
In B-Flat - sdenton4
http://www.inbflat.net
======
peterjmag
This is one of my all-time favorite things on the internet. I was so inspired
by it that I did a sort of half-formed "installation art" piece using it for a
college class back in 2011. I projected the site onto a wall, hooked up some
speakers, and prompted people to touch any of the videos, but I didn't explain
anything else beforehand. When someone touched one of the videos, it would
start, and when someone touched the same one, it would pause — just like a
large touchscreen.

It's amazing what you can create yourself with this, but imagine what it's
like when you have a large group "composing" it together, and then
collectively deciding when to end it (or not!). Watching people go "ah ha" and
then starting to communicate wordlessly to create their own piece, unique to
their particular group, was so rewarding.

In hindsight, I wish I'd recorded it! (And if I were to do it again, I'd
definitely want to get in touch with the creators and get their permission
first.)

~~~
PascLeRasc
It'd be funny to record it and then add that as a submission to the site.

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cardamomo
This appears to reference Terry Riley's _In C_ :

> In C consists of 53 short, numbered musical phrases, lasting from half a
> beat to 32 beats; each phrase may be repeated an arbitrary number of times.
> Each musician has control over which phrase they play: players are
> encouraged to play the phrases starting at different times, even if they are
> playing the same phrase.
> ([https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_C](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_C))

~~~
sdenton4
Indeed; the FAQ gives a shout to Terry Riley.

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maroonblazer
This is a great example to use when people claim they don't possess musical
talent. Or believe that the only way to enjoying creating music is going the
traditional route of studying an instrument.

Grab a guitar or piano and Garage Band and lay down a track with just one, two
or three notes. Then layer on top of that another track with one or two of
those notes and a new third one. Rinse and repeat. You're almost guaranteed to
surprise yourself.

~~~
telesilla
>people claim they don't possess musical talent

I firmly believe everyone has musical talent, it's a spectrum more than an
on/off switch. It can be fostered though there are cases where someone is just
always is gonna sing out of tune (but hey, are they having fun?)

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nlawalker
I imagine this was discovered via Kotaku's writeup of the game Gorogoa, posted
the other day
([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15931495](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15931495)),
where the game's composer cited it as an influence.

Gorogoa is definitely worth checking out if you like creative things like
this.

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runeb
Reminds me of Kutiman, an artist who made a full album of mashed-up YouTube
videos like these

[https://youtu.be/tprMEs-zfQA](https://youtu.be/tprMEs-zfQA)

~~~
karlshea
Thru-you was absolutely fantastic even just on its own, but the fact that it
was all just samples of work from random people on YouTube made it completely
amazing.

It's definitely worth a listen, the whole album is very solid and there are
lots of different musical styles (track 3—I'm New—is my favorite). All the
tracks are listed at [http://thru-you.com/](http://thru-you.com/)

~~~
ok-repl
He also:

Never changed the original keys

Tried not to use popular videos

Did the whole thing in Vegas Pro (iirc)

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acobster
Absolutely wonderful.

I had an idea that I have never acted on (yet) to create in-c.net, which I
imagined as a fully randomized performance/arrangement of the original Riley
piece. This feels much more at home on the internet though. I love that it's
all just YouTube videos. Amazing job.

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djsumdog
If you're near San Francisco, their Museum of Modern Art had an amazing
exhibit with like 15 projectors each playing a different artist from a large
piece called The Visitors. I'm not sure if it's still on, but if it is, it's
totally worth seeing. It's really amazing:

[https://www.sfmoma.org/publication/soundtracks/ragnar-
kjarta...](https://www.sfmoma.org/publication/soundtracks/ragnar-kjartansson/)

~~~
kirubakaran
I was there last weekend and it was still there.

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tomduncalf
Wonderful. The end result was totally unexpectedly beautiful! The "spoken
word" part
([https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=35&v=w5IERp2OdJs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=35&v=w5IERp2OdJs))
makes it really feel like a proper track.

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transcranial
I recently discovered this awesome presentation on generative music:
[https://teropa.info/loop](https://teropa.info/loop)

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jahbrewski
Another awesome project by the same composer:
[http://www.markermusic.com/](http://www.markermusic.com/)

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pan69
I love this. I'd say it needs two features though;

1\. Record your composition and share it through a URL. I imagine that when
you click "record" it starts a timer to capture when you play/pause a specific
sound.

2\. Have a "Random" button that randomly plays sounds indefinitely (probably
no more than 5 or so at the same time).

~~~
tallies
Honestly I feel like adding social sharing features and randomization sort of
misses the point of the art piece (or at least what I got out of it). The
takeaways I got were: literally anyone can create or arrange beautiful music,
music doesn't have to be made by traditional means or a process, music doesn't
have to be predetermined, and improvisation can be a part of any stage of the
creation process. The actual soundscape a user creates is entirely secondary
to the experimentation they do to get there. With no instruction besides 'play
these in literally whatever way you want,' I think those additional features
might change the focus to 'randomization as a musical tool' and 'how can I
create the coolest soundscape?" If I was linked to the project via someone
else's premade composition I would have had an entirely different experiment.

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drdrey
I discovered this yesterday in this story:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15931495](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15931495)

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whiddershins
I wanted to hate this as being a gimmick but instead love it so much.

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zumu
I had fun trying to beatmatch these.

Got me thinking if one could build a site / tool to aide with beatmatching
youtube videos. Would be a fun side project.

~~~
Kiro
Can you even beatmatch these? They don't appear to play any coherent rhythm or
uniform tempo. They will however create a beautiful soundscape regardless of
how you time them.

~~~
whatshisface
Over time, music has become easier to jam without higher organization.
(Classical -> Jazz -> Ambient Soundscapes) Over time, machine learning has
been climbing up the higher-organization staircase. (image statistics ->
convolution with kernels -> CNNs). And then?

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baxtr
Great stuff, too bad it doesn’t work on the iPad :-(

~~~
vonseel
Or iPhone as far as I can tell. But it did lead to finding this
[https://youtu.be/w5IERp2OdJs](https://youtu.be/w5IERp2OdJs) which is sort of
amazing IMO :).

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fjallstrom
i love this so much

~~~
pimeys
Me too. Reminded me of some of the post rock stuff done in the early 2000's.

~~~
aoeusnth1
You might like hammock: shop.hammockmusic.com

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iamrecursion
This has some beautiful and magical synchronicities in it.

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chasing
This is gorgeous.

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exabrial
Please do one in Dm, the saddest of all keys

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intrasight
Was a thoroughly enjoyable distraction

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mromanuk
I love it!! incredible

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iamcreasy
What is B-Flat here?

~~~
thomasahle
It is a certain subset of seven notes (from the usual 12) known as a scale.
Using only notes from a single scale is supposed to make it easier to match
the music.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_scale](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_scale)

~~~
coldtea
> _Using only notes from a single scale is supposed to make it easier to match
> the music._

Supposed?

~~~
jdietrich
Accidentals (notes not indicated in the current key) are common in most styles
of music. It's not even mandatory to stick to the 12 notes of the western
scale, even in western music. We are attuned to hear notes in twelve-tone
equal temperament, but this is only one possible way of subdividing frequency.

Musicians playing in the English, Irish, African and American folk traditions
often use third, fifth and seventh notes that are substantially flat relative
to standard western tuning. Barbershop quartets and other acapella ensembles
tend to use just intonation rather than equal temperament. Arabic musicians
use a tone system with 24 subdivisions per octave; their scales (maqams)
habitually employ the neutral second, an interval that exists halfway between
the western major and minor second.

Music theory is a useful explanatory framework, but it isn't a wholly accurate
representation of musical practice.

