Straight from the new Google group set up by Peter McIlwain and crew at CEMA:

CEMA is pleased to announce that it has received additional funding to continue the development of Nodal. We are currently in the process of updating the current version, along with releasing a version that runs under Microsoft Windows. These new versions should be released around February 2009.

Further development of Nodal will continue in 2009, where we will move to charging a small fee to purchase an updated version of the software (Windows and Mac compatible). Fees collected will go back into further developments of the software. Updated versions will include technical support, a more detailed manual and tutorial guides. Please check back on this page throughout 2009 for updates.

This is exciting. I hope they figure out an easy way to sync this thing with my DAW… I highly recommend checking this out at the link below.

___________________________________

• More info on Nodal is here.
• The Nodal Google Group is here.

I love stuff like this.

It actually reminds me a bit of a program called Nodal inasmuch as the control counters in reacTogon function similar to the “nodes” in Nodal on first glance. Nodal however is software only and is a generative composition tool whereas reacTogon obviously has some hardware and its output looks much more deterministic.

Geez a small one would be a blast to have. I wonder if it could interface with my Wii….? 

______________________________

Previous blog entry on Nodal and comments from the programmers can be found here.

Synplant, Sonic Charge’s new generative softsynth, is friggin’ brilliant and well worth checking out. Depending on how you work, you will either find it inspirational or a tad frustrating.

• If you compose based on ideas inspired by sounds you come across (a synth patch inspires the beginnings of a track), then you will really dig what this plugin can do.
• If on the other hand, you compose by transcribing a tune already in your head (and you need to find the exact warbly bass patch you imagine in the song), then you might be a bit frustrated as it is not straightforwad to program such a specific sound.

The GUI and engine really reward  exploration, evolution, and refinement of a sound and provides an ability to tweak parameters (once you’ve “grown” a sound you like) to your exact liking if you so choose. It is a blast and very inspiring. Check it out. And btw: don’t even think about jumping into it without spending 10 minutes on the built-in overview/tutorial. You’ll save yourself a bunch of time.

cheers.

CDM featured a mention of Sonic Charge’s new generative softsynth Synplant. It has a very different sort of interface:

This will take some getting used to....

Peter Kirn over at CDM has been working with it and says the sound demos on the site “don’t do the product justice.” They do sound a mite “conventional” to my ears given the promise of the approach, but choosing sound demos for a product is tricky business…you don’t want to be too far out yet you want to give a feeling for the possibilities within the product.

There is a 3 week demo available from Sonic Charge’s site. The demo policy is pretty cool:

“For evaluation purposes you are allowed to try Synplant for up to three weeks with full functionality. The trial begins the first time you open Synplant in your host sequencer. Synplant then only subtracts weeks from the trial time when you actually use it.“

I am interpreting that last sentence to mean that you get 3 weeks of time using the plug-in as opposed to just three weeks of time from first launch. That is fairly cool (and very generous) if I am interpreting it correctly.

There are a few mac-based “pro-level” generative music programs out there: ‘M‘ by Cycling74, Nodal by Peter McIlwain [EDIT: as part of a team at CEMA], and Intermorphics Noatikl by the team who brought us Koan Pro some years back. I would add to this group Ableton Live and its ‘Follow Actions’ as this can create some very nice generative compositions if employed skillfully.

I am planning to take a look at each of these over the next few weeks and will post observations, walkthroughs and such as I get them done. If you have any experiences you would also like to share or contribute, please do so.