Track release: Sporadic Contemplation

I released a new track called Sporadic Contemplation! And you can listen to right here:

As something new, I experimented with using randomness for generating part of the song. In particular, I generated the chord sequences for the synth that you hear throughout the track. If you're interested in how that works, continue reading!

What I wanted was to generate random chords in the key of the song, F major. The first thing I added was the arpeggiator plugin, which I configured so it creates a single random MIDI node at a set interval. This note is then sent through the chord plugin, which adds additional MIDI notes in fixed intervals. That is, for any note it receives, it adds notes four, seven, and 14 semitones above it. This corresponds to adding a major third, fifth, and ninth notes on top. With these two plugins configured, I got random major-add9 chords in any key.

Next, I added some variation in the types of chords, because I did not just want major-add9 chords every time. I used the random plugin to transform each of the four notes from the chord plugin into a random note (with a 50% chance of keeping the original note). And finally, I used the scale plugin to force all four notes into the F major scale (by moving them to adjacent notes that fit the key).

And voila! I had a random sequence of interesting chords in F major.

The figure below shows the generative part of the plugin chain along with settings for each plugin.

With this setup, I then recorded a long sequence of random chords, listened through them and found a good section. I edited the section slightly, which was easy to do, as it was MIDI. Then I looped the section and I had the basis of my track!

Next up, I added a drum loop, found some choir vocals on freesound.org, recorded a guitar solo, and then called it a day!

And that's it. Let me know what you think of the track.

Until next time,

— Kasper