late that night i asked for something fast. a melody generator built from odd algorithms, notes that come out of delays, cuts and reverb. that became GROVE·77, a melody garden: plant a seed and it grows a line with echoes that climb.
i called its output garbage the same night. it’s still on the shelf.
at five in the morning the better idea showed up, and i had a working name for it right away: PERK-ATMO-NOISE. you give it a kick or any sound, and a bpm. it works out roughly what key the sound is in and grows a groove around it, mostly out of noise: percussion, rolls, an atmosphere that can be long or broken or stuttering, noise one-shots thrown into random places. the only law is 4/4. what comes out is stems.
i wanted the page dark and iron, glowing and almost black at once. my words were: when i open this page i should feel cold and scared. i sent a pile of PX bakes as the mood.
by morning i’d dropped that. forget the visuals, the function is great and there isn’t enough control. i wanted to cut the lows exactly as far as i decide. i wanted hats, open and closed, each one as its own stem. and one thing i wouldn’t bend on: nothing prepared in advance. the sounds come out of noise and out of the sound you gave it, because this whole thing is about sound design.
the session ended with me typing: push it and stop burning tokens, i need them for my job.