Fatal Exit's Random Music Idea & Limitation Generator

Fatal Exit's Random Music Idea & Limitation Generator:

---

IMPORTANT NOTE/PSA: THIS DOES NOT CREATE MUSIC. IT IS AN IDEA GENERATOR FOR MUSICIANS, SIMILAR TO A GAMEJAM THEME IDEA GENERATOR. THE THEME DOES NOT CREATE THE GAME ITSELF THE DEVELOPERS DO, AND IN THE CASE OF THIS SOFTWARE, THE MUSICIAN USES THE THEMES TO CREATE THEIR OWN PIECE IN THEIR OWN SOFTWARE OR WITH THEIR OWN INSTRUMENTS.

After a twitter conversation about limitations being a great productivity hack in music composition, I realized that I could actually create the app I suggested someone “learn how to make” myself over the course of around 2 weeks. 

That time frame wasn’t accurate and I had completed the app over the course of around 2 days, including the time used to create the spreadsheet containing all the possible random data for the app.

The app features customization from 0-5 random selections in each of 7 Categories: Genre, Mood, Instruments to Use & Not to Use, Key, Tempo & Time signature. This means that you can just pick 1 genre, or try to make a mashup of up to 5. Categories can also be locked should you like certain elements but dislike others.

---

Controls: 

Randomize to Randomize all categories (other than Locked Ones). 

Toggleable Lock icons per category.

Plus & Minus buttons per category: go from 0-5 random items in each category.

Paint Button: Change the random background color. Not helpful to everyone but it might be useful to people with Synesthesia or associate music with color.

---

Data Contents:

100 Genres

101 Instruments

46 Moods

31 different tempos common between many genres across all styles.

All 24 Major and Minor Keys

13 Time Signatures

These are subject to change, and in the near future I will be looking for contributors across a wide range of musical genres and styles for input for extra Genres, Instruments, Moods, Tempos & Time Signatures (there are only 24 keys in Western Music Theory so that won’t change) to add to the database and later be added to the program.

---

Tips & Notes

Remember if you dislike one section you can always toggle it off and only use sections you enjoy. It’s a fun tool, and feel free to break free from any suggestions when using it to create guidelines for a piece.

Important note: Some suggestions this tool may create are beyond any sort of semblance of sanity. Such as trying to compose classical piano music, without being able to use piano. Other than creating a huge context sensitive database over many months, it’s impossible to perfect this issue in any sort of reasonable timeframe and would require a total rewrite of the way the program handles data, and of the data it uses.

---

Thank you for trying my free music idea generator software, and feel free to make suggestions for future ideas and features for the app. Just bear in mind it’s a small hobby project I am providing free of charge and larger requests probably will not happen, no offense meant to anyone who may ask.