[PD] Music created in Pure Data

[padawan12]

On Fri, 23 Mar 2007 17:20:12 -0600
"David Powers" <cyborgk at gmail.com> wrote:

> I should probably clear up the whole "math" thing - what I did was
> much more akin to DATA-BENDING, and parameter mapping, not math per
> se. Essentially, 10000 digits of Pi were used as a giant data set to
> drive things. In fact, I'm not sure how different it would sound with
> random numbers as opposed to the PI data set 

I suspect it's close to a random. Obviously the decimal
expansion of pi does have some order, but you might want to
call it "unmappable". 

> - though the PI version
> is determinate and always plays the same, I believe. 

Because pi is always pi, but even if you use some randoms unless you seed
randoms the patch always plays the same from load (zero time), because
they're pseudo random sequences. That's a neat thing for composing.

> The fibonacci
> sequence structure was there though, and possibly the only overt
> display of math, as that sequence controlled when different parts
> began to fade in or out, within a set plan I'd laid out on paper.

I listened again and I hear it clearly where it alters the timing,
that definitely works very well.


> 
> Unfortunately, although the sound at the start is synthetic, it is
> from a VST, and not synthesized in Pure Data. I'm not convinced I
> could even run a big, polyphonic subtractive synth built in PD
> currently, I fear with so much running it would most likely eat my
> entire CPU on WinXP, so using VST's in PD has been my compromise.
> Actually, because of that and time constraints, it was either use
> VST's, or ditch Pure Data altogether for the project. The piece as a
> whole did push my CPU pretty much to the limit, especially with the
> reverb added.

That's interesting, how you use Pd and how efficiency and the
sounds you use influence how it turned out. 


> 
> The quacking = simple fm chirps, that wasn't how I originally intended
> to realized that part of the composition, but the deadline for the
> piece was today (on the microsound list). I do intend to make a new
> version next week though, and if I'm lucky I can synthesize something
> closer to my original intention in PD. Also, as I've said before,
> low-level DSP isn't really my thing, I'm more into the composition
> side of things and at least some higher level modular components.
> 
> Anyway, this piece realizes only about 1/3 of my original plan, though
> now that the important abstractions are built I could realize new
> versions more quickly.

Yeah, it speeds up quickly when you have a base of abstractions
and tools and things ready built. Same with any environment I guess.

> 
> I'll have a look at those abstractions, thanks! I must mention that
> none of this stuff would be possible without ZEXY, Frank's list-abs
> collection (and especially, I must mention the [line-interp] which I
> only just discovered after working on a different solution to the same
> problem, and Grill's [vst~]. So a big thanks to all those who
> contributed in those projects!

Sounds like you had a lot of fun, I think the results turned out pretty good.

best,
Andy



> 
> ~David
> 
> On 3/24/07, padawan12 <padawan12 at obiwannabe.co.uk> wrote:
> >
> > Thanks for sharing that I enjoyed it. Some lovely sounds. I wasn't much
> > taken with Mr quacky at the start :), but once that was over I enjoyed the
> > textures and decelerating rythms. I don't hear how the maths works, but it
> > works for me.
> >
> > If you like textures based on dilating/warping events the attached patches
> > might inspire some ideas. The first is for an elastic object that gives
> > up a little kinetic energy on each bounce, the other is a fragmentation
> > model for something "falling apart" that uses bifurcation. They're
> > for bouncing balls and breaking glass for me, but I think they have
> > compositional uses if you twist em a bit.
> > If that's a synthetic voice would you share your choir patch?
> >
> > cheers,
> > Andy
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > On Fri, 23 Mar 2007 15:06:09 -0600
> > "David Powers" <cyborgk at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > > PiData, by Cyborg K aka David A. Powers.  All synthesis and sequencing
> > > was done by a single Pure Data patch, rendered in a single take, then
> > > normalized in an external sound editor. More complex synthesis and fx
> > > were done with the aid of the Pure Data [vst~] object. The custom
> > > [getpi] abstraction was used to output n digits of the first 10,000
> > > digits of Pi at a time: all variable parameters, whether harmonic,
> > > rhythmic, or synthetic were driven by instances of the [getpi]
> > > abstraction. Overall rhythmic structure was based on the fibonacci
> > > sequence: 8 + 13 + 21 + 34 + 21 + 13 + 8 + 34 + 21 + 13 + 8 = 194
> > > seconds = 3:14. The piece took about 15-20 hours to complete,
> > > including building abstractions from scratch within Pure Data.
> > >
> > > Link:
> > > http://www.cyborgk.com/audio/cyborgk-pi_data.mp3
> > >
> > > *PS. This is the first time I have composed an entire piece in the
> > > Pure Data environment...
> > >
> > > ~David
> > >
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