Eno-style generative music project

[k brown]

Well, this is working, but frankly with this kind of musical structure, to my ears having the seven different voices at different verb mixes isn't all that audible/effective, I think mostly because of the soft attacks/decays. It's more audible with more percussive sounds, but the concept doesn't work musically as well for me with that type of sound.

Frippering this isn't all that effective either; with this kind of simple, mostly spaced out note patterns, Friipper is just too repetitive. Save the Fripp for the 'Discreet Music' generator! Actually, I found that short delay with only moderate feedback is almost as effective as reverb with the 2/1 structure. In listening closely to the track done with the ARP 2600 on Music for Airports, 2/2 - it sounds more like a bit of this kind of delay (probably his Echoplex tape delay) than it does reverb; maybe a little of both.

twOOne_7send.fsm

(1.46 MiB) Downloaded 1002 times

twOOne.fsm

(1.95 MiB) Downloaded 1011 times

[Spogg]

I played with the 7send one for ages and it’s coming on really well! Lovely soothing sounds and I really like it.

What I’ve done is made it do what I envisioned, namely randomised wet/dry reverb mixes per channel, updated when the envelope is triggered.

I think it sounds really good, but see what you think. I auditioned the results on headphones.

I removed the Reverb knobs on the strips, but you may want to have an alternative selectable system.

Comments added to the schematic.

Cheers

Spogg

[k brown]

Very clever, that. I would have never come up with it; I tried a couple of things and they didn't work .

Here it is switchable; when in Random mode, the Reverb knob controls depth of randomness.

twOOne_7send Spogg 1b.fsm

(1.46 MiB) Downloaded 1008 times

By the by - I notice you always post schematics as Zip files; is there an advantage in that?

Am I correct in assuming that to add Delay to this would require a delay for each 'line'?

[Spogg]

Yes I thought it would be good to have the reverb mix controllable, and your changes work fine.

If you want to add delay/repeat echo, my approach would be to put a single mono-blue stereo one before the reverb in the signal path. Then the user could choose to bypass either or both and set the two effects up as desired. This would mean the “delay-reverb” could be mixed by the mechanism we already now have, and form a kind of combo effect. I think it would sound great.

Regarding zipping, I run FS with uncompressed saves which makes the fsm much larger. It’s probably just superstition, but it seems to load and save a bit faster. Also I do wonder if the FS compression is 100% reliable, so I don’t take the chance. Maybe others have a different view or experience…

Cheers

Spogg

[k brown]

After all these years - never knew there was compressed/uncompressed option; learn something every day.

Here's the latest clean-ups of both versions.

Latests.zip

(2.96 MiB) Downloaded 983 times

[k brown]

And both with all params named. Should be ready for saving presets.

Latests2.zip

(2.49 MiB) Downloaded 1015 times

I have to say, I adapted your clever random module to randomize Pan - and I like it better; random verb mix just seemed distracting to me. I made it so one can toggle between them.

I changed the one with Delay/global Reverb to a grey panel, but I'll probably make that select-able. I found the brushed copper to be a bit dazzle-y with a GUI this busy.

[RJHollins]

ah .... the 'problem' with ZIP'd files ...

First to download, then located that file. Un-Zip it, then launch into FS.

Just posting the .fsm .... can load straight from the site directly into FS.

Can immediate check the schematic, make a comment, etc ....

Call me lazy ... except that I'm busy.

[k brown]

I think the 'problem' is, if a schematic is quite large/complex and it's saved uncompressed as Spogg likes to do, it may be above the forum's size limit.

Here's the Delay/global reverb version with select-able BG colors, and a couple of presets. The two titled "Thurs Afternoon" don't intend to sound like that piece by Eno, but use the pitch set from it in the 2/1 'system'.

twOOne.fsm

(6.06 MiB) Downloaded 1014 times

An interesting variation on the original 2/1 pitch set is to lower all the lines' pitches one octave, then raise the Transpose up a fifth (+7 semi). Quite a different mood.

[Spogg]

Well this just gets better and better!

It’s a shame you didn’t warm to the varying reverb mix, but never mind, the random pan also sounds good to me.

I’ve changed the de-zipper time to 5mS in the random module to reduce the effect of position shift when a note starts. This is really for faster attack sounds and slower ones aren’t a problem.

Since you now have unique parameter names I decided to play a bit more with the sound generation system and you’ll see I’ve made a new preset for it. I really like the synth itself, but I haven’t studied it in great depth yet.

One thing that frustrated me was having to copy every single setting to all the strips. You see I was aiming for essentially the same sound for every note. I would love a button to copy strip 1 to all. Then one could introduce individual variations to strips as needed. I’ve done this myself before, and I know it’s a lot of work, but I think it would be a great feature and encourage experimentation. Every control would need a wireless “set” input and strip 1 would need to send all the parameters out when triggered. An alternative, which I’ve also done before, is to have a dedicated and silent “dummy” strip which sets individual controls on all 7 strips together, depending on which control is touched.

I think it’s nice for the user to be able to choose a background colour. My personal favourite is the original copper one though.

Cheers

Spogg

[k brown]

Great point on the DeZip time.

I finally figured out the '1 to All' function (I almost gave up - I have very limited experience with the green maths; many of them I still don't know what they do!). Pretty sure this is functioning correctly - you should probably double-check. If there's a simpler/more efficient/more elegant method let me know.

twOOne.fsm

(6.31 MiB) Downloaded 970 times

I also fixed a mistake I made with LFO-to-Timbre selectors; I had Mdltrs 1 and 2 swapped.

I incorporated your tinkly Belly preset . Also added buttons to switch-in the toolbox waveshaper, preset to change the Sine to a quasi Triangle. An additional routing for Modulator 2: direct to the output. At Ratio 0.75 or 0.5, useful as a sub osc, especially with the Tri wave. Three algos now - woo hoo !


I'm still struggling with a reliable way to solo a strip when editing the FM osc - with a single strip selected, the EGs don't trigger reliably with the keyboard. Also the thing often wont stop when the Run button is switched off.