Creating Rhythms

I like the idea of the book very much, and I'm fascinated by the math that creates the particular rhythms -- or maybe I should say, rhythm options -- addressed in the book. There is, however, little attempt by the authors to make the book intuitive or to make the software usable by the vast majority of readers.The book is centered around math and the way it can be used to generate rhythms. I love this idea. Although the actual math would be daunting for most, the authors do not inundate you with math formulae. Instead, they have opted to provide you tables where they have done most of the math for you for some very common rhythms. I think the authors chose this approach on the assumption that (a) math looks scary, and you probably won't understand it anyway, and (b) they have provided some code to do the math for you if you are not content with the tables they provided and want to generate your own combinations.While they are undoubtedly correct about the first assumption, they do not seem to realize that many people who buy this book might actually be interested in the math. I don't mean mathematicians who can look at a formula and instantly know how it works. I mean people interested in learning more about the math but who need a little help with the formulae. It doesn't have to be a "math book" per se, but it could give the reader a little boost in that regard.But the real problem is the second assumption: that all of this is solved by providing software. Let's be clear about what this software is: What you get are a bunch of scripts in the C programming language, which are uncompiled. That means they are basically just text files that do nothing when you download them. To make them work, you have to download a compiler, which will take each C script, one by one, and turn it into a little application (an .exe on Windows) so you can run it. The authors mention the free gcc compiler and provide a link (you can see it in the Look Inside preview). Hop on over there to the gcc site. Unless you are a pretty hardcore computer person, you are going to have a lot of trouble getting gcc working on your computer...and this is BEFORE you compile the scripts you downloaded.I can program in Python, and I build my own computers, and I could not figure out how to get gcc working in Windows. If you are not otherwise turned off by this review, I suggest downloading CodeBlocks instead, which has a GUI interface. You can just open the scripts in CodeBlocks and try to run them...it will tell you the files are not built, and you just tell CodeBlocks to build them. (If you are a programmer in a non-C language and think "I'll just look at the scripts, see the math, and put those into a language I understand+ -- which is what I thought -- I suggest you download the C scripts first and look at them in a text editor, because that probably isn't going to work for you).Assuming you have installed a compiler, and, one-by-one, have compiled the C scripts you downloaded from the authors, you now have a bunch of little applications on your computer. Remember where you put them. You'd love to be able to click (or double click) on them and run them, right? It does not work that way. You have to run these from the command line (cmd in Windows, or the shell on a Mac, I think), change your directory to wherever those little applications were stored, and know the right keywords to run them.So, for instance (using Windows), the very first rhythm generator discussed in the book -- the simplest one -- requires you to open the command line, change the directory (using the old DOS cd command) and then type the program name followed by two variables to get a list of rhythms in standard integer notation (the book explains what that is).For example, type "compm 16 3" in the command prompt. The compm is what they have named the combinations rhythm generator. The 16 is the number of steps and the 3 is the number of notes that will fill those steps. (Another non-intuitive thing: the authors call the first number "pulses" and assign them the variable "n", while designating the number of notes you want as variable "m". Surely the notes could have been "n" to make it easier. Also, in electronic music, the "pulses" in a step sequencer are the notes you want to trigger, not the number of steps, so these scripts are backwards from that).Back to my example: If you run the above "compm 16 3", there are 105 rhythms in standard integer notation that come out. Because you are in the command window, they scroll by like lightning. The first one looks like this "1 1 14" and the last one looks like this "14 1 1." These are not saved anywhere. They are just in the command window as a long list. Perhaps there is a command line to write them to a file, but I don't know what it is.What can you do with those numbers? The notation is explained in the book and is easy to understand, but you can manually enter them into your step sequencer or piano roll in a DAW (or just tap on your leg). Without question you get the rhythms you asked for, but that's just the first (or the fifth) step. You will have to test those out to see which ones work, which is fine.Don't want to enter the rhythms manually? On the authors' software page they describe a way to convert a standard integer result into binary code, and THEN convert it into abc notation, and THEN convert it to a midi file, so you can just load the midi file into your DAW or a midi player. Great, I guess. Consider whether you want to go to such lengths as a musician. They provide a C script to convert the standard integer into binary code, but I cannot get that script to work (I'm not even sure what to put on the command line) and it requires you to type the standard integer notation manually (even though you just got a long list from your rhythm generation program. Why don't those rhythm generation programs just automatically create binary versions too?).Even if you get that conversion from standard integer format to binary code to work, the binary code spits out into the command window. You would then have to put THAT in a separate binary file (with some special formatting the authors tell you about) so you can convert that binary file into the abc notation. Since I could not get the C script to work, I just put the authors' example in a text file and saved it with a .bdf extension. Great, where's the script to convert to abc notation? It's not in the main downloads with all the other authors' scripts for some reason. You have to hunt for it at the bottom of the authors' software page.Sigh. So I downloaded that, compiled it, and then ran it on the manual .bdf file I created. The abc notation spits out into the command window. The authors do not tell you how to save the abc notation into a file, which is what you will need to convert it to an actual midi file. Assuming you get the abc notation into a file, THEN you have to go download another external program (not from the authors) to turn that into a midi file. Sound complicated? The authors say you can do this in one simple step in the command line: "./bdrum b1.bdf 4 > b1.abc;abc2midi b1.abc -o b1.mid;timidity -in b1.mid".Let's say you figure this all out, or don't find this scary, and that my gripes are the gripes of the masses. I have one more gripe even for the 0.1% who understand any of this: When you are using the basic C scripts, the authors give you no clue as to what variables are viable for n (pulses/steps) and m (notes) and p (parameters) with various rhythm generators. I used 16 and 3 above in the most basic rhythm generator, where almost any number works. But as you move to virtually every other rhythm generator, there are more variables you have to add.For instance, the second generator in the book (also simple) restricts the first generator so that you don't have too many gaps between note onsets. That's a great idea, and helpful. You use the same notation above with pulses and note onsets and then add additional variables to designate the maximum number of gaps that can occur between note onsets. Note that this second C script is, non-intuitively, named "compam" so that you never, ever will be able to remember it without opening the book. Let's say you only want note onset gaps of 2 or 3. Your command line would be "compam 16 3 2 3".Except that won't work. Why? Because there are no viable mathematical combinations of 3 note onsets in 16 steps, when limited to gaps of 2 and 3. So the program just returns nothing. It does explain why it returned nothing. It just gives you the prompt again in the command window. Maybe you made a mistake in typing, so you try it a few more times. It dawns on you that there is just no answer. Okay, let's try 16 3 1 2, instead. Nope. How about a hi-hat pattern of 11 notes in 16 steps, with maximum gaps of only 2 (16 11 2). Nope.So it's a guessing game. The book gives you no clue, mathematically, as to why those will not work. Maybe it is instantly intuitive to a mathematician, but not many readers. This particular "compam" situation will make sense to many if you think through it, but keep in mind that this is the second simplest rhythm generator in the book, out of many. Most people cannot simply think through what numbers might work in a "necklace" rhythm generator or most of the others...or at least I can't.The book does everything it says it will do, but in my opinion vastly underrepresents what it takes to get the most out of the book, because the book is heavily dependent on the software in my opinion, and the software is a chore, to say the least.My suggestions for the authors are (1) explain the math at least a little bit more in the text, (2) find a way to package the software to get away from users having to compile it and run it from the command line, or use a more human-friendly programming language like Python, (3) have the programs write the results to files, including creating the necessary binary files and abc files automatically, without all the separate steps (isn't this really just combining existing scripts and adding some file write lines?), (4) give the programs more intuitive names, and (5) explain how the users might determine which variables are viable in the various rhythm generators, which could be done either in the book or in the software as a response to inputs that do not work.

The material in this book ranges in topic from bright High School to Postgrad combinatorics, Markov chains, and much more. Do NOT let the "short" 126 page size either fool or deter you-- each page needs to be studied over and over, referred back and forth to the illustrations, then practiced on the books website and with the software.The authors are amazing teachers. I remember taking a very tough quant course in grad school where the professor made us painstakingly hand adjust cueing algorithms. This drilled in our brain "how" the computer actually DID the math and combinatorics. Discrete math and Euler type topics (continued fractions, modulus, common divisors, etc.) are interesting but can also be boring. The cool thing is that every element explored here results in a testable rhythm (note or drum starting point (onset, interval, sequence, pulse or beat).The authors use manual examples, formulas, step functions, coordinate systems, tables, website pulse/beat examples, pseudo code, and C compiled programs to illustrate increasingly abstracted ways to create novel rhythms, an ironic reflection of the beats themselves as recursive and/or self similar with varying levels of abstraction and correlation. If you're not comfortable installing and using a C compiler, you won't be able to use the least tedious tools (the supplied software).Although explained thoroughly and at many levels, this is NOT an easy read! Each page not only gives multiple approaches, but is densely packed with "variations" that are really important, but take a lot of either prior combinatorics knowledge, or deep adjunctive study. For example, a pattern will be shown, but a brief "side hack" comment will mention that you can alter the string with tiling (tessalation), shifts, reverses, and many other methods that are not fully explained. Hands on TRYING the variations with the software is a MUST.If you just "read" the book without using the website, software, additional references, etc. you might scratch your head trying to decide whether this is a music book or a discrete math book. By getting into the generation resources, which are wonderful, you'll quickly see that this is an awesome way to learn combinatorics using really fun creative rhythm generation, or just make great unusual music using the combinatorics with a minimum understanding of the math, depending on your own needs, motives and the amount of work you want to put into learning very deep levels of rhythm. By the end, you will be able to take almost any rhythm, from origami to planetary orbits, and turn them into music!DO CHECK the generous "look inside" feature for this book BEFORE committing, so you won't be disappointed at the amount of math. IMHO anyone who did good in math in HS will be able to get this whole book WITH a good commitment of time. And if you're a composer, and not afraid of math, this book is a MUST. The authors recommend and reference  The Geometry of Musical Rhythm: What Makes a "Good" Rhythm Good? , which "dumbs down" the topic a little using clocks and blocks, but in my opinion isn't nearly as good as this volume. Still, a serious study of rhythm could use both books without too much overlap, and with very different approaches to the use of algorithms and programming (which this volume uses extensively). Highly recommended for the motivated reader.KINDLE NOTE: I got both the print and Kindle versions, and although the ebook isn't as slaughtered as some, and there are few formulas to wreck (which came out fine), due to the amount of hard effort this dense material takes to grok, paging up and down to the tables or back and forth to the website examples are a lot more work on the kindle version. I'd definitely go for the print first, and use the .99 option for Kindle as a link backup, but if I had to choose one, it would be print. I couldn't both read it on my laptop kindle window and use the C compiler to run the examples in code at the same time either, but you can do both with the print version and your laptop!

Ok, I did not understand all of this book.I hope it gets useful when I am ready. I read it again and try to put in practice.I did not try it yet but there is a nice complement to the book : a website with some programs written in C to create the rhythmic patterns described in the book.If you love math, and also music, just go for it. The knowledge is big.

Great, yet amazingly simply book on creating rhythms

Great book for understanding how the math behind rhythm patterns work, especially if you're wanting to know the more technical aspects of pattern programming. I found it useful for understanding how my sequencers work (from some of the book - some of it is pretty theoretical). I definitely learned a lot. A good reference book.

Rather confusing and disjointed work which I feel tries to over too many areas and does little justice to any of them.Maybe worthwhile as a general read but would not recommend it for any reader hoping to learn a productive workflow.

Short but full of info