Radio 1 is an aleatoric composition.
It was generated through the Cakeawalk Pro Audio “extract rhythm” function performed on radio static that had been noise reduced numerous ways with various settings, which generated a rhythm in on a single note in a midi track. This was done many times and the result transposed and combined to give several “melodies” on a few midi tracks. Next I used these tracks to drive my synthesizer after programming various timbres and such, recording the sound on a corresponding audio track, which was then panned as I wished. The noise reduced version of the source is included in various places. Towards the end you get to hear the source material used to generate the “music”.
Contributors:
A cheap radio and an external LPT connected sound card to my 486SX laptop. The terrible reception inside the Amoco Research Center. Casio CZ-101 which is actually quite a good synthesizer – now taken apart for parts by a gentleman in the Boston area to whom I sold it after it died.
Inspiration:
All of the aleatoric composers before me such as David Cope with whom I had a exchanged a few emails about his work at the time and this composition. We met when I was searching for information on aleatoric composition. Here is an interesting article about David. http://www.miller-mccune.com/culture/triumph-of-the-cyborg-composer-8507/
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