I have received a few notices of intent to participate in the GMS Generative Track Competition, but no entries so far. The deadline is still May 31, 2010, but I may extend it if necessary. Please drop me a line if you’re intending to submit something, or need more time. Here’s the original entry that includes the details about the competition.
After installing Java for Mac OS X 10.5 Update 6 I discovered that the GMS wasn’t transmitting MIDI signals to Ableton Live via the IAC drivers. I updated the mmj drivers and noticed that two versions of the MIDI in/out devices showed up in the drop down menus. I removed the mmj drivers and found that they are no longer necessary. This is makes it a little easier to install and configure the GMS to work with Ableton Live, Reason, or other applications. If you’re running the GMS under Mac OS X 10.6 it might be worth trying the latest version of Java for Mac with the GMS v0.11. If anyone gives this a try, please let me know if it works.
This Friday, April 23, 2010 at around midnight I am very excited to be performing a rare solo set at McNally Smith under my Ostraka moniker.
I’ll be using a number of custom developed tools, including the GMS and my tentatively titled WTGM (Wave-Table Glitch Machine).
The event is called Sound Crawl and is being billed as “the official sound track for Art Crawl”.
Other artists include James Patrick and Timefog, Oliver Grudem, and Minneapolis Art on Wheels. More information and a complete schedule is available at:
http://blog.mcnallysmith.edu/soundcrawl/2010-schedule/
Now that the GMS beta has been out since December 2009, I thought it would be fun to start a competition to produce a track using this tool. Unearthed Music has agreed to consider the winning track for a spot on their upcoming compilation, Unearthed Artifacts Volume One.
The rules for the competition are simple. Create an instrumental track using the GMS. Every layer in the composition must be generated by video input fed into the GMS either through a camera, or by loading a pre-recorded video clip. There are no limitations as to what software or hardware is used to interface with the GMS in order to create the instrument sounds and produce the piece.
Editing and looping of the GMS MIDI output is allowed within reason. Please refrain from looping phrases that are shorter than one bar, or shifting several notes to tailor the melodies. I suggest experimenting with the note and duration probability distributions. All the drums and rhythmic patterns must be created using the GMS as well.
Write one-hundred to three-hundred words about how you produced your track and post it as a comment to this entry with a link to a 192Kbps or better MP3 file of the complete track. Links to a bio or videos about your process are great too. The track must be licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License. The tracks will be judged by a panel of representatives from Unearthed Music and myself. The submission deadline is Tuesday, June 1, 2010. Thanks, and have fun!
A feature that I have been interested in adding to the GMS for quite a while is rest probabilities. Prior to adding this feature the GMS generated a sequence of notes without ever playing any rests. What’s exciting about the rest probability feature is that now you can add space into the generative phrases that the GMS creates.
Each preset can have a rest probability that ranges from zero to one-hundred. At zero notes will play continually just as it worked prior to adding the feature. At one-hundred only rests will play. Elsewhere in-between the probability of a rest occurring instead of a note is based on comparing a random number between one and one-hundred to the user adjusted setting. If the user setting is less than the randomly selected number then a note is played, otherwise the note is skipped and replaced by a rest of the same duration. I have uploaded a new Mac build for the application (beta 0.11) available for download on the GMS page.