How to Create Generative Ambient Music in Pure Data!

Let’s create a Pure Data patch that will generate and play nice & simple ambient music! We'll be learning about subpatches and how to record audio in the process as well!
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Social Media:
/ takumi_ogata
/ takumiogata
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0:00 - Intro
0:26 - What Is Ambient Music?
2:58 - Let's Start Patching!
3:11 - Clock & Sequencing
4:43 - Bass & Melody
5:55 - Subpatches
8:38 - Using External VSTs and Recording Audio

[@SoundSimulator]

FAQs "I can't create [Chords_Scales]?" Please watch the whole tutorial// -"There's no sound?" The BPM algorithm shown in this video may not be working. Please try this instead: drive.google.com/file/d/1RRJd40MYfsmmWGSsZy-B-AB8ueMFo4Sy/view?usp=sharing Then, reopening the patcher may do the trick! "Should I look for other reverb externals?" I don't recommend doing that. Please watch this video about safety regarding reverb externals: kzbin.info/www/bejne/np_IdmOsaKybg7s -"Is it possible to use my favorite reverb VST inside of Pure Data?" Yes you can! Check out this tutorial: kzbin.info/www/bejne/eaSTf4Ofospjobc "Are you gonna upload this whole patcher for download?" Maybe... I do want people to follow along and learn as they patch. It's a pretty small patcher! If you have any other questions, please feel free to comment or send me a DM. But first, please double check that you didn't miss any part (recreating what you see in the first frame of the video won't be enough; there are other parts to this patch). THANKS FOR WATCHING!!!!

[@elenadimopoulou3890]

I did all the thigns u said put the BPM and still now hearing anything. Is something in the preferences?or some option? I send you on social media

[@SoundSimulator]

@@elenadimopoulou3890 I'll have a look at the DM

[@kairammsy3168]

@@elenadimopoulou3890 i Have the same problem:(

[@konsumentptakow]

i am so glad i randomly found you channel and got into pure data such a gamechanger for me thank you, amazing work

[@SoundSimulator]

Glad to hear that these tutorials have been helpful! I hope you're enjoying Pure Data so far!!

[@todorv.dobrinov1799]

Absolutely amazing, sounds great! You are genius, thank you for your help

[@SoundSimulator]

I'm happy to hear that this tutorial was helpful! Thank you for watching!!

[@Azec6Official]

Looking forward to more of these! Im a comp grad student also learning music tech. Your tutorials have inspired me to build an instrument for my recital in the spring

[@SoundSimulator]

That's awesome to hear, Adam!! Please do keep me posted about the project. I would love to hear more about it! Best of luck with the new semester/year!!

[@studiospiraluniverse]

Another highlight to bring joy to the almost permanent lockdown here in Malaysia.Thanks a lot!

[@SoundSimulator]

I'm happy to hear that these videos can bring positivity to your life during this dire time. I hope that you stay safe!!

[@figurehe4d]

Great sense of humor + clear explanation.

[@SoundSimulator]

I try! Thank you so much for the kind words!!

[@pedrofariacomposer]

great tutorial as always!

[@SoundSimulator]

Thank you so much, Pedro!!

[@drunkard103]

i've been playing around with generative ideas in max lately and the tutorials i've been finding really aren't helping as much as i'd like but i followed this video along in mac and it's helped so much :D thank you a lot for this tresure trove

[@SoundSimulator]

Nice!! Glad to hear that!

[@AntonyNorthcutt]

I love this channel so much!!

[@SoundSimulator]

Glad to hear that! Thanks!!

[@fedeboretti]

Dope! Thanks for these tools dude!

[@SoundSimulator]

You're welcome as always, Federico! Enjoy!!

[@elenadimopoulou3890]

Great tutorial Thank youfor the knowledge:)

[@SoundSimulator]

Thanks!

[@davidrees-thomas8741]

Thanks. learned a lot constructing, debugging, constructing again, restarting etc :)

[@SoundSimulator]

That's the way to do it! Thanks, David!!

[@davidrees-thomas8741]

@@SoundSimulator as a newcomer to pd, I find your walkthroughs especially useful as I get the satisfaction of seeing something work in a relatively short space of time. Then, later, I can go back over all the different objects and connections and math etc to test what's going on and what each component does. Pd is fascinating, and I think you do a great job of unraveling some of the mystery :)

[@SoundSimulator]

@@davidrees-thomas8741 Really happy to hear that these tutorials have been helpful in that way! I hope you continue to enjoy the Pure Data journey! Let me know whenever you have questions.

[@franciscoraupp]

Great tutorial.

[@SoundSimulator]

Thank you so much, Francisco!!

[@pajzd]

there’s also a nice vst~ external , called VSTplugin~ , that makes it possible to use yr favorite vst FX into pure data & or supercollider ... mac / win / linux ... qua reverbs, i hear there’s a nice Csound reverb in vcv rack , also there is a way to use pure data code in vcv rack ... yeah endless possibilities ! thnx for the tutorial, great info !

[@SoundSimulator]

That sounds great! I didn't know Pure Data let you use external VSTs. I may make a short video on it!! Thank you for the information!!

[@AC-zh6yk]

would you mind to share the patch, please? I get no sound from the Ambient Pad Melody block!

[@stefanhansen5882]

Awesome! Can you make the same kind of ambient in SuperCollider, TidalCycles or Sonic Pi? Thanks!

[@robthomas8680]

It works!! Kool! But I don't HEAR anything. What am I missing - the dac~ obviously?

[@hija_del_cacao]

Hi, thanks for all your tutorials. In thisone, I can't find we is : receive 4th_note. Thanks in advance.

[@ashaydave]

I love your channel! Been following your tutorials for quite some time now. Although I have a problem with this patch. When I toggle ON, the bass seems to play but the Melody doesn't, and the error that shows up is "receive~ Ambient_pad: no matching send". I don't know why, because there is a send~ in that exact name? Please help!

[@SoundSimulator]

I'm sorry for the delay in response. There may be a typo? As long as you have something like at 5:36, it should output.

[@tails_the_god]

spirit bomb music! hehe

[@Agathos_Daimon]

i'd love to hear what it sounded like before any processing; tried to follow your steps and routing it to my daw and ended up getting something really harsh 😅

[@SoundSimulator]

I remember it sounding ok! But yeah, [freeverb~] isn't the best for ambient. I have a new video coming out in few hours about using VSTs inside of Pure Data! We'll be using Valhalla's Supermassive reverb (which is free and sounds amazing for ambient!).

[@mauropetrucci]

Great tutorial!! ¿ do you know wich router app can i use in W10 instead of blackhole?

[@SoundSimulator]

Thank you Mauricio!! I wish I can recommend an app but I don't have any windows computer to test and find a good audio router app. OBS might be a good option? I need to learn how to use it myself.

[@robertovenditti1515]

hey there! I see you are sending Ambient_Pad with send~ Ambient_Pad, but I can't figure out where you are sending it. At minute 5:55 you show a subpatch (?) with the freeverb~ object. I wonder if that is a subpatch that you have somewhere where you are sending the Ambient_Pad? If so, where is it in the main patch?

[@SoundSimulator]

5:50 is in the main patcher~

[@delongwang4307]

Great tutorial! Don't we need to create a "dac~" or "output~" to hear the entire patch? Sorry for the stupid question

[@SoundSimulator]

Patcher in the intro is not the entire thing. Check out 5:54 specifically/

[@Sefzzzzz]

For some reason I feel like even though I copy-pasted exactly what you did, it appears that there isn't any audible output and I cant't fugure out why. Is it possible that you share with us the original file to really test it out?

[@SoundSimulator]

Yeah, I need to upload the patcher since there's something that I want to adjust in the original. In the meantime, make sure that the [loadbang] for the BPM is activated correctly. Feel free to send me a DM on social media.

[@walterhipo5828]

How can I change the pitch of a musical note using pure data. I am going to connect an electric guitar using an audio interface and I want every time a pure data note sounds to convert it into another note, for example: the input note (played by the guitar) is an F# but I want a The A. If you can help me I would be grateful.

[@SoundSimulator]

Hi Walter! It sounds like you want a real-time pitch shifter. Pure Data comes with one actually! Go to Help -> Browser -> Pure Data -> 3 audio examples -> G09 pitchshift. And replace the [pd test-input] with [adc~]. Make sure you're using the 1st input of your interface. And replace [output~] with [dac~]. And change the audio input to your interface in "Audio settings". Make sure you gave Pure Data access to microphone! Have fun!!

[@walterhipo5828]

@@SoundSimulator brilliant! ,Thanks a lot! One more thing please: how can I do so that only certain musical notes are altered in pitch, for example: raise a tone to A, lower half a tone to F, etc. but that the rest of the notes continue sounding without alterations. I will be grateful for your help !!

[@SoundSimulator]

@@walterhipo5828 There are pitch detection objects like [sigmund~], [helmholtz~], and [fiddle~]. They may not be the most reliable object so just a warning. And add some if statements and you may be able to get close to what you're looking for! Best of luck!!

[@kubrielSK]

nothing wring with writesf, you just have to take a good care of strength of the signal. also i never had problem with recorging freeverb. anyway, thanks for the video, its really inspiring!

[@SoundSimulator]

I'll have to give them both a chance! :D

[@diegopaiva5257]

mine only works the 1st time i create the patch. as soon as a save, close and reopen, it starts the note, quickly interrupts it and goes silent. when i hit the toggle to shut it down, it sounds the last second of a note fading. repeat. maybe a freeverb~ problem.

[@ashaydave]

Oh it actually is a freeverb problem. When I removed it, it worked but it sounds kinda off but that's up to music theory lol. Gotta try different reverbs.

[@nataliagarza2516]

What's the lop~ 100 in the bass sequence?? I'm doing it on max 8 but there's no such object

[@SoundSimulator]

Cool to hear that you're recreating this in Max!! [ lop~ ] is a lowpass filter so you can use [ lores~ ] in Max.

[@nataliagarza2516]

@@SoundSimulator thank you so much!!!! Awesome and helpful video btw!

[@SoundSimulator]

@@nataliagarza2516 You're welcome! I'm glad to hear that this video is helpful for Max users!!

[@user-zm4ox4om5f]

My patch has an issue where it plays one chord but then stops. When I turn it back off theres another chord played. I dont know what I've done wrong

[@ashaydave]

Oh it actually is a freeverb problem. When I removed it, it worked but it sounds kinda off but that's up to music theory lol. Gotta try different reverbs.

[@epiphoney]

I like this tutorial. I have to click the bang under BPM, or else 4th_time is sent as 0, and a lot of cpu gets used. Also, if I use freeverb~, there's no sound, but it works fine without it. Maybe I can try the builtin reverb, rev3~. Weird that both line and line~ seem to do the same thing.

[@SoundSimulator]

Thank you so much for watching! [loadbang] will bang the BPM message objects every time you reopen the patchers. [freeverb~] is not the best. I highly recommend watching my tutorial on using VSTs inside of Pure Data! kzbin.info/www/bejne/eaSTf4Ofospjobc We use a free Valhalla reverb that sounds perfect for ambient!! [line] and [line~] do the same thing but one is a signal object (indicated by the ~) and the other is not.

[@epiphoney]

@@SoundSimulator When I open the patch, the number below the "/" is zero. It seems like there's a timing issue with the 2 loadbangs and something more is needed.

[@SoundSimulator]

@@epiphoney Put a [delay 1] between [loadbang] and message object that says 60. Let me know if that fixed it!

[@epiphoney]

@@SoundSimulator No but delay 1 between loadbang and 60000 fixed it. It doesn't happen to you?

[@SoundSimulator]

​@@epiphoney Yeah, that works too! Where the objects are placed actually changes the order of the bangs. It's kinda confusing. So I typically use [delay 1] to fix these order issues.

[@jeffersonmaier1874]

how can I make thins numbers with a space betwenn, like 1 500? 0 500?

[@SoundSimulator]

Those are message objects. I discuss more about it in this tutorial kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z6CYiJSposlrr7c

[@zainn.a]

where are u sending ambient_pad and bass? also u receive whole_time but where do u send it. thx

[@SoundSimulator]

It's in the video :)

[@dourwolf6697]

I could have been doing something wrong, but I was unable to make a sub-patch by saving another pd file in the same folder, then making an object sharing it's name. Luckily I found out that you can just make an object called "pd my_subpatch". The newly created sub-patch will automatically open after doing this. my_subpatch is the name.

[@SoundSimulator]

That'll work fine too! Just make sure that when you start using more than one, you'll need to make the same edit to all of them.

[@petch2001]

i have already done this patch but sounds different from you TT. I can hear only the bass sound. What should I do?

[@SoundSimulator]

You can DM a screenshot of the patch (Instagram works the best) and I would be happy to troubleshoot :)

[@petch2001]

@@SoundSimulator Ok! Thank you very much.I have sent a screenshot already🙏🏻

[@danielmarais7575]

I have followed your steps, but i get no audio

[@SoundSimulator]

Hi Daniel, It's hard to debug without seeing your patcher, so please feel free to share a screenshot via social media DM (links in description). It's usually forgetting to use the tilde symbol (~) in signal objects or the audio configuration not set up correctly. Also please make sure the DSP is turned on. Good luck!!

[@officialpawssa]

Sound Simulator thank you for your prompt reply! I will send you a dm in the next few hours 🙏🏼

[@eliyahumedia]

what is a good alternative for BlackHole in windows?

[@SoundSimulator]

Unfortunately, your guess is good as mine since I'm a Mac user. I'm sure there's a good alternative! Also, you could build this patch with plugdata, which will allow you to record directly to whatever daw you use!!

[@eliyahumedia]

@@SoundSimulator That's true. I think I'll do that. Thanks again!

[@eliyahumedia]

@@SoundSimulator Okay, I rebuilt this patch in plugdata, added the Valhalla Supermassive plugin and another plugin called Hysteresis from Glitch Machines, and it sounds other-worldly. I really want to work on this more like adding more synths or having note lengths switch automatically on the same synth. Thanks a bunch!

[@SoundSimulator]

@@eliyahumedia Oh dang! That sounds awesome ✨ Glad to hear that rebuilding this patch in plugdata is fun :)

[@SHvanbommel]

are you using the Vanilla version of PD? I can't find the "Chords_Scales" Thing anywhere...

[@SoundSimulator]

Please watch until the end!

[@headlesstoyallwarren5997]

Every time i type the line "Chords_Scales" it does nothing

[@SoundSimulator]

5:55