“Determinism” is an algorithmic music composition written in ChucK.

Algorithmic music with sounds synthesized from scratch and arrangements determined by controlled randomness.

Download:
.m4a (Apple Lossless)
.flac
.mp3
.ogg
.wav

All of the sounds were synthesized using basic techniques including FM synthesis and noise filtering. The soft ambient tone noticeable throughout the piece is generated using ChucK’s BandedWG instrument.

Much of the pitch and rhythm content of the piece is generated using controlled randomness with first and second-order Markov chains. The arrangement is determined partially by high-level aesthetic parameters that change throughout.

The piece explores the automatic generation of pop music, where the composer provides influence on a “meta-level” and the micro-level decisions are undetermined until the piece is generated.

Code

All code used to generate this piece can be downloaded here:

Colin-Sullivan_Determinism.tar.gz

To download:

wget https://ccrma.stanford.edu/~colinsul/sounds/determinism/Colin-Sullivan_Determinism.tar.gz --no-check-certificate
tar xvzf Colin-Sullivan_Determinism.tar.gz
cd Colin-Sullivan_Determinism/

Bash

To play the piece:

chuck ./lib/vendor/KnacK/lib/import.ck:./lib/vendor/KnacK/lib/ ./import.ck