i’ve discovered a new method to creating randomized, creative commons-based music. wolfram tones will generate an entire composition based on variables you define in probably every musical style known to man. wolfram has been essentially compiling a database of all knowledge, ever, and it is being used to power a variety of applications, of which wolfram alpha is one. because i’m aware of the project and what they do, i’m fairly sure that they actually do allow you to create a composition in any style ever conceived, because each style, with its’ own unique scale and patterns, is stored in the database.
this track is my first experiment in wolfram tones. i created a composition in the “ambient” style and gave it 5 tracks. i played around with the individual instruments a bit on the site but after it sent me the midi file i changed them all in ableton, using the sampler tool to pull from some generated instruments i created out of loops from nine inch nails’ “beginning of the end” (which, since i have the bonus disk with the ableton tracks from yearzeroremixed, i had lying around). the result is dirty, and not very ambient (maybe if i changed the bpm to, say, 20, it would be more ambient), but it’s interesting, and i think i like it. i especially like some of the effects going on on some of the tracks.
at any rate, it’s a beginning, and possibly something that will pull me through the rest of the project. next step is making something more listenable, as this was pretty deliberately experimental.
[audio:track5.mp3]
i realized after completing this track that i had downloaded samples for track 4 but had not actually created the track. so i used this as an excuse to test my new wolfram tones experiment. this time i created a random hip hop track and took out the drums (i added in my own drum loop later). i used the samples i downloaded as the instruments. then i ramped up the bpm. the result is much more, i dunno, digestible? while still having a real experimental/glitch/tweaker ambience from the sampled instruments. not sure i’m gonna finish the album like this, but i definitely want to try a few more things before i call the wolfram experiment done.
[audio:track4.mp3]
since both of these were done in ableton, i’m going to include the full ableton tracks when i release the full album. i think it will be interesting with these because you’ll be able to see the creative process and all the effects i used.
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