The Logic Off Topic list

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Hendrik Jan Veenstra" <h@...>
To: <logic-ot@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, July 12, 2002 12:31 AM
Subject: RE: [L-OT] Fractal Music



> That's not amazing, I think: music in general is highly structured 
> and non-chaotic.  Fractals, by their very nature, _are_ chaotic, and 
> so don't lend themselves that well to "automated composition".  All 
> imo of course.

I worked with a guy who did a LOT of research in fractal rendering
(in 4 dimensions no less!), and we created a soundtrack for one of
his animations that was based on IFS (iterated function systems).

It was an interesting sound.  He created a simple line of two or
three notes at the lowest resolution (so the total length of the line
was the length of the entire piece).  Then, each note in the original
line was replaced with a copy of the line, transposed to the note and
sped up so it fit in place of the note.  Continue this process until the
resolution is high enough to sound the way you want.

So, the form of the piece, the melodies, and the ornamentation
all had the same "shape."

It ended up sounding strangely Baroque, where the filligrees were
similar to the large-scale features of the piece.

This worked the best of any fractal-related music I have heard.
If people are interested, I can find and post what we created
(recorded using Cakewalk version 1.0!).

   -smeet