Opusmodus: The Composing Continuum

[trickyflemming]

No problem! I should also note that Snd is Linux only, specifically Fedora or CentOS (http://ccrma.stanford.edu/planetccrma/software/). My first link, Overtone, is more general. It’s just fun to point out the thread of Common Lisp running though these tools, each with a different focus.

[ngwese]

…the speed of the notation rendering is impressive and as someone who doesn’t really read music, curiously appealing.

My initial reaction of Opusmodus is positive. It looks like a deep environment but one which doesn’t heavily overlap with tools I already have - it does seem squarely focused on composition. I very much like that the environment is self contained and visually clean.

[myecholalia]

Following this with interest. @jasonw22, what convinced you that quickly during your trial period that you’ll purchase Opusmodus? How are you planning on integrating this into your workflow?

[jasonw22]

It seems like a very quick way to work with notes. Has a lot of built-in structures for music theory. I’m also very fond of lisp and this seems like a wonderful way to use it.

I’m planning to use it to explore music theory and generative systems, but also just to generate quick little midi riffs and progression for use in larger compositions.

I’m also curious to explore its functionality for integrating with DAWs and Reaktor and such, but I’m not very knowledgeable about what’s possible there. Even if it just spit out MIDI I think it’d be worth the price of admission, but it feels like it could become the compositional center of a larger system.

In the past I’ve used Liquid Music for a similar role in my workflow, but I like the idea of having programmatic/mathematical control over tonality (rather than the menu/form based systems in Liquid Music).

[jasonw22]

Very nice. I just love how legible the code can be when you have so much control over semantics.

I’m sorry I can’t offer any advice about libmonome/CCL/FFI/OSC/etc.

[myecholalia]

Thanks for elaborating. That all makes sense to me. I guess I should spend some time with the trial version for a couple of days to see if the could get me further down a path of engaging in a more electroacoustic composition practice. It’s not a cheap piece of software, but with the current discount till end of the month I could probably swing it if I find it really adds a new dimension to what I’m currently trying to do.

[jasonw22]

You might give Overtone a swing while you’re at it (especially since it is open source).

[ppqq]

Thanks for posting! Watching this thread with interest. Very keen to hear how integrating it with other tools plays out.

@jasonw22: how mature does the app feel? Do you get the sense that it’s well supported? (Installing later but I don’t mind spoilers. )

Popping up, Overtone looks quite interesting too @trickyflemming . I notice that there was once a monome interaction wiki page but it looks stale now (https://github.com/overtone/overtone/wiki/Monome). Did you play with that at all?

Anyway, thanks for the nudge(s)!

[cmcavoy]

Check out https://github.com/pranavrc/tenor if you spend time with Overtone. The comment that overtone focuses on synth definitions is true IMO. There’s a metronome object, but you have to get fiddly to do things like “sequence a rhythm.” The tenor tutorials do a good job of explaining the more musical bits of Overtone. That said, I’ve only spent a few hours with them. I love the idea of overtone, but I end up getting frustrated and moving on. Might be worth checking into again.

Sam Aaron, the original author of Overtone (I think? He’s definitely the biggest contributor) also wrote a live coding environment called Sonic Pi that’s worth a look. It’s most definitely not Opusmodus, but it’s pretty great. The last time I checked it didn’t support sending Midi notes out. It’s really meant as a platform to teach kids computer science through music.

[jasonw22]

how mature does the app feel? Do you get the sense that it’s well supported?

It feels very solid. I’m still a little confused bu the difference between “audition” and “evaluate” so sometimes I get surprising errors from using evaluate rather than audition. The user error sort of bug. I’ve also had some trouble running snippets of code found in the forums for the software, so I wonder if that indicates that it has evolved over the years and maybe some older code no longer works? But in general, I find it to be surprisingly deep and stable as well.

[emenel]

I love the look of this. I may try generating a score, and then playing it back on my modular via Ansible in midi mode. That could be a great way to use some interesting generative music theory sequences with the whole system.

[dan_derks]

it’s…beautiful. the workspace approach is just gorgeous.

AND there’s a live coding instrument built in?

I have never wanted to hustle through a learning curve faster. that discount is serious.

[ppqq]

I have never wanted to hustle through a learning curve faster. that discount is serious.

I know it! I’m pretty jammed the next few days but am hoping to sneak in some time to demo.

If you try it, do report back!

[wolfgangschaltung]

I was not able to find a manual online. Is it part of the application bundle, and if yes, can I read it without having to start the 30 day trial period?

[jasonw22]

There is a lot of introductory material in the app itself, but you will start the 30 days when you open the app.

[ngwese]

FWIW it looks like one can drive Opusmodus via Emacs/SLIME if you are so inclined. The basic recipe is:

• Follow the (Opusmodus) forum instructions on setting up quicklisp.
• Launch Opusmodus and in the Listener run (ql:quickload 'swank) then (swank:create-server :port 4005)
• Over in Emacs run the slime-connect command

From there you can open/edit/evaluate the opmo/lisp files directly as you would for any normal lisp environment. The UI is just calling lisp functions so doing the equivalent of “Evaluate and Audition” (then stopping playback early) in the SLIME repl turns out to be:

OM> (audition-last-score)
compile-score #<SCORE SINE>
#<PROCESS play loop(171) [Reset] #x30200411C46D>
OM> (process-abort *)
NIL

[cmcavoy]

Anyone still using the software? Have been on a “I’d like to use notes more often in my pieces.” Would love to find some composition software that I like.

(Also open to alternative suggestions that may have popped up in the last year, as Opusmodus is…expensive)

[ngwese]

Getting back into this has been on my todo list but of late I’ve not had the time to invest in learning it more deeply…

[myecholalia]

I’d like to give this thread another nudge to find out who might still be using Opusmodus and what the experience has been like so far. I’ve purchased version 1.2 a while ago and am contemplating to upgrade to 1.3, even if I spent only very limited time with the environment so far.

[Tango_Tango]

I’ve been using OpusModus for years. It’s a slightly different animal from a lot of other apps (like Overtone) in that it has a steady crowd of experienced composers who are taking composition principles and abstracting them up to the level of classes. That’s not to say that Overtone doesn’t support many of the same compositional techniques (Such as a Reich phase). Overtone can get you there, but the OpusModus community seems to support these artistic-movement-based ideas in a more formalized way. Again, this software is supported by a community of classical composers, so if a sine wave is mentioned, it’s more likely as a generator for pitch content than synthesis.
The output of OpusModus is focused as a default on orchestral instrumentation. Now, to a lot of developers, the response to that will be “I can modify that any way I want with some basic Lisp and, hey, it outputs MIDI to any DAW, etc.” You would be correct, and in addition the developer of OpusModus is working on audio synthesis components. However, as of today it may not have quite the involvement with sampling and synthesis that some electronic musicians might prefer.
For this reason I think that the thing which makes OpusModus stand out as a software and a community is that it is by and for composers who are focused on depth in music theory and the integration of concert music with electronics rather than someone who is more focused in the synthesis world exclusively.
I use OpusModus with notational output for orchestral instruments as well as MIDI data which I use to trigger electronic processes. Additionally, it provides a basis for graphical notation which adds another view as I’m defining my composition as well as output for print copies in concert guides.
That said, I still prefer to add in my own elements once the score is output. In addition to the structure, the gestural elements and extended techniques are critical to the idea in the music for me. For some reason I don’t like the idea of having software generating those. It’s a really neurological/human aspect of the music I want to keep. Not sure why, it’s just my thing.
Another example - are a lot of applications which provide tools for stochastic composition (OpusModus is one) but that doesn’t mean you can immediately create music as powerful as Xenakis’ Metastasis. I’ve found that OM works well for connecting the parametric theory and the synthesis/sampling aspect of music with the non-algorithmic world of working with other musicians in the studio and live performances.
Hope this all makes sense.