Nodal Comes to Windows

[pmc.skeeter]

Calendar Event: April 1, 2009

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Since its release about two years ago, the generative music software Nodal has attracted much interest (it is featured in this April’s Computer Music magazine) and has an enthusiastic following. It has now been released on both OSX and Windows platforms and is currently available for free. It is expected that significant developments to the software will be made this year and the development team is hoping to be able to make a number of updated releases during this time.

Interest in Nodal probably centres around the fact that the software enables sophisticated, or “deep”, generative approaches within an intuitive graphical user interface that is simple and easy to use. Many users say that the program can be learnt within a short space of time and that is fun, inspiring and is fascinating to use. Once a little experience is gained people come to recognize the rich possibilities that the network approach gives them. Nodal offers a wealth of compositional possibilities that enable users to explore transformations of musical ideas quickly and easily.

Much music has been made using processes such as looping. Nodal does this too, but with a number significant additions. For example, it is possible to have loops within loops. The musical diversity that is possible takes Nodal beyond from the concept of a loop into a territory that is more like creating maps of musical pathways with which musical possibilities can be navigated. Musical materials can be played forwards and backwards, recombined or played with different rhythms. All of these transformations can happen in real-time making it a rich tool for computer assisted improvisation.

In fact working with Nodal can be very similar to more traditional composition processes. Here a small musical cell might be created which is then developed, elaborated or transformed into new material. Seen in this way, composing does not necessarily involve making a string of new ideas but instead it is the exploration of different aspects of a single idea. By limiting a composition to a small number of ideas the music maintains coherence and a sense of unity. While composers have done this manually, and in some cases masterfully, Nodal enables the transformation of idea to be automated and extended to transformational processes that would be very difficult to achieve with pen and paper.

Related Links
Software downloads, tutorial and further information: http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~cema/nodal/

Demonstration of a live improvisation using Nodal:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbFwJB-YF_k

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[BobTheDog]

pmc.skeeter

You windows users should have a play with this I think it is pretty good.

[Neon Sega]

oo^ it's great software! the result sounds great even via GM-synth
I don't mean Nodal is top intuitive, but what's it do - it very inspirational
I'll use it a lot, since some main bags goes

[GaryRea]

Thanks, Skeeter!

Gary

[Wan]

I've played with it for a while and it is sheer joy, it's generating nice stuff i wouldn't come up with otherwise and i like to look at it running, it's very entertaining. It also catched the attention of my daughter, who usually isn't very impressed with sequencing, but this one just clicked with her:)

[BobTheDog]