# I Think I Have A Crazy Idea... Talk Me Out Of It.



## Erick - BVA (Feb 8, 2021)

24/7 continuous live-stream of constantly evolving music. It would be automated. But... someone would need to believe in the crazy idea, and be willing to fund it. Too crazy? I know I can do it. Just don't have the money to start it lol 
But...it's scalable. I could do multiple genres over time if the initial venture pays off... (though, nothing too complicated). 
Start a kickstarter? Something else?


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## Stringtree (Feb 8, 2021)

Never too early for a big juice glass of wine. It's practically lunchtime, after all.

What, you mean like auto-generated sound? Or like radio with no commercials?


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## Erick - BVA (Feb 8, 2021)

Well, I would have a PC that's hosting a DAW that is playing a loop of music that I've programmed to evolve over time (even when it loops). It's a complicated process, and I don't really want to share too much about it lol. But for instance, I would have a VI like Unicord by NI playing an constantly evolving piece of music. No human necessary (after I program it).
It would also have no commercials...unless it gets ads or something. Not sure how that stuff works.
We're talking pleasant music, too. Nothing like that AI generated music. More like the generative music of Brian Eno.

PS - unfortunately (or fortunately?) I don't drink


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## Mikro93 (Feb 8, 2021)

You could dive into VCV Rack and program a generative patch!

You can also get a plugin that would be a VSTi Host inside of VCV


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## Stringtree (Feb 8, 2021)

@Tatiana Gordeeva just posted this:






Opinion poll: Is now the era of the quantum synth?


I ask you. Recently I read this article in Medium entitled I’m a Musician, and Here’s Why I’m Learning Quantum Computing. It discusses the use of IBM Qiskit, "an open source quantum computing framework for writing quantum experiments and applications", for music composition. I was sceptical to...




vi-control.net





It must be coming true. 

As someone who can be set into perpetual musical thoughts just by hearing something with my ears or in my head, I treasure moments of no music, just hearing the ringing of my tinnitus. 

But I do not doubt in the least we'll all be listening to artificial, or programmed intelligence in the future. A script can reach out, grab images, a voice over, and music to create entire video presentations. We don't even know we're watching them.


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## X-Bassist (Feb 8, 2021)

Erick - BVA said:


> 24/7 continuous live-stream of constantly evolving music. It would be automated. But... someone would need to believe in the crazy idea, and be willing to fund it. Too crazy? I know I can do it. Just don't have the money to start it lol
> But...it's scalable. I could do multiple genres over time if the initial venture pays off... (though, nothing too complicated).
> Start a kickstarter? Something else?


You can certainly put it out there. But I’m not sure how many subscribers you would have, and until you get to 100k subscribers or more places like YouTube don’t pay more than pennies a year.

Getting funding ahead of time? 😄😄😄😄 Not sure why someone would do this unless it is a government funding or, again, you had a lot of eyeballs on the channel. You would at least have to show the potential of the product aside from “I hardly have to put any work into it!”. That’s not a selling point for the investor. Give it away for a while (a year?) and see if you can drum up a following. I’m sure Brian Eno could. 😂

Unless you live in Canada. Then I’m sure you could apply for government funding.


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## Technostica (Feb 8, 2021)




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## creativeforge (Feb 8, 2021)

X-Bassist said:


> Unless you live in Canada. Then I’m sure you could apply for government funding


What was that? I'd love to know how!  Being Canadian and all...


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## givemenoughrope (Feb 8, 2021)

Erick - BVA said:


> 24/7 continuous live-stream of constantly evolving music. It would be automated. But... someone would need to believe in the crazy idea, and be willing to fund it. Too crazy? I know I can do it. Just don't have the money to start it lol
> But...it's scalable. I could do multiple genres over time if the initial venture pays off... (though, nothing too complicated).
> Start a kickstarter? Something else?


Not crazy at all.
Thinking about this lately quite a bit w all the new generative tools out there.
I never got too into the finer details of it but I think there were Eno and Cage ideas like this in the past, centuries-long installations, etc


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## Erick - BVA (Feb 8, 2021)

Technostica said:


>



The sound quality of this is amazing. 
However, I think it's lacking narrative or drama (tension and rest?). Which I guess is something that most generative music is going to lack. But I'm not sure I can match the sound quality of this, or the variety of the sounds. What I'm doing doesn't require a modular synth like this, but in order to reach the complexity of this, I'd need a dedicated machine (PC or MAC), with a lot more power than the one I have currently. 

Does anyone know what sounds sources are being used, or what's driving it? Because, well, I'd love to make music with those sounds haha, regardless of whether it's generartive or not. 
Is it all coming from the modular synth that's visible, or is that synth driving the sounds?

Regarding the amount of work involved. To make it work well, it actually requires a lot of programming, math and brainstorming. If you don't do those things, then it ends up sounding like trash, or like a PC just spit it out. Basically, the programming is a lot of preparation, but once that's done, then it's automated. 
Anyways.... I'm still learning and fine tuning the technique. I guess my mind is just going in a lot of different directions with the possibilities. 
Thanks for the input everyone!


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## Erick - BVA (Feb 8, 2021)

Yeah, forget what I said about the tension and rest. Who cares. But as far as generative music goes, it's as good as I've ever heard. Amazing stuff. I subbed whoever it is.


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## marclawsonmusic (Feb 8, 2021)

FWIW - if the computer is generating the music based on some code, I wouldn't be interested in the slightest (programmer here for my day job). 

But if the computers were AI and somehow understood 'the blues'... we might get something interesting.


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## colony nofi (Feb 8, 2021)

Really. Interesting. Stuff.

I've installed a couple of sound-sculptures around the world that use generative tools to create ever evolving soundscapes of both sound design and musical elements, that change depending on data input. As simple as time of day, sunrise sunset times (changing through the year), tide times, number of people in a building, if people are moving in or out of a building etc etc. Generative movement of the sound in space as well using immersive multi-channel systems. They work quite well. This kind of thing is great for museums where staff have to listen to the same things over and over again. Also gives audio easter eggs for people who have return views.

But its all been supportive - never that emotional. Very much using ideas generated after learning more about Eno and the like. I use massive MAX patches and some custom samplers inside max, plus SPAT. Its great fun - but also takes a LOT more time than the people generally have the money for. Its getting much easier though - and I've recently re-worked the max patch I wrote into something far more stable and more modular / can be adapted for different projects.

The modular synth stuff above is truly incredible. I don't care if its just some code - as there is compositional intent in the code - it is just another way of composing. Now weather its any good or not is subjective - but I'm incredibly impressed.


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## Macrawn (Feb 8, 2021)

Why not? I see these things on youtube that are like 12 hours of relaxing music things with like 1,000,000 views. All music that sounds automated kinda. Why not make a live 24/7 music bot?


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## David Cuny (Feb 8, 2021)

You're welcome.


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## Technostica (Feb 8, 2021)

Ordered chaos: a guide to randomisation, probability and generative music


Randomisation and probability tools seem to be everywhere these days. But why, how and when should we use them?




www.musicradar.com


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## wonshu (Feb 9, 2021)

Erick - BVA said:


> 24/7 continuous live-stream of constantly evolving music. It would be automated. But... someone would need to believe in the crazy idea, and be willing to fund it. Too crazy? I know I can do it. Just don't have the money to start it lol
> But...it's scalable. I could do multiple genres over time if the initial venture pays off... (though, nothing too complicated).
> Start a kickstarter? Something else?


Why not just stream it on Twitch 24/7 and see what happens?

PS: You do not need to ask permission.


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## Technostica (Feb 9, 2021)

I very recently came across a YouTube channel which seemingly live streams lo-fi hip hop endlessly, so it seems to be allowed to have a continuous live stream.


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## creativeforge (Feb 9, 2021)

colony nofi said:


> I've installed a couple of sound-sculptures around the world that use generative tools to create ever evolving soundscapes of both sound design and musical elements, that change depending on data input. As simple as time of day, sunrise sunset times (changing through the year), tide times, number of people in a building, if people are moving in or out of a building etc etc. Generative movement of the sound in space as well using immersive multi-channel systems. They work quite well. This kind of thing is great for museums where staff have to listen to the same things over and over again. Also gives audio easter eggs for people who have return views.


I am very interested in seeing/hearing examples of them, would you happen to have videos?

I agree it's more like soundscapes (but with intention). But still very intriguing.


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## cloudbuster (Feb 9, 2021)

Erick - BVA said:


> But... someone would need to believe in the crazy idea, and be willing to fund it. Too crazy? I know I can do it. Just don't have the money to start it lol


What's so crazy (or new) about it?
Generative music has been out there for many years already; I did some more scientific stuff in the lab back between the mid-90s and early 2ks but since then the tools, especially software have evolved a great deal and have gotten a lot cheaper, no need to mention that these days almost all of it can be done in the box.

BTW, some folks like Polarity, sort of a Bitwig 'guru' from Berlin are streaming their creative processes on youtube on a weekly basis and even better ... you can download most of the resulting project files (Bitwig) for free.

At this point there's no AI involved, but then this can lead you even deeper into the rabbit hole in search of i.e. alternative algorithms and since the most important basic I/Os (MiDi, CV, all sorts of hardware) are provided you can basically connect and control those generators with almost anything else out there.

Just some starting points ... tons more on the tube:









Grid Video Music - Bitwig Studio


Listen to great Bitwig Studio Grid patches. Various videos show what the Grid is capable of.



bitwig.community


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## ProfoundSilence (Feb 9, 2021)

Erick - BVA said:


> 24/7 continuous live-stream of constantly evolving music. It would be automated. But... someone would need to believe in the crazy idea, and be willing to fund it. Too crazy? I know I can do it. Just don't have the money to start it lol
> But...it's scalable. I could do multiple genres over time if the initial venture pays off... (though, nothing too complicated).
> Start a kickstarter? Something else?


why would you need money to start it?


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## Erick - BVA (Feb 9, 2021)

ProfoundSilence said:


> why would you need money to start it?


At a simple scale, no extra money required haha
But if I wanted to make it the best I could then it would require more money than I have (electrical costs, extra internet bandwidth... currently have a 1.2 terabyte cap per month, more expensive machine that can handle complex arrangements, or lots of instruments loaded at once...preferrably all SSD).
But.... thanks to the advice and encouragement of people on here, I probably will try something on Twitch or YT. At least try a 24 hour stream to see how it goes (and if my PC/Internet can handle it). I think I have 1 or 2 months of unlimited (courtesy) bandwidth lol
I'm still working on the details and if I'm going to do a test run, I'm going to need to make it good (for a good first impression lol). I've been experimenting. But I may even reorganize an Eno piece to go on repeat (would be loosely inspired by it based on only an analysis of the predominant notes/scale). I was thinking Discreet Music (main track). Probably slow it down, add more movement (in a way like the Azure video posted above).


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## Stanoli (Feb 9, 2021)

marclawsonmusic said:


> FWIW - if the computer is generating the music based on some code, I wouldn't be interested in the slightest (programmer here for my day job).
> 
> But if the computers were AI and somehow understood 'the blues'... we might get something interesting.


"Booted up this morning" DuDuuhDuDuh


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## Erick - BVA (Feb 9, 2021)

marclawsonmusic said:


> FWIW - if the computer is generating the music based on some code, I wouldn't be interested in the slightest (programmer here for my day job).
> 
> But if the computers were AI and somehow understood 'the blues'... we might get something interesting.


It's an interesting debate. Without humans, AI would be meaningless. It requires our discernment and curation (well, and our programming at the outset). I think to expect AI to write something with the depth and meaning that a human can is like playing the lottery. Still, maybe the AI can generate something you would not have thought of.
You (we) understand the blues, and can discern when, perhaps, AI gets something that approximates it - regardless of how it was created. And then maybe we can tweak it.
But I'm also working on generating music that is borne out of real, human performances, especially your own (as opposed to AIVA for instance). Yes, AIVA can analyzing your own music and generate something, but it never really measures up. I'm talking about using an authentic human performance, and then programming that to generate continuous, evolving music.


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## Erick - BVA (Feb 11, 2021)

This is a subtle example (below). But I used a piece I wrote and then generated a random performance from the original - but it kept the same structure. I could do it where it doesn't keep the structure as well. There's no modulation to speak of in this example. So it's as if it's literally just a reordering of the original performance.
So right now I'm kind of figuring out how to continuously modulate over time so that the performance will keep changing (even change keys and such). I'd say within a week or so I'll give that 24 hour live stream a go. I know I'm not really doing anything new here. But it's exciting to me because I'm just learning about this stuff.

Original 
Automated Reordering of Performance (with different VST as well)


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