Eno-style generative music project
Posted: Thu Nov 07, 2019 6:16 am
This thread will track the progress of a project that will produce a generative music output inspired by the '2/1' track from Brian Eno's 'Music for Airports' seminal Ambient album. Based on a SM project I roughed-in years ago, tulamide's thread about Procedural Generation (only slightly related) jogged me into fleshing this out and polishing it up.
It uses slow square LFOs to trigger simple envelopes to shape the notes; the LFO rates determine how often each note appears. The original Eno piece utilized seven physical tape loops of unrelated lengths that wold take two and half days to start repeating the pattern.
Spogg is the only one to express interest so far so maybe we'll collaborate on this one; I'll take suggestions from any one who cares to weigh in.
This is how one of seven channels looks at this point. After much reflection I think FM provides the most variety of usable timbres for this with the lightest CPU load - no filters required. Plus, it's appropriate because the DX7 was Eno's favored synth for many years. Each 'voice' would contain only three of Martin's Polynominal sine oscs. I believe a three-op configuration gives an optimal balance of timbral variety and low CPU. A single switch allows the three to be configured as a three-op stack, or a two-into-one 'branch' algo. Each Op's output can be swept to any extent by the output envelope, and feedback can be applied to either Modulator. Pink or Purple Noise can be mixed in. Each 'voice' can be stereo panned.
The algo is 'laying on it's side', with 'top' Modulator on the left, followed by the middle Modulator, then the Carrier.
Eno's original piece utilized more or less identical sounds on each loop, so I may do two versions of this, with one having a single set of operator and envelope controls to set the same sound for each of the seven 'voices'.
If CPU ends up low enough, might include a couple of FX (delay and Martin's lovely MVerb 7b).
It uses slow square LFOs to trigger simple envelopes to shape the notes; the LFO rates determine how often each note appears. The original Eno piece utilized seven physical tape loops of unrelated lengths that wold take two and half days to start repeating the pattern.
Spogg is the only one to express interest so far so maybe we'll collaborate on this one; I'll take suggestions from any one who cares to weigh in.
This is how one of seven channels looks at this point. After much reflection I think FM provides the most variety of usable timbres for this with the lightest CPU load - no filters required. Plus, it's appropriate because the DX7 was Eno's favored synth for many years. Each 'voice' would contain only three of Martin's Polynominal sine oscs. I believe a three-op configuration gives an optimal balance of timbral variety and low CPU. A single switch allows the three to be configured as a three-op stack, or a two-into-one 'branch' algo. Each Op's output can be swept to any extent by the output envelope, and feedback can be applied to either Modulator. Pink or Purple Noise can be mixed in. Each 'voice' can be stereo panned.
The algo is 'laying on it's side', with 'top' Modulator on the left, followed by the middle Modulator, then the Carrier.
Eno's original piece utilized more or less identical sounds on each loop, so I may do two versions of this, with one having a single set of operator and envelope controls to set the same sound for each of the seven 'voices'.
If CPU ends up low enough, might include a couple of FX (delay and Martin's lovely MVerb 7b).