[chuck-users] live coding: methods and motivations

[robin.escalation]

Scott Wheeler wrote:

> The main thing this boils down to from my side is doing controlled 
> randomization, parameter envelopes or event sequences that are too 
> complicated or tedious to do directly in the sequencer.

I can see doing that myself. For the last couple of years I have been
using Reaktor to build instruments that generate sound through simple
interaction... no complex sequencing. For example I slow a drum
machine to 2 BPM and run the hits through a resonant filter and
delay, with one or two LFOs cycling some parameters. This might
create odd popping an chirping sounds at randomish intervals.

This is all well and good, but the only algorithmic devices I've used
have been made by other people, since Reaktor is not the best
environment for writing equations. That said, I would rarely want to
simply feed and equation and watch it run.

What is great about Reaktor is that it is easy for me to "play" these
instruments in real time, since any of their parameters can be
exposed to controls and mapped with MIDI. So I am able to jam with my
creations with some sound factors under strict control, others
wandering, and still others directly played.

> From what I gather on the list, I'm also different from
> most of the crowd here in that I've defected from the 
> artsy world (to the general direction of repetitive 
> dance music with lots of beeping sounds) and 
> performances tend to be in warehouses or bars rather than
> conservatory concert halls.  :-)

I gigged last weekend at just such a venue in Dublin, in what might
be called "enhanced DJ" mode. I mixed other people's music with my
own, played live out of Reaktor.

Whether the audience knew it or not, they were witness to a
one-of-a-kind audio landscape.

-- robin