Zoom Gear & Home Recording Forum

This is a bit of a depart from what I usually do (triggered by unstablexxx and instability as well). This is heavily repetitive music and "drone" if you will.

(The song called "30" on this page)
http://www.math.ualberta.ca/~tomasd/music/

This needs a bit of explanation. All synths and beat sounds are generated mathematically using a mathematical formalism called Cellular Automata. I did lots of programming last night to generate MiDI patterns fro the math. This is how I did this:

1.Write the mathematical model and run a numerical simulation of the model
2. Map the mathematical model output (8bit or 16bit) to a musical scale that I define (say major, minor , pentatonic, etc.)
3. Translate those mappings to MIDI and export
4. Import in GarageBand
5. Take apart the patterns generated and assign different synths and instruments.
6. Add some guitar for kicks, but based on the pattern generated
7. Add a melodic line on top.

So basically the guitar and the main melody are the only not computer generated.

Tomas talk about taking a challenge to the extreme! I couldn't believe the title and Genre. This process sounds very complicated but the results are interesting indeed. I don't usually go for Electronica but I liked this.

Haven't understood a word of the explanation but the results are very interesting.

Elements of Steve Reich or Philip Glass's music for Koyaanisqatsi

I look forward to some more of these experiments.

Cheers

Dick

Very Interesting, Jean Michel Jarre used a similar mathematical formula to create Waiting for Cousteau (title track) which is more ambient than this, I like the experimental approach here & the tune is quite nice.

Looking forward to hearing more of these experiments but tell me, does this approach take away some of the human emotion in the creation process? Do you get the same thrill as writing & arranging a tune in the traditional style?
Just curious.

Wow, cool!

I think I can hear a polymeter going on there. Two time signatures at the same time.

It could be 4/4 and 3/4 but I'm not sure. It sounds like two sinewaves amplifying eachother sometimes.

Interesting

//Crotch

Oh, that wasn't what i thought it would be. I was expecting G Spot Tornado by Zappa, all scittering, highly percussive, mind shaking dissonance and got some nice laid back Robert Fripp instead.

Its very nice but you could have got to the same destination by taking a Gamalan type approach, masses of simple individual hand played parts each bouncing off the other, massing into a rich tapestry of sound. Would have had a lot more soul.

Still, a great experiment and well worth doing. Just not that stimulating an end result to my ears and I've heard a ton of this kind of stuff from NO PUSSYFOOTING to John Adams, Steve Reich , all the serial music crew.

Maybe you need to remove your guitar and melody line and let the code stuff work on its own. Don't put any sugar on your serial. Ouch, wadda pun !!!

Wow... impressive stuff, Tomas! I don't get Beeb's "Would have had a lot more soul" comment. As electronica goes, this is actually interesting because of the swirling patterns.

I think this is a genre where you can make a big difference, T. I could even hear a vocal melody line in my head.

Nice way to kick off the new approach.

(One nit on the ending: I think the second to last keyboard ends to abruptly. A bit of sustain on it so it fades more naturally would have been easier on the ears.)

I use math formulas to make my music too. It is usally 1 + 1 = 3. Right?

This is wild. I really am enjoying this. I love the math formula bit, although I don't understand any of it. You really should push this style more, at least in your free time. I'm sure there is a market for songs based on math formulas. Next time add some dreamy vocals, lyrics, etc. Cool, innovative. Again, I'd keep working this angle.

Great job.

Oh, I forgot to mention... You should listen to (atleast try) "The Dillinger Escaple Plan" or "Meshuggah". The genre is called Math Metal.

It is not as if they used formulas to make their riffs, but everything is in polymeter or polyrythm. Really intreresting to listen to for about 3 minutes until you brain goes nuts.

//Crotch

TAIL...


Tomas...
Futuristic... robotic.... cool! Really cool!

I love the aspect of experimentation and exploration that you bring to your music!

It will be awesome to watch and listen as this evolves from you.

BTW... don’t all of these sounds (since I’m assuming they’re PC based... ) simply
boil-down to a series of binary equations? Kind of like the basic, (ones & zeros) 00000110000011...
... or... on/off commands... of something like ‘machine-language’?
Or... am I way off in my line of thinking here?

Again.... cool!
Very cool!

Hey Tomas, nice job on this. I really enjoy songs that have a repeating background (when it is more soothing) and then things get added as it goes along.

Fantastic that you took this on and came up with this. I really admire your abilities to take things from experimental to actually presenting a tune.

Good on you, James.

awesome tune Mat, reminded me of some of the older Genesis
which was one of my favorite bands back then
morty

geezus mat, where did you find this awesome Kraftwerk song?
or is it Can?

This is just beautiful.
it's already my favorite piece by you.

Thanks!

Thanks. I never thought people were going to like this. I like it but it is not a thing that everyone likes.

thanks everyone for for the music suggestions I'll give them a listen.

Good stuff. No idea what the math is behind this, but I like the music.

Tomas, I think the idea behind what you're doing is more interesting than what I'm hearing. Someone mentioned Kraftwerk. It's also akin to the background music of a seventies documentary about progress or something you'd see on PBS a few decades back.

Again, the idea is more entertaining than the actual sound, but it's an interesting side project that only someone of your caliber would have the resources to pull off along with everything else you do.

Tomas (Dolby) De Camino Beck is blinding us with science!!

I don't know. There's something I do like, and something I don't like.
All in all, I think what you got here would be OK for a background, but I think it needs something more going on up front.
Maybe I'm just not used to this kinda thing.
Different though!
John B.