Computer Generated Music Presentation by Alex Whetham Focus This - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Computer Generated Music

Presentation by Alex Whetham

Focus

This presentation will be more focused

• n…
• Early examples of computer

generated music

• Keygen Music
• Computer Generated Midi

Music + for Human Performance

• Modern Technology Generating

Music without Midis or Midi Composing

So… What is Computer Generated Music?

• There are many types of definitions for Computer Generated Music, spanning

a wide variety of music fields

• But the simplest definition?
• Using computer technology to aid in the creation of music, whether it be in

composition, sound design, or sound synthesis

Earliest Example of Computer Generated Music

• 1951 - Alan Turing
• Alan Turing - the man famous for breaking the Nazi’s enigma code during

WWII, the 2015 film the Imitation Game starring Benedict Cumberbatch was about him.

• He was a mathematician, but he also built a giant computer capable of
• utputting notes with human programming.

Alan Turing’s Computer Generated Music

• Less focused on making a tune, more just around notes, made during an all

night programming session

• In 2016, the recording was restored:
• https://soundcloud.com/guardianaustralia/first-ever-recording-of-computer-

music

The guys who restored it

Now let’s jump forward to the 90s...

Well, What is Keygen Music?

• To start, Keygen is software that develops a licensing key for a program
• During the 90s, this was used legally and illegally to generate keys and

licenses for a variety of programs

• Focusing on illegal side, there were teams of hackers who would generate

keys by “cracking” into the code of the programs they would generate keys for

• These teams would often try to outdo each other in many ways and create

some healthy competition

Keygen Music

• One of the ways these teams of “hackers” would compete would be to use the

software and their programming knowledge to create crazy intros and use the computers cards and ocassionaly the programs themselvesto create music and visuals

• These would play whenever you generated a key
• An example of the music:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=94&v=rFv7mHTf0nA

However...

What about music made by computers with just a little help from humans?

Keygen was music made by humans with a little help from computers...

Computer Generated MIDI Music

• MIDI - Musical Instrument Digital Interface
• Summing up simply is hard, but basically it is how musical interfaces in

electronic and computer interfaces speak to each other

• How a keyboard you plug into your computer can play notes on programs that

make music

How Does Something Like This Work?

• Very complex to make computer generated midis, but…
• Computer Programmers program an algorithm, that a computer reads when

you run the program and based on what computer has been programmed to do, outputs a midi file that the computer will attempt to read as music.

• Example: Computoser
• This stuff is not composed by a human, but it still needs a human’s help to tell

it what kind of music to play

Computers Composing Music for Humans

• There have been a couple versions of computers that have been created to

compose music but not output it itself.

• May sound more primitive, but the example here: Iamus, can create full

classical symphonies in 8 minutes

• Humans then would play the symphony based on what Iamus has written

A Symphony by Iamus

Midi-less Computer Generated Music

• Dadabots
• Taking music that doesn’t necessarily rely on notes, but more on atmosphere

and mood

• Math Rock, Black Metal, etc.
• I’m not too familiar with either of these genres, so here’s an example to get us

all into what Dadabots has made:

• Math Rock: Battles - Atlas
• Black Metal: Kralice - Diotima

DadaBots’ Versions of What We Heard

• They programmed their computers that they made to “listen” to the songs that

I played for you for a certain amount of time and output their version of the song

• This is not dissimilar to the Google Deepdream picture algorithms
• Dadabots - Black Metal
• Dadabots - Math Rock
• Pretty strange stuff…
• … but it seems to retain the atmosphere
• And better than simple midi instruments

Who knows where the future of computer generated music and computer music can go?

The End

Sources Used

• https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/sep/26/first-recording-computer-generated-music-created-alan-turing-

restored-enigma-code

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iamus_(computer)
• http://computoser.com/
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zOprEiOOyc
• https://dadabots.bandcamp.com/
• http://journal.transformativeworks.org/index.php/twc/article/view/96/94
• https://nesthq.com/best-of-keygen
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBlVeieFqKc