Sequencing
Game of Life
Conway’s Game of Life — a famous cellular automaton — used as a sequencer.
Learn about it in Melody & chance: chords, arps and generative patches
How it works
Each clock tick moves a playhead one column to the right; living cells in that column play a note (the highest one picks the pitch, from a pentatonic scale). After every full sweep the board evolves one generation: lonely cells die, crowded ones die, cells with exactly three neighbours are born. Click cells to draw; RESET returns to your drawing. Dead or frozen boards reseed themselves.
Inputs
| CLK | Steps the playhead. |
|---|---|
| RST | Back to your starting pattern. |
Outputs
| GATE | A living cell in this column. |
|---|---|
| V/OCT | Pitch of its highest living cell. |
| DENSITY | How crowded the board is (0–1) — great for modulating a filter. |
Lessons that use the Game of Life
Each one opens as a working patch in the synth.