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comment by thenewgreen
thenewgreen  ·  4502 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Making Music by Livecoding
    on a 'real' instrument, a lot of effort goes into intonation itself, but on the other hand it is immediate and accessible; with code, you have to design the sound, knowing what sin oscillator sounds like, but then you don't have to maintain the intonation in the same way that is necessary on a 'real' instrument.
This is fascinating to me, as I've recorded lots of 'real' instruments and only a bit of 'midi' instrumentation, but never have I completely created my own sounds.

When you are doing this, do you have a sound in your mind that you are trying to create or do you often just stumble upon something that sounds good by accident? Do you get specific...say, "I'm going to create a sound that mimics a Fender Rhodes being played through a 1978 Super Reverb tube amp? -This is really cool imo and something I need to verse myself in.





marmaduke  ·  4501 days ago  ·  link  ·  
    do you have a sound in your mind that you are trying to create or do you often just stumble upon something that sounds good by accident?

It's somewhere in between the two. If you've ever done any kind of improvisation (cooking, dance, not just musical) you'll understand that it's always a balance between chance and target. With algorithmic composition, for me, it's still mostly chance. There are others who know how to get exactly this or that sound, but I think the best will come when there are those who can improvise anew.

thenewgreen  ·  4501 days ago  ·  link  ·  
I know what you mean. When I am recording 'real' instruments, I take great pains to get a specific sound or tone I'm looking for. Often in my search for this sound, I find something completely different that I end up going with. Your cooking analogy is a good one too. I'll often know that I'm going to make a certain dish, put all the ingredients on the counter and end up making something completely different.

Care to share any of your work here?

marmaduke  ·  4501 days ago  ·  link  ·  
I never recorded anything, but you can find pretty good examples of livecoding on YouTube or Vimeo. The stuff from Andrew Sorenson is pretty worthwhile.
thenewgreen  ·  4501 days ago  ·  link  ·  
His stuff is really great. It's interesting to watch/listen to it unravel.

thanks