Transition

For enthusiasts of musical indeterminacy and experimental composition, this little-known free (!) MIDI-only plug-in is a dream come true, and dangerously habit forming. It employs a rules-based method based on visual input from the user, arranging interactive elements in puzzle-like grid, optionally tweaking their behavior in a more detailed "advanced view." There is no limit to how many instances you run (at least in Reaper, sorry to the other reviewer..) therefore you can place it on several tracks and effectively "plant a garden," the result is continuous, non-repeating generative music which unfolds "the same but different" every time you click play (the MIDI output can be captured to the file any time.).

Its most obvious usage is for chords and melodic material, but I have also used it to: compose shifting polyrhythmic drum patterns, randomly trigger samples, even using the note output to generate CC automation patterns (or any patterns... for anything..) which are at once consistent and ever evolving.

Approach it with a little patience and a lot of curiosity, you will be rewarded with that proverbial child-like thrill of discovery you perhaps forgot you were even capable of; the process becomes equally rewarding to the product. This thing would make John Cage and Brian Eno proud.

First, the good: Transition is fairly unique in what it does - create random notes based on several parameters you can set such as scale, octaves, frequency, etc. Further manipulation by utilizing creative tools in the activity pad area ensures whatever Transition comes up with is very original. Already, I've created 25-minute ambient tracks as well as one long 50-minute opus with it and it sounded good.

And now, the bad: For some reason, and I can't contact CodeFN42 to find out why, you can't load more than one instance of Transition in Cubase or Studio One. I'm guessing this is the same with other DAWs although I haven't tried. When you do attempt it, the DAWs either lock up or shut down right away, thus my intended goal to set up one Transition in 1/4 time and the other in 1/8 or 1/16 is never achieved.

Common sense would suggest that I'm trying to force the DAWs to use multiple clock rates which they can't do, but using CodeFN42's own RandARP in multiple instances with different timings does work, so it must be a Transition bug. Like I'd said before, I couldn't reach the dev about a solution. Anyway, I can always record one track of 1/4 Transition then go back and create a 1/16 take. It's just be nice to have two or more of them going at the same time to make sure what was being concocted makes musical sense.

Wow, that's really impressive! Easy to use, so much fun. You can easily dive in without reading manual or figuring out all these incredible functions. Instrument for uncontrollable melodic mess. It took me just several minutes to fall in love with this little tool. And it's for free, i can't believe that. Endless possibilities and fun. With "random" and "probability" it is easy to go from generic pattern to complete chaos, in any preferable key. It's like you're not writing music anymore with this "bots and obstacles" window, just playing fun game. I love it.