I’m not that into generative, however, I get it. Sometimes listening for what you want to hear from almost a third person perspective and then when you hear it, use it, while having it not technically be anyone else’s work is super appealing. Also the aspect of something with lots of unplanned variation is cool although can destroy a composition if not careful (think about the person in a band or in a play who improvs too much).
On the other hand I come from songwriting and therefore it’s difficult for me to give up that control and still feel comfortable, or like the artist. I’d perhaps like to try something that employs both techniques as an experiment, I think that would be rewarding.
Same.
Plugging a few modules that spit out notes and claiming it as ones own creation feels like fraud to me. Others can do it, not my concern. But me personally, I prefer to write tunes myself. Or at least feel like I did.
I mostly compose with intent. I think a very, very small percentage of what I’ve done has had some sort of auto anything. There are a few reasons why:
I like to have full and total control of what I make.
It is imperative that I express myself honestly.
It is crucial that any sense of a signature sound I could possibly have comes from my own doing (“I draw my own blood, not others”), and that in the moments that I do pursue a signature sound, a unique personal quality in my music, that it comes from my own heart, mind, and body.
I enjoy composing more than losing myself in sound design for sound design sake, so I don’t have the patient to spend time putting together something that is going to play by itself (that said, I do enjoy the sound design stage of a song when it is part of the compositional process, when I am designing with a purpose).
I am selfish: I want to feel proud that I made something with my own hands, with a lot of effort, and from within me not from within something else, and while I don’t broadcast to the world that, I like to know that it is there to broadcast when needed.
I like to challenge my creativity more than the machines I use. I rather make the effort of thinking of weird things to make than to think of ways to make something make weird things - that keeps my mind fresh.
I should have figured that, given the heavy intentionality of the Elektron sequencer- that there would be a greater portion of intention creators.
But im really curious to hear the perspective of people that like to dabble in generative creation(while I continue to put off producing this track im working on )
I wouldn’t call myself a generative composer but I have had a lot of fun with variations of generative sequencing in the Eurorack realm.
My favorite tool for this kind of thing is the Clank Chaos. By default, it spits out a bunch of random voltage. Not very useful. But you can quantize it to a scale, and you can adjust probability, and then you can scale down the overall range, and then you can transpose up/down, and change clock multiply/divide, and THEN you can grab a loop of whatever is happening and apply all of those same controls to your loop (range, probability, transpose, timing, etc. etc.).
So it starts totally random, but you have a lot of control over what ends up coming out, and a lot of ways to interact with the randomness. I can’t say that I’ve created any musical masterpieces with this approach but I have had plenty of experiences where I listen back and think, “Huh, that was pretty cool.”
I have a project specifically for exploring generative stuff, but it’s strictly my own creations (my own sequencers/instruments/fx). And I don’t feel like I would be comfortable using any premade systems for doing this stuff. Sequencer design is a fun creative pursuit in its own right. It’s not random, the intention is woven in to the structure of the process.
I have never been satisfied with algorithmic or random songwriting tools as far as structure, melody, harmony, etc. However I abuse the random pattern function on ABL3 extensively and like using sample and hold/noise to modulate things. I guess I’m kind of in the middle.
I usually live record a quick melody idea and build rhythm around that.
I think I do, but I’m often winging it and get lucky when things fit together. I’m usually just kind of jamming until I find a little phrase or something I like.
I like it on my little Freaq FM where I can set a scale and key and tell it just how much and how often to shake things up.
I’m not sure about the T-1 and it’s up for sale local for now. I like using the Euclidean sequencing for rhythms a lot, but if I do my own math I can approximate that with the Syntakt’s sequencer.
I’m not enjoying using T-1 for melody though. I’m often feeling like it’s missing MY sound.
I find I’d rather just come up with a melody in the shower or driving and try to play it into a synth.
I prefer composing on my own and mostly I’m just happy getting a feeling out when I make music. Bonus if it get family bopping through the house as I’m working on something.
I’m also feeling more compelled to write stuff with less generative aspects as a little rebellion against AI in ways.
That said, I love using probabilities and LFOs on Elektrons, but that feels different.
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