#Pop-production as problem-solving
Ben Swift, School of Cybernetics
National Youth Science Forum ‘19
#outline
- what’s a producer?
- modelling the domain
- crowdsourced livecoding
#what I’m gonna do
- learn a new song (by ear!)
- figure out how to turn it into code
- find a bunch of sounds which sound (approximately) like the recording
- lay down a vocal track (maybe)
- make the whole process make sense to you
all in 45 minutes ⏲
yikes!
#what you’re gonna do
- help me choose the song
- be kind when I make mistakes
- clap politely at the end (even if I flame out)
#I’m old…
#what’s a producer?
a producer is someone who makes songs happen
pop songs are characterised by:
- catchy hooks
- repetitive harmonic patterns (e.g. chord progressions)
- processed/synthetic sounds (lots of computers involved)
programming as problem solving…
the problem:
write a no. 1 hit
#modelling the domain
music (n.)
a series of pitched “events” over time
#dimensions of the domain
- time
- pitch
- loudness
#parameterisation
- time (in beats): 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
- pitch (in MIDI note numbers): middle C as 60, C# as 61, etc.
- loudness (0 is silent, 127 is super loud)
#extempore: a livecoding language
extempore is a programming language designed for musical livecoding (written by Andrew Sorensen and me)
don’t worry about the syntax — I’ll explain enough for you to follow along
#what did we learn?
pop music isn’t black magic — it’s a domain with lots of structure and patterns
computers and code are really useful for modelling and exploring this stuff
this is not AI, either
🤔