Alicia Champlin, Niklas Reppel
Mégra is a mini-language to make music with variable-order markov chains and some other stochastic shenanigans. This workshop offers a hands-on tutorial in applying the basics of Mégra 3, with time for exploration and free play.
Any skill level. Windows/MacOS/Linux. Participants should bring laptops, headphones, and optionally a small microphone.
The abstract is displayed here for proof-reading and will only be part of the published proceedings, not of the final version of this web catalogue.
Mégra is a domain-specific programming language (DSL) designed for live coding music with stochastic elements. In this workshop we present a newly developed tutorial for getting started with Mégra 3, along with its growing body of documentation, which is now available in both English and Spanish. The Mégra 3 stand-alone application includes its own editor, optional default sound library and cross-platform compatibility. In the last year, significant effort has been put into designing the tutorial and presentation to give a strong overview in the clearest way possible, with an installation that works “right out of the box”, in order to make Mégra 3 extremely accessible to newcomers and to grow its still very small user base. The concepts behind Mégra may be stochastic in nature, but users do not need to have a deep understanding of the math – these concepts are abstracted to a high level, readable vocabulary with some playful idiosyncrasies.
Agenda: 1. Installation, Setup and Orientation (15 mins) 2. Introduction to Mégra 3 (1 hr) a. Soundcheck b. Sequence Generators & Contexts i. The Loop Generator ii. The Inference Generator iii. The Learning Generator c. Try it! 4. Modifying the Event Stream (30 mins) a. Modifying Generators b. Layering Generators c. LFOs and Continuous Modulators d. Experiment! 5. Wrap up: Other Features & Documentation for Further Study (15 mins) a. Live Buffering b. Multi-channel Sound c. Built-in Session Recording
The main tutorial is a robust and hands-on walkthrough of the basics of Mégra 3, including installation and configuration, which should be very efficient with the stand-alone executable now available for Windows, Mac & Linux. The format we propose is to have one presenter introducing concepts and examples on screen, with participants following along and trying the examples, meanwhile another presenter is able to “float” and assist participants with troubleshooting and questions. This format should allow for maximum playtime and maximum individual support for participants, while avoiding the stop-start pacing in which everything grinds to a halt if one person gets stuck, or worse, the chance that questions won’t be asked for fear of disrupting the flow of the presentation. The presenter will also use a fun visualization tool to demonstrate the logic of different probabilistic examples and use cases, which really helps to build a more intuitive understanding of the concepts and how they can be applied.
Most importantly, we are building time into the workshop for participants to play with the examples and concepts on their own. This is the real test that Mégra 3 is accessible and enjoyable for new users, and gives us the most opportunity for user feedback that will improve future workshops, tutorials, and the overall documentation.