Elementary Cellular Automata

Creations & Ideas
1

Using 1D cellular automata to generate giant dominant chords across four octaves.

#Elementary Cellular Automata

#by Loopiloop


#---settings---

#rule of the elementary cellular automata
rule = 73

#initial generation
gen = (bools 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0)

#random alternative to determine inital generation
use_random_seed = 12345
#gen = (ring false, true).pick(20)

#speed
speed = 150

#lowest note
output_start = 36

#used scale in distances to lowest note
output_scale = (ring 0, 4, 7, 11)

#length of scale
output_length = 4

#speed

#---setup---

rule_b = (ring)

#iterate through cases
9.times do
  #convert rule into a truth ring binary number
  
  rule_b = rule_b + (ring (range 0, 2)[rule] == 1)
  rule = rule/2
  
end



#---main loop---

live_loop :main do
  
  #set speed
  use_bpm speed
  
  #set synth
  use_synth :piano
  
  #clean the output
  use_debug false
  
  #display current gen
  spark gen
  
  #empty next gen
  gen_new = (ring)
  
  #iterate through 20 spaces
  tick_reset
  20.times do
    #advance to next space
    tick
    
    #play the note coresponding to that cell
    if gen.look
      play (chord_invert output_scale, look)[0] + output_start
    end
    
    #calculate cell neigborhood as binary number
    hood = 0
    
    if gen.look(offset: -1)
      hood = hood + 4
    end
    
    if gen.look
      hood = hood + 2
    end
    
    if gen.look(offset: 1)
      hood = hood + 1
    end
    
    #calculate new cell state
    gen_new = gen_new + (ring rule_b[hood])
  end
  
  #advance to next generation
  gen = gen_new
  
  #sleep
  sleep 1
  
end