Hacker News Reader

Comment by verst | Hacker News Reader

Lots. For example, there are dozens of models that specifically have been trained on Bach MIDIs to generate new Bach style compositions. However, the generated MIDIs definitely do not sound like Bach :)

I'd link to some specific examples (easy to Google or search on GitHub) but I can't recall which models were more successful than others.

View on HN

Almost nobody remembers it, but if you go back far enough, there was a Sid Meier game on the 3DO that algorithmically generated music in the style of Bach called (appropriately enough) CPU Bach.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJkPWSKuTHI

That's awesome! First time I've seen this. And coincidentally until today I had never even heard of the 3DO console. (I myself grew up on Amiga 500)

Having taken a class on Bach style composition in college - I think a rules engine with a random seed would certainly be much more successful at generating Bach style compositions than any neural network-based model ever will be.

I agree especially given how logically Bach structures his contrapuntal stuff. I also took a class on counterpoint and the professor had the great idea of using Gradus Ad Parnassum as our textbook. Very rewarding class but there's far more approachable books on counterpoint these days!

Now I'm going down the rabbit hole of using a 3DO emulator (Opera) and running the CPU Bach ROM. :)

And here is an interesting patent that Sid Meier and Jeff Briggs filed for their work on C.P.U. Bach: System for real-time music composition and synthesis https://patents.google.com/patent/US5496962A/en

Update: Got it running with RetroArch 64 using the 3DO Company Opera core. Found the necessary BIOS to use here: https://github.com/trapexit/3do-bios

I'll leave the ROM search up to whoever is interested :)

Cool! IIRC, his game Alpha Centauri also had procedurally generated music.

Uh, "do not sound like Bach"? That's a regression from what David Cope was doing a few decades ago now.

Only one mention of David Cope on HN. Oh well, at least somebody remembers...

Neural Networks aren't the best solution for every task contrary to popular belief. For Bach in particular I'm sure lots of pre-NN work is much better.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com