A New Musical Tool for Composition and Play Based on Simulated Breeding

This paper presents the design of new personal computer tool for interactive composition and play. The tool, named SBEAT, utilizes MIDI technology and is based on Simulated Breeding, an optimization technique from Evolutionary Computing, combined with a method of fractal composition. An individual, the unit of breeding, is a bar of sixteen beats including eight parts four parts of solos and another four parts of rhythm section. The melody and rhythm are generated by a recursive algorithm from genetic information. By listening to and selecting favorite pieces from scores displayed on the screen, the user decides which should be the parents to reproduce offspring in the next generation. By collecting some bred bars and their mutants, the user can easily build up a short tune.