The Polymeter MIDI Sequencer: Fazo Kanto @ckorda

Chris Korda | The Polymeter MIDI Sequencer: Fazo Kanto @ckorda | Uploaded July 2022 | Updated October 2024, 2 hours ago.
Polymeter is a free software MIDI sequencer for music that's in multiple prime meters simultaneously. Each track has its own loop length, and when the lengths differ, the tracks "slip" (or shift phase) relative to each other. This video shows Polymeter's user interface while it plays the song "Fazo Kanto" from my album "Akoko Ajeji." The song is simultaneously in 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, and 17. The tracks are shown looping independently, and the phase diagram in the lower right corner indicates convergences between the various loop lengths. The graph in the upper right corner shows the modulations, and it updates dynamically when tracks are muted or unmuted, a new feature in version 1.0.10.0. Each MIDI channel is shown on its own keyboard, another recently added feature. For more info: polymeter.sourceforge.io or victimofleisure.github.io/Polymeter

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$Plasmagon Plasmagon is an algorithmic choral piece. Its entirely a capella and has an ambient, environmental mood. Plasmagon was performed by eight samplers, controlled by custom software. It would be practically impossible for humans to perform it, due to its dynamic and rhythmic complexity. Plasmagon has three unusual qualities: it doesnt have edges, it modulates stealthily, and it times modulations by listening to itself. No edges means no sharp attacks or decays, i.e. all sounds fade in and out gradually, yielding continuous harmonic gradation instead of easily distinguishable chords. Stealth modulation means that the key only changes by one note at a time, and only when that note isnt in use by any of the voices. The listener is a type of sensory feedback that monitors the output and detects optimal conditions for a modulation. Plasmagon is generated by a combination of rules and polymeter. The polymeter consists of loops of differing lengths shifting phase relative to one another. Plasmagon uses fractional polymeter, i.e. the loop lengths arent integer multiples of a common meter as is usually the case. For this reason in particular Plasmagons phase-space (the range of variations before repetition occurs) is very large. Plasmagon was originally developed as a musical accompaniment for the authors geometric visualizer, Whorld (see whorld.org). In the original installation, the same polymeter loops that control the choral voices also control Whorlds parameters, resulting in true synesthesia, i.e. the viewer sees the music and/or hears the visuals. The progression is a cycle of neighboring keys, as follows: E major / A major / D major / E melodic minor E major / B major / F# major / F# melodic minor Timing of the first cycle (approximate): 00:00 E 01:30 A 02:20 D 05:20 Emin 08:00 E 09:40 B 10:30 F# 12:40 F#min 14:40 E Created in 2009 Note that the original Whorld visualization suffers from compression artifacts, so in this video it was replaced by a different visualization, created using a different open source software (also by Chris Korda) called Triplight (available at Github and Sourceforge).$