Hi! My name is Cortland. I generate waaay too much music.
My life's goal is to write the equation for music.
It exists now as Monic Theory: A system rooted in the Harmonic Series.
Monic Theory is a superset of:
- Western Music/12-ET
- Ragas of Inda
- Makams of Turkey
- Any tonal music on Earth
Monic Theory reveals beautiful symmetries of how chords work, and how melodies should be constructed.
I am working on methods to apply Monic Theory to produce music for millions of people simultaneously.
If you need bulk music, please contact me here!
https://tenpens.ink
Hello, you have reached the website of Cortland Mahoney.
Please listen to four hours of generated music on YouTube:
This music was composed with my secret software, tin-pan.
The compositions were rendered with the April 2024 model of my FOSS, raudio
The video was generated with my secret software, ross.
Additive Synthesis
Additive synthesis, a powerful technique for sound generation, forms the backbone of raudio— an innovative synthesizer built with Rust. Raudio pushes the boundaries of traditional physical modeling by introducing Druidic Synthesis, a method that ventures beyond natural sound reproduction into the realm of the fantastical. Designed with precision tuning in mind, it supports Just Intonation and the novel Monic Playbooks format. This project represents a deep dive into digital signal processing (DSP), combining cutting-edge technology with creative exploration.
Data Dancers
The Setup While in New York City, I organized algoraves and livecode workshops. After moving to Atlanta, I felt the absence of this vibrant livecode environment. Using Meetup.com, I found others interested in live coding and started Data Dancers. Though finding public spaces to meet and project screens or make noise can be challenging, it is always worthwhile. I enjoy introducing new members to Strudel and Hydra, which often blows their minds and provides an accessible entry point to coding music or art immediately.
Livecoding
Performances As a livecoder, I have performed at algoraves both as a musician and, more recently, as a visualist. I have used TidalCycles, SuperCollider, Hydra, and Strudel in my performances. Hosted Algoraves Here are some algoraves that I hosted: LivecodeNYC Salonrave @ Caffeine Underground Livecode NYC Presents Vibration Check Process is Power Livecode.NYC Algogayze Livecode Show Open Cables, a livecode open mic night at Caffeine Underground [Not recorded] Algorave Atlanta, GA Documentation Here are two documents I wrote that were presented at livecode workshops:
Programming Interests (Past)
Autodidactic Journey As a self-taught engineer, my journey of learning to code and build software was driven by curiosity and a commitment to mastering the craft independently. Several topics stood out as particularly compelling during this time. While I won’t dive into them in depth here, I’m happy to discuss any of them in detail through a consultation. Here are my favorite past programming interests: Functional Programming (Hindley-Milner & Lisps) Emacs Desktop Ubuntu TypeScript Website and application development Cloud servers and deployment techniques Good books Here are three programming books that I learned a lot by reading and following along with a repl or compiler:
Programming Interests (todo)
These are some topics that are fascinating but cost too much time for me to do them right now. They are mentioned here because I believe these items are important enough that I’ll get to them sooner than later. SIMD Optimizations Single Instruction, Multiple Data (SIMD) is a powerful optimization technique for DSP. Since my additive synthesizer, raudio, is already vectorized, the next logical step is to leverage SIMD to perform operations on multiple data points simultaneously.