Ultomaton
ULTOMATON is a generative effects processor built to provide live electronic accompaniment for any acoustic improviser. It uses John Conway's Game of Life to trigger events. These events are reflected in changes of Ultomaton's effect parameters.
Although the Game of Life is at the very core of this application, Ultomaton feels very much like a game of chance, which can be controlled by the performer to a great extent. As different settings have a considerable influence on the auditory result, Ultomaton provides a myriad of electronic backdrops to improvise with.
The application was completely programmed in Max. Standalone versions for both MacOS and Windows available.
PURE EXCELLENCE! Demo video was exquisitely produced as well. Thanks for sharing 🙏
Thanks Raja!
For those who want to give it a try, here's a quick start tutorial:
Anyone else have an issue with no sound? I followed the Quick start and it's showing that there's output but no sound. I'm sure I missing something just can't figure out what it is. :) My guess is Windows 10 audio drivers. I'm nowhere near this skill level but this is inspiring that you can do all of this with just Max. Thanks for sharing this.
Screenshot attached to show output.
Hi EARTH2J, a couple of things are wrong in the setup above. First, make sure your audio interface is setup correctly in the audio configuration. Then, to have Looper 1 record your input, activate the Receive button (R - next to record) so it can be triggered by the Game of Life. Also you have the AudioFilePlayer running but didn't route it to the output or anything else. If you want to hear the audio file, activate the second left cell of the top row in the routing matrix.
Oh! Output to File player! Now I have sound....Thanks for your help, ITHKAA. This is a really cool app, I'd love to be able to create something like this...going be a while though. :D
Amazing job ithkaa!
Here's a M4L version using the same principle to drive effect parameters via Live's parameter control:
… kind of useless to port the effects of the standalone to M4L. Didn’t test it thoroughly so let me know if you encounter any problems.
Benjamin - this is absolutely amazing. Thank you for sharing.
Cheers,
Paul
Wow - Benjamin - this is great.
Thanks for sharing.
Chapeau
Stefan
if you're having trouble getting out of MIDI- or KEY-mapping mode, press the 'escape' key ...
Hello Benjamin, I emailed you through your website don't know if it reached you. I am wondering if you could share the max patch to this as I would like to adapt it to be able to run on a multi-channel set up.
Hi benjamin, what a great job ! so elegant ! could it be possible to trigger also parameters with Arduino ? Thanks for your reply !
Hi benjamin,
what an awesome job ! so elegant ! thanks for that !
My question is : would it be possible to control parameters with Arduino in Ultomaton ?
I suppose you could make a patch to map your Arduino output to the parameters but it can't be done from the app itself.
Hi Benjamin, I know how to make arduino mapping patches, but sorry to ear that its not possible to connect them to ultomaton … il would be so nice and usefull ! :-)
Year
2019
Location
Brussels
Author