My introduction to generating music 1988-1992
ROGUE was a program I worked on between 1988 - 1991 on my Apple IIe. The ROGUE BASIC program generated a text file that I converted into midi. Other programs that contributed to the development were rpg character generating codes, a program that attempted to create weather patterns that was in BYTE magazine, code for a Traveller game add-on that generated planets. From time to time programs in BASIC would appear in magazines like; BYTE, Creative Computing & Dragon. When the Lotto first showed up in Florida, I remember writing a BASIC program that would generate numerous random lottery choices based on previous drawings. These types of programs in BASIC all employed a RND (random) which conjured up numerous ideas as to how to generate notes.
If interested, select my KicKRaTT Journal link, found at the bottom of this post. On my KicKRaTT Journal you will find a segment of this code that I have held onto for years in the KicKRaTT Journal post ROGUE. I have gone through numerous hard drive and disks, moved around alot & thrown a zillion disks away since. This portion of the program's list is all that remains of my early attempts to generate music using an Apple IIe. This generative music process started with a BASIC program (not shown here) which would randomly chose a scale from 10 scales of difference that I entered into it's data strings. The second BASIC program, ROGUE, would generate the midi notes based off the notes from the chosen scale determined by the first program, and would create this one large text file or print out. After parsing the file in Lotus123 on my MacSE30, and adding a velocity & length to each of the generated notes. I would be able to then convert the text file to a midi file with a C program I wrote in the Macintosh Programmer's Workshop environment. Passport's MasterTrax, the sequencer software package I used back on the Se30 could open the resulting 4 track midi file created the ROGUE program. This rather cumbersome 3 program system of mine worked very well in generating a midi score & removing the long hours having to recompose or to reenter mass midi notes manually from a text file or line printer output that I periodically did in testing the modules of my program. The versions of ROGUE that actually created the midi notes for the ROGUE tracks, employed many GOTO & GOSUB routines that branched off of this portion of the program that I have included in the KicKRaTT Journal post "ROGUE". Sub routine branches that would create melodies, store drum patterns, and calculated chords into the data strings, to be used routinely in the compositions process. Once in MasterTrax, I made numerous edits to carve the song out of the mass midi note blitz and remove out of key notes that had gone rogue. The end result was 4 tracks of midi in key with one another. Whether it created a moving piece of music is best left to the listener. I was proud that as a completely generated composition, the four tracks of midi notes stayed in the key of the chosen scale for the duration of the song and didn't somehow shift in some part of the conversion process. That was all the effort back then.
PROGRAM: ROGUE
- Description: Random Music Generating Composition Program
- Date: November 22, 1990
- Language: Apple BASIC
- Location: Clearwater Florida
The ROGUE tracks that I have uploaded to SoundCloud
Ducks Pond, 1989.
Ducks Pond was generated 4 track midi sequence created on a Apple IIe, using a program I developed called ROGUE. The midi file was run using Passport's MasterTrax. The sound module's used; a Roland Sound Canvas & Yamaha FB01. Ducks Pond was recorded on a 80s Yamaha recording console with TEAC reels, master to cassette. Duck's Pond was my first completed generated composition. While the FM tones fall dead in comparison to what was available back then, I do feel that my composition does contain a rather bombastic imagery & some rather intriguing melodies created in the generation. The Chaos exists in some of the audio carpet moments where all four of the tracks are in key, but yet wandering off to their own conclusions. Like four different bugs forced together in a box. It also shows the uncontrollable side of a generated score, that IMO is the watermark to a real genuinely created generative score. Where the played scale of notes just wanders off into routines or next note choices that evoke questions to the listener.
Swamp Gas, 1991.
Swamp Gas was a generated 4 track midi sequence created with ROGUE. The sound module's used; a Roland Sound Canvas, Yamaha FB01, emu procussion module & the Korg WaveStation. Recorded on a TASCAM 1508 mixer & TSR8 reel to reel. Alesis Reverb.
The Beginning
* KicKRaTT; MUSIC, ALGORITHMS, DOCUMENTS, GRAPHICS & LOGOS: ISNI# 0000000514284662 *
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