So this is a sample of the output of a piece of software I've been developing lately. Everything you hear is 100% generated by my computer.
More specifically, this sample is the output of the new dissonance-based melody generator that I coded last night. It looks at the output of the first instrument (which generates notes differently), considers how dissonant it has been playing lately, looks at the dissonance levels of each possible note in the scale that it's playing over, and randomly chooses one, with the probability ratings changing with each new note.

I'll be uploading many more samples of the software's output as I program new features in, as well as describing the details of the operation of the software on my blog.

Generative Composer - Two Part Dissonance Engine Sample

So I built that interval-based melody generator I was talking about. It kicks the shit out of the dissonance engine. I had a really REALLY ghetto sequencer that I was using to output drum beats on quarter beats for debugging, so I also expanded that a lot into a semi-useful 16th beat sequencer that outputs to channel 8. Which, I think, means that I'm intending on this eventually being able to output up to 7 independent instruments simultaneously.

I'm thinking that eventually you'll be able to do something as fluid as 'Okay enable channel 4, set to arpeggiator mode, source note from channel 1, harmonise with channel 2. Okay we're good to go.'

But yeah, other than the interval-engine and the sequencer upgrade, the program is unchanged in this sample from the program that generated the previous sample.

Generative Composer - Two Part Interval Engine Sample

No major changes to the software for today, just lots of little ones. I was playing with some new orchestral samples I got, thought this setup sounded pretty cool. The timpani isn't actually being controlled by the computer 100% - I was tweaking the sequencer throughout the creation of the clip.

Generative Composer - Brass + Mallets Sample

I added a new instrument mode - this one takes the output of channel 1 (which is sending chord tonics), creates a triad, and outputs the four notes (including the octave) in a rhythmic pattern that I'm thinking will be determined either through user input, or will be self-evolving. Or both.
You can hear the viola part in this sample playing the rhythmic chords.

Generative Composer - Chord Rhythm Sample

So I added an option, based on user input, to control the amount of syncopation that a melody instrument will use. The effect is quite subtle at the moment, because of how note retriggering is working. I'm going to do a big overhaul of how instruments output notes next time I have a day off work. But the effect is noticeable, and I'm very pleased with how it sounds so far.
In this sample I change the option every 8 bars (I think I waited 12 bars at one point). Each time you hear a bell, I've just changed the option in Pure Data. First it's off, then I cycle through 1/8 note, 1/4 note, 1/2 note, and whole note retriggering.

What it's doing is, for example if 1/8 note triggering is on, is playing everything normally, but if it plays a 1/16 note, it's forcing the next note to be a 1/16 note. Because if it's anything else, that note, and the note after it, and every subsequent note until another 16th note plays will be syncopated by a 16th. If it's set to 1/4, then it'll force 4 16th notes to play, or 2 8th notes.
I still need to modify the algorithm to allow for, in the above case, two 16th notes, and one 8th note to make up the necessary quarter note. I have a good idea how to do it, but it's bedtime.

Anyway, thanks for listening. Yup, all zero of you.

...I will be famous someday.

Generative Composer - Syncopation Control Sample

So I've finally finished a huge overhaul of the guts of the program. Before each individual note was sort of all over the place, travelling all over the program having transformations done on it, before being output as a midi note. Now it's all very streamlined, and each note is moved through a assembly line style setup until it's output as a note, duration, velocity list.
The actual program's output isn't hugely different (although I have three instruments plus the sequencer now), but the code is unrecognisable.

I didn't want to go much further adding new functions until I'd done this, since it was such a fundamental thing I had to redo.

Also in this update to the program is a rehauled GUI for the individual instruments, a new method of rhythm generation - random rhythm, and some limited velocity control which is based on the rhythm at the moment.
Expect big things for the month of April, lonely internet!

P.S. If anyone is reading this and is a musician, here's a fun thing to try: most of these samples I upload in are in the key of C. Usually C Ionian, C Dorian or C Aeolian. Try improvising a melody over the program's output. Because the program goes forever and never repeats itself, this is a really cool way to waste time. Although for you, you only get a several-minute sample. I get unlimited unique music. Plus I get to change the key and the mode. Sure sucks to be you hey?

Generative Composer - New Notes Sample

It's been a long few weeks.
The way I've been expanding the program since it was first born is thinking up algorithms, sitting on them for a few days until they're all worked out mathematically and in psuedo-code, and then putting them into pure data.
There have been a few algorithms that I've been struggling to put into pure-data style code, so I've just kind of been holding on to them. But the knowledge has been slowly growing in the back of my brain that Pure Data isn't really suited to a project as large and complicated as this one.
That knowledge, coupled with the fact that about a month ago Pure Data crashed and corrupted the main program file, almost making me lose everything (it took about 3 days of hacking to recover the majority of my work), led me to the decision that I need to start again, this time in a more respectable programming environment. Unfortunately, I didn't know how to use any other programming environments. That was about two weeks ago.

Two weeks later, and I've managed to teach myself enough java to port the program across. At least, I've managed to port the concepts behind the program, build a UI and set up the basic structures that will let me start making algorithms for pitch and rhythm output again.
With the new form of the program, it has a new name: GenComp!

Here's the first sample the java program has output - it's just running two instruments, both outputting random pitches with random lengths. There's a basic dissonance-based engine to keep them playing nicely together in the sandpit.

Now that I'm in java, there's really a whole new world of things I can do with this software in terms of the complexity of my algorithms (in particular I've been planning an evolution-engine that will treat note pitches and lengths and velocities kind of like nucleotide bases in a DNA strand. That one is going to rock the world's socks off). Plus the program no longer absolutely flogs my computer (because Pure Data isn't exactly the most memory-efficient programming environment ever made).

So basically, everything is awesome, and I am most pleased.

GenComp - First Sample

edit: oops, no idea why it keeps going for like 90 seconds after the track ends. Just pretend that isn't there chaps.

So progress on GenComp has been going swimmingly. I've decided I'm abandoning my Pure Data algorithms, I had issues with how they worked anyway.
So far I've got four pitch algorithms and three rhythm algorithms, with about 20 parameters for each instrument. Everything can play in harmony.

What you're listening to is my newest pitch algorithm, which is kind of a combination of all of my previous pitch algorithms, and each of the three rhythm algorithms working together for each instrument.

My next step is either going to be adding percussion, which I've sort of been procrastinating, or to add the master instrument, which won't play notes but will output chords using a unique set of algorithms that all the other instruments harmonise with. 
(At the moment I'm using an instrument as a sort of stand-in master instrument - it's only outputting tonic notes which I'm pretending are chords, but the other instruments don't know what the other notes of the chord are, since they are only being added in ableton so it sounds pretty)

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