A minimal, RPN-based, feedback-capable interpreted music language, designed for LLM, human live coding, web sharing, and embedded hardware — with cellular automata as first-class primitives.

• functional programming philosophy
• easy to read and write for both humans and LLMs
  • syntax should resemble natural language?
  • Reverse Polish Notation?
• suitable for live coding
• simple type system: interger only, not floats
• modular: build complex rhythms from basic building blocks
  • a basic rhythm generator is a pure function of uint->bool, which maps step index to trigger on/off
  • basic building blocks: euclid, rotate, reverse, interleave, boolean logic (* for and, + for or) (make a list!)
  • random source: bernoulli gate, velvet noise, with hardware sourced randomness
  • quantizer, selector
  • counter? system with memory?
  • 8 bit ADC and DAC
• get chaos-like behavior via feedback patching
• discrete timing model: ticks->steps->trigger
• immediate visual feedback (Bret Victor, shadertoy)
• visual generator as first class citizen

• rhythm visualization

• push the tick rate to audio rate for sound generation

• web assembly build via emscripten

• x and y input as data source, normalized to mouse X and Y position on desktop

• how to handle timing offset and velocity? groove?

  • sub rhythms?

• generate modulation signal from rhythm using deterministic systems like cellular automata and Music Thing Modular Turing Machines

• lazy evaluation (what does it even mean?)

• microtuning, frequency manipulation in hz

• integration with hydra?

• Claude MCP server is a must!

  • but you need to figure out how to make agents receive audio feedback

• libremidi for midi input and output

• Starting Forth
• Crafting Interpreters
  • ch 1-3, 14
• MAKE: electronic music from scratch
  • to learn about logic ICs

• mux, demux
• counter
• schmidt trigger
• PLL
• Bonus: figure out how the WASP filter does integration using CMOS logic
  • the language should be good enough for acid filters, because why not?

• Kurt James Werner
  • Generalizations of Velvet Noise and Their Use in 1-Bit Music
• minimalism
  • Ryoji Ikeda
• aethetics of aliasing
• 作って動かすALife
  • emergence, boid
• read about literature on algorithmic composition by computer music research people
• Bret Victor: Inventing on Principle
  • https://thebookofshaders.com/edit.php
  • shadertoy
• number theory, combinitorial mathematics, and pseudo-random number generators
• Algorithmic Pattern project by Alex Mclean
• music theory: son clave, tresillo, world music
  • The Geometry of Musical Rhythm by Godfried T. Toussaint

• Generative Art: A practical guide using Processing
• A New Kind of Science by Stephen Wolfram

• sapf: Sound As Pure Form and SuperCollider
• tidal cycles and strudel
• ORCA
• isobar and signalflow
• Klang
  • the idea of using c++ to express signal flow is interesting
• Reactable
• Faust
• Bespoke Synth
• games of Zachtronics
• a whole bunch of similar algorave projects (dang! people have thought about this before...)
  • https://github.com/tarpit-collective/cane
  • https://github.com/pd3v/line
  • https://xn--melrse-egb.org/
  • https://machiaworx.net/recode/doku.php?id=start
  • https://github.com/irritant/serialist (inactive)
  • https://tweakable.org/examples
  • https://github.com/echolevel/wulfcode
  • https://github.com/sdclibbery/limut
  • https://github.com/Mdashdotdashn/krill
  • https://github.com/nnirror/facet
  • https://github.com/lucretiomsp/Coypu

inspired by a breakboard prototype of logical ICs

this maps easily to an object oriented approach

• 4051 multiplexer
• shift register
• 8 bit DAC
• 8 bit ADC
• clock division: 1/2/4/8/16/32/64/128 (with swing built in)
• delay
• clock divider
• envelope
• S&H
• counters
• logic gates: or, nor, xor, xnor, and, nand, >, <, ==, !=
• gate to trigger
• flip-flop
• geiger: Binary waveform (Low/High) with random occurrence.
• MIDI note, gate, velocity, cc, pitchbend, play
• arpeggiator with up/down trigger input
• scale

These building blocks corresponds to different abstractions in a functional approach.

• DivSkip

• Intellijel Metropolix

• Mutable Instruments Marbles and grids

• Rob Hordik Benjolin

• Music Thing Modular Turing Machine with expanders

• Joranalogue Select 2

• Neutral Labs LUNA

• Jolin Chrono

• early modular synthesizers: Moog System 15, buchla, are essentially composition systems