Sure, 808 Day is coming. But enough x0x sequencers and simple step patterns. You need insane amounts of notes being spewed out of a pro 3D tool – clearly.
Andrew Lowell made this craziness a couple of months ago, but it just crossed my desk recently (thanks to artist Michael Tan). And yeah, it is a little bit like experiencing really advanced, futuristic black MIDI.
It’s interesting because you do get all kinds of 3D operations and simulation features in Houdini itself. (Houdini is the cousin to TouchDesigner, which we talk about a lot. I’m sure some Touch users have done things like this in that environment, too.)
The Houdini Music Tool-set (HMT) turns the most powerful 3D program into a MIDI sequencer.
Downloads, Documentation, and further tutorials can be found at:
github.com/andrew-lowell/HMT
It’s maybe not as evident with piano sounds, but this kind of thinking can break you out of the cookie-cutter effect of most music software – the visual and interactive idiom does have some impact on your music.
If you like this sort of thing, you should absolutely check the long-running tool IanniX. This graphical sequencer was purpose-built for visually arranging patterns, and it’s quite mature – not to mention has a lineage back to ground-breaking composer Iannis Xenakis.
But now I’m curious what people will make in Houdini. Do send in your results, please!