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Profile: polymorphic_engine

Martin Gius, a.k.a. polymorphic_engine
Martin Gius, a.k.a. polymorphic_engine
Vienna, Austria

I find the way Tidal allows me to approach music in a structural way fascinating. I like it’s concise but still verbose syntax, especially combined with the mini-syntax. When I make music on my own, I like to start out with simple rhythmic patterns and start to layer them with different versions of themselves (slower & lower / faster & higher / ..). Now apply the MI clouds effect and you can have fun for hours adjusting the parameters! I also like to use a traditional game controller and map the controls to conditional functions or effects in the code. For example, playing a drum pattern twice as fast when I press the ‘A’ button, or adjust the pan according to a joystick. I like the thought that I am programming the functionality of a game live, while I am also playing it.

Profile: Pondskater

Axel Ganz, a.k.a. Pondskater
Axel Ganz, a.k.a. Pondskater
Düsseldorf, Germany and Telavi, Georgia

Although I am not a developer and have no knowledge of programming at all, I was able to get into TC very quickly and find the approach very intuitive. In particular, I now find it easy to create complete rhythmic structures. Sometimes I don’t know exactly what I’m doing, but some results speak for themselves. This fascinates and motivates me, even after three years. Tidal never gets boring. Besides, I have always been interested in new approaches and new musical territory. Live coding offers a great and ever-expandable field of experimentation.

Profile: ndr_brt

ndr_brt
ndr_brt
Italy

When I met it for the first time everything was a wow, the cycle concept, function composition, mini-notation, patternization… Nowadays I’m still able to find inspiration watching other people livecoding or reading the posts on tidal club, especially when there are custom functions listed.

Profile: BuboBubo

Raphaël Maurice Forment, a.k.a. BuboBubo
Raphaël Maurice Forment, a.k.a. BuboBubo
Lyon / Paris, France

TidalCycles taught me a lot about music and improvisation. I used not to care too much about rhythm and structures when improvising. The emphasis that Tidal is putting on rhythm can actually be beneficial. It pushes you to explore some aspects of music you might be neglecting: complex time signatures, intriguing rhythms, etc… I also like the fact that it feels like a “metaphoric” language to talk about music that ends up taking shape while typing on the keyboard. Making music with Tidal, you quickly start to put a name on specific patterning concepts.