StochastiCakewalk?

[Starship Krupa]

I've played around with Stochas, a MIDI sequencer that lets you set each cell to have a certain probability of sounding when the playhead hits it. Kinda fun for certain weirdo stuff that I get into at times. You can also randomize velocity, I believe.

I found out last night that Cakewalk's Step Sequencer already has variable note probability built in, when I did a search on the word "randomize."

To access this feature, you click the arrow to the left of the note header, then from the menu, choose Step Play Probability. At that point, you can draw in the controller strip a probability that any given note will play:

Neat, huh?

At its most basic, it's good for making beats that change up just a little every so often. Adds variety.

As a more "out there" application, you can do things like set the rows up to be a certain scale, fill all the cells, paint in a <100 probability for every note, then sit back and see what the sequencer comes up with.

If you've studied the works of John Cage or Brian Eno, you can imagine what fun can be had with this feature.

Just another example of what delights one might find poking around in Cakewalk's dusty corners.

In another example, the reason I was looking for "randomize" is because Cakewalk has a built-in "randomize" function for any plug-in you load. It'll just take the parameters that the plug-in exposes and jumble them up. It's in that VST3 (or VST2, depending) menu in the plug-in properties UI:

One caution: at the moment, with VST3's, the randomizer leaves the plug-in in a bypassed state, so you have to hit the host bypass button a couple of times to bring it back after a randomization. That can possibly be a good thing, gives you a moment to turn down the volume. It's really fun to try on a synth like TAL-Noisemaker that exposes so many parameters to the host.

Think of all the plug-ins, like Meldaproduction's and Glitchmachines', that sell parameter randomization as a feature. Cakewalk has it built right in.

[David Duleroy]

Hey there,

I am trying to figure out how to get Stochas working on cakewalk and I really can't... Could you help?

Not talking about stochastic but stochas plugin , TY. 

[User 905133]

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Edited March 4 by User 905133
to reduce clutter in the thread

[User 905133]

off-topic post withdrawn

 

Edited March 4 by User 905133
to reduce clutter in the thread

[Starship Krupa]

23 minutes ago, David Duleroy said:

I am trying to figure out how to get Stochas working on cakewalk and I really can't... Could you help?

1. Create an instrument track with Stochas.
2. Create another instrument track with the synth you wish to control with Stochas.
3. Set the synth track's input to Stochas, MIDI channel 1 (that's the default for Stochas, although you can change it).
4. Turn the synth tracks Input Echo on.
5. Set the Stochas track's Channel to 1.
6. Enter some notes in Stochas' editor.
7. Set Cakewalk to loop for a measure or two or however many measures you want it to loop.
8. Hit Play.

At this point you should be hearing output from the synth. If you're not, make sure that the synth has a patch loaded, make sure you have input echo turned on, make sure you have some notes entered, and make sure the synth track's audio path is clear all the way through to the output (the usual troubleshooting when you can't seem to get a synth to make sound).

Make sure that the Stochas plug-in is set to enable MIDI out (which you do using the menu under that "VST3" button in the plug-in UI).

This setup should work for any generator or sequencer like this that acts as a virtual MIDI instrument generating MIDI information.

If you want to get results similar to what Stochas does, I really encourage you to try using Cakewalk's built-in Step Sequencer, as outlined above. It does the note probability thing no problem. Once I found that out, I didn't bother with Stochas anymore.

[User 905133]

off-topic post withdrawn

Edited March 4 by User 905133
to reduce clutter in the thread

[User 905133]

off-topic post withdrawn

Edited March 4 by User 905133
to reduce clutter in the thread

[David Duleroy]

2 hours ago, Starship Krupa said:

1. Create an instrument track with Stochas.
2. Create another instrument track with the synth you wish to control with Stochas.
3. Set the synth track's input to Stochas, MIDI channel 1 (that's the default for Stochas, although you can change it).
4. Turn the synth tracks Input Echo on.
5. Set the Stochas track's Channel to 1.
6. Enter some notes in Stochas' editor.
7. Set Cakewalk to loop for a measure or two or however many measures you want it to loop.
8. Hit Play.

(...)

If you want to get results similar to what Stochas does, I really encourage you to try using Cakewalk's built-in Step Sequencer, as outlined above. It does the note probability thing no problem. Once I found that out, I didn't bother with Stochas anymore.

Thank you very much Krupa it works, i was on the way to try

the step sequencer and compare this too! 

Edited March 4 by David Duleroy