iterative music
  by Steve Gisby
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This web-based interface was developed by Steve and Tomas Gisby, as part of an on-going series of iterative pieces that Steve is composing. The pieces are created using pre-existing audio material, which is then run through a mathematical process that divides, reassembles and then superimposes five clips on top of each other. All of the pieces in the series share the exact same structure and duration, but each one uses different audio material.

The concept behind this interface is that anyone can upload audio material, select the exact clips they want to use, and the algorithm will then create a piece using the process as described above.

The resulting pieces are both predictable and unpredictable: freedom to choose what audio material is used, as well as the strict, logical nature of the process, is combined with no possible way of predicting how the music will sound, or any means of changing the audio material once the piece has begun. These ideas draw influence from Steve Reich who, in his 1968 article Music as a Gradual Process, stated that "[...] once the process is set up and loaded it runs by itself."

www.iterative-music.com had its first public performance at the Fifth International Conference on Minimalist Music at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Finland, in September 2015.

The album four iterative pieces, on which the interface is based, is available on Bandcamp, iTunes, Amazon and elsewhere.

Steve Gisby
At the top of the window there is a 'Play' button to start the piece, and a 'Stop' button to stop the piece and return to the beginning. The piece is design to be listened to in it's entirety, so there are no fast-forward or rewind controls. The 'regions' that the pieces plays back (the highlighted area) can be moved by dragging them with the mouse. While the piece is playing, these are locked and can't be moved.

Next to each of the 5 'parts' there is a volume slider control that can be used to adjust the play volume of each audio file. The 'magnifying glass' button switches the waveform display between a zoomed-in view (showing approximately 10 seconds of the audio file), and a zoomed-out view (showing the complete audio file).

There is a circular 'upload' button in the bottom right corner of each waveform, that allows you to upload your own audio files to use in the piece.

Coding by Tomas Gisby.

This site uses wavesurfer.js by katspaugh and dragscroll.js by asvd.
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