Somax 2 is an application for musical improvisation and composition. It is implemented in Max and is based on a generative model using a process similar to concatenative synthesis to provide stylistically coherent improvisation, while listening to and adapting to a musician (or any other type of audio or MIDI source) in real-time. The model is operating in the symbolic domain and is trained on a musical corpus, consisting of one or multiple MIDI files, from which it draws its material used for improvisation. The model can be used with little configuration to autonomously interact with a musician, but it also allows manual control of its generative process, effectively letting the model serve as an instrument that can be played in its own right.
While the application can be used straight out of the box with little configuration (see Getting Started), it is also designed as a library, allowing the user to create custom models as well as set up networks of multiple models and sources that are listening to and interacting with each other.
Somax 2 is a totally new version of the mythical Somax reactive co-improvisation paradigm designed in the ircam Music Representation team but never publicly released yet. Written in Max and Python, it features a modular multithreaded implementation, multiple wireless interacting players, new UI design with tutorials and documentation, as well as a number of new interaction parameters.
Get a glimpse at Somax2 creative power in this documentary on famous bass player Joëlle Léandre's Somax2 residency at Ircam :
Find-out more on this residency with full sessions videos, audio recordings and concerts schedule.
Watch a series of demo videos showing the versatility of Somax2 using materials drawn from great XXth century masters and reacting ("co-improvising") to various kind of inputs.
Find all the demo videos here.
Somax 2 is provided with a set of interactive tutorials, helps, user's guide, patch templates for you to be able to learn quickly and customize it to your creative needs.
Go to the Somax2 Project page to get all the info you need to install, learn and use Somax2.
Go to REACHing OUT! the information page of the REACH project SOmax2 is part of.
Credits
The Somax 2 project is part of the ANR project MERCI (Mixed Musical Reality with Creative Instruments) ANR-19-CE33-0010, and the ERC project REACH (Raising Co-creativity in Cyber-Human Musicianship) ERC-ADG-19-883313. PI : Gérard Assayag, Music Representation Team, IRCAM STMS Lab (CNRS, Sorbonne University, Ministry of Culture).
