Building in Cannon Theory into Algorithmic Music.

The idea of this article is to open up a discussion on how to add way a musical canon is composed and written and to apply them into algorithmic music environment. Below is a few of standard concepts that you will find when composing a canon.

Augmentation-System

Augmentation increases the duration of each note by a uniform proportion. example if the melody contains 8th note and quarter note. The augmented version of the melody might substitute quarter for 8th notes and half notes for the quarter notes.

Diminution-System

Diminution decreases the duration of each note by a uniform proportion. example if the melody contains 8th note and quarter note. The augmented version of the melody might substitute 16th notes for 8th notes and 8th notes for the quarter notes.

Inversion-System

Inversion is like a mirror image of the original melody. Inversion reverse the direction of the melodic intervals. example if the melody was an ascent of a major 3rd from c to e. The inverted melody would be C down to A or descend a major third.

Retrograde

Retrograde is a musical term that literally means "backwards" This is a technique used in music,
The original melody is played backwards. Specifically in Serialism, where the retrograde techniques are performed on the same tone row at the same time.

Now recreating these in a computer music system can easily be achieved I will be tackling each one these formats personal in my language of choice which is ruby. If all of these concepts once the algorithm is figured out and understood it can be recreated in and programming language.

I like to invite you en sharing comments on this theory and how and the easiest way that they can be achieved..

Ascii Art vs Text to Music Mashup

In the ever expanding study of text to music and trying to find new ways artists can create compositions.
Personal being a big fan of ascii art and what text to music is the sound version of ascii art I wanted to combine them so while back i came across a site called GlassGiants. They have a great online Ascii art generator.. which lets you either link a image with a url or upload one and the site will convert. Through the use of text to music I take the idea one step further by copying and pasting the outputted. ascii art into a text to music generator and Save the outputed midi which i will route to a soft-synth or instrument that can play back midi..


here a short example of this concept in action


The picture used:

photo by Olaf Meister and released under the creative commons licenses at Sankt-Petri-Kirche Eimersleben photo :


The ascii art produced:

(GlassGiants Ascii Art Generator)


The Music produced from the ascii art:

Created and Mixed By Alphacore

I hope to see more people explore this idea and love to hear your creations..

Musical Algorithms by Jonathan N. Middleton

Today I like to showcase a Online Algorithmic music generator that was created by Jonathan N. Middleton, D.M.A. a Assistant Professor at Eastern Washington University. This application was designed as a set of  interactive tools that allow you to create your own mathematical algorithmic compositions and unique learning experience for users, regardless of your musical training..

Musical Algorithms

Music in Images by Arjun Gupta

Music in Images was created by Ajun Gupta. This is a online algorithmic music generator based off the concept of converting images into musical scores. This application is a excellent example of musical software that allows anyone to explore this art-form and way of generating new music. I personally had fun playing around creating music with his Software. I recommend  that you take a minute or two and try it out for yourself at Music in Images the Online Music Generator

If you like to showcase your images and the music created from it please contact me I'll Showcase it at this Blog.

Creating Composition based off converting Images

Over the years i have experimented with algorithmic composition. Composition Music that is based off computer generation has always fascinated me. In my quest to find all the various ways musical patterns can be generated.

I came across a Freeware Music Software called Sounds of a Image created by Tim Omernick .

Sounds of a Image lets you explore the musical concept of taking a digital image and then converting that image into a musical composition. This music creation software is created to run on Mac OSX only.

Composition Music through the use of images can open up a whole new world of algorithmic music and field study in computer generated music. With the millions of pictures be share over the web through sites like Facebook and twitter a experimental composer palette for new interesting musical patterns is truly endless.

The different ways it allows you to create algorithmic compositions.

The application lets you either convert pixel by pixel or line by line. Now if you choose to create you composition pixel by pixel it will create a extremely long piece of music roughly around 4 to 5 hours.
Where has if you convert the image line by line the track will be around only 4 to 5 minutes in length.

The midi file created is 3 channels one being a steady beat. The other two being based of the conversion of the image into a algorithmic music pattern.

Sounds of a image supports the standard file types such as .jpg .png .gif ect..

Allows you to save to midi file which is great cause this allows the composer to import the midi files in to other composing software such as Ableton Live which I use for its midi instruments and final mastering of the composition.


So how can you get started creating my own ?

1.You can download this freeware Application at Sounds of an Image. Download Sounds of a Image
2. Go find pictures you like to convert
3. save the songs and share the midi file with others


This is a wonderful Freeware music application and I recommend that if your interested in Algorithmic music then you should try this out..

ps. if you do convert your images into music please let me know and I would love to hear it and share it with others..

Visual Charts of the Text to Music Concept..

This Text to Music concept can be from a single word repeated over and over to create a Melody like pattern or  interpretations of the entire piece of text file such as a poem or the text of a website being composed into a single song.This concept music is usually played through a soft-synth but can be  played live on stage with a real instruments. The notes patterns are all predetermined by the text but all the instruments, tempo, key, scales and overall live techniques are all up to the Artist/producers Interpretation.

These are two visual charts that show the layout of how the text notes are equal to the letter or ascii value of a character. the ascii charts displays what the average range of the human ear can hear though the true ascii is 0-127.

Text to Music Concept Paper..

This is a short article I just published on the music and concept of text to music.

Please give it a read and share your thoughts on it..

Text to Music Article