Opusmodus / A musical reflection tool

 

At the beginning it should be noted that this is not a piece of music! I often try out new material in Opusmodus, test ideas, almost improvise with it. It is a good tool for me to check my idea, to reflect it, to change rules/ideas. A musical reflection tool.

 

Basic idea:
I would like to build a texture (based on a Pitchfield/Chord), which is structured by scales/arpeggia, should be played by a fender rhodes and two sine players. Each gesture should have a new pace (1/20 1/12 etc.) and a new dynamic, so that this texture has homogeneity on the side (through the chord), but is very precise articualted inside. The fender rhodes should and must be playable (= done by limiting the scales), sines can be "free" ...

 

Result:

What I get with this few code is a sketch, now I can refine my rules and conditions (chord/tempi/rests) in OPUSMODUS. Likewise, I can now experiment (if this works now) in Ableton Live on the timbres, which surely will have i kind of a feedback on my CODING in OMN. A kind of circular working process... a

 

At the end:

I will write it down by hand (sibelius) to be able to articulate even more precisely (like i want it) than the code. 

 

For the stage:

Coordiniaton will be done by click-track or https://polytempo.zhdk.ch

 

Have fun!

Greetings

André

 

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;; a function that generates a chains of 1/20 or 1/12 or 1/8 .. dependening on the lengths of the sub-pitch-seqences
;; ORD or REVERS (so that the "starttime" changes) by probp
;; no immediate reps

(defun gen-rhythms (apitchlist)
   (loop for i in apitchlist
         for j in (rnd-sample 100 '(1/20 1/28 1/12 1/8) :norep t)
         collect (if (probp 0.5)
                     (length-rational-quantize (gen-repeat (length i) j) :round (rnd-pick '(1/4 2/4)))
                   (reverse (length-rational-quantize (gen-repeat (length i) j) :round (rnd-pick '(1/4 2/4)))))))


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;; THE CHORD/INTERVAL

(setf intervals '(7 6 3 4 6 4 3 6 7)) ;; intervals for pitches

(setf n 20) ;; span for CYCLE (interval-rotation)

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;; LINES for FENDER RHODES (should be playable by humans)
(setf lines1 '(loop for chord in (loop for i in (gen-rotate :left intervals :type 'list)
                                         collect (rnd-sample 5 (interval-to-pitch i :start 'b0))) ;; interval-rotation (all possibiliies), interval to pitch

                     append (loop repeat n ;; n = how many cycles per pitch-constellation
                                  collect (progn
                                            (setf direction (setf direction (prob-pick '((0 0.7) (1 0.3))))) ;; preset by probp for SCALE or DOWN
                                            (filter-repeat 1 (if (= direction 0)
                                                                 ;; take 3 or 5 pitches from momentary pitch-constellation / if probp then UP
                                                                 (sort-asc (rnd-sample (rnd-pick '(3 5)) 
                                                                                       (rnd-sample-seq 5 ;; max in SPAN 5 pitches (for fender rhodes)
                                                                                          (ambitus-filter (ambitus-instrument 'piano) chord)) :norep t))

                                                               (sort-desc (rnd-sample (rnd-pick '(3 5)) 
                                                                                      (rnd-sample-seq 5 ;; max in SPAN 5 pitches (for fender rhodes)
                                                                                         (ambitus-filter (ambitus-instrument 'piano) chord)) :norep t))))))))





;; LINES for SINE PLAYER
(setf lines2 '(loop for chord in  (loop for i in (gen-rotate :left intervals :type 'list)
                                         collect (interval-to-pitch i :start 'b0)) ;; interval-rotation (all possibiliies), interval to pitch

                     append (loop repeat n ;; n = how many cycles per interval-constellation
                                  collect (progn
                                            (setf direction (setf direction (prob-pick '((0 0.7) (1 0.3))))) ;; preset by probp for SCALE or DOWN
                                            (filter-repeat 1 (if (= direction 0)
                                                                 ;; take 3 or 5 pitches from momentary pitch-constellation / if probp then DOWN
                                                                 (sort-asc (rnd-sample (rnd-pick '(3 5 7)) 
                                                                                       (ambitus-filter (ambitus-instrument 'piano) chord) :norep t))
                                                               (sort-desc (rnd-sample (rnd-pick '(3 5 7)) 
                                                                                      (ambitus-filter (ambitus-instrument 'piano) chord)))))))))




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;; GEN FENDER PART


(progn
  (setf fdr_1 (eval lines1))
  (setf rhy1 (gen-rhythms fdr_1)) ;; gen rhy based on the pitch-seqs
  (setf fdr_1 (make-omn :length rhy1
                        :pitch fdr_1))
  
  ;; rewrite/replace dynamics
  (setf fdr_1 (loop for i in fdr_1 ;;every gesture should have their own dynamics norep !!
                    for velo in (pick-norepeat 100 '(ppp p mf fff))
                    collect (omn-replace :velocity velo i))))
  

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;; GEN SINE PARTS

(progn
  (setf snr_1 (eval lines2))
  (setf rhy2 (gen-rhythms snr_1)) ;; gen rhy based on the pitch-seqs
  (setf snr_1 (make-omn :length rhy2
                        :pitch snr_1))  
  
  ;; rewrite/replace dynamics
  (setf snr_1 (loop for i in snr_1 ;; every gesture should have their own dynamics norep !!
                    for velo in (rnd-sample (length rhy2) '(ppp p mf fff) :norep t)
                    collect (omn-replace :velocity velo i))))


(progn
  (setf snl_1 (eval lines2))
  (setf rhy3 (gen-rhythms snl_1)) ;; gen rhy based on the pitch-seqs
  (setf snl_1 (make-omn :length rhy3
                        :pitch snl_1))

   ;; rewrite/replace dynamics
  (setf snl_1 (loop for i in snl_1 ;; every gesture should have their own dynamics norep !!
                    for velo in (rnd-sample (length rhy3) '(ppp p mf fff) :norep t)
                    collect (omn-replace :velocity velo i))))


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;; PUT IN AN 3/4

(setf snl (omn-to-time-signature snl_1 '(3 4)))
(setf snr (omn-to-time-signature snr_1 '(3 4)))
(setf fdr (omn-to-time-signature fdr_1 '(3 4)))


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(def-score sketch
    (:title "sketch"
     :key-signature 'atonal
     :time-signature '(3 4)
     :tempo '(132)

     :layout (list 
              (grand-layout 'fdr)
              (bass-layout 'snl) 
              (bass-layout 'snr)))

    (snl :omn snl
         :channel 1
         :port 9 )
    
    (snr :omn snr
         :channel 1
         :port 8)

    (fdr :omn fdr
         :channel 1
         :port 5))

;(live-coding-midi (compile-score 'sketch))
;(omn-list-plot (list fdr_1 snr_1 snl_1) :style :fill :point-radius 1)

 

Dear André,

 

Thanks for sharing your thougths and methods !

All the best !

Julio Herrlein

another sketch: now with a "global tendency" from scales/arpeggia to chords (and also with some structural projection - less random, more systematic). next: modify the FENDER-part (by code), so that it will be playable 😄

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Really great to see this. Precisely the sort of sharing of workflow ideas I was hoping we could use this section of the forum to showcase. I look forward to playing with some of this code!

 

I have a number of similar 'improvisatory' approaches that I will be posting at some point soon -  but at the moment I'm doing a complete overhaul of my VI/Reaper configuration and it's taking ages to do, so work with OM is currently limited almost entirely to new soundsets and instrumentsets.