OMax
Omax is an environment for improvisation with a computer that analyzes, models, and re-improvises in real-time the performance of one or several musicians, in audio or in MIDI formats. OMax is based on a computer model called “Oracle Factors”, a graph that connects all the motives, from smallest to biggest, and provides a map to the logic of the motives learned from the musician, leading to a large number of stylistically coherent variations. Omax bases its recognition on either notes (pitch following) or on timbres (spectral following). OMax 4 and higher are new versions rewritten in C and in Max.
Applications
Improvisation with a computer, interactive musical works, automatic accompaniment
Main Features
- Artificial Listening: Extraction of the F0 descriptors, MFCC, MIDI input, automatic segmentation, adaptive learning of the symbolic alphabet of musical units
- Modeling: Incremental construction of a model of knowledge representing a full array of musical motives according to diverse similarity functions
- Real-time visualization of knowledge models, multiple selection functions, focalization on the visual representation
- Generation of sequences according to heuristic browsing through the model, taking into account its formal characteristics and musical criteria of continuity of motifs, rhythms, and energy
- Modular architecture that makes it possible to allocated improvisers, players, and to connect them as you like (e.g. several players connected to the same improviser can create a cannon with a rhythmic increase)
Platform
Max 5 or higher and Jitter, Max OSX 10.5 or higher, storage in the JSon format.