There is a long history of using PureData, Csound or relevant languages for designing sounds or composition.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MUSIC-N

Later SuperCollider and TidalCycles led the way in live coding. For me, I just wanted a tool that could write code, compose music or design sounds directly in the browser, play with friends and have sample-level control. From the perspective of sample level control, it seems to be two extremes compared with the black box of AI.