Here’s another segment of some experimenting I did with Grant Muller’s GOL Sequencer Bank. One suggestion I would make if you are planning on have a look at his application is to try using some example patterns from John Conway’s original work. Also, when you come across new forms that survive well, document them so that you can recreate them for future sequences.
GOL Recording Part II
I’ve already posted a few glitchy sounds created by the GMS in it’s various states of development. Most of them created by some bug, which I love. Serendipity never looses its charm for me. This sound is more deliberate and illustrates how sixty fourth notes sound played on a basic piano sample from twenty beats per minute all the up to nine-hundred and ninety-nine BPM. I’m not sure how accurately the GMS is reproducing these durations at tempos greater than five-hundred beats per minutes, but it sounds pretty wicked anyway.
From 20bpm to 999bpm and Back
With some expert help from Grant Muller I have successfully added the capability of synchronization with an external MIDI signal to the GMS. This feature opens up vast possibilities for performance and collaboration with the tool. To test the feature I sent external sync from Ableton Live to the GMS, which in turn routed note information back through the IAC drivers into Ableton to drive a VST FM synth. I started by live looping a few phrases from the sequencer including a bass line, mid-range arpeggio, and some heavily delayed FM clav, then put it together with a recycled beat into a two minute micro-track. Everything heard, except the drums, are notes output from the GMS via video stimulus.
GMS External Sync Test
This second part to “Chromatic Currents” was produced with the GMS by using a string of lights placed into a large glass vase. I moved the camera around the vase to direct the flow of musical phrases with one hand while I adjusted transposition and note duration settings in the sequencer with my right.
You might notice that the video stimulus does not resemble lights in a vase. This is because I applied a negative filter to the video after capturing the performance. Once again I used a pleasant pentatonic scale interspersed with rare dissonant notes and probability distributions in the note durations to give it an eerie awkwardness.
GMS: Chromatic Currents Part II from Unearthed Music on Vimeo.
I recently stumbled upon a Flash instrument called Tone Matrix created by Andre Michelle. This is a slick little sine wave synthesizer triggered by a simple sixteen step sequencer. After goofing around with it for a half hour I decided to record some of what I was doing. So, here is a little ditty called “Faded Diary” inspired by Tone Matrix. The main morphing pattern in this composition is the piece that I recorded from my Tone Matrix session. The rest is an assemblage of synth, fretless bass guitar, and lots of little programmed bits. Check out Audio Tool too. Fun Stuff!
Faded Diary