notesdontmatter

For this masterpiece I have incorporated a combination of random and sequential number generating devices for the manipulation of mostly user selectable controllers in Reason. The new device has been integrated into my random note generator from week seven. The first one tackled was Xbendout, which I quickly discovered requires some restraining to prevent MIDI overflow situations. I have included the option of either Xbend or Standard pitchbend control or both at once for the user.

Next was the Modulation wheel controller. After foolishly creating eight different objects and making only subtle variations to their functionality based on controller representation, I realised I was wasting time and changed to a more generic MIDI approach. Sourcing a MIDI controller device list from the Internet was easy and I dumped its content into an UBU menu. This is simply routed to the ctlout device and allows the user to select which controller they whish to use. Of course it’s not identical to Reasons list but it’s a reasonable substitute for some sort of visual guide.

This approach meant that I could now duplicate the device as many times as was necessary and the onus would then be on the user to select the controller to route it to. This would have been a much smoother transition had I not used so many receive objects initially. They are now on my to be avoided unless absolutely necessary list. This has rendered the object patches a little cluttered at this stage, but I can work on cleaning them up later.

The data out put automation from the control station can be either sequential or random (individually selectable for each controller), and as a counter is used in conjunction with a metronome for streaming the numbers, the range of numbers that are output can be easily dictated.

User notes:

If no controller data is being received by Reason, you may need to manually click on the bottom UBU menu device for the controller that you are using. I have implemented a global initialisation feature to deal with this but it’s having a problem communicating with objects inside a bpatcher.

Below is a link to an MP3 of my newfound music tech virtuosity.


Click here to link to online folder containing zipfile of patch and an MP3 of its musical result.


Reference:

Christian Haines. ‘Creative Computing WK 6 – MIDI Information and Virtual instrumentation.’ Tutorial presented at tute room 408, Level 4, Schultz building, University of Adelaide, 4th May, 2007.

posted by David J Dowling @ 8:36 PM