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Making music from the number pi.

NoiseAddicts.com — Paul Slocum is an artist and musician who has created an amazing art project based on software. This software is called the "Pi House Generator", and randomly generates house music by calculating the digits to the number π . Much like the number itself, the music stream never repeats and constantly continues to evolve..

Who dugg this? Made popular Oct 3, 2008

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  • yellowfish04, on 10/03/2008, -2/+51Very good, seems you've got the hang of the "Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V" feature of your new personal computer. Next we'll figure out how to access those silly symbols above your numbers.
  • Ymeg, on 10/03/2008, -0/+45♫♪♪pi.ytmnd.com♫♫♫
  • RudeTurnip, on 10/03/2008, -1/+31I want to put a drill to my head after hearing this.
  • DigSomeMore, on 10/03/2008, -2/+24That is pretty cool, now if it could only replace those hideous pop singers on the radio.
  • nicejai, on 10/03/2008, -0/+21I thought this part of the song track was especially cool:


    987543789534798523071240203091272340875249873469784357805270823752308752308239827349127549827583
  • AceyS, on 10/03/2008, -0/+20Wanna know something that will blow your mind yellowfish04? His actual post was:

    "3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751058209749445923078164062862089986280348253421170679
    8214808651328230664709384460955058223172535940812848111745028410270193852110555964462294895493038196
    4428810975665933446128475648233786783165271201909145648566923460348610454326648213393607260249141273
    724587006606315588174881520920962829254091715364367892590360011330530548820466521384146951941511609...

    Sent from my iPhone"
  • kebinusan, on 10/03/2008, -0/+20thats a clip from

    Hard N Phirm - Pi
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDu351QNoZE
  • ElBeh, on 10/03/2008, -0/+18Where can I download this "Pi House Generator"?
  • drcosquared, on 10/03/2008, -0/+15i shall now compose my first symphony in pi major
  • pitchblack16, on 10/03/2008, -0/+15 "The rate that the number of processor cycles increase per pi-digits is bound by the formula Z*log(N); however based on Moore’s Law, processor power per dollar increases at an exponential rate - doubling every two years. BY upgrading computers regularly with market trends, the song can be played indefinitely.” I love it.
  • sbcea, on 10/03/2008, -0/+15I guess my high school math teachers were right after all. There would be a need for this number stuff some day.
  • alex7575, on 10/03/2008, -0/+13I like pie
  • shutaro, on 10/03/2008, -2/+12"Oh, oh: you see, the kids, they listen to the rap music which gives them the brain damage. With their hippin', and the hoppin', and the bippin', and the boppin', so they don't know what the jazz...is all about! You see, jazz is like the Jello Pudding Pop... No, actually, it's more like Kodak film... No, actually, jazz is like the New Coke: it'll be around forever, heh heh heh."
  • gabbagabba, on 10/03/2008, -1/+10CONGRADULATIONS DIGG ON YOUR FIRST ARTICLE THAT ISN'T ABOUT THE UPCOMMING ELECTION IN 5 PAGES!!!!!!
  • serif69, on 10/03/2008, -0/+9You win a slice of π
  • malechite, on 10/03/2008, -1/+9!@#$%^&*()_+ SWEET!!!!

    do i win?
  • malechite, on 10/03/2008, -10/+183.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693993751058209749445923078164062862089986280348253421170679
    8214808651328230664709384460955058223172535940812848111745028410270193852110555964462294895493038196
    4428810975665933446128475648233786783165271201909145648566923460348610454326648213393607260249141273
    724587006606315588174881520920962829254091715364367892590360011330530548820466521384146951941511609...
  • TheSnuffster, on 10/03/2008, -0/+8I thought the chord progression from 953 to 479 was amazing.
  • Nicoon, on 10/03/2008, -0/+8...bling?
  • duvar, on 10/03/2008, -0/+6This is pretty awesome, but it would have been cooler if he used the Golden Ratio instead of pi.
  • Eqxy, on 10/03/2008, -0/+6definitely an interesting concept, although the actual music is a bit lacking.
  • strictnein, on 10/03/2008, -1/+7Kenzan, the world renowned music expert, has declared a genre of music to no longer be worthy. We must honor his wishes, for he knows all.

    Either that, or he's an arrogant ass. It's up to you to decide.
  • mediumofmeaning, on 09/08/2009, -0/+6darren aronofsky? is that you?
  • 7thguardian, on 10/03/2008, -0/+5Riemann zeta as audio:

    http://www.secamlocal.ex.ac.uk/people/staff/mrwatk ...
  • acroyear2, on 10/03/2008, -0/+5Autechre FTW
  • Tanktunker, on 10/03/2008, -0/+5How would that have made it cooler?
  • freezerburn666, on 10/03/2008, -0/+5neat concept, do not like the output... could just be the samples he uses but.. ugh, and ti sounded like the time was off.
  • Laminarcissus, on 10/03/2008, -1/+6For those of you who didn't recognize it, that was a quote from his influential Doctoral dissertation: "The Effects of Medical Marijuana on the Coherence of Digg Posts."
  • shutaro, on 10/03/2008, -0/+5@strictnein: I'll take arrogant ass for 500, Alex.
  • Nicoon, on 10/03/2008, -1/+6Pi equals 3 !!!
  • replaysMike, on 10/03/2008, -0/+5What did you expect, Mozart? It's a friggen number.
  • barstegry, on 10/03/2008, -0/+4Pi House had a completely different meaning when I was in college.
  • BotchaMcCoola, on 10/03/2008, -0/+4I heard someone whistling that.
  • aybraus, on 10/03/2008, -0/+4Brian Eno did something very similar to this when he made a random music program. It was used in Spore.
  • inactive, on 10/03/2008, -0/+4Lateralus.
  • Laminarcissus, on 10/03/2008, -0/+4Yeah, finally we're getting back to what's important. What, just because we're having an election pandas stop sneezing? Women crushing grapes don't fall on their face? C'mon people, step up.
  • ninjadave, on 10/03/2008, -1/+5A friend of mine built something like this based on a set of parameters that you put in including time signature, tempo, key, harmonic, scale, range, etc.

    It would keep playing forever. He was tossing around the idea of having some of the parameters guided by changes in temperature, wind, rainfall, etc.
  • serif69, on 10/03/2008, -0/+4Unmaking music from the number pi: π/0
  • exscind, on 10/03/2008, -0/+4Aphex Twin has an ingenious track on the Pi soundtrack called "Bucephalus Bouncing Ball".

    The thematic sound effect of a ball dropping and bouncing starts off with longer bounces that not only get shorter with each consecutive bounce, but accelerate as well (just like it would sound in nature).

    The iterations create a diminishing sequence. This may not immediately seem pi-ish, but if you were to draw a line and alter the degree of curvature inversely with the time between bounces, you would draw a spiral.

    At least, that's what I figured they were going for when I first heard it. Maybe they just thought it sounded cool.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVja2pjrEgI
  • Snarfy, on 10/03/2008, -0/+4I'm pretty sure that can be fixed. I sent the author a possible solution.

    In 2000 mathematicians discovered a constant time algorithm for pi.

    http://numbers.computation.free.fr/Constants/Algor ...
    http://www.andrews.edu/~calkins/physics/Miracle.pd ...

    Z*log(N) should no longer apply.
  • MadHarvey, on 10/03/2008, -0/+3Did anyone else notice that side-panel story that people are going to smoke Kurt Cobain's ashes as part of an art exhibit? lol...
  • strictnein, on 10/03/2008, -0/+3I've heard it. Do I get a cookie?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autechre
  • itsJALbert, on 10/03/2008, -0/+3No online stream = fail.
  • batonrye, on 10/04/2008, -0/+3... can't... stop... listening... to ..... Pi.... song....
  • inactive, on 10/03/2008, -0/+3The best role for numbers in music is in the advancement of freedom for the human heart to express itself. i.e. building new tools for humans to make music with. The process of letting the digits in pi or any other non-human aspect of the cosmos control the unfolding of notes is to a piece of music as photography is to illustration. One transduces preexisting information, the other creates new information from scratch.
  • shadowspawn, on 10/03/2008, -0/+3Yes that was it. Thank you.

    You can hook into it using a random number generator. I'm wondering if he did the same thing... just all application-wise.
  • jsaya, on 10/03/2008, -0/+3I'd like to see this w/ Trance!
  • darklights, on 10/03/2008, -0/+3Are you on DRUGS?
  • fingaz, on 10/03/2008, -0/+3The band Tool has been incorporating math into their music for quite some time. The number of syllables per line in the lyrics to "Lateralus" correspond to an arrangement of the fibonacci numbers, and in "Jambi" the metrical foot iamb is used.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wS7CZIJVxFY
  • WebWorker, on 10/04/2008, -0/+3@ Kenzan http://moveon.org/
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