No Static at all.....more on Mixtikl

After viewing some videos and playing around with Mixtikl, I was enamored with the FM DSynth in Mixtikl - predominantly because I was a bit frustrated with the Partikl synth. The FM synth is predominantly used for drum sounds in Mixtikl but does let you put together some nice bell-like tones as this piece hopefully demonstrates.

Mixtikl brings up the question on what a performance or recording is. This software is geared towards "Generative Music" as popularized by Brian Eno quite some time ago. So was this effort creative or just music engineering? The process to make the piece involved programming a rhythm pattern, then putting in rules on just how that pattern evolved - how frequent a rest versus a note - what scale to follow - what probabilities for each note - which voices should follow other voices in the mix - should a track be leading or harmonizing with others etc. etc.

In many ways this is a programming project which is probably what I love about this tool. In other ways, such as the creation of every synth patch, the effort is somewhat creative and musical. Defining the rhythms is definitely more music than programs even if it is shown as a sequence of durations, velocities and pitches.

So art or science? Or just another annoying etude of mine? :)

In any case, I like the outcome and hope to do much more with Mixtikl in the future. Here is the piece:

No Static at all