Generative patching can be a bit more restrained, if you want. Really, that’s one of the essences of generative patching, for me; finding that place between randomness and order that makes sense for the aesthetic you’re interested in. This patch is much more restricted than some of my other generative patches, and for that, it feels more like a composition than the others do.
The patch is composed of four voices, spread across the stereo field. Each voice is a sine wave, with its FM input fed by the output of its envelope-controlled VCA.
Two of the voices essentially act as drones; they change pitch in accordance with the changes in key, scale and base transposition, but they generally anchor the other two voices. They do, however, occasionally transpose, always in octaves, fifths and thirds, so that they reinforce the key (the patch moves between A# major and F minor).
The other two voices advance stepwise through the current scale. Except sometimes they are also transposed, and one of the voices does occasionally use random values to select its notes, rather than the stepwise advancement.
Each of the drone voices shares a trigger probability with one of the stepwise voices, so that they seem to respond in shifting pairs. The envelopes of all voices are modulated by the same LFOs, changing in length and shape over time, while each voice has its own LFO modulating amplitude (and so also modulating the intensity of its FM feedback loop).
The patch can random change speed, as well as the direction the notes are triggered in. It also random switches key, scale, and the base transposition.
Then everything is fed through high-pass filters to clean up the low-end, a ping-pong delay (home-brewed), and a plate reverb.
The end result is something that, as I said, feels much more “composition” than many of my generative patches. There are a lot of restrictions over what each voice does, but at the same time, there are also plenty of generative elements to keep it from repeating itself.
My album of generative patches: https://christopherhmjacques.bandcamp.com/releases
Also, I restarted my Patreon, since people have asked a lot about that, if you want to support the stuff I do (overly long livestreams, videos of trees, etc.):
