Home ... FAQ ... Music ... Software ... Forums ... Articles ... Contact

The Variegated Collection

MIDI Improvisation Tools for Atari ST

I was looking at posts from the Atari-MIDI forum when what to my wondering eyes did appear, but a upload notice of programs I have never heard of before. Whats more, they were algorithmic applications ( right up my alley). The author known as Jonathan then posted about it. A welcome set of programs to the TAMW collection.

These set of programs very much resemble Wolfgang Martin Stroh's Algorithmic package set of programs in that Wolfgangs programs were programed in GFA Basic as was this set.They are easy to use , yet give nice results. You could call them algorithmic players, as you can start them and just leave them alone and they will happily create thier own music! However you can change parameters with the mouse and other shortcut keys as you can interact with the program.

Below is an extract from the user manual which is provided in the ZIP.

Welcome to the Variegated Collection of tools for the Atari ST. These were developed in GFA Basic and are intended mainly for improvisational purposes, but could also be used to generate midi note information to feed into midi arpeggiators or the Cubase IPS, for example. As such, they contain no timing routines, cannot sync to midi clock or timecode, and are probably not as configurable as you might like. Sorry, but they do the job I wanted them to do, so never developed beyond this!
However, the basic source code is included in this package and so can be amended to meet you needs. If you intend to do this, please read the included README.TXT file for details.

Both programs were designed to be used in the studio or on stage where a group of musicians can see the screen for cues on what chords are being used, but otherwise use their ears to follow tempo, melody, etc. So you won't find bpm indicators here!
The programs can be left to do their thing or can be 'conducted' by someone using the mouse and keyboard.

Midi Madness

This program generates midi note data which splits the octave into thirds or quarters.

Move the mouse right/left to vary the range of pitches which are generated - leave it on the left of the screen for all bass notes, move to the right to include higher frequencies.
Move the mouse up/down to vary the duration of each note, and the note density - leave it on the bottom of the screen for slow, laid back styles, and move it upwards to get progressively faster.
Clicking the left & right mouse buttons will switch you between 3rds & 4ths, displaying a box around the chosen option.
Press keys 1-4 to change the key of the notes used.
Press the Q key to exit the program.

Chordy

This program generates midi note data which plays notes from the displayed chord progression. As it plays, a black dot moves across the screen through 64 positions, which can be likened to a standard bar in music notation.

Move the mouse right/left to vary the speed at which the dot moves - i.e. how quickly each chord is played.
Move the mouse up/down to vary the the note density - i.e. with the mouse at the top of the screen, the notes come thick & fast
Clicking the left & right mouse buttons will change the overall midi amplitude, but the effect is fairly subtle.
Press the spacebar (or any other key except Q) to change the chord progression.
Press the Q key to exit the program.

A couple of things to note - Note density & amplitude change instantly, speed only changes after the dot reaches the end of the line, whilst the chord progression (and exiting the program) only changes at the end of the progression (i.e. when all the displayed chords have been played). Pressing 'space' once during play is enough to trigger the new progression when it reaches the end of the current one.

Download variegated.zip

You can give feedback at midimadness@variegated.co.uk

www.variegated.co.uk