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 Forum index » Discussion » Composition
Introducing the KNoW Wave Generator
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Inventor
Stream Operator


Joined: Oct 13, 2007
Posts: 6221
Location: near Austin, Tx, USA
Audio files: 267

PostPosted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 4:51 pm    Post subject: Introducing the KNoW Wave Generator
Subject description: Automatic No Wave music from ChucK
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Hi everyone, I'm pleased to announce the birth of a bouncing baby program, my KNoW Wave automatic music generator! No Wave, which is different from New Wave, was popular from 1978 to 1992 in New York and has recently regained some popularity. It is characterized by a lack of characterization, with arrhythmic beats, instruments fading in and out, and hard driving rhythms all mixed together.

I wrote an automatic song generator in ChucK and Kassen listened to it and said that it sounded like No Wave. He suggested adding a saxophone to the guitar and drums as this is common in No Wave, so I did. Over time I have added to it and refined it and now it is a fully automated music generator suitable for background music or what I now use it for, which is streaming music over the internet to audiences.

At the heart of the KNoW Wave generator is a Boolean Sequencer which is one of my creations. Actually Boolean Sequencing is based on hanging logic off of a binary counter, so there's nothing new about that. It's just that I've taken that concept and embellished it, making the logic add up and produce frequencies and also making it walk up and down a scale.

So for example, in the KNoW Wave generator, the Boolean Sequencer has n k-bit logic terms which add up and determine how big of a step to take on a scale, which is then converted to a MIDI number and then a frequency and ta-da, the instrument plays that frequency. As the counter counts you get different frequencies including non-notes which are silent. It just so happens that these sequences are pleasing to the ear, I think because binary numbers are so fundamental to nature and all that sort of stuff.

So anyway, I'm in the electro-music.com chatroom streaming this KNoW Wave generator across the world on the internet and people start giving me compliments. Jan, Howard, Shane, Paul, and a few others all said it was impressive in their own way so I thought I would post about it here for you to enjoy and possibly even run yourself.

Of course I must give credit where credit is due: kijjaz made the guitar and the drum models, and the saxophone model comes with ChucK. The rest of the 700 lines of code were written by yours truly.

Below you will find the latest source code of the KNoW Wave generator, see our ChucK sub-forum for help on installing ChucK so you can run it. Also I have attached an mp3 file for most folks who don't have an interest in ChucK. Actually the generator is so much more than the old example file that I'm posting, but it will give you the general idea.

I'd like for anyone who might be interested in this type of thing to comment here in this thread about this and related topics so that we can all share our thoughts and perspectives. Your comments are welcome as always. Oh, and be sure to tune in Sunday Feb. 22 2009 to the Winter Streaming Event that electro-music.com is having, there will be an hour of KNoW Wave. Enjoy!


Know_Wave14.ck
 Description:
The ChucK source code

Download
 Filename:  Know_Wave14.ck
 Filesize:  18.34 KB
 Downloaded:  606 Time(s)


KNoW_Arcade.mp3
 Description:
The example song

Download
 Filename:  KNoW_Arcade.mp3
 Filesize:  1.13 MB
 Downloaded:  1194 Time(s)


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telstarmagikistferrari



Joined: Jun 16, 2008
Posts: 280
Location: Indianapolis, Indiana
Audio files: 43

PostPosted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 8:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Sounds awesome, Inventor.. quite a piece of code. Thanks a lot for sharing.
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Inventor
Stream Operator


Joined: Oct 13, 2007
Posts: 6221
Location: near Austin, Tx, USA
Audio files: 267

PostPosted: Sun Feb 22, 2009 9:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Thanks for the compliment Marck!

Howard and some others had some suggestions for improving the KNoW Wave generator, so I did most of them. You'll notice that there is now a bass guitar added to the guitar, sax, and drums. Also the guitar is spatialized to stage left and the sax to stage right. Drums and bass are center stage. I also adjusted the levels to better balance the sound

In addition to that there was a bug that caused a stuttering effect of the notes, which I fixed.

Also kijjaz contributed a new way cool drum class to the ChucK sub-forum so I added it. I also gave each instrument it's own Boolean Sequencer with improved random logic generation that is now variable in ones density plus has a diagonal pattern to the logic array which sounds better.

There are no longer buttons to push. Instead the code now has a subroutine called auto_pilot() which is called periodically and changes things one at a time. The instruments also take breaks, playing only 70% of the time to keep things interesting. There are also natural moments of silence due to the Boolean Sequencing generating all zeros for short periods of time.

If you ever do run into a problem with the sound, just click on the replace shred button to restart the generator. This replaces the keyboard sensing which was necessary to prevent glitches in the music while typing in other applications such as the chat window.

I am very happy to see so many downloads of the code and listens to the sample that i posted previously, plus I am deeply appreciative and actually very joyful from all the compliments that I have received from folks in the electro-music.com chatroom. The broadcast on WinterStream went very well even though i had some typing glitches and had to restart the generator four times. It is a true blessing to be a part of this community and I'm happy to share my code so you can enjoy it yourself.


Know_Wave24.ck
 Description:
Improved KNoW Wave Generator Source Code

Download
 Filename:  Know_Wave24.ck
 Filesize:  15.22 KB
 Downloaded:  544 Time(s)


KNoW_Wave24.mp3
 Description:
Example KNoW Wave Song

Download
 Filename:  KNoW_Wave24.mp3
 Filesize:  1.8 MB
 Downloaded:  1180 Time(s)


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x_x



Joined: May 05, 2008
Posts: 215
Location: mother earth
Audio files: 4

PostPosted: Thu Mar 19, 2009 1:21 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

I like it, congrats mr. inventor.
Very Happy
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Inventor
Stream Operator


Joined: Oct 13, 2007
Posts: 6221
Location: near Austin, Tx, USA
Audio files: 267

PostPosted: Fri Mar 20, 2009 10:49 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

ty gsanchesz, and I released some of the early songs as an album on ocp's label too! Smile
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