[PD] Open source + musical composition?

[Derek Kwan]

On Feb 25, Alexandre Torres Porres wrote:
> I think open source people are more hacky and DIY and are less tied up,
> which has an impact on the result...

I do suppose that esp stuff like Pd vanilla with its small core
encourages more investment in the tools, but at least for me, it's
difficult to pin down stylistically what users of open-source tools such
as Pd and SC tend to produce. Not to denigrate four-on-the floor, I
think a lot of interesting things can be done around that, but I've
heard quite a lot of generic four-on-the-floory kinda stuff made in both
SC and Pd but then again you also have like Philippe Manoury stuff and
sonifications all sorts of less in-the-box stuff being made in Pd. And I
suppose Max is sort of the oddball out in terms of commercial music
composition tools, but it seems like there's quite a bit of a "maker"
scene around Max as well. Going through school (and I suppose it depends
on where you go to school), a lot more things revolved around Max more
than anything else: multimedia projects, any piece not mine I performed
or saw performed, (well, I used to use Max a lot for my stuff I suppose
too, but that was a long while ago =P).  

Outside of Pd and SC, there are stuff like DAWs and trackers that are
open-source like Ardour and LMMS and the Hydrogen drum machine which can
although be used for things that are less "tied up", but also lend
themselves easily toward more conventional music due to the griddiness
that I mentioned in my last e-mail and you can find a lot of examples of
this online.

Derek

-- 
Derek Kwan
www.derekxkwan.com