33 posts tagged with "livecode"

During January 2023 a number of people active in the livecoding community participated together in a 'patternuary' https://club.tidalcycles.org/t/patternuary-2023/4474/1 aiming to make one pattern every day during the month.

Some people worked in TidalCycles https://tidalcycles.org/, while many chose to use the Strudel platform https://strudel.tidalcycles.org/.

Some of the patterns were posted on the Tidal Club thread above, while many otherers appeared under the #patternuary thread on Mastodon https://post.lurk.org/tags/patternuary.

Given the strong likelihood of bitrot, I created a single video https://archive.org/details/jsvdwpatternuary2023 that captures brief excerpts of all of the patterns I made: mostly in Strudel, but also in SuperCollider, Pd and one composition notated in MuseScore.

The audio is also released as an album on bandcamp: https://tedthetrumpet.bandcamp.com/album/everyday-jan-63

(Most of) the code is available as a gist https://gist.github.com/tedthetrumpet/0410ae1cd2ad0a2837a36aca94e5b5ea

So, here's how it turned out: attempting to 'livecode' Audacity by saving a file out periodically to SuperCollider. A slow start, but gets more interesting towards the end of the twenty minutes.

Also available here https://archive.org/details/nightstream-dec-2022-tedthetrumpet

Had a slightly crazy idea for the TidalClub Night Stream on 2022-12-21 – could I livecode something in Audacity?!?

Obviously the answer is basically no, as you can't edit anything in Audacity while it is playing. So, instead, the plan is to use some of the things in the Generate menu to improvise some sounds: the Risset Drum, Rhythm Track, DTMF Tones and so on.

Once I have a minute's worth I, save out a mixdown to disk. Then, I have a script running in SuperCollider that waits a minute, then reloads the latest file exported from Audacity. So, in theory, I have a minute to create the next layer in Audacity while the last layer is playing.

For some reason, I decided to bill the performance as a 'dangdut', so I also have some simple algorithmically generated dangdut-ish material ready to go in SuperCollider that can be played alongside the much more abstract Audacity material.

Quick proof-of-concept video:

https://youtu.be/x2XVkoGofQ8

I've been teaching some of the composition students at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland how to livecode in Estuary, and we're going to do a short set as part of The Longest Night. Here's the test I just did for that, which sort of counts as another one of my tiny estuary jams – not a very interesting one!

I seem to have started doing that thing where I post a small piece of work each day: so far, four very short jam sessions in Estuary:

https://youtu.be/MeCpvXLMQe4

https://youtu.be/b5MQBuA5SWA

https://youtu.be/ddkhm-JRj5I

https://youtu.be/dRgQwRuUYsM

Claire Quigley and Miriam Iorweth are curating a 'Subsonic' workshop and algorave at the Scottish Submarine Centre on Friday 20 March as part of the Euleroom Equinox 2020 livecoding event.

There is an introductory workshop 1930 to 2030, followed by an algorave 2030 to 1030. The workshop is free, the algorave is pay what you want.

If you'd like to take part in the workshop or are interested in performing at the algorave, contact Miriam:

crotchetymusic@gmail.com

eflyers:

Subsonic Algorave 2020.pdf

Subsonic Algorave Workshop.pdf

In order to be able to work up sketches for ‘Perang Gagal’ at ICLC in Limerick, I wanted to use Logic to compose demos of the material for the live players that I could then improvise with in SuperCollider. This poses the problem of how to sync the pulse and tempo between the two programmes, which proved annoyingly difficult to accomplish!

Ideally, I would have liked to set the tempo in SuperCollider for Logic to follow. A straightforward way to do this would have been for SC to send MIDI clock and have Logic follow but, annoyingly, Logic does not support slaving to MIDI clock.

According to the Logic help, it should be possible to sync to an audio click from Logic. I couldn’t get this to work, and nobody on the Logic Users Group seemed to be able to help either.

The eventual solution was less than perfect. I used Logic to send MIDI clock, and had SuperCollider slave to that. This involved using the MIDISyncClock extension from H. James Harkins ddwMIDI quark. Not perfect, but got the job done.

What did work very well indeed was the recently released Blackhole tool for passing audio between mac applications. I’d definitely recommend this as a replacement for Soundflower!

The work that I will be taking to ICLC 2020 in Limerick is entitled ‘Perang Gagal: a Series of Inconclusive Battles’, and is a collaboration with Professor Mel Mercier at the Irish Word Academy of Music and Dance. I will performing livecode in SuperCollider as part of a small gamelan ensemble let by Mel. Here’s the demo video I submitted to the conference call:

I had thought that the eventual piece would be straightforward to devise, but it is proving trickier than I thought. There are couple of limitations. We won’t have access to a full gamelan for the conference. I had hoped to visit Limerick to work with the players in advance, but that has not proved possible: instead, I am going to send sketches of the material I am working on to Mel, and we will put the piece together during the conference.

The third limitation is around pulse. I want this piece to be rhythmic, but I do not feel confident about trying to get SuperCollider to follow the tempo and pulse of a live ensemble of gamelan musicians. Consequently, I am having to devise material where SuperCollider establishes some sort of groove that the live players will follow.

So far I have four potential sections for the piece. As ever, I am reworking existing materials. ‘fibblesticks’ and ‘Adrift & Afloat’ are ‘counting pieces’ that employ numerical frameworks to allow performers to play together in time, while leaving pitch inderminate: or rather, when working with the gamelan, projecting the entire complement of available notes, pelog in this case.

I have on a number of occasions performed a sort of quasi-Javenese gamelan texture in SuperCollider, using samples of the Spirit of Hope instruments here in Glasgow. For Limerick, I have reworked this by adding a balungan part for the live players.

The fourth section for the piece is new, and is based around a couple of musical ideas that occured to me in a dream and that were still in my head on awakening:

Many of my musical ideas originate in this way!

As 2019 draws to a close, I’m spending some time getting ready for the International Conference on Livecoding in February in Limerick. I put in two proposals. The first of these was to be called The ‘All-Pressure No-Method’ System, and would have involved me working with four live brass players. I say ‘would have’: this has had to be abandoned, we were not able to fund the travel and accomodation for the players.

The central idea, however, is one I’d like to return to. Inspired particularly by the work of Kate Sicchio in livecoding dancers, the intention was to livecode the brass players by means of a repertoire of typed and projected instructions. Here’s a demo video of the concept:

Here's the collaboration that Bill Whitmer and I did for Radiophrenia