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) 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, 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. 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?