Automata generates pixel art all on its own. (Well, you do have to ‘seed’ it.) Press a button in a 6×5 grid on the first page (far left and right columns excluded), and a pattern will begin to develop. How it develops is entirely unpredictable, though, each time evolving differently. You can add more ‘seeds’ to increase complexity/density/color diversity (it takes many forms); you can remove ‘seeds,’ too, if you remember the grid buttons you pressed – once it starts it will keep going.

You can save the patch (and the pattern at that moment), but if you want to return to the start position, you need to load it in its default condition again.

The basic design is a multi-axis shift register. Pressing a grid button introduces a voltage at the sample and hold controlling that grid position. First, it will light up. Then, it will begin shifting — left, right, up, down. Voltages will add and subtract from one another. Complexity will spring forth. I thought it would be more predictable, or rule-based, than it is, but these automata are going to do what they’re going to do.

At the moment, it doesn’t generate any sound or note information; the former is likely to remain the case, due to CPU constraints (this patch uses ~200 modules), but I might explore different ways of using the grid to generate MIDI or CV information.

It does accept clock — MIDI and CV — and it generates clock — again, MIDI and CV — based on the refresh rate. If receiving MIDI or CV clock, the refresh rate on the first page will be overriden.

On the second to last page is a clock divider connected to the clock outputs; you can use this to run a sequence or time-based effect at a faster or slower rate than the refresh rate.