For me, the challenge always is to find a good equilibrium in a patch between boredom and excitement, consistency and change, repetition and novelty, a harmonic and dissonant feel.
Does anyone have any strategic and practical tips on easing the quest for balance?
Yes indeed. I think the trick is mainly good generative sequencers, made with that balance in mind, by using e.g. probability. And might I advertise for a (IMHO) totally overlooked module - the ML Evolution. You make a very generative sequence by whatever crazy means, and then stick it into Evolution. It will then slow the rate of change down as much as you like, thus giving some regularity with some change, the amounts chosen by you.
Try this simple patch as an example:
Evolution-demo.vcv (2.1 KB)
Thank you for the recommendation! Yeah, ML Evolution is great and could use more attention. Being able to finely control the randomness and therefore the extent of modification of the source (from not at all to completely) is a real asset.
Meanwhile, I was wondering whether some graphical notation/representation of song structure could be beneficial for finding balance.
At its core, a track can be viewed as a combination of a ‘base’ plus ‘surprises’. The latter might for example (but not exclusively) include:
This probably is kind of mundane, but having a visual representation that may assist in ‘planning’ the track structure could also be elementary. Is anyone doing this?
Yes. Here’s an evolution of the ML Evolution patch. It sometimes throws in a ratchet. It also employs a base, static sequence (A), and then a surprise sequence (B). The “Parent” knob determines what sequence it will tend to fall back to and how quickly, the “Replace” knob determines how much and how fast the output sequence changes.
Evolution-demo2.vcv (2.9 KB)
