Velato: A music programming language

January 29, 2009 2:37 PM

Velato: A music programming language
This a language that uses MIDI, instead of text, as source code (it's NOT a language used to create music). I tried to allow enough flexibility that you could compose something that both sounds good and works as a program.

You can find a "Hello, World" program tutorial here. I ended up with a very free-form jazz kind of sound -- I'm curious how much of that is due to my approach to composition (using notepad) and how much due to the intervals demanded by the language.

posted by rottytooth (3 comments total)

Can I ask, um, why?
posted by RustyBrooks at 1:51 PM on February 3

RustyBrooks -- it's an esoteric language, not designed for practical, every-day use (although don't let me discourage you from writing production code with it!). I was inspired to write it, in part, by Piet, but as an audio equivalent. I figured it offers an unusual challenge: to write something that both sounds musical and works as a program.
posted by rottytooth at 1:54 PM on February 4

I think this sounds pretty cool. Nice work :)
posted by johnstein at 9:55 PM on February 7