+--------------------------------------------------+ |**************************************************| |* THE AIMC: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE MUSIC COMPO *| |**************************************************| +--------------------------------------------------+ YES THAT'S RIGHT! I, your humble servant and lame-ass composer Rimbo, am holding a competition all on my own. "Gee, why?" Well, ya see, erhm...I have a day job. I am actually a Computer Science student at the University of Texas at Austin, and right now I'm doing a project dealing with AI and Music. However, in order to pull this off, I need a -BUTTLOAD- of musical examples, specifically formatted for the project. I'm talking about 100 or 200 examples, here. "Great. Why should I help?" Because this project will further human understanding! "Sure it will." Because it's for a good scientific cause? "Keep trying." Because I'm distributing $50 out of my OWN POCKET two winners--$35 to the best overall MOD, and $15 to the best "simple song." [to be explained later] "Now you're talkin'. What do I do now?" Read on. ***************** MAIN CONTEST RULES: - All songs must use the same sample set (see below for details). - All songs must be 4-channel Protracker-compatible MODs. - Enter as often as you like. - Upload entries to ftp://ftp.cs.utexas.edu/tmp/rimbo - Deadline is Midnight, November 21, 1995 - $50 will be distributed among the two winners (see below). MINOR details: - All songs must use the same sample set. In order to simplify things, all entries must use the following sample set. WARNING: THE FOLLOWING SAMPLE SET WAS DE- SIGNED FOR SCIENTIFIC PURPOSES ONLY. ANY OTHER USE OF SUCH A "GENERAL MOD"-STYLE SAMPLE SET WILL RESULT IN GENERAL PUBLIC HUMILIATION BY THE MOD-WRITING COMMUNITY AT LARGE, BEING BOMBED BY OVER 13,000 UNOPENED PACKAGES OF WINDOWS NT, AND A HAIRCUT BY BILL GATES' HAIRSTYLIST. 00 Piano -16va below Middle C 10 Synth lead: "Siner" 01 Piano "Middle C" 11 Synth lead: Square wave 02 Piano 16va above Middle C 12 Synth lead: "Rezonatix" 03 String chord: Major(c e g) 13 Synth lead: Sawtooth 04 " " : Minor(c d# g)14 Organ 05 " " : Sus2 (c d g) 15 Strings (solo) 06 " " : Sus4 (c f g) 16 Saxophone 07 " " : V7 (b f g) 17 Flute 08 Bass (Kick) Drum 18 Synth Bell 09 Snare Drum 19 Xylophone 0A HiHat Open 1A Orchestra Hit 0B HiHat Closed 1B Bongo Drums 0C Crash cymbal 1C Ac. Guitar 0D Toms 1D El. Bass 0E Cowbell 1E Clavinet 0F Rimshot 1F Brass Section A copy of a 4-channel MOD with these instruments should be at ftp.cdrom.com in the /pub/demos/music/contests/aimc directory by the end of this week. IF you want to use your own samples, or do not like the samples given, you may sample your own versions--however, you must put them in the same slot. For example, if you don't like my snare drum and prefer a tighter snare, you may sample your own, but you must still put it in location 09. Also, tuned instruments (INCLUDING tuned percussion) must be tuned to the same pitches; if you want to use your own Orchestra Hit sample, it must be sampled at the same note and samplerate as mine. WHEN IN DOUBT, CHECK WITH MY EXAMPLE FIRST. *** - All songs must be 4-channel Protracker-compatible MODs. No S3Ms, XMs, MTMs, ULTs, FARs, MIDs, DMFs, etc etc etc. No exceptions. I'm sorry, I don't have the time to code a converter for every format out there. *** - Enter as often as you like. Shoot, if you can re-orchestrate something you've already written to fit these requirements, even if it has already been released it may be entered. For this project I need a tremendous quantity of inputs, and I'm not particularly concerned about the quality of them. However, if you are concerned with winning, you may want to concern yourself with quality. Also, I shouldn't have to add this, but given recent events: All entries must be your original work, and not someone else's. If you re-orchestrate someone else's work to fit the requirements, the original author will receive credit for the piece. If you claim someone else's work as your own, you will be mail-bombed by twenty thousand angry elves. *** - Upload entries to anonymous ftp://ftp.cs.utexas.edu/tmp/rimbo/ If any of you have no Internet access or have difficulty reaching this site, there are other ways around it. (1) Send as an attachment to e-mail. (2) Send as uuencoded document in e-mail. (3) If all else fails, post to alt.binaries.sounds.mods and send an e-mail to me with the subject of the postings. My e-mail address is rimbo@cs.utexas.edu. *** - Deadline is Midnight, November 21, 1995. If I don't get your entry by then, there is no guarantee that I will get it at all; the ftp site is a temporary site, and as I receive entries I will be moving them to a permanent location. After this date, there is no guarantee that I will be checking the location before your entry is erased as part of the system's automatic clean-up. So do enter by then. *** - Two winners will receive money! The songs will be judged by the second reader, who is (provided I get the second reader I want) a graduate student with a degree in music composition, possibly my faculty adviser, and myself. One winner will receive $35 (U.S.A. dollars). This winner will be judged on songwriting quality alone--in other words, solely on how much we like the song both as something to listen to and as a piece of music in general. The SECOND song, the one receiving $15, will be a "nursery rhyme song." You see, the program needs to be able to LEARN to like music. When you were a toddler, you didn't listen to pop music--you listened to Sesame Street and nursery rhyme songs. You listened to very SIMPLE music. In your teens, you listen to techno/pop/rock/country and other music--much more complex than what you listened to as a child, but still simple. As people age, they listen to music which is technically more and more superior; and in general, most "classical" music fans are very much older than pop-music fans. A few works (such as Eine Kleine Nachtmusik by Mozart, or "The Reflex" by Duran Duran) manage to bridge the age gap by passing off the illusion of simplicity while actually being very complex--and as the listener ages, they pick up on things they never really heard the first few times. Well, in order for this program to work, it needs to be able to "learn" music. It will start out only being able to understand very simple songs, and as it listens to more music, it will be able to understand more and more complicated music. The practical upshot is this: We need songs that will be simple. Not even chiptunes--but things which are short, have a catchy melody, and very simple (if any at all) harmonies and chord progressions, like "Mary Had a Little Lamb" or "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" or "Frere Jacques." One simple song will be chosen based on its suitability for kids (maybe we'll play them for a room full of 3-year-olds and have them judge the songs), and the author of it will receive the $15 reward. *** If you have any more questions, feel free to e-mail me at rimbo@cs.utexas.edu or at rimbo@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu. ********** A few words about my project. My favorite bit of AI research is machine learning. To me, that is what makes something "smart" is its ability to draw in information and make conclusions based on that information. My goal in the future is to have a program which, given NOTHING, could eventually be able to speak with human beings one-on-one. Given no knowledge of the English language. The benefit of using music (specifically MODs restricted as I have done) is that, unlike music, a computer can read it easily, and there's many more restrictions on the ideas built-in. Also, it's a much less concrete medium. Most importantly of all, music lacks the discrete meanings which are found in your typical English sentence. What I'm hoping for this program to be able to do is to begin by hearing simple music and slowly be able to progress to more advanced forms. One thing which I believe is the prime source of our subjective nature of music judgment is what the song can "teach" us. There is a paper by Marvin Minsky on the subject which I didn't necessarily agree with, but explains how a piece of music "teaches" a theme, and I will upload it to the AIMC directory on ftp.cdrom.com if you're interested. But there is also an assertion made that says that we can't learn anything until we almost know it. That's why kids don't listen to classical music--it's too far above their knowledge of music in most cases; it's also why adults stop listening to pop music; they've learned everything such simple music teaches. It's like going back to 7th grade for them. This is what I hope to mimic; I want the program to be able to understand music the same way we do, and as time progresses, be able to understand more music. So, this is the project, and the contest with the project. Happy Trackin'! Jimmy Rimmer rimbo@cs.utexas.edu rimbo@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu Rimbo of Lucid and ACiD 10/24/95