Coolest machine generated tunes ever - Otomata

99.vikram

99.vikram

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It's incredibly beautiful, it's unpredictable, it's entertaining and it's all done using cellular automata!

Anyway, check it out here: http://www.earslap.com/projectslab/otomata

Here's a tune I've been listening to for, like, an hour now:
http://earslap.com/projectslab/otomata/?q=6k2o3k145v2k72

Otomata is a generative sequencer. It employs a cellular automaton type logic I’ve devised to produce sound events.

Each alive cell has 4 states: Up, right, down, left. at each cycle, the cells move themselves in the direction of their internal states. If any cell encounters a wall, it triggers a pitched sound whose frequency is determined by the xy position of collision, and the cell reverses its direction. If a cell encounters another cell on its way, it turns itself clockwise.

This set of rules produces chaotic results in some settings, therefore you can end up with never repeating, gradually evolving sequences. Go add some cells, change their orientation by clicking on them, and press play, experiment, have fun.
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Sounds the same as every other applet like this. Oh look a grid based sequencer with a fixed scale and no matter what you do it sounds cool! What's unpredictable about a musical scale? And we have a music forum.

The way they bounce off eachother is neat though.
 
Vegeta897 said:
Sounds the same as every other applet like this. Oh look a grid based sequencer with a fixed scale and no matter what you do it sounds cool! What's unpredictable about a musical scale? And we have a music forum.
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I don't think you can make a post without sounding condescending
 
I've tried dozens of applets like this. I posted this one because I thought the algorithm was better, it creates more a more colourful (and tolerable) acoustic experience.

I didn't post it in music because I knew condescending douches would land to comment on it's lack of musical merit.
 
99.vikram said:
I've tried dozens of applets like this. I posted this one because I thought the algorithm was better, it creates more a more colourful (and tolerable) acoustic experience.
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You're right, it is better than I first thought. I apologize for being so harsh on it. It's still not too interesting to me though. "Coolest machine generated tunes ever" is a bit of an exaggeration. Only one simple synth sound, no other kind of dynamics. It could be a lot better for what it is, is all I'm saying. Like maybe add some filter cutoff frequency modulation. But that would require more sound samples to be loaded... Unless a sound engine was programmed into it which would be quite cool.

99.vikram said:
I didn't post it in music because I knew condescending douches would land to comment on it's lack of musical merit.
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You should know that won't save you :p
 
Yeah, "coolest" was probably hyperbole... listening to it for an hour skewed my perspective. But it's pretty great, and adding more variety to the sound should be easier than getting the underlying math right IMO. What really excited me was that this is the first time I've listened to something like this for long without it getting on my nerves. To me at least, it points to a future where composers will be more like programmers than bricklayers... sweet, sweet automation. :E
 
definitely going to try listening to this while laddering in sc2
 
Here's my masterpiece. Let it cycle for a while since it gets better.

http://earslap.com/projectslab/otomata/?q=0w0y0p0f0k0c0m03078r8i8s8h8b8z818589515s5r3f3c37

And yes you may insult my lack of musical talent.


WOO! Here's a masterpiece I like much better. Less severe. Again let it cycle since it's complex and keeps changing!

http://earslap.com/projectslab/otomata/?q=1u65722y3a3n5a5n7h7b1f1c068e0w89484q8k0z


But yeah no matter what you do it sounds awesome, except when you push the envelope and try to make it sound like shit.


EDIT: haha... this one I just did has a collision happening every tick, with none of the pieces reverting to their light blue color with visible arrows.
http://earslap.com/projectslab/otomata/?q=06040n0v0j0g0o0u0w8r8u8o8g8j8n8v8486

Reminds me of John Conway's Game of Life
 
**** YOU, RAZ. WRONG ANSWER. /serious face of total seriousness

There always seems to be a debate on the merits of generative music, but I find it all to be quite cool. So many patches and tools seem to end up having similar-sounding palettes and sounds, but then I imagine it takes a skilled artist to focus that chaos into something truly unique.
 
Absinthe said:
**** YOU, RAZ. WRONG ANSWER. /serious face of total seriousness

There always seems to be a debate on the merits of generative music, but I find it all to be quite cool. So many patches and tools seem to end up having similar-sounding palettes and sounds, but then I imagine it takes a skilled artist to focus that chaos into something truly unique.
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I really like them. Just because it's not an artist making the music doesn't mean it's not cool.

http://earslap.com/projectslab/otomata/?q=06172839887957662q3r1w0e5w6e7r8q
 
Interesting but about as musically diverse as a swan's cock.
 
Raziaar said:
I really like them. Just because it's not an artist making the music doesn't mean it's not cool.
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The way I see it, you had to program it, right? You had to define the rules, make the sound patch, and then arguably had to refine it until it sounds like music instead of a spaz attack on a keyboard. If I had to write that shit in Max/MSP I'd consider myself largely "responsible" for it. Your output is always defined in part by the instrument you're using, and if I feel like passing off a part of the creative process to my PC, so be it.

Simple note patches like in the OP sound neat, but of course they're limited by their stand-alone nature. Generative systems in larger frameworks are really interesting to me, even if I don't have the first clue of where to start with one. I'd be ecstatic if I could one day make something like the following, but it's a long road...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qM8emp9WHwk

Doesn't sound as pretty as the OP's link, but I like that kind of laptop-microprocessor-glitching-out quality tracks like these have.
<insert any ae track from ep7>

ADDENDUM: Cfern is genius in that... I hated that track for years and now I play through the whole thing every time it comes up in playlist. "Uviol" is probably my favorite though because it channels their approach on that album into something both immediately comprehensible and eery as ****.
 
Pretty cool but every piece sounds much the same.
 
Overlap it with another window of Otomata that is a bit faster in beat and rhythm

Consider it a backdrop?
 
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