💾 Archived View for laniakea.rodoste.de › journal › 2023-10-22-ORC%CE%9B-and-sunvox.gmi captured on 2023-11-04 at 11:21:40. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
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2023-10-22
User Nono on Bubble suggested to share Sonic Pi creations over gemini since it is essentially text. Well I don't use Sonic Pi but I do like the idea so here we go.
Sonic Pi is a program that allows you to “program” music, quite literally. It is one of several environments that form the “live-coding music” subspace. All of these environments allow the code to be tweaked while the song is playing, allowing for a performative element. There are even algo-raves. I mean of course there are.
If you're curious, find artists like “DJ_DAVE”, “deerful” or “Lil Data” on YouTube. There are more of course, these were mentioned in the thread on Bubble.
Since compositions are essentially code (text) it is easy to share them and doing so doesn't take much bandwidth.
I dabbled with Sonic Pi but I don't like it too much: It is a coding IDE. And I stare at similar pieces of software most of my days at work. So when I dabble in music in front of my computer, I prefer the ORCΛ system by Hundred Rabbits. It is quite esoteric but that's why I like it: It takes my mind to new spaces. It has a puzzle element to it in the sense that getting it to do certain things isn't always straight forward.
So I'm using ORCΛ to generate tunes, beats, and such, but ORCΛ merely generates MIDI notes (or OSC, or UDP) — it cannot make sound. I'm using Sunvox for that. Sunvox originally is a tracker but I have never used it as such. It has a variety of nodes that can be interconnected to create instruments and effects.
I've made a standard instrument template with Sunvox that is MIDI mapped to ORCΛ. The combination is good enough for what I do.
If you're curious, you can download the Sunvox template below.
My latest ORCΛ composition is this:
#.floating.in.Laniakea.#..#.random.melodies.#
#.set.BPM.to.60........#..........Dd.........
............#.kick.#.........................
..............D4.................0r4.........
..#.rnd.key.#..:51C...............34TFCEA....
...R5..R7...#.prime.number.pad.#.77XA.0R4....
...1Y1F2....D2..D3..D5..D7..Db.........13TFAG
.......Y.H...Y.H*Y*H.Y.H.Y.H.Y.H......26XA...
......05xE..00xE02xE04xE03xE01xE#.xylophone.#
.......................................:12C..
.......................................:12F..
.......................................:13C..
.......................................:13F..
.......................................:14A..
.......................................:14A..
Now, I'm aware that if you're unfamiliar with ORCΛ then this will look beyond cryptic… sorry not sorry I guess.
Come to think of it, you can of course play this composition with _your_ MIDI instruments and totally change the feel.
Gemini site of Hundred Rabbits
ORCΛ on Hundred Rabbits' internet page
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