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A few years ago I took a stab at designing an algorithmic music engine and some content
for it. It got a good review because it did sound like real music but I can tell you it
was nowhere near as good as what I can do when I am in control of all the notes. Back then
I had to work under the severe restriction of using MidPak which, although a competent
product, was the least appropriate for the task at hand. I had to design the whole thing
to determine which individual tiny MIDI file would be played in which order without the
possibility of layering or controlling volumes on individual tracks. The result was a
script that controlled which category of MIDI file was next in line and allowed the
program to pick randomly from a small pool to determine which particular version got
played. This scheme demanded that the individual MIDI files be extremely simple and
universal in nature. That was a trying experience but it did leave me with a wish list of
features that an interactive music composition tool should have. Recently I spent some
time with Microsoft DirectMusic Producer. It pretty much fulfilled my wish list and, in
fact, functions in a manner similar to what I did a few years ago only with much greater
complexity. While this kind of tool can give a composer almost limitless freedom to design
interactive music it also transforms his task into one of much greater complexity. Anyone
who can compose well with such a tool is deserving of a title different than composer
because being a composer alone cannot prepare you for this whole new way of looking at
music.
A linear music composer can hear his music from beginning to end and be sure that
everything sounds correct. With interactive composition this may not be possible unless
there are only a few possibilities. With interactive music you can easily create millions
of possibilities and there is no way to listen to all of them. For this reason composing
for interactivity is becoming much more like the job of programmer since they too must
allow for many possibilities without the ability to check them all out personally. Because
of this an interactive composer must be able to understand the fundamental concepts behind
musical composition so that he can predict how the components he is creating will interact
in any situation. This turns musical composition into a logical process of determining
which components are necessary to achieve a goal. The artistic side of this process is in
determining the goals, the method of achieving these goals, the necessary components, and
the component design. The job of the good composer has always been one of applying good
taste to a technical task. Interactive music composition is similar but requires more
musical imagination since you have to be able to imagine all the possible results of your
choices.
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