cellseq

about

a generative midi sequencer that uses conway’s game of life as a guide.

the idea for this sequencer came from a plugin called new skool, which i got with a free pack of kontakt synthesizers from a midi keyboard.

it’s really hard to find information on this plugin, and there doesn’t seem to be any way to get it by itself or in any current kontakt suites. i really enjoyed the cellular automata driven composition techniques, but really only wanted the sequencing part since i had other synths that were better for sonic explorations.

i’ve always wanted to combine my loves of music and programming, and this seemed like a great introduction project to dip my toes into.

it’s visually pretty rough around the edges, as it’s my first program with a gui, and i underestimated how hard it can be to design a good interface. luckily working with midi was actually a lot easier than expected, thanks to the simple protocol and easy to use alsa rawmidi sockets.

i’m currently working on adding euclidean rhythms and more granular note probabilities, but it still works as a simple generative sequencer in it’s current state.