All possible divisions of a number.

MaxMSP
geddonn's icon

geddonn

Hi guys.

I'm trying to make a patch that generates rhythms that fit within a specified bar length and only use note values that are pre selected.

So for example if I have a bar of 4/4 and I have half-notes, quarter notes and eighth notes I would have all possible rhythmic variations using these note divisions that fit within the 4/4 bar.
Ie. one would be: X x x x X x X X
another could be X x X x X x x x
etc. etc. until all variations are reached.

I've been trying to create a patch that does this by looping back over an algorithm. But can't seem to get there. Would javascript be more useful for this sort of thing?

Thanks.

Wetterberg's icon

Wetterberg

Sounds like you're basically building a euclidian rhythm generator?

geddonn's icon

geddonn

I guess so. And I've looked into the euclidean algorithm. But that distributes beats equally across a given bar length.
What I want to find out about is being able to quantize these distributions using a selected variety of divisions and then to iterate through all possible variations to be probably stored in a dict or a coll.

I'm just wondering what sort of approach I should take to this. and if anyone has made anything similar before.

Floating Point's icon

Floating Point

geddonn's icon

geddonn

Aha, thanks Terry. That seems to have done it! It is a case for a looping algorithm then I see.
I wonder if this would be more efficient in js as opposed to max?
What do you think?

Thanks again.

Floating Point's icon

Floating Point

yes is definitely lends itself to a recursive treatment in a text-based language like javascript, but I've no experience with that-- I assume it would be faster (certainly would be in C, and I presumably Java too).

It's a pretty simple algorithm, and if you're doing it to generate rhythms, I can't really see the advantage using js (aside from compactness), even in real-time applications. for a more informed opinion someone with js experience would be better qualified to comment

leafcutter's icon

leafcutter

Max Patch
Copy patch and select New From Clipboard in Max.

This should get you started, it's a brute force approach which will put all the permutations into a coll. You could use filtering on the output of the uzi's to get rid of lengths you are not interested in.

geddonn's icon

geddonn

Thanks guys. Both are fantastic approaches. I'll do some modifications and shall report back with the patch I'm using this method in.

seejayjames's icon

seejayjames

Man, those are both just brilliant! My head is spinning...