Composing music live with code
It’s another group week! Get organised early so that you can find a time to work with your ensemble.
You’ve created a few piece of music with Strudel now so you should have a good grasp of the basics. This week you need to go deeper, completing most (if not all) of the tutorials in the Strudel website. You will need to apply the synth design concept “modulation” in your group diary.
Think about all the aspects of a computer music performance: sounds, synths, notes, rhythms, sequences, patterns. All of these things can be distorted, warped, mutated and evolved over time and it’s your job to find ways to do that with your group. When you’re putting your group together, make sure everybody has a different role (although everybody should be modulating something).
Goals for this week#
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Dive deeper into the synth designs provided in Strudel. Create sounds with a synth you haven’t used before. To take your knowledge further, look at the CSound synth which is a more convenient way to define new instruments than just hacking the WebAudio API directly.
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Complete the Control Parameters and Signals tutorials (and others in the Pattern Functions list), to learn how to accomplish modulation of any parameter or sequence in Strudel. You need this knowledge to complete the diary focus on modulation.
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Explore the rest of the tutorials in the Studel Docs. We’ve
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Use flok.cc as a collaborative editor to create a group performance with your ensemble!
Resources#
The main resources for this week are the Strudel REPL and the docs. You should try to complete all of the music and sound design tutorials so that you have a grasp of the features that are available.
Here’s a few links you might not have explored yet:
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Strudel syntax. This might help to understand how to go from examples to your own code in Strudel.
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Tonal functions. Tonal has some built-in functions for playing chords and scales, something we really missed in Pd (and had to build from scratch).
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Input devices. Strudel has a handy way to use a game controller to control parameters, could be fun.
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The CSound FLOSS Manual is a great resource for learning CSound with examples within the web page.
Creative Notes#
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This is your second chance to work with your group. Think about your experience last time. Is there a way to collaborate more effectively and efficiently?
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It’s a good time to remember that we don’t put people in “boxes” in this course. Nobody is the boss in a laptop ensemble and the best performances will have big contributions from each member. Even if you think you are a beginner, we value your contribution. Beginner’s mind can sometimes be an advantage for creativity.
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Strudel makes it quick and easy to load up nice synths from an extensive list. Given that everybody has access to these synths, how are you going to sound “unique” in your group?
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Now that you’ve made a lot of computer music, look back at the examples of laptop ensemble performances from week 1. Do these performance make more sense now?