Alex, why keep this an esoteric art? Should we not embrace AI instead? Is the community not so small that you personally answer all my Tidal questions? Do we not want this genre to go viral? Would it not be poetic to have algorithms generating algorithms? What am I missing?
Quite a few questions here!
Alex, why keep this an esoteric art? Should we not embrace AI instead?
AI, at least as it’s sold by Anthrophic, OpenAI etc, is very much the opposite of live coding. Live coding is about human-centric creativity, whereas billionaire AI techbros are about far-right accelerationism and misanthropy.
Is the community not so small that you personally answer all my Tidal questions?
No there’s 10k+ people on the discord. This forum has been a bit quiet though.
Do we not want this genre to go viral?
It has gone viral, e.g. Switch Angel and dj_dave are getting millions of hits on tiktok etc. Anthropic etc are very keen to cash in on this.
Would it not be poetic to have algorithms generating algorithms? What am I missing?
It depends on the algorithms and who’s running them.
3 Likes
Couldn’t agree more!
I was thinking about the potential of LLMs to be our learning assistants. I learned a lot about Python using LLM help. I tried the same approach with Tidal and didn’t work. To be clear, I am as much against capitalism as any other decent human being capable of critical thinking and ethical discernment.
Thanks for introducing me to the concept of accelerationism.
LLMs are a piece of technology just like all the others that effect music and creativity. Denouncing it as non-human-centric by definition because some elites are trying to tie up said technology for their private interests is a bit reactionary. AI is also an open source colossus and counter-force to techbrodome.
Yes, so I’m supportive of a safe space like this where we could share, develop and use live coding algorithms.
2 Likes
in my opinion they great thing about tidal is the commitment to keeping the code visible. past the docs everything I learned was from watching performances recorded and live and taking notes about elements.
I’m pretty new to uzu and livecoding and I learned about strudel last autumn.
To me, strudel is an instrument where I can learn to make sounds I like. Doing, learning and trying out things is integral to me when playing with strudel.
Using an LLM instead to get my desired result would deprive me of an experience. It feels like buying pre-built lego instead of building with the blocks you have at hand.
3 Likes
I love the Lego analogy! 
1 Like
That’s a thing I came up with while explaining to a friend what I like about strudel.
It also is one way to see the “you must delete”/”let code die” matras of pastagang.