1st Max/Pd Uncontest
Hi folks!
Discussing the world's fate recently we decided to organize the event for Max/MSP and PureData
enthusiasts to exchange the experience. Being a big fans of trackers (particularly Renoise)
we very well familiar with tracker contest tradition, when a group of people make music together
from one little sample pack or with another limitations (for example with a tabu on certain tracker features).
This is a great way to exchange experience, but we don't like the competition basis of such events, as it
really hurts true fun in our opinion. Thus, we came up with the idea of the uncontest (you can draw the analogy with unconference)
where participants' works are not evaluated, but instead published online in the form of screencast or mix.
To participate in the uncontest, you just need to create a patch in Max/MSP or PureData and send it to us.
Being inspired by the Music from very short programs
we decided to introduce the following limitations on patches:
You should make one patch that will generate sound or music.
You can use any library provided that it is accessible online.
You can use any abstractions which comes with Max/Pd.
You can use samples if their length are less than 1 second.
Number of used objects should be less than 20.
Those include all objects like message, ezdac, UI objects,
abstractions, but not comments.Each operator in gen~ counts like a regular object.
If you want to use FTM, then you are limited to the 10 objects total
(because you can do a lot of complex things just with one ftm.mess.The following objects are not allowed to use: codebox, js, mxj.
To keep things minimalistic bpatchers (including BEAP, etc.) are not allowed.
If you wonder what such patch can look like, check out this video from one of organizers:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7nyCQFvez0.
Please pack your patch (with samples if used) to a zip archive and send it to the following email: pattr [doggy] oscii [dot] ru
Deadline: 20 July 2015.
Link to this information: http://pattr.ru/uncontest/01.html#english.
Good luck and have fun!
i love this :D hope to see good things coming out of it !
question though. Does one beap module count as one object, or one module already more than 20...?
Oh, we didn't think about BEAP and such stuff. I think, to keep things minimal, we should avoid BEAP. I'll add corrections to the info, thanks!
fair enough ! :)
Hi Raja,
Thanks for your interest!
I think we'll stick to a screencast format and will publish it at youtube, and it'll be there forever :) Of course, zip archive with all patches will be there too, on the archive.org for the time being.
greetings,
I like this idea a lot, but the length of the sample should be stated in the number of samples like: less than 44100 samples in stead of seconds
otherwise one could use a 192khz32bit sample and simply play it at lower speeds, not that i would care if someone does, but the rules are not clear here
I see the thinking of hacker here :) The rules were intentionally made loose, as we were trying to follow the strategy “allow as much as possible” and not “forbid everything”. Just imagine the list of rules which takes into account all possible caveats in Max!
I think it is OK if someone will find their own interpretation of rules that would formally fit in… or maybe will create hacks around them ;)
Hi. I don't quite understand the submission email. What's [doggy]? Is that @?
Hi
tell me to get lost; or tell me how to approach the following in Max (your links took me there):
Brendan
@Joel
Yes, it is “@”. In Russia we refer to this symbol as “dog” or “doggy” :)
@Brendan
I think @Raja just answered the question better that I could possibly did it. Those one-liners were just an inspiration to introduce such limitations.
@raja and @oscii
I should explain: I was very intrigued by the 'Reich-esque' musical output of those examples - simple input generating phasing/overlapping output. In response to the OP (and for other artistic reasons) I have been experimenting with the [rand~] object in Max, and I am hoping to submit a patch for this highly attractive uncontest. And as raja (and others) may attest, my maths chops aren't what they should be. Wouldn't know where to begin with bitshifting in gen LOL. So, while I absolutely take your points about those examples referring only to concision and economy, I would love to be able to generate such interesting structures using minimal "code". Such simple code is very very sexy, is it not?
I would guess that the key element in those examples is how the PCM synth responds to the putchar output? Is that just ascii code?? n00b!
FWIW, I'm tinkering with quantized modulator FM.
Brendan
Yeah, I kinda got the live-coding 'subtext' vibe from the OP too, although it's very much not explicit; again, very attractive stuff. I briefly went off on a 'C-code meets chiptune Nintendo' vibe for a while there. Minimalism isn't dead yet ? I'm clearly tentative about contributing to something with very loosely defined artistic parameters. Shit, or get off the pot, right? Or as Zappa says - shut up and play your guitar!
Brendan
Folks, you are amazing!
I already have 10 patches, and they're keep coming. That's really inspiring, thank you all!
Btw, I have an idea in mind, I'm curious what do you think about it. I have a page at the vk.com (Russian social network, http://vk.com/pattr) and I'm thinking of ways how to motivate Russian folks to do something, as Russians are very closed and usually not eager to participate in whatever. So with my friend we came up with the idea to write a post stating that everyone who will not participate in the Uncontest will be banned from the community (about 800 persons).
So what do you think about it? :)
Cheers,
Eugene
I don't believe in penalties. Art to me is optional and beautiful and I wouldn't add a compulsory element to it. YMMV.
@hz37
Of course this is mostly a joke, but you have a good point indeed. They could become even more closed :) I think I just ran out of ideas of how to motivate this public, they seem so inert as opposed to folks on this forum or on the fb max page.
@Raja
In fact I was counting on their sense of humor and not planned to ban them :)
I think I need to meditate on this idea harder :)
Maybe offer free vodka to the top 100 entries? (another Russia stereotype).
Hi guys!
The Uncontest is over and you can check all submissions on the YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48xwyVQlgI8
All patches are on the Archive.org: https://archive.org/details/uncontest
Thanks all for participating!
oooow i completely let that slide past :((
but the results sound really nice !
Oopps, in fact I never thoughtthis way. Sorry guys, will fix it asap. Lesson learned: I had to asksimeblink to attribute participants.
Btw, emails are part of the video image, so they're not exposed to web crawlers. But I remove references made by us. It's just a pity that I forgot to ask people how to attribute them, so many patches will be unnamed.
That was hugely enjoyable! Love to be part of this.
gutted i missed this!
really great sounds throughout!
We've removed emails from the video. Sorry for inconvinience guys.
Thanks for participating I really like the patches, everything sounds awesome! In fact, I'm strongly commited to make a second uncontest, but maybe in the Fall. Would you like to participate once more? :)
Sure thing! Much inspired to make something new.
I will definitely join in next time.
Brendan
i'd be in for sure
Nice ideas!