Melody 9.5 (HSoM)Self Similar Melody in F Mixolydian

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

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

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

Mr. Smiley

Mixed-genre electronic and algorithmic compositions.

New tracks tagged #Euterpea