Plausible music generators

[mcoyote]

My primary means of composing are either FLStudio and just banging stuff out on the controller or with my Proteus. I've been fiddling around with some sound design lately, however, and I've been curious how to stretch my new designs to see how they fit under a variety of conditions.

In the software world, a unit test harness is how you push new code around to see what it does. With this gear I played around with MIDI files I got from here and there (folk songs, pop songs, etc.) and then I stumbled across a couple of music generation software packages.

They're not very deep, but they are a passable way to generate tracks that are (a) out of the box, that is to say, not my usual stuff, and (b) still work together (synchronized, in the same keys and scales, etc.). If I want to try out an entire drum kit or all of the expression in patch, these help.

My personal favorite, for both price and features, is something called "A Musical Generator" ( http://www.musoft-builders.com/links/amg.shtml ).

Its claim to fame is that you can take a variety of algorithms -- basic curves, dynamic systems, fractals, more arbitrary stuff -- and map them in various ways into keys and scales of your choosing.

It does live playback pretty well and also generates MIDI files. A couple of drawbacks include only being able to hit one MIDI controller at a time (my UM-550 represents as five over USB, one for each port), requiring me to chain up my gear, and it only supports one key/scale per pass.

You can apply separate, configurable algorithms to notes, duration, velocity, and (to a degree) time delay and controller changes for each MIDI channel. Arbitrary MIDI events can also be scheduled into the system.

Another item I picked up is a "ambient music generator" called Sounder. It's interesting, but not nearly as versatile. The upside is that it is designed as a perpetual generator -- you could run it (also drives MIDI devices live) and it will go forever ( http://www.sounder.com/ ).

Because these two cast their respective algorithms into functional keys and scales, what is generated doesn't sound like a mess and is listenable -- feeding drum kits is actually a lot of fun with AMG. With some work, you wouldn't feel too bad letting other people hear this stuff either.

ED: Also, I've had some fun with okonsar's tools ( http://www.okonsar.com ). Less refined, and some of these functions are already in packages such as FLStudio, but they're interesting. Applications include arpeggios, asymmetrical patterns, bass lines, polyphony, progressions, and twelvetones (all free).

(Note that his files thatn end in ".rar" are in a zip-like format called WinRar -- the software can be found at http://www.rarlab.com )

I realize this is probably a little dorky, but I've actually had a good time with this stuff and thought the information may be useful to others. Has anyone else here ever used something like this?