[sdiy] OT: making "IDM"

[Christopher Randall]

Vis-a-vis Markov chains, et al, when you bring that much math to a 
musical context, you're almost always left with something that might be 
seen as crafty to those that know about such things, but is ultimately 
unlistenable. YMMV, of course.

I use aleatoric processes quite a bit on my albums, especially my most 
recent two. The two programs I use are M and UpBeat. The former is 
still available from Cycling '74, but the latter is abandonware. M is 
really great for adding a bit of randomness to a bassline; you can also 
have it exert randomness on controller messages, which is especially 
handy in a modular context. As far as UpBeat goes, it has a steep 
learning curve (especially with no manual!) but is, as the name 
implies, excellent for giving programmed drums the right amount of 
"human." But, long story short, I've found that adding a _bit_ of 
randomness to any track can really make it come alive, whereas a _lot_ 
of randomness hurts it immensely.

One of my favorite things to do of late is to use a Blacet Binary Zone, 
clocked with the gate signal. I'll send the normal output to, say, the 
Miniwave wave select, and the inverse output to filter freq, or summed 
with EG to VCA. With some subtle settings, it makes each note I play 
slightly different than the preceding. It's things like this that bring 
a modular or monosynth performance alive; you don't necessarily have to 
introduce complete randomness to the process.

I've been listening to the most recent Autechre album almost 
exclusively for the last few weeks. It's interesting inasmuch as it is 
a lot more disjointed than their last couple offerings on first listen. 
But once you play it a few times, larger patterns emerge. I think the 
skill those two guys have is in taking great pains to not have anything 
occur repeatedly. While it certainly isn't for everyone, I find I can 
almost always find an inspirational bit of sound or arrangement in 
their stuff if I give it a little while.

Chris Randall
http://www.analogindustries.com
http://www.audiodamage.com

******************************************
Audio Damage presents Discord V1.5
Pitch-shifter for AudioUnits, now available!
******************************************