Barryvan » Music

TrackPerformer update

Barry van Oudtshoorn — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 03:05:18 +0000

I’ve added in some really exciting new features to my TrackPerformer project, as well as three new performances: We Three Kings, Carol of the Bells, and Joy to the World.

Filters

It’s now possible to add filters, or effects, into the processing chain. These filters can be applied before any performers (pre-filters) or after all performers (post-filters). At the moment, the included filters are:

FPS: Calculates the average framerate across the performance, optionally displaying it in a DOM element.
Grid: Draws a grid to the canvas. The grid may be a simple intersection grid (points), or lines. Both the X and Y axes may be independently configured.
Pick: Probably the most interesting (and processor-intensive) part of TrackPerformer. The Pick filter will randomly swap a pixel with one of its neighbours. It’s used at full intensity on both We three Kings and Joy to the World, and, when toned down a little for Carol of the Bells, provides a softening, organic effect.

I’ve got some ideas for more filters down the track… The only difficulty is keeping performance acceptable: manipulation of the canvas pixel by pixel is quite slow in current browsers.

Performers

There are a couple of new performers, and some minor updates to some of the existing ones. The Oscillator performer, in particular, is rapidly becoming the most flexible and useful of the performers.

There’s a new ShimmerGrid performer, which is great for adding texture and movement to the entire canvas. You can see it in action particularly well on Joy to the World.
The Swarm performer can now draw its particles as knots (like the SignalTracker), as well as as dots.
The Oscillator now has the ability to draw sustained notes, and to increase the longevity of notes. Take a look at Carol of the Bells to see these new options in use.
Notes can now be filtered based not only on their pitch, but also their velocity (volume).

There are a couple of other changes here and there, but these are the main ones.

We Three Kings

The three new example tracks are all taken from We Three Kings, my new Christmas remix album. Why not go and have a listen?

TrackPerformer

Barry van Oudtshoorn — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 13:05:15 +0000

TrackPerformer provides a visual stage for your music, using HTML5 canvas and audio. On that stage, performers “play” the instruments in the music visually. In other words, it’s a visualisation system for music, but based on the notation (the abstract) rather than the audio (the manifestation).

Essentially, you take a piece of music, convert it into a format that TrackPerformer understands (JSON), describe how you want it to be performed, and then watch! You can, of course, write your own performers.

Before going any further, let’s see it in action. The music is “Colony”, a new piece that I wrote about a week ago.

Note: You won’t be able to view the performance linked above in Internet Explorer, due to its over-aggressive script-blocking: the scripts served from GitHub have the wrong mime-type, so IE won’t let them run.

Take a look at the project on GitHub to see how it all fits together. TrackPerformer itself resides in the “Source” directory; in “Examples”, you’ll find the performance of Colony; in “Utilities”, there’s a JavaScript macro for Komodo IDE/Edit that will help you to translate copied-and-pasted OpenMPT pattern data into TrackPerformer’s JSON format.

You can find more information on the TrackPerformer wiki, including an outline of the format, and some basic instructions for getting started. I’ll be adding more information to the wiki over the next few days, and I’ll post updates here too.

Let me know what you think!

Conflagration

Barry van Oudtshoorn — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 11:28:40 +0000

I’ve been meaning to write a piece in this idiom for years. It’s an industrial/orchestral hybrid. I don’t know why, but I always find this style of music fun, notwithstanding its occasional heaviness.

More of the usual Native Instruments suspects at play in this piece: Kontakt, Massive, FM8, and Battery. All of them driven by OpenMPT and Xlutop Chainer.

(Download)

Conflagration by Barry van Oudtshoorn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Juggernaut

Barry van Oudtshoorn — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 10:01:44 +0000

A piece in the same vein as Fluorescent. My wife describes this piece as “dystopian”. I, of course, had to reply with this rather witty riposte: “Dystopia? I ’ardly even know ’er!”.

This piece is somewhat heavier than some of my other recent endeavours, but hopefully not too much so. In terms of VSTis, it makes use of the usual culprits: Reaktor, Massive, FM8, and Kontakt.

(Download)

Juggernaut by Barry van Oudtshoorn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Fluorescent

Barry van Oudtshoorn — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 10:38:39 +0000

So I’ve been playing a bit of Unreal Tournament 3 of late, and UT3 happens to have a pretty awesome demoscene-inspired soundtrack. I guess it was inevitable that I should would go down that path as well! This piece is the result. It gave me the chance to dust off some of my less-often-used VSTis; Reaktor, Absynth and Battery all get a look-in on this track.

(Download)

Fluorescent by Barry van Oudtshoorn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Frequency

Barry van Oudtshoorn — Fri, 27 May 2011 09:52:32 +0000

This track is, in many ways, a harkening back to my earlier compositions. Its structure is more straightforward, its arrangement is more natural and less synthetic, and it came about from a session in front of the piano. These elements form the basis of much of my earlier work, and, if I’m honest, they probably define my preferred method of composition.

Let me know what you think!

(Download)

Frequency by Barry van Oudtshoorn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Cascade

Barry van Oudtshoorn — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 00:37:27 +0000

This track is actually from a couple of weeks ago. I just never got round to putting it up here. It’s really a background track: something you listen to while you do something else. Part of the idea behind it was to make a melange of disparate “instruments”, and smoosh them together to make something that’s coherent. Let me know what you think!

(Download)

Cascade by Barry van Oudtshoorn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Piece-a-week: Marcato Potato

Barry van Oudtshoorn — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 00:49:07 +0000

And so we continue both the piece-a-week idea and the poor track nomenclature. This week, I wrote a piece that is quite ridiculously positive, but with a kind of twisted almost-dissonance running through it. Not particularly well-expressed, perhaps, but you’ll hopefully understand the meaning when you listen to the piece.

(Download)

Marcato Potato by Barry van Oudtshoorn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Piece-a-week: The subtle monkey

Barry van Oudtshoorn — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 23:52:28 +0000

This year, I’ve decided to try something new with my music. I’m going to endeavour to produce something each week, and put it up here for public consumption. The idea is that it’ll force me to write more music. Bear in mind that I can’t guarantee that what I put up will be any good!

So, to kick it all off, here’s a track I wrote in not very much time, entitled “The subtle monkey”. (Track nomenclature has never been one of my strong points.) Let me know what you think!

(Download)

The Subtle Monkey by Barry van Oudtshoorn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Emmanuel: God with us

Barry van Oudtshoorn — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 03:16:24 +0000

My wife and I have just finished our Christmas carols album, “Emmanuel: God with us”. On it, you’ll find brand new orchestral arrangements of ten great carols.

It’s available for digital download now at . You can listen to each of the tracks in full above, and decide whether or not you want to help support poor starving musicians like ourselves.

Each track is going for around $1 (or more, if you’re so inclined!), and you can pick up the whole album for $5 or more. You can also get your hands on a physical CD if you like — just let me know!