Category Archives: GMS

The GMS (Gestural Music Sequencer), written in Processing.org by Unearthed Music recording artist and AudioCookbook.org founder John Keston, analyzes video input and converts it into a sequence of musical information in real-time. Each frame is processed to find the brightest pixel. The x coordinate is converted into pitch while the y coordinate is translated into dynamics. The application was also designed to use probability distributions on pitch and durations.

MAW Outing GMS Excerpt

Posted on May 15, 2009 by John CS Keston

Here’s a segment of audio from Wednesday’s MAW outing at Art Institutes Minnesota in downtown Minneapolis. I’m pretty happy with the arpeggiated, melodic loops I’m able to achieve with the right settings and a good light controller using this application. For video documentation of what was happening at the event, please visit minneapolisartonwheels.org.

This video shows me using various light controllers, including a string of patio lights, bike lights, and LED spinning tops to construct compositions using the GMS.

MAW Outing GMS Excerpt

Track Built Around My Favorite GMS Melody

Posted on May 13, 2009 by John CS Keston

inverted_top I was going to hold off on posting this piece until I had had a chance to produce it a little bit more. I did cheat and added a four-on-the-floor kick drum pattern to drive it along, but otherwise every loop was generated with “light controllers” using the GMS.

For this piece I used spinning tops with flashing colored LEDs inside. You may recognize the melody from My Favorite GMS Generated Melody So Far.

GMS Practice Piece Number 4

My Favorite GMS Generated Melody So Far

Posted on May 12, 2009 by John CS Keston

I’ve been spending most of my limited spare time practicing with the GMS in preparation for tomorrow nights performance in Minneapolis. While practicing tonight I produced this melody. I was controlling the sequencer with a blinking led, spinning top and randomly looped this sequence of notes.

I’ve since built a track around it with more loops from the GMS, but it sounds good on its own. The nice thing about this technique is that everything I capture is MIDI, so if I get a good melody, but don’t like the sound, it’s easy to change the timbre, tempo, transposition, etc. In other words, beyond being a performance tool, I can use it effectively for composition and idea gathering.

My Favorite GMS Generated Melody So Far

GMS Practice Track Number 3

Posted on May 11, 2009 by John CS Keston

top_lights I’ve almost finished with my initial round of tweaking and bug fixing on the GMS, so I’ve finally been able to put a bit more time into actually using the software for its intended purpose. My most recent work with it involves a companion document in Ableton Live that loads a number of virtual instruments into about nine separate MIDI tracks. Ableton provides the external sync via the Apple IAC (Inter-Application Communication) drivers. In turn, the GMS sends MIDI note on and off data to the instruments in Ableton. Using this method I can live loop on various tracks and build a multi-timbral composition in real-time. Here’s an example for a recent practice session.