# Freeware composing programs...

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freeware-composing-programs/251513>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 21, 2004, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freeware-composing-programs/251513 "2004-06-21T21:58:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![SSgtBaloo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ac91a4/32.png) [@SSgtBaloo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SSgtBaloo)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2004, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freeware-composing-programs/251513/1 "2004-06-21T21:58:38Z")

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A long time back I heard about a music composition program that was free to download and use (_real_ freeware, not just a trial period). ISTR hearing about it on an episode of Scientific American on PBS. It enabled you to compose and play music on your computer with a minimum of musical knowledge, and you could even print out the score for people to play the composition on real instruments. I can’t remember what the program was called, and googling “freeware music composition” doesn’t find anything that sounds like what I’m looking for.

Does the above program sound familiar to anyone? Does this program still exist?

–SSgtBaloo

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**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\
**Post date:** [June 21, 2004, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freeware-composing-programs/251513/2 "2004-06-21T22:15:55Z")

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Quite what you mean by ‘compose and play…with a minimum of musical knowledge’ needs clarification. Do you mean not able to read music notation? Not able to play an instrument?

Maybe you’re after music which will transcribe from a microphone (sung) input…or take samples and let you morph and modify them into your own creation…

As for pure music notation for free, [Finale Notepad](http://www.finalemusic.com/notepad/) is a slimmed-down version of an industry standard notation package.

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**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\
**Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freeware-composing-programs/251513/3 "2004-06-22T00:14:39Z")

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It sounds like **SSgtBaloo** is talking about something like the late-80s instant compositional program by Electronic Arts called “Instant Music.” You needed absolutely no musical knowledge to make it work, and it relied on you dragging colored bars across a “scroll” (somewhat analagous to a player piano reel.) Its AI would create a melody based on your input and choice of style. It was quite advanced for its time, and pretty damn impressive, IMHO.

Unfortunately, I do not know of any freeware programs right now that do this. But I believe this is what we’re looking for.

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**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\
**Post date:** [June 22, 2004, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/freeware-composing-programs/251513/4 "2004-06-22T00:22:41Z")

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Maybe [this](http://www.download.com/Hyperscore-1024x768-/3000-2170-10219558.html?tag=lst-0-2) will do the job…although I couldn’t get it to actually make a sound for me 😕