Teensy Controlled Langtons Ant Sequencer - Demo

[Expensive Notes]

Teensy Controlled Langtons Ant Sequencer with Launchpads, Volca FM, Volca Bass and NTS-1


The Teensy is running a version of Langton's Ant to determine the colour of the squares on the Launchpads. As the sequence increments (see blue pad for sequence position) the NTS-1 is playing notes based on the Ants y position (Red pad). The Volcas are playing notes based on the white and black pads.

 

[Expensive Notes]

Now with 2 Ants. But no steak knives...

 

[boxxofrobots]

I don't underrstand these things. How does the note correspond to the matrix?

 

[MatrixRat]

Me neither, but this tickles the curiosity of my creative thinking matrix. Have a Launchpad mini plugged into a T4 host and would dive in for a play if we can politely twist your arm for some working code?

 

[Expensive Notes]

As the sequence index travels horizontally (noteIndex), it calculates the the highest white and black squares to decide the note to play. The notes are constrained to a key over one octave.

void notesOn(int noteIndex) {
  lastNote1 = 10;
  lastNote2 = 10;
  lastNote3 = 10;
  lastNotey1 = 0;
  lastNotey2 = 0;
  lastNotey3 = 0;
  for (int y = 1 ; y < 9; y++) {
    //find notes
    switch (gridDisplay[noteIndex][y]) {//gridDisplay is a 2d array that stores the colours to display to the Launchpads
      case 0:
        //black cell
        lastNote1 = 48 + minorScale[y];
        lastNotey1 = y;
        break;
      case 1:
        // white cell
        lastNote2 = 48 + minorScale[y];
        lastNotey2 = y;
        break;
      case 5:
        // ant
        lastNote3 = 36 + minorScale[y];
        lastNotey3 = y;
        break;
      case 9:
        // ant2
        lastNote3 = 24 + minorScale[y];
        lastNotey3 = y;
        break;
      default:
        // empty
        break;
    }
  }
  //play notes
  if (lastNote1 > 10) playMIDInote1(noteON1, lastNote1, 100);
  if (lastNote2 > 10) playMIDInote2(noteON1, lastNote2, 100);
  if (lastNote3 > 10) playMIDInote7(noteON1, lastNote3, 100);
}

 

[MatrixRat]

Thank you. After sleeping on it, I get the idea. Current 16 track 32 step sequencer works well. Neopixels are used to display a single track and the Launchpad is currently used as a single dumb set of buttons to control the thing.

Need to work on expanding the launchpad's scope - multi page etc, so will be a while before am able to let any Ants loose.

 

[Expensive Notes]

Great. Have fun. I will be interested to see what you come up with.
Check this out too for my version of Tic Tac Toe as music generation.
https://core-electronics.com.au/projects/teensy-controlled-games-on-launchpad/