Pop-production as problem-solving

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 guys

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)

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 in the production)

programming as problem solving…

the problem:

write a no. 1 hit

music (n.)

a series of pitched “events” over time

dimensions of the domain ​

• time
• pitch
• loudness

parameterisation ​

• time (in beats), e.g. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8
• pitch (in MIDI note numbers), e.g. 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 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/patterns

computers/code are really useful for modelling/exploring this stuff

this is not AI, either

🤔

https://benswift.me