Las Tortugas Comen Queso...

I’m currently writing my next EP, and this album is interesting inasmuch as the particular set of constraints I’ve set for myself this time involve using only generative techniques for the sequencing. That is to say that while I’ll be recording to and mixing from Live, there are no Live clips playing MIDI; all the hardware and softsynths are driven from generative methods created in Max4Live.

Simultaneously, I decided I wanted to finally learn Spanish, so I joined Duolingo, which is a very nice service. However, many (most? all?) of the learning phrases are generated algorithmically, and I’m left with the lingering impression that there is some synchronicity here. Or, in other words, the turtle eats cheese.

Now, you and I know that turtles don’t eat cheese. Or if they do, they probably regret it later. However, the algorithm that generates statements for me to translate in Duolingo doesn’t know that. It just does animal + verb + food. Thus, we get: las tortugas comen queso. On the one hand, the sentence makes perfect sense. If you actually saw some turtles eating cheese, you’d turn to your monoglot friend Javier and say “las tortugas comen queso” and he would no doubt be in full agreement.

On the other, you’re never going to do that. Because you most likely will live your whole life without ever seeing a turtle eat cheese. So the sentence itself, when used as an example of language, is correct, but ridiculous. This is largely the same thing with generative music, I discover. I was having a conversation with Matthew Davidson (stretta) about this via email earlier this week, and he pointed out that generative techniques probably best serve when they are just one tool in the musician’s toolbox. I, ever the purist, bristled a bit at this; when I set myself a paradigm for recording, I don’t do it by half measures, and the tracks I’m creating play by themselves, with zero input from me, and the resulting recording is already pre-mixed, even.

However, this methodology of mine, while crafty, usually results in a cheese-eating turtle. That is to say that my algorithms are choosing notes that are harmonically correct, but not necessarily something a person would play. I suppose this is the point of the exercise, but I was hoping for a more organic sound.

So my question is thus: what are your feelings vis-a-vis generative techniques? Are you like me, where it should be an all-or-nothing affair? Or is some subtle randomization to a hi-hat pattern or hand-editing MIDI output more to your taste? What’s some good electronic music that was created wholly generatively?