Ashens and Algomusic!
Posted in Music, Software January 29th, 2020 by dotcomboom

Here’s a fun fact: you know that opening jingle before every one of Ashens’ videos? I had learned recently that that was a clip of procedurally generated music, from a program called Dunc’s Algomusic MkIIIb.

This kinda computer-generated music had always intrigued me in a way, things like making computers spit out jazz through neural networks and whatnot. Although Algomusic is definitely more primitive in a sense (compared to all the kilowatts used for training an AI) it’s fun to see what simpler algorithms and random seeds can still do. Also, I can’t help but feel algorithm-based generation has more charm and personality to it, as in the end it’s following a human-written pattern. Neural networks just remind me of the robot uprising.

And I should mention, the algorithm’s input/seed is indeed the song title. Grab a copy of Algomusic MkIIIb (later versions use different algorithms) yourself, type in “Doctor Ashen” and you’ll get to listen to the full thing. How you define “full thing”, though, is how long you’ll be able to handle it, since Algo̶̢̧̯̫̼̞̍m̶͉̼̩̱̠͌̽̓͑̿̈̄͆̂us̴̨̡̨̛̙͚̞̲̜̬̠̣͖̪͋̏͂͂̀̒̋̔͒͘͠į̷̣̮͒̈͊͗͝ć̸̡̢͎͉̳̦̣̹͕̱͈̀̆͐̆͛̓̚͝͠͝ͅ ̶̠̙͓̬̪̠͇̎͐̃̑̚͘stops̵̨̼͕̱̫̣̤̟̖͓̗̿͛̊͜͝ ̷̗̱͒̃̒̓̓̀̾̃f̵̜̻̱̳̑̆͠o̷͙̱͚̝̍͝r̸̯̟̖͖̙̤̥͉͈̄̏̈́̍̊͛͗͜͝͠ ̶̧̫̟̭͎͇̙̥̫͎̞̜̠͋̋͂̽̔́̏͆̉̆̄̿̚ͅṇ̴̡̲̹͖͇̦͚̰̼̺͕̭͆̊͐́͜o ̴̨̨̺͍̫̩̳̠̳͐̇͐̌̈́̊̃̂͘̚o̶̫̲͈̜̮͙̳͎͕͋̏̒̀̇͊́̂͒ņ̸̢̲͓̲͓͉̥̣̝͈͆͆̄͌̏͊̉̚͘͠e.

You can hear a portion in this video where he reviewed a bunch of these fake iPod radios:

The actual mad lad put this up on FM radio, for all to hear, just to test some Chinese iPod clones. Bless him.

And, of course, I did a fair bit of Algomusic testing myself as well:

[10:56 PM] Cammy: we sound epic
[10:56 PM] lince euroasiático: interesting bit too is that the samples are wavs that can be just swapped out
[10:56 PM] Cammy: man i want the theme to a calelira video game to sound like this
(Bonus: Ever wondered where this song came from? Here it is! I’d get down to it.)


« « « Leave a comment » » »

3 Comments

  1. Cammy says

    We still sound epic

    January 29th, 2020 | #

  2. dotcomboom says

    It’s 👏 true

    January 29th, 2020 | #

  3. 2/28 – Everybody Knows Everybody – Letters From Somnolescent says

    […] thought it was an excellent idea and asked for a WordPress install of his own. He then proceeded to write about Ashens’ theme song and install the Twenty Ten theme, which is great because it looks ancient. It reminds me of Cosmic […]

    February 28th, 2020 | #


RSS feed for these comments. | TrackBack URI