

The Cube

Bossa nova version of "The Cube." Dropped in some different algorithmic musicians to see what would happen. Was pleasantly surprised. Just like the original "The Cube," this is largely using the model described here:

http://donyaquick.com/generative-jazz/

Tempo changes were added in a DAW after exporting the piece.

The Cube Squared

Decided to turn my latest algorithmic bossa nova band loose on a lead sheet based on an old piece of mine called "Ramen Noodles." The only "fixed" parts of this lead sheet that are essentially human made are the opening melody (which you'll hear again mid-way through) and the abstract chords. Everything else is a happy little algorithm jamming along. The algo-keyboardist trends towards being a bit on the insane side, but hey...I don't have to play it, so he can do what he wants this time. 

Funny story related this: apparently decent parts of the piece are best modeled using alterations of various modes, which is a bit more theoretically sound than "minor with a bit of funky chromaticism here and there" as I had it in my brain at the time I wrote it I was fully aware of what modes were, just didn't think I was using them for whatever reason. Interesting how things like that work in the brain and how communicating them to a computer requires a bit of care.

If you want to hear the original, completely human-made Ramen Noodles, it's also on SoundCloud here: https://soundcloud.com/donyaquick/ramen-noodles

Tonkotsu Ramen

A little bird came to sing for me while I had my field recorder handy. This track consists of hand-created and played synth parts along with manipulated bird calls.

Mockingbird

Algorithmic piano piece. Score created by generating large segments with Haskell/Euterpea as MIDI and then arranging/rendering in a DAW.

Prism

Some algo-jazz with sections made in Haskell/Euterpea and then arranged in a DAW with VSTs.

Mr. Smiley

Non-repeating algorithmic music of a normally repetitive style.

Chrysaora

Rain On A Monday

Fun with big piano algo-chords. The particular algorithms in this were inspired by having recently played the game Superliminal.

Knight on the Right

Algorithmic work where large sections were generated and then manually arranged in a DAW. Algorithms are an outgrowth of those used in Knight on the Right.

Knight on Your Other Right

System: Kulitta (algorithmic composition framework & AI) with various chord spaces.

An example of output from a my automated composition system written in Haskell (and using monads). The system can also do more normal/traditional-sounding things, but this one has more interesting textures.

Monadic Algorithmic Composition Example

Mixed algorithmic and hand-made parts. This uses some of the same algorithms as Knight on the Right (and Knight on Your Other Right).

Frosted Glass

Mixed-genre electronic and algorithmic compositions.

DonyaQuick

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