Composition: 'Rhythmic Cycles' with Extempore

Apr 2021

#algorithmiccomposition
#extempore

A new livecoding composition using Extempore and Ableton Live: 'Rhythmic Cycles'.

Using 'map' to generate musical textures

The gist of this experiment relies on the map function.

Using map and lists of notes and offsets, it is possible to schedule repeated calls to the play note function:

(map (lambda (x y z)
      (onbeat x 0 (play y z (* dur .9) 1))
        )
    times
    notes
    volumes
    )

When the map pattern above gets repeated via a loop, changing the input parameters generates a texture of sounds with a touch of randomness.

For example, some parameters to experiment with:

times can be shifted up or down by 1/4 beat or so
notes can be transposed using different chord structures
volumes can use cyclical variations e.g. a cosine function

What you get is a mesmerising tune, which keeps repeating itself but it's never exactly the same.

Rendered using a simple sine-wave synth it may sound similar to 8-bit video game music patterns.. but when using more interesting sounds/instruments, the end result is much more interesting too.

Source code

The full source code can be found on Github.

(define notes (list c3 g3 bb3))

(define times (:mklist 8 (oneof 1/2 1/4)))

(define inc
    (lambda (alist)
        (map (lambda (x)
                (if (< x 1) 
                    (ifr .7 (add 1/4 x) x) 0)
                )
            alist)
    ))


(define lp1
    (lambda (beat)
        (let ((dur 1/16)
              (v1 (cosr (cosr 50 18 1/64) 30 1/64))
              (v2 (cosr (cosr 50 18 1/150) 30 1/40))
              (fc 8))

            (println v1 v2)

            (onbeat 4 0 
                (set! times (inc times)))

            (onbeat 32 0
                (if (< v1 40)  
                    (set! notes (rotate notes -1))))

            (map (lambda (x y z)
                  (onbeat x 0 (play y z (* dur .9) 1))
                  (onbeat x 0 (play y z (* dur .9) 3))
                    )
                (slice fc times)
                (slice fc  (:mkchord (car notes) '-6 8))
                (slice fc  (list v1 v2 v1 v2 v1 v2 v1 v2))
                )

            (callback (*metro* (+ beat (* 1/2 dur))) 
                'lp1 (+ beat dur)))))

(lp1 (*metro* 'get-beat 1))

Cite this blog post:

Michele Pasin. Composition: 'Rhythmic Cycles' with Extempore. Blog post on www.michelepasin.org. Published on April 10, 2021.

Comments via Github: