Musical harmony and melody always thrilled me...
But when MICROCOMPUTERS came on the scene, I saw ENORMOUS potential there for studying the mathematics of melodies !!
I had lots of thoughts about the patterns in music....from playing the GUITAR... and soon I had programs which composed simple tunes...
My Scottish Jigs coming SPONTANEOUSLY out of a Sharp MZ80K had University Academics giggling like kids !! It was a breakthrough in bringing together Music Theory and Mathematics.
I sold simple programs called Magic Musician for the Amstrad CPC machines, playing three parts in harmony. Then later I sold MASTERCOMPOSER which improvised in many different styles.
But the BIG breakthrough happened with MIDI synthesisers, and I put an enormous amount of effort into developing MIDI programs. I wasn't selling programs any more... I knew from experience how hackers just tear it apart and steal the software routines.
With MIDI, we had sophisticated control of loudness and timbre. A whole new world of challenges....and horrendous programming problems... but solving the challenges was highly rewarding. I translated the whole program onto the ATARI STE which took two years... and it's still developing now.
It needed ENORMOUS amounts of FRESH Scottish air... I walked for miles over the hills, listening critically to my compositions, and also playing my own lectures, to renew my understanding of how it all worked. The versatility and creativity of my software just went on improving, to a level I never imagined at the beginning.
My creative music software still uses my ATARI STE, which is still excellent for programming. I hope you enjoy the musical results... of years of tough mathematical modelling.
