My project is called boots & cats &&&, it is an algorithmic break beat generator written in ChucK with visuals written in Processing. Given a drum pattern and samples to trigger, boots & cats &&& will generate a 32x32 cellular automata universe, track high- and low-level features of the population, and map these features to events / parameters / routings / &c. in the algorithms driving the beat generator (all in real time), as well as using them to make decisions about reseeding the cellular automata universe and the drum pattern itself. Since algorithmic control of these facets of the drum programing is yoked to the complex (chaotic & periodic & static) evolution of the cellular automata universe, their own time-evolution is shaped and colored in an exciting / unpredicable / pleasing / creatively fertile way.
boots & cats &&& is not intended as a performance tool per se, but as an algorithmic collaborator to both automate and extend my creative interactions with drum programming. To this end, it is set up to output many channels of audio, such as the final mix, individual sounds (kick, snare, hi-hats) &c. as well as MIDI information to a digital audio workstation to be recorded (or to trigger other devices, i.e. a Roland TR-626 that I circuit bent) - allowing the composer to sift through the recordings and midi sequences and use them as a jumping-off point for further work (through selection, arrangement, further modification / fragmentation / &c.). The advantage of this approach is that the drum programming algorithms need not address every aspect of creative interaction with drum patterns; high-level compositional decisions remain in the domain of human ingenuity.
I'm very excited to be releasing a new album of electronic music (April 26, 2012): http://kurtjameswerner.bandcamp.com/. Almost all of the drum sounds originated in boots&cats&&&.
Old Examples are generated from this drum pattern (although
boots & cats &&& is set up to handle any 4-bar 4/4 pattern on a
16th note grid):