OT: Melody auto generating software

ritsmer wrote on 10/8/2014, 4:01 AM
About some 15 years ago I used a little program to generate music.

You started telling it to make something in the style of Mozart, Bach, Rock, Reggae etc.
Then you told it which instruments to use.
Then the length and it you wanted intros etc - and then you just pressed start.

I recon it was (maybe) called something like Maestro - Music Maestro or Melody Maestro or ?
but it seems that I can not find it - or its successors any more - and all the newer music making programs request much more musical skills and tedious entering drum beats etc etc.

Does anybody remember that program ? or similar software ?

Comments

Steve Grisetti wrote on 10/8/2014, 7:51 AM
Have you tried SmartSound Express Tracks?
http://www.smartsound.com/sonicfire/express-track
Kimberly wrote on 10/8/2014, 9:25 AM
+1 for SmartSound. Lots of flexibility. I've only scratched the surface on the many customization options.

Regards,

Kimberly
Tom Pauncz wrote on 10/8/2014, 9:35 AM
+1 for Smartsound from me too. Especially now that they have a Vegas plug-in.
Tom
TeetimeNC wrote on 10/8/2014, 10:12 AM
Hey Kimberly, further OT - did Sonicfire not have their regular annual sale on Tracks this year? I never saw it and I hope that hasn't gone away.

/jerry
Steve Mann wrote on 10/9/2014, 12:41 AM
Annual? I get an email from them about once a month with a new album.
ritsmer wrote on 10/9/2014, 3:59 AM
Thank you for the suggestions.

I will go for the Sonicfire Pro running as a plug-in to Vegas.

Think it will be great.
Really nice to be able to fit the music length to the video - and not the other way round...
and great to be able to use classical's like Bach - Air on a G-string without Youtube nagging about music piracy.

That said I would still be very grateful if anybody could remember the name of that little 15+ years old piece of software which could compose music all by itself - i.e. without "seeding" tracks as Sonicfire needs. ???
JohnnyRoy wrote on 10/9/2014, 6:37 AM
> "That said I would still be very grateful if anybody could remember the name of that little 15+ years old piece of software which could compose music all by itself - i.e. without "seeding" tracks as Sonicfire needs. ???"

Melody Maestro Version 2.0 was released on June 21, 1995 (some 19 years ago) by The Blue Ribbon SoundWorks, Ltd. I not only remember it... I still have the complete installer for it including all of the styles. ;-)

Before you get excited... Melody Maestro won't even install under Windows 7 64-bit anymore. You'll need Windows XP or a virtual machine running Windows XP in order to even get them installed but it was an outstanding little music producer for it's day.

~jr
TeetimeNC wrote on 10/9/2014, 7:15 AM
>Annual? I get an email from them about once a month with a new album.

Me too, for the new releases. But the annual sale is (was) fire sale prices.

/jerry
Kimberly wrote on 10/9/2014, 7:30 AM
I've been watching for the "big sale" where SmartSound offers album s for super low prices like $25. Haven't seen it yet. Last year it was around Thanksgiving or so . . .
riredale wrote on 10/9/2014, 11:07 AM
Boy, you know something is really esoteric when even Google can't pull up much of anything.

I did find this:

"Blue Ribbon SoundWorks was a digital audio editor company in the United States. It was acquired by Microsoft on October 16, 1995, and merged its technology with DirectSound.[1] The company was also known for Bars&Pipes, a series of music sequencer software packages written for the Amiga. It was founded by Melissa Jordan Grey and Todor Fay, who went on to found NewBlue, a video technology company."

Also it appears that Amiga users believed they were being stabbed in the back when Blue Ribbon went over to Microsoft because of previous promises of eternal love, but that's business. It was fun reading old documentation about how excited people were with the upcoming new MS "Chicago" release (renamed Windows95).

But no trace of the actual Melody product download.
ritsmer wrote on 10/9/2014, 11:11 AM
Thank you, JohnnyRoy.

Now knowing the right name of that software - a Google search shows that the Blue Ribbon Software was bought by Microsoft shortly after 1995.
At that time there were the usual happy press-messages about the great future of the software from Blue Ribbon and from Microsoft together - but fact is that the development seems to have halted totally.

I will start searching for a copy ...