What At All Is Generative Music?

What role does chance play in generative music, and are there different types of chance, and if so, how do I generate them with modular synthesizers?

Short answers:

Chance is one – but not the only – basic principle of generative music, and there are different kinds of chance (randomness), which I generate using networks of sub-patches.

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What are the ingredients for generative music, and how do the “kitchen tools” work, the tools I process these ingredients with?

Short answers:

The ingredients and tools are not THAT different from those of any other kind of music: a basic idea, inspiration, experience, taste, clever combinations of modules.

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Why are modular synthesizer systems so useful for producing generative music, and how do I get the most out of them?

Short answers:

… because they are extremely flexible. Generative Music lives from networks of dependencies, and modular synthesizer systems allow us to set them up.

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Does generative music always have to be ambient music? Or slow music? Or comfortable? Or dulcet?

Short answers:

No, not at all. Generative Music isn´t limited to any musical style.

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Do I really need special modules that are suitable for making generative music?

Short answers:

No, I don´t. But it´s comfortable to have some, and it makes the patches smaller and easier to understand.

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What is so special about Voltage Modular that it deserves a whole e-book trilogy only about making generative music with this modular system?

Short answers:

Because it´s inexpensive compared to hardware, the modules are sufficiently documented (some even excellently documented) – and it´s “sexy”.

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Why is it that generative music helps us understanding Albert Einstein?

Short answers:

Because there are quite a couple of simuilar principles at work here in the production of generative music as well as there in modern physics.

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How many modules do I need to make generative Music with modular synths?

Short answers:

Less than you might expect.

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Does a generative patch always have to run unattendedly?

Short answers:

No,it doesn´t. It depends on the producer/composer how much human improvisation is woven into the piece.

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Can generative music be more or less generative? Is there a kind of degree?

Short answers:

Yes and no. There might well be parts of the piece which are not generative, but composed down to the details. But when those parts are combined in a generative way, then we have already generative music. But ...

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Do “real world” goings on play a role in generative music? Which one?

Short answers:

Oh yes they do!

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Is generative music the most or the least human form of music?

Short answers:

Both can be true.

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Isn´t every modular synthesizer system potentially or even mainly a machine for creating generative music?

Short answers:

Potentially? Yes, it is. Mainly? No, it isn´t.

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Is generative music a genre, a style, a marketing term or simply a method of producing music?

Short answers:

It can be all of that, depending on the producers intention, as well as depending on what level of generative music I´m looking at.

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How to prevent John from falling asleep when he is listening to generative music?

Short answers:

There are three main precautions: structure, structure and structure.

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What do I really need to know when I want to make generative music with modular synths?

Short answers:

Only a surprisingly small amount of technical knowledge, nearly no knowledge about musical theory (even if it would help a lot), and a good knowledge about coffee.

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Why is Voltage Modular one of the best modular synth systems when it comes to making generative music?

Short answers:

See question η.

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Is there such a thing like “pseudo generative music”, and what and how could it possibly be?

Short answers:

Yes there is.

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Does the term “composing generative music” make any sense?

Short answers:

Yes, it does. Only that the process of “composing” takes place when I set up the rules which the system has to follow when generating “its” music.

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What are the specific problems that I meet when producing generative patches?

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… to decide how much and which of the sonic goings on do I want to be able to foresee, and how to achieve that.

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Is producing generative music an alternative to learning music theory?

Short answers:

No, these are rather different things.

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Is it possible to produce generative dance music (EDM)?

Short answers:

Definitely yes!

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What are the advantages that Voltage Modular has over other modular synth systems, and are there also disadvantages (which ones)?

Short answers:

See question η. And don´t forget: we have to own only one module of a kind and can doublicate it as many times as we want. Disadvantages? Well, we need a “strong” computer when the patches get larger and larger.

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Is there an especially close relationship between generative music and modular synths?

Short answers:

Basically not. Modular synth systems are extremely flexible and can be used to produce any kind of music applying a rather wide range of production methods. But it´s because this flexibility why e.g. randomness and complex structures of dependencies are so easily woven into a patch.

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Where is my own creativity (is there any at all?) when I “provoke” a modular synth to make generative music?

Short answers:

First in setting the rules. Second in working on timbre and sound. Third infinding the right proportions of all musical aspects …..

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Is generative music of any commercial use (or is the invention of the term “generative music” a merely commercial act itself)?

Short answers:

Sometimes the term is of merely commercial use, yes, that´s true. Some may say that´s a kind of misusing the matter. Generally spoken: any kind of music can be used to accelerate commerce.

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Does it make any sense to perform generative music live (and how may that possibly be done in an interesting way)?

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It definitely does make sense! The methods depend on the system we are performing with.

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Is generative music nothing else than musical pseudo-dadaism?

Short answers:

Ha! A strong question! And generative music can indeed be like that sometimes.

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What do generative music and minimal music have in common (if there is anything common at all)?

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As I mentioned before: Generative music is not limited to a certain musical style nor genre. But let´s not forget: minimal music is composed down to the details, whereas generative music isn´t.

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