Hello everyone, I"m studying PD, and doing by myself some experimental exercises. Well, in this exercise that I made, the idea was to create 3 midi chords, and I created a random object (random 3) , in order to play one of those chords:

If random object send 1, then play the first chord, if random object send 2, then play the second chord... if random object send 3 then play the third chord...

The problem is when I launch to start, all the chords is playing.

Another question is about create a table, with a secuence of a lot o numbers, and how to loop that table of numbers, I mean (for example) a table with [ 1 2 3 1 1 2 1 2 3 1 2 2 1 2 3 1 3 1 2 2 2 2 1 3 3 1 3 1 3 1 2 ], I'm looking play all those number ( that will be a chord depending of the number) in that sequence.

I added my example patch..

Thanks a lot for your time.

Cheers.

www.pavelenzi.virb.com
www.myspace.com/nonabit

http://www.pdpatchrepo.info/hurleur/Conditional_Test.pd

ok then.. i've got another question.

this thing works pretty well, although its unfinished.

The problem i am having now is that i would like to be able to use chords with different numbers of voices. right now it is set up to use 3 voices and that works pretty well. using different voices doesn't really work right now because of the way higher octaves of the arpeggio. I've set it up to do chords with 4 or 5 voices and they work fine, but i'm not sure how to set it up to handle chords with a variable number of voices. I'd like to give it the ability to take 8 voices.

In the patch, after it unpacks the chord, it populates number boxes with the voices that come in, when changing to a chord with 3 voices from one with a higher number, the boxes that are unused stay at their previous values. If i could figure out how to reset them to 0, i could use booleans to do the switch... but i don't know how to do that.

any ideas?????

http://www.pdpatchrepo.info/hurleur/arper.pd

Nobody can help me?
'Ndèmo fioj...no ste far 'e pìttime... (in venetian "C'mon guys, don't play hard to get!"
Let's think freely... Image the bone in 2001 Odyssey: a primitive sees a simple object, the bone...but only after a hunch, he realizes that you can add a function to the simple object...so object + function = instrument!
Back to Kubrick: in modern time, the bone becomes the spaceship for 2 reasons:

1. the bone and the spaceship have similar shape
2. all technology is based on the primal act of adding a function to an object, the act of transform a simple object into an instrument...the bone and the highest technology share the same nature: man is man's wolf!
   Ok, so the spaceship in the "modern" bone. This is an answer! Kubrick's answer.
   What could be the porno-movie's answer? Mmm... 1) similar shape... 2) to transform an object into an instrument... I don't know, let's image by yourself!
   What about Disney's answer? 1) similar shape 2) from object to instrument: perhaps the answer could be a timpani mallet that strikes kettledrums in Fantasia!
   So... Chopin's Berceuse...
   I'm asking to you: which are, in your opinion, the modern electronic/electroacoustic processes that match with that Chopin's variations processes in Berceuse?
   Let's take it as a facebook test! Do it. I need your help, seriously.
   Here there's a little analysis of Berceuse...please, try to image an answer for every item described below...
   BERCEUSE/bars
   a) 1-2 loop
   3-6 theme (subject)
   c) 7-10 counterpoint: 2 thematic lines (countersubject + answer)
   d) 11-14 theme "boxed" in a repeating module built like a mirror of intervals from first bar of theme (ascending 4th, descending 3rd); then "bachian" episode
   e) 15-18 theme as acciaccatura on 5th deg
   f) 19-22 fast quadruplets on intervals from theme's 1st bar (4th and 3rd), then on chromatic scale, then on 3rd only
   g) 23-26 3rd now in harmonic distance, moving in triplets on his inversion (6th); then chromatic scale
   h) 27-30 harmonic 3rd "enlarged" to 6th (6/3 detached chords with a note transposed by octave up&down)
   31-34 harmonic 3rds (chromatic + repeated, then chromatic + A pedal like bars 15-18)
   l) 35-38 chords like crystals (moving, inverting, pressing...revealing "reflections" of the melody); then A pedal again but higher, with diatonic intervals
   m) 39-42 detached 6thes moving on the inverted intervals of theme's 1st bar (now desc. 4th, asc. 3rd); then 6thes on chromatic scale
   n) 43-46 descending "sundry" scale (major+minor); then trill; then arpeggio on tonic chord + repeated 5th deg; then arpeggio on dominant chord + repeated 5th deg; then detached moving built on theme's 2nd bar in inversion (B, C, E become B, A, F); then finally detached 3rds-and-6thes on chromatic desc. scale
   o) 47-50 "2nd" theme
   p) 51-54 triplets with a "memory" of the 1st theme (A, B, D, C, F...the notes in bar 10 first-half)
   q) 55-58 "divertimento" on tonic chord
   r) 59-62 "divertimento" on dominant chord
   s) 63-70 1st theme "interrupted"...almost a "notation in fade-out"

I saw the term "tetrad" on the internet, although have never seen anybody using it throughout my 6 years of academic life. In case of tonal music, simply saying 7th or added chord would be enough to mean 4 note chord since they are named after the fourth note added to a triad, such as Major 7th, Dominant 7th, min add9, Maj add#11, etc. Similarly, saying 9th would immediately recall a five note chord; 11th - 6 and 13th - 7 note chord.

In other cases, like, quartal harmony, atonal or micro-tonal music, it's the safest to say simply "4 note chord", "5 note chord", "12 note chord" etc.

@domien said:

... However,
now after half a year of doing pd, i notice i'm again looking to implement some of that horizontal
approach again in pd. E.g. currently i'm looking at solutions to schedule chord progressions. For
sonic experiment i guess the "flow"-like nature of pd is perfect, but when using it to create
a form of (replicatable) song it isn't always instantly obvious.
Domien

Yes this also is the feeling I got. But look, for example, at what Andy is doing in his songs: the use of
a master timer that on a pre-scheduled basis outputs a set of notes in a chord, then you
do whatever you want with these: feed an instrument with the chord, play a sequenced melody etc..
The freedom you have with this approach (which to me is not yet natural) is big..

@domien said:

The next two months i'm going to record a
(demo) record together with my (Reaktor based) friend for our Ziggy Electric project
(in the hope to gets us gigs during the summer). As soon as we're done, i'll send you a copy.
Domien

This would be very nice! Thanks!

Alberto

Thanks for that - I managed to work out these things by random clicking. If I hadn't been so interested in Pd then I wouldn't have persued it because the interface/docs do not give an easy entry to making the first sound (which is easy, actually, but I couldn't have known that).

I think I came across Pd before, couldn't get a sound out of it and gave up. Maybe if the docs were improved then we'd have many, many more users!

Just a thought. Hopefully this forum post might help someone.

My attempt : This Is How To Start (Linux version : v0.1) :

1 At a command prompt type pd
2 From the top menu : File | New - will get a new window, called a patch
3 Put | Object then click anywhere in the new patch window and type osc~ into the box, then click anywhere outside the new osc "object"
3 Put | Object again and this time type dac~ into the box and click outside
4 Put | Number and then click outside
5 Click on the middle of an object to move it around if you like
6 At the bottom of the osc~ object is a short thick line. Move your mouse to this and the curser will change to a circle, then click and drag the resultant line to the short thick line on the top of the dac~ object.
7 Do the same with the Number (bottom short thick line) to the top of the osc~ box (the leftmost one).
8. Edit | Edit mode - select the toggle to be off - or cntrl-e
9 In the parent window (the first one that appeared when pd was run) click the "compute audio" button
10 In the patch window select the Number box and move the mouse upwards - this selects the frequency of the oscillator. You should hear a sinewave with the frequency controlled by the Number box.

Is this right??

Cheers!

Caesura

I've been getting into writing patches that generate music all by themselves, using mathematical
rules that apply quite nicely to music theory. I've made a few rhythm patches that make nice cross
rhythms using metronome division and delays (with values derived from multiples of the master
metronome), and i'll post these too if anyone is interested.

In this thread I'm showing off my "Mauritz Escher like Chord progressions" patch.
Screenshot:

Mp3: http://responsible7.googlepages.com/zenpho_escher_pd.mp3
Patch: http://responsible7.googlepages.com/zenpho_escher.pd

First some basic music theory:
(skip this if you're comfortable with chords, 7ths, and inversions)

A major scale is constructed of 8 notes, with the "root" note doubled at the 8th note.
For the key of C major (all the "white" notes on a piano) the names and numbers of the notes in
the scale of C-major are:

Name, Number:
C, 1st (root)
D, 2nd
E, 3rd
F, 4th
G, 5th
A, 6th
B, 7th
C, 8th (remember the root is doubled at the octave)

A triad is constructed of the 1st, the 3rd, and the 5th notes in the scale.
A SEVENTH chord is constructed of a triad (notes 1,3 and 5) PLUS the 7th note in the
scale. So a C major 7th is note 1,3,5,7 or C,E,G,B.

Up until now we've been describing "standard" voicings of the chords, in other words, the notes
are played so that the root is the lowest pitched note, the 3rd is higher, the 5th is higher
still, and the 7th is the note just below the octave of the root.

At the risk of sounding redundant, "octave numbers" after the note name help clarify which octave
the note is to be played in. To play a C major 7th on the third octave, we would write:
C3,E3,G3,B3. To play it an octave higher we would write: C4,E4,G4,B4.

"Inversions" of chords re-order the pitches of the notes, but still play notes with the same
"name" as the 3rd, 5th, 7th etc. For example:

C3,E3,G3,B3 is a standard C major 7th...

...and G2,C3,E3,B3 is an inversion. All the notes are there (C,E,G,B) but they are in a different
order to the normal "Root, Third, Fifth, Seventh" arrangement. In this case, we say that "the
fifth is in the root".

Okay so now we know what a major 7th chord is. Lets deal with chord progressions.

Now imagine playing C3,E3,G3,B3 and removing the "root" (the C3) from the notes played,
we have a chord that reads "E3,G3,B3" - we were playing C major 7th and now we're playing E minor.

*THIS IS A VERY IMPORTANT STEP* Moving from C major 7 to E minor sounds "natrual" because the
notes that occour in C major 7 ALSO occour in the E minor.

Now lets make this E minor chord a 7th...

We've said before that a 7th chord can be constructed by playing the 1st, 3rd, and 5th notes, PLUS
the 7th note in the scale.

The scale of E minor (a flavour of minor) is:

Name, Number
E, 1st (root)
F#, 2nd
G, 3rd
E, 4th
B, 5th
C, 6th
D, 7th
E, 8th (octave)

The 7th note is "D" so we add the D note to our E minor triad to make E minor 7th.
E minor 7th is therefore: "E3,G3,B3,D4".

We can extend this E minor again, removing the root, working out the new scale for G major, adding
the 7th to make G major 7th, and again, and again, and again... but if we do - we keep moving
*UP IN PITCH* and spiral off the end of the keyboard.

HOW THE PATCH WORKS

Okay, so what my patch does is to take the idea of generating new 7th chords over and over,
but to play inversions of these chords so that the notes stay inside a single octave. If the
"root" note is in the 3rd octave, C3 for example. Then when I move to E minor, the D4 is
transposed to be a D3, to keep within this octave range.

Due to the fact that there are 12 semitones in an octave, and notes that fall outside the octave
range will wrap around to be an octave lower. The maths for generating the new chords basically
involves taking each note in the current major 7th chord and adding two semitones to each note in
turn.

Now our terminology could cause confusion here, because there are "notes in a scale" and "notes in a chord"... So I'm going to define some notation to show when i'm talking about the notes in a
chord.

For example:

A C major 7th has the notes C3,E3,G3,B3.
Note-1-in-the-chord is to be defined as chord_note_1.
Note-2-in-the-chord is defined as chord_note_2.
Note-3-in-the-chord is defined as chord_note_3.
Note-4-in-the-chord is defined as chord_note_4.

chord_note_1 has the pitch C3.
chord_note_2 has the pitch E3.
chord_note_3 has the pitch G3.
chord_note_4 has the pitch B3.

It is important to be clear about the idea of "pitch", "chord_notes" and "scale_notes" because
because chord_note_3 has the pitch "G3" and scale_note_3 of C major which is the pitch "E3".

Back to the procedure for generating new seventh chords.

We generate a major 7th to begin with.
C3,E3,G3,B3.

We add 2 semitones to chord_note_1 to get "D3", and we leave the other notes alone.
Our chord now reads: D3,E3,G3,B3.
Which is an "inversion" of E minor 7th.

This time we add 2 semitones to chord_note_2 to get "F#3", and we leave the other notes alone as
before.
Our chord now reads: D3,F#3,G3,B3
This is an inversion of G major 7th.

This time we add 2 semitones to chord_note_3 to get "A3", we leave the other notes.
Our chord now reads: D3,F#3,A3,B3
This is an inversion of B minor 7th.

This time we add 2 semitones to chord_note_4 to get C#4...

*BUT C#4 IS OUTSIDE THE OCTAVE 3! So we TRANSPOSE it down to C#3*
Our chord now reads: D#3,F#3,A3,C#3
This is an inversion of D major 7th.

After my patch modifies all 4 chord_notes, it moves back to chord_note_1, and adds another
2 semitones... over and over.

Eventually we get back to C major 7th again, but on the way we move through a variety of different
chords that evokes very interesting changes of moods.

Want to try playing with it?
Mp3: http://responsible7.googlepages.com/zenpho_escher_pd.mp3
Patch: http://responsible7.googlepages.com/zenpho_escher.pd