Create Computer-Generated Music On Your PC

Post: Create Computer-Generated Music On Your PC

09-19-2011, 06:13 PM #1

RADDY1993

< ^ > < ^ >

1,272

Posts

8,456

Reputation

Credits

Member

Feb 2010

NextGenUpdate

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); Have you ever listened to a song on the radio and thought "this sounds like it was generated automatically by a computer"? Well, now you can get your own back, and generate your own tunes!

Sound Helix is a free set of programming routines, written in Java, that generates and plays tunes. Although primarily aimed at Java developers, you can run it on your own computer to generate songs by simply downloading a tiny file.

First, make sure that your computer already has Java installed. If not, go to You must login or register to view this content. and get it. You need version 6 or above.

Next, make sure that your PC has a sound card installed, and a default MIDI device that's capable of playing sounds. If you're not sure, just carry on with the next step and you'll find out. Chances are, if your PC can play MP3 files, you shouldn't have any problems.

Finally, head to You must login or register to view this content. and download the small .jnlp file mentioned at the top of that page. The file itself is only 1 KB and contains nothing but plain text, so is guaranteed free from viruses and malware. Though I did scan it with VirusTotal just to be sure.

That should be all you need. Double-click the downloaded .jnlp file and a song should start playing. You'll see a screen that looks like the one below. Typing HELP in the command bar at the bottom will show you the list of commands that you can type to change the feel of the song being played. When you're done, just click the application's "close" box in the top right hand corner and the music will stop.

You must login or register to view this content.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});