Section8
Cipher
So first of all, what the fuck is "Aleatoric Music"? There are a few different meanings dpending on who you talk to, but basically it's "music with an element of chance".
And what the fuck does that mean? Basically that instead of an absolute and incontrovertible composition, there are random elements. I've seen a few variations on what people consider to be aleatoric music.
One way is to mimic something in the world and plot it on a score without consideration for musical context. An example I saw was a guy who plotted notes so they resembled spots of chewing gum on a footpath. Basically anything that has a fairly linear pattern could be "adapted" to music in this way.
Another is improvisation. Just playing whatever comes into your head. Obviously you're likely to get a fairly musical result out of a talented soloist, and something altogether unpleasant from someone who can't play an instrument.
A third way is to use various mechanical/electronic means, like twiddling knobs on an analogue synth. The classic example would be Pete Townshend's grand plan for performing his Lifehouse Project - taking quantifiable characteristics from an audience member, using those values to set parameters on a synthesizer and seeing what plays. It never really came to fruition, but he did collaborate to create an internet version of the concept.
And that's the one I'm really thinking about as I write this, because potentially, it has applications in gaming to create bizarre and unique soundscapes. There's even potential for using synthesised audio to convey gameplay data, and minimising the visual requirements of a user interface.
So I have a few ideas of my own on tying various synths and patches to the context of the game, but I'm wondering if anyone has seen it done at all before, and especially interested if someone has seen it done to good effect. I'm also curious to see if anyone believes there's any advantage to this system over a professional human composer.
I think there's vast potential. As long as you stick pretty close to the basic "rules" of music, you can avoid anything too cacophonous. And in general, my favourite game soundtracks are generally the very ambient ones that tend toward musical minimalism, instead favouring the texture of instrumentation and dominant rhythm - Silent Hill, Quake, Thief 3, Fallout - and I feel pretty confident you could get some decent results, and definitely something creepy to have in the background of a horror themed game. I'm just not sure about mood.
"Instrumentation" and rhythm are easy, so it would be pretty simple to establish a set of abrasive sounds and fast tempos for "adrenaline pumping" moments, and some nice slow, warm pads for quieter times, and it's easy enough to switch between major and minor keys for a broad "happy/sad" division, but the nuances that separate an evocative piece from an emotional indifferent piece aren't quite so simple to pin down.
So what do people think? Anyone have examples of music derived from game context? Anyone have good examples? How much free reign should a procedural generator be given? Is the idea preposterous? Should I go and listen to Deionarra's theme to scrub such impure thoughts from my brain?
A (multiheaded) penny for your thoughts.
And what the fuck does that mean? Basically that instead of an absolute and incontrovertible composition, there are random elements. I've seen a few variations on what people consider to be aleatoric music.
One way is to mimic something in the world and plot it on a score without consideration for musical context. An example I saw was a guy who plotted notes so they resembled spots of chewing gum on a footpath. Basically anything that has a fairly linear pattern could be "adapted" to music in this way.
Another is improvisation. Just playing whatever comes into your head. Obviously you're likely to get a fairly musical result out of a talented soloist, and something altogether unpleasant from someone who can't play an instrument.
A third way is to use various mechanical/electronic means, like twiddling knobs on an analogue synth. The classic example would be Pete Townshend's grand plan for performing his Lifehouse Project - taking quantifiable characteristics from an audience member, using those values to set parameters on a synthesizer and seeing what plays. It never really came to fruition, but he did collaborate to create an internet version of the concept.
And that's the one I'm really thinking about as I write this, because potentially, it has applications in gaming to create bizarre and unique soundscapes. There's even potential for using synthesised audio to convey gameplay data, and minimising the visual requirements of a user interface.
So I have a few ideas of my own on tying various synths and patches to the context of the game, but I'm wondering if anyone has seen it done at all before, and especially interested if someone has seen it done to good effect. I'm also curious to see if anyone believes there's any advantage to this system over a professional human composer.
I think there's vast potential. As long as you stick pretty close to the basic "rules" of music, you can avoid anything too cacophonous. And in general, my favourite game soundtracks are generally the very ambient ones that tend toward musical minimalism, instead favouring the texture of instrumentation and dominant rhythm - Silent Hill, Quake, Thief 3, Fallout - and I feel pretty confident you could get some decent results, and definitely something creepy to have in the background of a horror themed game. I'm just not sure about mood.
"Instrumentation" and rhythm are easy, so it would be pretty simple to establish a set of abrasive sounds and fast tempos for "adrenaline pumping" moments, and some nice slow, warm pads for quieter times, and it's easy enough to switch between major and minor keys for a broad "happy/sad" division, but the nuances that separate an evocative piece from an emotional indifferent piece aren't quite so simple to pin down.
So what do people think? Anyone have examples of music derived from game context? Anyone have good examples? How much free reign should a procedural generator be given? Is the idea preposterous? Should I go and listen to Deionarra's theme to scrub such impure thoughts from my brain?
A (multiheaded) penny for your thoughts.