MusicDevelopments

Krovatin · Post by **Krovatin** » Mon Sep 12, 2016 12:58 am

I was thinking about catchy melodies recently. If there any system or pattern or any helpful formula for good melody’s recipe? No. If it was, computer could compose music better than humans. And music would became like chess, every mobile phone’s chess software can defeat human chess master.

Although, there are some common songwriter’s rules about good melodies. The main rule is repetition.
Usually first phrase of melody is repeated twice or three times.

Here are good examples of it.

• Fur Elisa – Bethoven (ABAB+ABAB+)
• Girl - The Beatles (ABABC)
• Easy Livin’ – Uriah Heep (ABAB+)
• Fernando - ABBA –(ABAB+) or (AA+AA+)
• Shake It Off - Taylor Swift (ABCABC)
• You name it…

Let’s make it more mathematic:
What am I suggesting? I will try to explain formula - we need to produce 4 or 8 bars melody with some first phrase repetition in it.
A – first phrase, B – second phrase, “+” means some changing and developing of melody. C- third phrase etc. Sorry, I am not a musician, just got enthusiastic.

I can suggest two formulas at first:
A B A B+
A B A B A B+ C

A and B phrase could be randomly generated, etc. It would be good if we could regenerate B, for example, but keep A and C or vice versa.
I think we can get RC melodies more melodic with it.
Off course, it is pop melodic rules and for opera and symphony writers among us it would not be useful, I am afraid. I even can suggest the name “Pop melodic generator”.
What do you think guys? Almost 70% melodies I like looks like A B A B+ . Please, listen midi files I attached.

Krovatin · Post by **Krovatin** » Mon Sep 12, 2016 2:28 pm

I also would like to add some thought about "The Palette" - melody generator software. I spent some time with it.

It is good theoretically, but unfortunately, practice is poor. It is definitely better, than RapidComposer melody generators, but not even close to good melodies. Just listen their melody examples.

It is overcomplicated, but live is simplier, people use "ABAB Chorus AB Chorus Bridge Chorus" formula successfully many years for Pop music.

So, Attila, please, do not spend time for overcomplicated Palette, consider ABAB+ generator first, I am sure it will get better results.

tonedef71 · Post by **tonedef71** » Mon Sep 12, 2016 8:44 pm

Here are a few links that you may want to check out as you continue on your journey into software-generated melody creation:

Dirk-Jan Povel's Melody Generator v4.3.3 (Windows)
Dirk-Jan Povel's Melody Generator v4.3.3 (OSX)
Ars-Nova Song Works
Wolfram Tones
Platonic Music Engine
Random Melody Generator 1
Random Melody Generator 2

musicdevelopments · Post by **musicdevelopments** » Tue Sep 13, 2016 8:47 am

I have been thinking about a better melody generator for a long time, so these thoughts are very helpful.
I also think that patterns inside a phrase should be part of the melody. The current melody generator is based on steps and leaps, and the rules specifying what may follow the previous step or leap. Because it dooes not contain repetitions, longer (>2 bars) melody phrases do not sound good. This is why I always say a generator should be maximum 1 or 2 bars, not longer. (Though you can assign a repetitive rhythm pattern to the melody generator.)

Please note that you can achieve good results in the Idea Tool where you can specify e.g. an ABAB... pattern (and many other patterns!). You need to use short phrases, typically 2-4 quarter notes (e.g. you add 2 MG's or 2 Generic Generators to the list) and these phrases are arranged in the order that you specify, or the order can be selected randomly.

Thanks Krovatin and Tony for your thoughts!

Attila

tatanka · Post by **tatanka** » Tue Sep 13, 2016 9:37 am

HAVE to repeat this at this point

:

http://codeminion.com/blogs/maciek/2008 ... ate-music/

In my opinion by far best melody creater ever. So sad that he wont devellope it further cause he is totally into the game business....but sure you could use evrything out of it (in the comments there already were some questions), of course no plan HOW this might be integrated, but maybe at least brings some new ideas.....

yellukhan · Post by **yellukhan** » Tue Sep 13, 2016 6:27 pm

tatanka
thanks for sharing this was nice one!

musicdevelopments · Post by **musicdevelopments** » Tue Sep 13, 2016 7:25 pm

Interesting. It is a collection of scripts. I do not know the reason yet why it is good.

yellukhan · Post by **yellukhan** » Tue Sep 13, 2016 7:37 pm

shall i say i have no idea

...
but to me most of the parts comes from styles ( i mean ready chord channel to definition plus bass drums etc.)
so i can import creations to RC and manipulate them for moreover

tonedef71 · Post by **tonedef71** » Thu Sep 15, 2016 2:58 am

Here's another music generation tool that I came across; also completely web-based: http://www.abundant-music.com/

tatanka · Post by **tatanka** » Thu Sep 15, 2016 7:25 am

Hi tonedef71,

wow, thats a really great one

I only wish that there would be an offline version to save all that tweakable presets on all that parts of the structure. But it is really marvellous in its clear sturcture and completeness, thanks a lot for the link

MusicDevelopments

KVR Audio

Let’s make prettier Melody Generator!