# There Might Be Something There... - Site: Analog Industries - Author: Chris Randall - Date: 2013-04-18 - URL: https://analogindustries.com/2013/04/there-might-be-something-there/ My job, such as it is, is about 50% mining pixels, and 50% researching new ideas (or, as my wife puts it, "watching YouTube videos.") I spend a lot of time hunting down interesting new methods for controlling or creating sound, and pondering how they'll work in Real Life. In the vast majority of what I find or think up, there is very little application to a normal studio workflow, but sometimes that's fine, too. There's a lot to be said for something that just looks cool and gets you away from the piano roll / analog mixer clone paradigm for a bit. In that light, here's a few things I've come across recently that might be interesting. (Sorry about all the Vimeo embeds; hope they work. That's where people put this kind of stuff.) **Cycles 720** - This was built by Craig Allan ([Numbercult](http://numbercult.com/)) in VVVV to control an M4L patch. The Vimeo description says "rhythm and swing are dictated by the size, number of circles, their degree of separation, orientation and elasticity of each collision." Yeah, sure. I don't know about all that, but it does look pretty. Mr. Allan does a lot of cool things that align with my interests, and his site is worth a perusal. **Cube with Magic Ribbons** - This one, created by [Simon Katan](http://www.info.simonkatan.co.uk/), has less of a disconnect between what you're seeing on the screen and the result. It is an openFrameworks app controlling a SuperCollider patch, and strongly reminds me of an interactive score for a mid-50s avant garde piece. Check the Projects tab on his site for some other interesting works. Of particular note is the "What Is Life" demonstration. [Hexagrama](https://vimeo.com/23500643) from [lasal](https://vimeo.com/lasal) on [Vimeo](https://vimeo.com/). **Hexagrama** - This is an interesting take on the tried-and-true Euclidian sequencer, made by [Aristedes Garcia.](http://aristidesgarcia.tumblr.com/) No notes on how it is made, but I assume the usual suspects (VVVV, Cinder, openFrameworks, or Processing, with OSC to whatever.) I think this particular idea merits some more exploration. There are a metric shit-ton of these sorts of experiments out there. These are just three that I thought were interesting. What's your favorite weird-ass sequencing or synthesizing experiment? ## Comments (15) **aymat** (2013-04-18): My friend Tim created an application called Airborne Beats: https://vimeo.com/50255094 And here he is explaining it in detail: https://vimeo.com/53544151 Ive had a chance to test it out and its not exactly the most intuitive application but I think the technology is moving in an interesting direction. As far as what you can do with it (or any of these other type of applications for that matter) the potential for genuinely unique sound and music is there. I'm not a Bob Ross happy accidents kinda guy, so for me these kind of applications, interesting as they are, would never completely replace the way I like to work. However, as a supplemental source of ideas, this is where I feel they really shine. **lazenbleep** (2013-04-18): saw this last night. live coding in his own environment(impromptu). https://vimeo.com/2433303 was obviously fun for the coder, but was also incredibly involved for the audience(me) :# **chaircrusher** (2013-04-18): Live-Coding is the asymptotic limit of a laptop musician looking as though he or she is reading their e-mail. The only thing further down that road would be a musical system you can only control by sending it e-mail. **lazenbleep** (2013-04-18): i liked it because you watch the screen not the artist. it's quite possibly the 1st time i've seen a laptop musician and been excited by their process **shamann** (2013-04-18): "a musical system you can only control by sending it e-mail" Why doesn't this exist already? **inteliko** (2013-04-18): I dream of Mandelbrot sequence gifs controlling pads... **DGillespie** (2013-04-18): "a musical system you can only control by sending it e-mail" seriously, this is gold. **cbmd** (2013-04-18): I had a good time using Iannix. http://www.iannix.org/en/index.php **Chris Randall** (2013-04-18): I could write a musical system you can only control by sending it email, and gift it to the community. (See: Zawinski's Law) Features? (And keep it simple.) -CR **krylenko** (2013-04-18): Filters... spam filters. Someone had to say it. **chaircrusher** (2013-04-19): I suppose you could come up with a simple notation system that could be used to send actual music. The fun would happen if it had a mapping for all 8 bit ascii, so that it could play P3N1S 3NL4RG3R and C14L1S e-mails too. The old line editor on DEC Minicomputers TECO: In command mode every key was mapped to an editing action. People would open a file and type their names to see what happened. Then have a sound server on the web so you could listen to what it was generating. In terms of how to convert arbitrary text in moderately musically interesting ways: 1. Have trigger characters that change the root key and scale; keeping things more or less in western harmonic shipshape so it isn't annoyingly atonal. 2. Have a 'repeat this line n times' command. So as new e-mail came in, it would layer on top of what ever was already playing, up to a certain voice count, when it would steal a voice FIFO-wise. 3. When someone sends "free bird" play "Stairway To Heaven" and vice versa. **Scodiddly** (2013-04-19): Thanks for posting these - interesting stuff. I like classical electronic music, stuff that doesn't expect you to dance to it. Morton Subotnick stuff. Always intrigued by the pure theory types of electronic music. **mad ep** (2013-04-19): An old one... but still a favorite... who remembers Leafcutter John's Forester? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7sOB2PoITAA Free DL: http://leafcutterjohn.com/soft/v1.4%20Mac%20core%202%20duo.dmg (Mac) http://leafcutterjohn.com/soft/v1.3%20Win%20XP.rar (Win) **MikeF** (2013-04-21): An email music system? That's so old school! Modern artists compose using only Twitter. Tweets contain info about choice of loops, tempo, key, chords, etc. A special Twitter app decodes the tweets and turns them into tracks. Concerts consist of an artist with a phone for tweeting/composing and an iPad for some hands on control for mixing. The audience can interact by retweeting parts they like to extend certain sections. **fussylizard** (2013-04-25): Set up a generative music server that has an email address and let people send email to it to affect its output. Then sign it up for as many spam lists as possible. The Twitter idea would be fun also. Just have it randomly select a popular hashtag and switch it every few minutes.