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Swarm Theory Applied to Music

Posted by timothy on from the fire-ants dept.

JoeCotellese writes "There is an article in Discover magazine about computer scientist/musician Tim Blackwell and his Swarm Music software. This software creates improvisational music based on models of swarming and flocking. The observation was made that interaction among musicians is interdependent and yet independent and this dynamic parallels flock dynamics. Computer generated music has been around for a while but according to his web site, this project was the first application of swarm theory to music. Sample MP3s are available on his website."

14 of 26 comments (clear)

  1. Quantification of Determinism in Music by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It would be interesting to analyze this new music using iterated function systems as described in the seminal work by Meloon and Sprott. The method characterises the organization of the music which may, or may not, occur in this new music generated by 'flock theory'.

  2. MP3? by manual_overide · · Score: 2, Interesting

    All I found were real audio files.

    --
    If bad puns were like deli meat, this would be the wurst
    1. Re:MP3? by jpsst34 · · Score: 4, Informative

      You have to look for the (mp3).wav file. (I don't get it, either.)

      --
      How are you going to keep them down on the farm once they've seen Karl Hungus?
    2. Re:MP3? by divbyzero · · Score: 2, Informative

      I can explain the concept of MP3 in a WAV file.

      MPEG Layer 3 Audio is fundamentally a compression algorithm, not a file format. While it is most often used with the particular set of headers and packaging that make up an "MP3" file, it does not have to be.

      Microsoft WAV files can contain audio in any of several dozen different formats. The most common format is uncompressed "PCM" audio, but by setting the right flags in the header, various compression schemes can be used instead. One of the more recent compression algorithms to be supported in WAV files is MPEG Layer 3.

      Tada!

      --
      But my grandest creation, as history will tell,
      Was Firefrorefiddle, the Fiend of the Fell.
    3. Re:MP3? by Yokaze · · Score: 2, Informative
      A minor correction: Mpeg Audio 1 Layer 3 is a encoding scheme, not a compression algorithm. It may tightly coupled with the compression scheme, but it is not bound by it.
      From the MPEG 1 Audio FAQ

      It does not standardize the encoder, but rather standardizes the type of information that an encoder has to produce and write to an MPEG-1 conformant bitstream as well as the way in which the decoder has to parse, decompress, and resynthesize this information in order to regain the encoded sound.

      That is, why the quality differed (differs?) greatly between various encoders (Fraunhofer, Xing, LAME, ...).

      MPEG is stream based. The file is devided into frames, each having its own header. Those headers are necessary in order to discover a frame and to identify the type of the frame in the data-stream.
      --
      "Between strong and weak, between rich and poor [...], it is freedom which oppresses and the law which sets free"
  3. Douglas Adams would be proud! by hdurdle · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Fantastic! The main character in "Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency", Richard MacDuff, is a programmer whose current project is converting numerical data into sounds. He discusses this in some mathematical detail at times. And MacDuff has written an article on the relationship between music, mathematics, and beauty, and which gets quoted extensively.

    1. Re:Douglas Adams would be proud! by Drakon · · Score: 4, Informative

      He discusses this in some mathematical detail at times.

      he specifically mentions the conversion of a flock of birds to sounds ... :-)

      On a side note... that link should goto: http://www.iblist.com/book.php?id=252
      here?

      SUPPORT THE INTERNET BOOK LIST! SUBMIT A BOOK! :-)

      --
      Buttsex.
  4. Similar Project by mattlary · · Score: 5, Informative

    Al Biles from RIT has been working with genetic algorithms to do jazz solos.
    Here's a link to information on his genetic algorithm, GenJam.

    -Matt

    1. Re:Similar Project by mivok · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Wow.. that sounds amazing, especially considering its computer generated. So now I have to tell everyone that a computer can not only beat me at board games, but it can improvise better than I can as well :(

      Admittedly, jazz is a lot more random than other styles, and the chords for some (all?) of the songs were predetermined, but still, its the first computer generated music I've heard that didnt sound 'weird', unlike the ones from the toplevel article here, parts of which sound like they would make really good intros/backings to a tune, but needs something to make the music more melodic (I guess that where the GA comes in).

      I'd be interested to know how many generations it takes for most of the tunes, and what fitness function he used (or if it was just.. listen to several and pick the best few).. guess its reading time :)

  5. but is it music? by Spudley · · Score: 2, Funny

    Good grief. That was the strangest set of sounds I've heard a computer make since I tried playing around with the POKE command too close to the C64s audio addresses.

    --
    (Spudley Strikes Again!)
  6. No one has mentioned.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    No one has mentioned "Flight of the Bumblebee" yet? Precedent has been established in the union of swarm and music.

    1. Re:No one has mentioned.... by oever · · Score: 2, Informative

      Flight of the Bumblebee is a fine piece of music by Rimsky-Korsakov, especially in Christian Lindbergs version on trombone. Unfortunately for your karma, bumblebees do not fly in swarms.

      --
      DNA is the ultimate spaghetti code.
  7. UCSD's modern music department by Goldsmith · · Score: 3, Informative

    UCSD's music department offers an undergraduate computer music class. I took the class and we did some swarm based music. In fact, as a final project in the class, I wrote a program to produce music based on fusion plasma simulations in a tokamak (my job at the time), which contains similar algorythms.

    These are not especially new ideas.

  8. Sounds like... by no_opinion · · Score: 2, Funny

    I listened to the audio and found the music to be loosely structured with a unique interpretation of rhythm and an interesting take on the importance of melody and harmony. In other words, IT SOUNDS LIKE CRAP!!!