Here’s a fun fact: you know that opening jingle before every one of Ashens’ videos? I had learned recently that that was a clip of procedurally generated music, from a program called Dunc’s Algomusic MkIIIb.

This kinda computer-generated music had always intrigued me in a way, things like making computers spit out jazz through neural networks and whatnot. Although Algomusic is definitely more primitive in a sense (compared to all the kilowatts used for training an AI) it’s fun to see what simpler algorithms and random seeds can still do. Also, I can’t help but feel algorithm-based generation has more charm and personality to it, as in the end it’s following a human-written pattern. Neural networks just remind me of the robot uprising.

And I should mention, the algorithm’s input/seed is indeed the song title. Grab a copy of Algomusic MkIIIb (later versions use different algorithms) yourself, type in “Doctor Ashen” and you’ll get to listen to the full thing. How you define “full thing”, though, is how long you’ll be able to handle it, since Algo̶̢̧̯̫̼̞̍m̶͉̼̩̱̠͌̽̓͑̿̈̄͆̂us̴̨̡̨̛̙͚̞̲̜̬̠̣͖̪͋̏͂͂̀̒̋̔͒͘͠į̷̣̮͒̈͊͗͝ć̸̡̢͎͉̳̦̣̹͕̱͈̀̆͐̆͛̓̚͝͠͝ͅ ̶̠̙͓̬̪̠͇̎͐̃̑̚͘stops̵̨̼͕̱̫̣̤̟̖͓̗̿͛̊͜͝ ̷̗̱͒̃̒̓̓̀̾̃f̵̜̻̱̳̑̆͠o̷͙̱͚̝̍͝r̸̯̟̖͖̙̤̥͉͈̄̏̈́̍̊͛͗͜͝͠ ̶̧̫̟̭͎͇̙̥̫͎̞̜̠͋̋͂̽̔́̏͆̉̆̄̿̚ͅṇ̴̡̲̹͖͇̦͚̰̼̺͕̭͆̊͐́͜o ̴̨̨̺͍̫̩̳̠̳͐̇͐̌̈́̊̃̂͘̚o̶̫̲͈̜̮͙̳͎͕͋̏̒̀̇͊́̂͒ņ̸̢̲͓̲͓͉̥̣̝͈͆͆̄͌̏͊̉̚͘͠e.

You can hear a portion in this video where he reviewed a bunch of these fake iPod radios:

And, of course, I did a fair bit of Algomusic testing myself as well: