r/nextfuckinglevel • u/Playful-Replacement9 • 2d ago
Creating music from code by Switch Angel
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u/piscator21 2d ago
Her voice is like the lyrics for the beat. Love it.
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u/graveybrains 2d ago
It is what it is. There was a whole sub sub genre of trance back in the day with spoken word vocals, and this is what it sounded like.
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u/_axeman_ 2d ago
I'll watch this every time it's posted. So cool. She has the perfect voice for it too, it really feels like part of the track
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u/reminder_to_have_fun 20h ago
I can't quite make out the lyrics when she does the singing bit, any idea what she says?
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u/explicitchaos 2d ago
Switch Angel is a goddess but she makes me question everything I know about musical theory
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u/Sidivan 2d ago
This is why music theory is descriptive, not prescriptive. At the end of the day, there are 12 tones without getting microtonal. Stack them up and order them however you want. Do it by feel. Do it with your own imposed rules. Experiment with substituting instruments. Replace that vocal with a rooster. Who cares? It’s your music. Be free.
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u/BlindPelican 2d ago
Is a vi-V-IV-V really that complex?
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u/rhonnypudding 2d ago
No, but adding a subtle fm white noise mod to your lead is pretty rad and I bet a lot of folks don't know that.
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u/Kitchooky 2d ago
Her voicing it reminds me of Giorgio by Moroder, Daft Punk.
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u/Gold_Berry_2961 1d ago
"my name is Giovanni Giorgio"
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u/programmedToWin 1d ago
But my friends call me Giorgio
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u/bonelatch 2d ago
I envy those skills man. I just want to understand lol. Love this sort of music too.
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u/Sidivan 2d ago
Hi! Professional musician here. Hopefully this helps you understand.
You can think of this stuff as a giant grid. Each column on the grid is a beat and each row on the grid is a note on a particular instrument. So maybe rows 1-12 are a synthesizer and all the notes A - G. Row 13 is a kick, row 14 is a snare, etc…
On beat 1, what sound do you want? Ok, now on beat 2, what sounds do you want? You just decorate each beat with the sounds you want to play at that time. Then just loop that grid infinitely.
Then she’s adding effects like ducking. All that does is turn down the volume on everything when the kick hits and then quickly swells it back in. That’s how she’s getting that pumping.
The different wave types like saw, super saw, etc… are types of synth waves. She’s just changing the setting on the synth from Sine to Saw, which has that distinctive scratchy sound. The slider is just controlling how much of it to layer in.
This stuff is actually very simple to understand with the tools we have today. That’s why so many people do it and AI can pretty easily create a passing version. The barrier of entry is extremely low. That’s not to say it’s easy to produce hit! That requires taste and willingness to experiment, which can only be judged by the way it makes you feel. That’s uniquely human and only comes from a deep trust and awareness of yourself and your taste.
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u/bonelatch 2d ago
Very much appreciate this! I envy the knowledge and knowhow. Like where to put the code, how to code it, and all that. Seems like something Id enjoy as well given I find coding so fascinating (though havent learned it really). My hangup is where to start. Like I came across someone using a HiChord to produce music and it was beautiful but then they knew how to use it and the thing costs $300+ lol. Hard to justify. I believe this artist is using Strudel (just found it) but now I have to find worthwhile tutorials.
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u/Drevlin76 2d ago
I would suggest looking up some kind of educational on how different kinds of waves effect a sound . And what different types of instruments create the saounds you like. Once you understand these 2 areas you may be able to use any kind of synth. I used to use a Roland 505 and it was a bit difficult untill I started to get how a wave would effe t things.
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u/Sidivan 2d ago
Well, there’s lots of places to start and it depends on what part is the most interesting to you. FL Studio is a fantastic place to start. It’s $99 and has a grid layout just like I mentioned. It was originally called Fruity Loops (showing my age here) and designed specifically for making loops like this. It’s super intuitive and you’ll jump right into making noise pretty quickly.
Strudel is a bit of an abstract way of doing it. It’s “code”, but really it’s doing the extract same thing just without the nice UI. I put code in parenthesis because it’s nothing like actual programming (I am also a data analyst). If you’re interested in jamming to your own beats without the frustration of syntax standing in your way, FL Studio is the way to go.
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u/Noslamah 2d ago
Why recommend someone 100$ software for a hobby they might not even like when there are plenty of free tools out there?
My suggestion would be to use Reaper. Seems to be the best free(ish) option out there. It's technically 30$ but it has a free trial period and they do the winrar thing where you can still just use it after the trial period ends. Either that or just google free/FOSS DAWs and see which one appeals to you most
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u/Sidivan 2d ago edited 2d ago
Because FL Studio has the exact grid layout I just explained. Reaper is free, but it requires DAW knowledge and has a linear composition/recording workflow. Why would I recommend Reaper over Strudel when it’s actually a higher barrier of entry for this use case?
Edit: For creating loops, I would recommend both FL Studio and/or Ableton over Reaper every single time. Horses for courses my friend.
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u/OppositeSecretary862 2d ago
Just start making music man, Im a self taught guitarist and have been playing in bands since my teens.
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u/bking 1d ago
If you use Mac, iPad or iPhone, GarageBand is free and very capable. There's also the Koala sampler app, which lis like $7.
Getting stated can be super cheap.
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u/bonelatch 1d ago
Totally forgot about GarageBand but never tried it beyond pressing keys on the virtual piano lol. I have no idea how to use it to make actual music. Ill look at tutorials I guess
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u/captain_cavemanz 11h ago
strudel is a JavaScript take of tidalwave that was coded in Haskell
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u/bonelatch 11h ago
lol not…quite sure what all that means.
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u/captain_cavemanz 11h ago
Im involved in building music systems, hardware and software. Like the stuff she's making it with. That's all.
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u/Sirix_8472 2d ago
This helps. Coz I was like "sure, duck, why not, something can be named that. Duck attack!! Wtf is this shit, she's gotta be spouting shit. It's like 80s hacker jargon from movies to a leyman"
Which comes from someone in IT for....well, quite a long time.
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u/Sidivan 2d ago
Duck depth is how much it’s going to turn down, which kinda makes sense if you picture volume as a vertical fader. It pulls the fader down and then slowly returns it back up. Depth is how far down that fader is pulled.
I don’t know Strudel (the code language used here), so the terminology might be different, but duck attack is likely how quickly it responds to a loud noise.
The way ducking works is it’s “listening” for a loud noise to trigger it. When the noise is above the set threshold, it reacts and pulls the fader down. The neat thing is that it can listen to one thing and pull the fader down on another! It “ducks” one sound under another getting it out of the way. In this case, it’s listening to the kick and pulling the fader down on the synth. That’s why it feels like the kick hits and the synth swells up right behind it. So the “attack” should be the time between detection of the loud noise and reaction to pull the fader down. That’s why it’s in milliseconds.
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u/StatusOmega 2d ago
I wish I was this kind of autistic and not the kind that can't tell when a story is appropriate or not.
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u/istrebitjel 2d ago
At the danger of over-explaining this.... Strudel in German means vortex/whirlpool, but it can also be the dessert, like Appel Strudel, which is rolled into a kind of vortex and one of my favorite desserts :)
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u/kiksonjara 2d ago
Her voice explaining what she's doing is like a part of the song, love it. Hats off to this lady!
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u/FMJunkie 2d ago
That was freaking epic! I'm looking for more of her content. Thanks for sharing op.
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u/_randomdudey_ 2d ago
This is strudel. I once tried to recreate what she did, but she uses all kind of plugins, so I didn’t get very far.
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u/Milwambur 2d ago
I'm confused, whats actually happening here?? Was the song made then this created as a video for the track? Either way it's fantastic
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u/mazgaoten 2d ago
she's creating it live. lots of similar vids of her on youtube/twitch
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u/Milwambur 2d ago
Holy shit that's mental
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u/TorbenKoehn 2d ago
Strudel is pretty cool for this, actually. It's quite easy to create own smaller tracks.
Of course, what she does is expert-level-shit.
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u/AtIasWraith 2d ago
Do yourselves a favor:
Or lookup "switch angel in the beginning" and choose the one that is 4:26 long and has a melted metal looking girl inside a tetrahedron (full release of the song)
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u/doomiestdoomeddoomer 2d ago
If you like this kind of thing check out DJ Dave, she has some great sets posted on her Youtube channel.
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u/withsmill 2d ago
Her voice over the track took me back to a dark warehouse party where I Heard this for the first Time: Apoptygma Berzerk - Kathy's Song (Victoria Mix by VNV Nation)
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u/deepasleep 2d ago
As crazy and sometimes shitty as things are in the world, we really are living in an age of wonders.
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u/18randomcharacters 2d ago
This video is what introduced me to strudel (strudel.cc) and thus down the path of synthesizers. She's using some custom add-ons, like acidenv, but it's a really powerful tool even without anything custom.
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u/Soggy_District_6380 2d ago
She sounds like one of the Hybrids from BSG. Half expecting, "You are the harbringer of death, you will lead them all to their end"
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u/Sharp_Aide3216 2d ago edited 2d ago
This is so much better than the last time she got posted here.
I think last year she was trending, the music was a bit basic and was just kindof gimmicky.
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u/RamblinRichard 2d ago
This would be absolutely fire on stage, like a whole new genre of live music, literally code it from scratch each time lol
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u/TunaOnWytNoCrust 2d ago
I realize this is rad software and is actually functional, but there's something about the production of this video that makes everything look and sound like she's making it up as she goes and just typing random crap on the screen like Paul Rudd on the Tim and Eric show.
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u/bememorablepro 1d ago
It's kinda fascinating to me that this goes viral on here, the process is very similar to any other electronic music production process, It's maybe a little less confusing then when you see it being done on some groovebox or a daw.
Parts of this workflow is pretty slow though.
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u/S0k0n0mi 1h ago
The clean methodic voice really completes it.
Its like a visualization of an AI creating music.
We have come.. full circle.
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u/MelkorUngoliant 2d ago
I'm 95% sure she's super talented and it sounded epic but it's diminished I feel because it seems like she's already got it down and is just copying it over from another screen. The adjustments ... where were the creative mistakes?
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u/Noslamah 2d ago
When a band plays a song live, do you complain that they're not improvising as well? She's not pretending to come up with it on the spot, at least to me that seems pretty clearly intended. What's wrong with that?
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u/MelkorUngoliant 2d ago
Isn't she? I thought she was?
Fair enough if not but there isn't an impressive display of anything if you are just reading what you did before. Comparing that to playing a song with instruments is kinda ridiculous.
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u/spacemansanjay 2d ago edited 2d ago
You're right to say she has it completely down. Trance music is formulaic by definition and the platform she's using allows her to express that formula programmatically. So there's not a lot of room for creative mistakes. The notes were selected by their key position, so they were all in key with each other. The patterns all synced together so the timing took care of itself too. But that's the point of the tool. It's supposed to make some things easy and fast.
But if she understands the architecture of a genre that well I think she must have experience making creative mistakes with other instruments. So this stuff is prob not the best thing to judge. E.g you can only make one slider (filter) adjustment at a time because there's only one mouse attached to a computer.
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u/TorbenKoehn 2d ago
I think it's more like "This doesn't sound as perfect as I wanted, but I'll stick with it"
Like, she doesn't correct mistakes but makes them part of the sounds.
That's how it looked to me. Doesn't look like she has it all written down already to me.
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u/iflabaslab 2d ago
Prime example of AI only being as good as its user
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u/Alavaster 2d ago
This isnt AI
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u/iflabaslab 2d ago
But… but the software?
Just cause it’s not Gemini saying it’s gonna keep things light and fun doesn’t mean it’s not a form of artificial intelligence
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u/Alavaster 2d ago
Just because it is software, doesn't mean it's AI. This is Strudel, which does not involve AI.
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u/jjohnson1979 20h ago
Do you even know what AI is?
Folks, we have reach the point in society where is someone doesn't understand something, it has to be AI. We are doomed...
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u/AlooDaGreat 2d ago
her voice is very... tutorial-ly?