Generative Music Flashcards
What is Generative music?
Generative music is music that relies on a system or algorithm to generative aspects of the composition.
What is at the heart of any generative process?
chance/randomness
Who are key composers associated with this?
Brian Eno, William Basinski
What is a clock divider?
A clock divider takes an incoming signal and divides it. This creates a slower trigger still timed to the first signal.
What are clock dividers good for?
Clock dividers are great for creating slower lines based on the timing of another melody. This is really useful for basslines, which are typically longer.
What is a Bernoulli Gate?
A Bernoulli Gate is a module that allows you to trigger the probability of an incoming signal.
What are some ways you can use a Bernoulli Gate?
Bernoulli Gates can often be used to set up another musical voice - letting the user create a voice that gradually adds new notes. We also used a Bernoulli Gate to create a second voice with effects.
What is cross-modulation?
Layman’s terms - Cross-modulation is an effect in which amplitude modulation (AM) from a strong undesired signal is transferred to a weaker desired signal.
Why is cross modulation useful for creating generative patches?
It allows the user to create synchronized waveforms that do not adhere to any tempo.
How could you start generating rhythm in vcv (eurorack)?
Anything that adds chance to a patch will make it “Generative.”
There are a variety of different ways to do this. You can random the pitch of the hi-hat, or the volume, or the cutoff of the filter.
Why are quantizers helpful in generative music?
Too much randomness is not musical.
Quantizers help scale notes back so they stay in musical keys. They are more melodic.
