Algoraves: dancing to algorithms | Hacker News Reader

Algoraves: dancing to algorithms

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28 pointscjauvin14 comments

Quick-sort with Hungarian (Küküllőmenti legényes) folk dance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywWBy6J5gz8

Bubble-sort with Hungarian (“Csángó”) folk dance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyZQPjUT5B4

Not sure if weird or amazing.

I feel awkward just watching it. But hey, if it's fun more power to them.

I went to the algorave in Brighton. Was the recommended field trip for a Generative Creativity modules im taking as part of my degree. In my opinion the spectacle of coding IS as intrinsic to the performance as the musical output is.

I dont think it really does it justice to compare it to more traditional DJing/controllerism. Generally the kind of music from livecoding is qualitatively pretty different.

What degree/uni, may I ask?

Computing and A.I at Sussex - Just about to graduate. Really enjoyed it.

This looks like a (rather cheesy) repackaging of the experimental electronic music scene. It's not significantly different to what people like Autechre have been doing for decades (several names on algorave.com are from that scene).

Looks a bit cheesy, but neat idea. What makes this different from DJing? You still need someone to control the flow of the music, whether the person is 'live coding' or switching knobs to a synthesizer.

I guess not at all, except that algorithms are probably more powerful in a certain way that controllers/mixers/etc cannot achieve.

Of course, "algorithms" (to be honest I don't really know what is happening in the video) and using "traditional" DJ tools aren't really fair comparison -- they're totally different. With DJing the virtue is in the DJ's manual abilities, his technique (among many other things). In this case it's in the programmer's ability to automate a soundsystem.

I should note that modern DJ software is very advanced in the algorithm department though...perhaps the algorave approach is the quintessential hacker mentality of playing with the technical nitty-gritty, whereas modern mixing software remain rather closed to the DJ (an attempt to emulate DJ hardware, I guess).

Edit: whoops, looks like the "hacker mentality" is the whole point. According to http://algorave.com/about/

"These days just about all electronic music is made using software, but with artificial barriers between the people creating the software algorithms and the people making the music."

To be honest, it kinda reminds me of the chiptune, fingerdrumming, controllerism deparment. When you DJ, your main job is to match two beats up so that they don't conflict, everything else (like scratches or effects) is soundactic sugar.

It's not coding the program, it's making them cross compatible.

I'm not clear on your point (the video shows music improvisation, not DJing), but "soundactic sugar" is fantastic.

I'm not sure of the point either now. It was kinda late at night to be fair.

Its very different from DJing. Instead of controlling music with algorithms, you are _create_ music with algorithms on the fly, so to speak.

For example, you might define a sine wave oscillator, and control it with a markov model that holds chains of possible notes. Then you integrate this with other processes and variable and so forth.

If you are interested, check out the Supercollider language, Its great fun!

http://supercollider.sourceforge.net/

Exactly. If you'd like to try it yourself without devoting MANY hours to Supercollider, try [ChucK](http://chuck.cs.princeton.edu/). Unlike DJing there are no samples or external gear, but "real-time synthesis, composition, and performance".

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