Generative psytrance

[Rotwang]

https://soundcloud.com/incompetron/revenge-of-the-eternal-anglo

 

Track and accompanying image made with Python. Let me know what you think.

[Watermint]

I haven't listened to much psytrance, but I really like this a lot. The only things I would change (and this might just be personal preference) is the make the bass a little more interesting in the beginning (maybe a touch of light reverb might even be enough); and I wasn't really a fan of the talking part in the middle of the song, though I generally dislike most talking parts in electronic music. But regardless, great job!

[Rotwang]

Thanks! I'll try your suggestion wrt the bass.

[flacid]

I mean this in the best possible way (because I love the game and the soundtrack) but some of this reminds me of streets of rage. I like when it gets going from 2:13 onwards. 

[Rotwang]

Cool, I'll check it out. Any particular track/level?

[bendish]

Like. 

 

Trance has the potential to be so much better than it is if it only got more f'd up. 

[Rotwang]

Like.

Thanks!

 

Trance has the potential to be so much better than it is if it only got more f'd up.

Not sure what you mean, there's no shortage of trance that's pretty mental:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1chZLe2kw0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26T92Och7-c

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qf2tUc3eegY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PP5GYPyn4v0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGV1Zrs0qvg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96QM3lk0UR4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMH5VZsvwPU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j74E1jvdMo8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkIHCYaqdSM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9t0f0hGPBRs

[Rotwang]

if you're doing generative stuff, you should make it an hour long, and really make it so by the end the variables are pushing it beyond musicality, so it really becomes crazy, if that's possible

At the moment there's still a lot of manual intervention involved in making tracks - the melodies, rhythms and parameters were all generated algorithmically, but it was necessary for me to choose which algorithms to put together, generate 8 or 16 bars of each part at a time and usually reject a bunch of results and refine the algorithms before the software output something I was happy with. The ultimate goal is to be able to press a button and have it spit out endless, fully-formed music, but I won't have reached that point for a while yet.

[Rotwang]

I never considered making music in Python.

It isn't a sensible choice of language for DSP, really - it's just the only one I know well enough.

 

Song sounds really cool.

Cheers.

 

Could I see some of your code? I'm pretty curious to see how this was made (I understand if you don't want to).

The software itself is twenty-two thousand lines of uncommented, undocumented code so there's not much point sharing it. I can post some code snippets to show you how it works though. I'll do so when I get back from work.

[Rotwang]

OK, here's some example code:

 

from noise import *

# A script is an object that wraps Python code:
func = script('''\
# Create a short stereo burst of white noise:
w = sound([white(1/f, tempo = 60) for i in range(2)])
# Create an oscillator that uses it as a wavetable:
o = oscillator(w)
# Create a sound with constant pitch and linear amplitude envelope:
x = o(f, d, fade(1, 1, 0))
''')

# Create a melody that uses the above script to render notes:
m = melody(func = func, tempo = 140)

# This is a generator that yields a sequence of durations according to a
# simple rule: starting with a duration of one beat, each duration has a
# probability of being split into two or three equal parts, each of which
# has a certain probability of being further split, and so on (subject to
# the constraint that the shortest allowed duration is a quarter of a beat):
def splitter(total, d = Fraction(1), divs = [2, 2, 2, 3], dmin = .25):
    ds = [d/n for n in divs if d/n >= dmin]
    for i in range(round(total/d)):
        if ds and random() < .4:
            yield from splitter(d, choice(ds), divs, dmin)
        else:
            yield d

# This is a function that returns a sequence of pitches. Pitches
# are chosen randomly, subject to the condition that each pitch
# must be related to the last three by one of the allowed intervals:
history = deque([0], maxlen = 3)
def constrained(f0 = C/4, allowed = {0, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7}):
    allowed = allowed | {-i for i in allowed}
    *ks, j = history
    pitches = {j + i for i in allowed}
    for k in ks:
        pitches &= {k + i for i in allowed}
    j = choice(list(pitches) or [j])
    history.append(j)
    return f0*2**(j/12)

# Generate a sequence of notes using the above
# two functions; get a new pitch every four beats.
t = 0
for d in splitter(64):
    if not t % 4:
        f = constrained()
    # Add a note with frequency f and duration d at time t:
    m.a(f, t, d)
    t += d

# Render the melody:
s = m.make()

# This is a function that generates an LFO parameter with random jumps:
def lfojump(f, d, phi = 3*pi/2):
    x = raw()
    while x.dur() < d:
        x.extend(lfo(f, .25/f, phi = phi))
        phi += pi/2
        if random() < .3:
            phi = choice(range(4))*pi/2
    x.crop(d)
    return x

# Apply a Gaussian filter with centre and width given by lfojump:
s.eq(gauss, lfojump(1/8, 64)*1000 + 1000, lfojump(1/32, 64, pi/2)*400 + 600)

# Have it stereo panned by another LFO:
s.env(sprofile(lfo(5, 1, .5, .5)))

# Echo:
s.echo(.75, 8, 2)

# Flange makes everything sound less shit:
s.flange(fade(1, 0))

# Add a kick drum:
s.metronome(kick())

# Normalise:
s.setmax(2)

# Write the result to a .wav file and play it:
s.play()

And here's how it sounds:

link

 

I don't actually write music in a text editor. There are a bunch of GUI functions such as a timeline, piano roll, widgets for drawing automation curves and the like. For generative stuff I've come up with a system of robots, each of which contains rules for generating pitches, chords, rhythms, parameters, effects and so on. So instead of the above code I'd have something that looks like this:

 

[Salvatorin]

This is brilliant

[o00o]

I don't buy the "written with python" story. The track has nothing you can't do easily in any daw without any python skills

[Rotwang]

This is brilliant

Thanks!

 

I don't buy the "written with python" story.

How about now?