Tutorial : Generative music in Live

[friend_kami]

this bumpage has made me sit here with these sets playing for a couple of hours now - it is just so nice

Angstrom - You should seriously put a CD out of this - it is really, really good

trouble is - I will have to spend at least a day going through it all in order to figure out what the hell is going on

hehe yeah. i hear ya

[Angstrom]

this bumpage has made me sit here with these sets playing for a couple of hours now - it is just so nice

Angstrom - You should seriously put a CD out of this - it is really, really good

trouble is - I will have to spend at least a day going through it all in order to figure out what the hell is going on

there is a tutorial on page one of this thread you know

[djgroovy]

This is great stuff, thanks Angstrom.

Too bad my pc can't handle your 1 track projects!

[forge]

this bumpage has made me sit here with these sets playing for a couple of hours now - it is just so nice

Angstrom - You should seriously put a CD out of this - it is really, really good

trouble is - I will have to spend at least a day going through it all in order to figure out what the hell is going on

there is a tutorial on page one of this thread you know

yeah but still - going through and following each component and figuring out what is doing what could take some time!

[arachnaut]

If you want to make a generator in Live, you need some initial input to get things started. It could be a simple MIDI note in a clip, a user input gesture from a keyboard or external device, or it could be audio.

Live can generate audio with the Vinyl audio effect - just some pops and ticks mostly.

Another source is to use the unconnected MIC input at high gain. This is random noise and it helps to have a rather poor quality here, because that might be noisier. Utility can pump up the noise and this noise stream can be a generator source.

Follow that with a Gate and you get some interesting pulses.

You can use headphones as a poor quality mic - pick up ambient chatter, which when driven to distortion and gated, can provide some user-controlled audio input events. Probably you want the speakers muted in this case.

[forge]

If you want to make a generator in Live, you need some initial input to get things started. It could be a simple MIDI note in a clip, a user input gesture from a keyboard or external device, or it could be audio.

Live can generate audio with the Vinyl audio effect - just some pops and ticks mostly.

Another source is to use the unconnected MIC input at high gain. This is random noise and it helps to have a rather poor quality here, because that might be noisier. Utility can pump up the noise and this noise stream can be a generator source.

Follow that with a Gate and you get some interesting pulses.

You can use headphones as a poor quality mic - pick up ambient chatter, which when driven to distortion and gated, can provide some user-controlled audio input events. Probably you want the speakers muted in this case.

some good points!

using recorded audio as the sound source is the way I'm most interested in - I have made tracks from bits of noise from the sound card's input - it's actually a very cool sound source

[johnathon doe]

THIS IS A DEFINITE STICKY!!!!



For anyone not familiar with Brian Eno (other than 'he's the U2' producer)...

http://www.exclaim.ca/articles/multiart ... &fid1=4009

p.s. Daniel Lanois grew up in Hamilton, right beside Burlington where I live...something's in the water....

[condra]

Cheers Angstrom. This is fantastic.

Its funny how the music really makes you want to just daydream, and not do a tutorial.

must... hit.. the stop button...

[OvertoneZero]

Wow, all I can say is, why didn't I pay any attention to this thread sooner?


This is awesome, thanks much for sharing!

[Liam]

http://www.delamancha.co.uk/machin.htm

This might be a useful addition used with Live Generatively Also FREE

machin is a random, probability-based, step-sequenced multi-fx device created in partnership with sink
- the step sequencer defines the probability that any single random effect will be triggered on that step
- the weighting defines the probability for each effect that it will be the one that is triggered

features
- 6 effects (gate, crusher, filter, flanger, delay, reverb)
- 2-32 step probability sequencer over a cycle of 2-32 beats
- seeded randomisation with loop repeat over cycle of 2-100 beats
- swing control for step sequencer
- any effects can be turned off to save CPU
- each effect has an attack/decay on triggering and pulse length to determine duration effect is on
- master wet/dry mix control
- all controls have MIDI learn

[smartass303]

Too bad the download Link is broken...
I followed your tutorial but when its going to cascading chains the magic just doesnt happen. It seems that there is only one chain playing, what am i doing wrong? It has to do with wrong set values for the "else if" thinngie...

But many thanks Angstrom this is truly interesting!

303

[Angstrom]

hmm, strange - the download link works ok for me, and my server stats always show a healthy stream of downloads for this file

have you tried right clicking it and choosing "save link as", or similar?

For the if/else conditionals :
first you need a velocity plugin that has the random set high, and that should be followed by a rack that has two chains in parallel - one chain catches the high random values, and one chain catches the low random values.

to make sure this is working set up a test track. test that your first velocity effect is sending out random values - try and get it to make an instrument play at different volumes. Next set up your first conditional - the next velocity effect, set to Gate, with Lowest :0 and Range : 59 .. you should now hear half the amount of notes playing.
If that works you should select the second (filtering) Velocity device and use ctrl & G to make it into a rack. duplicate the chain it produces and make sure that the new duplicate chain has a range of 60 to 120.

these two chains are your If / Else

you put one chain of events in one branch and another chain of events in the other, cascading by adding more conditionals in each branch and wishing that Live had a better hierarchy browser!

[smartass303]

It works!
You are the man Angstrom.
PM your Adress and i send you a bottle of Holsten Edel my friend!

I think im not going to bed tonight...

303

[Modular]

Hi Angstrom..

Great stuff, have read this thread from start to finnish, there should be a dedicated section for this stuff. I also followed your links and listened to some of the music you are making and again that is also great. Can you tell me how you made the track Kuipper, what is this audio looper you talk about???

I am pretty new to Live, I come from an old school background (VCS3 and more recently the Nord Modular). I love the idea of being able to create chaos and then organise it into songs.

You mention in your original post that you have 2 methods for creating this type of thing, one being midi and the other audio, do you think it would be possible to post an example of how you do it with audio inside Live??

[8O]

THIS IS A DEFINITE STICKY!!!!

+1

Wow, all I can say is, why didn't I pay any attention to this thread sooner?

+1

Yup, same here, absolutely beautiful stuff Angstrom and thanks for taking the time to share and explain. Had to whack my Ultralite buffers to max to get it to play without problems, but now I'm chlling out, appreciating the wonderful soundscapes. Really nice stuff!