Impressive
While I am not sure how I would use this in my teaching — I’m thinking perhaps of having students analyze the resulting works to reverse engineer how the pieces or harmonies were generated — I am very impressed with what You Compose does.
In short, you can compose a melody in any of four parts, and the app will create a fairly interesting accompaniment for it in the other parts. If you would like, you can have the app generate whole “symphonies” — short movements loosely based upon traditional symphonic form, complete with computer generated themes and development. I suspect that no two symphonies generated are the same. You have the ability to copy and paste snippets or entire movements.
The accompaniment generated goes well beyond the standard hymnody four part writing we learned in high school or college. Again - nicely done.
One of the things I like a LOT about this app is that it is not like the multitude of apps out there that generate rock or techno or new age type music. The resulting music is the kind of music that you might hear in a chamber music recital. The sophistication for You Compose goes well beyond the aforementioned styles usually seen in the app store.
After a few listenings to different arrangements and different harmonizations, the ear begins to pick up the style of this “composer,” as you might of any other composer. I have not played enough with the app or read the manual carefully enough to see what kinds of parameters I can apply to vary the style. It would be fun to tweak parameters like that if it is possible.
As an aside, I’d love to compare the style of You Compose generated music and what the developer might compose on his own. Clearly the developer has a clear sense of how to work in this harmonic language, and I can’t help but think that his own composing greatly benefits from this fluency in this language.
I have recommended that my wife play with this app, too. She regularly makes arrangements of pieces for her middle and high school bands, and I can imagine it helping her in a time crunch.
I appreciate that the manual offers a bibliography of sources that inspired the music theory behind this app — I am familiar with all but the German Language ones. I would love to see a more detailed article about the music theory models chosen and the algorithms used in this app — perhaps in a peer reviewed journal like Computer Music Journal or Journal of Music Theory.
For sure grab YouCompose if this type of thing interests you. You may find it a nice source of additional inspiration, an quick way to generate scores for chamber players, and, if nothing else, at least for the novelty of holding a decent automated composer in your hands.
In short, you can compose a melody in any of four parts, and the app will create a fairly interesting accompaniment for it in the other parts. If you would like, you can have the app generate whole “symphonies” — short movements loosely based upon traditional symphonic form, complete with computer generated themes and development. I suspect that no two symphonies generated are the same. You have the ability to copy and paste snippets or entire movements.
The accompaniment generated goes well beyond the standard hymnody four part writing we learned in high school or college. Again - nicely done.
One of the things I like a LOT about this app is that it is not like the multitude of apps out there that generate rock or techno or new age type music. The resulting music is the kind of music that you might hear in a chamber music recital. The sophistication for You Compose goes well beyond the aforementioned styles usually seen in the app store.
After a few listenings to different arrangements and different harmonizations, the ear begins to pick up the style of this “composer,” as you might of any other composer. I have not played enough with the app or read the manual carefully enough to see what kinds of parameters I can apply to vary the style. It would be fun to tweak parameters like that if it is possible.
As an aside, I’d love to compare the style of You Compose generated music and what the developer might compose on his own. Clearly the developer has a clear sense of how to work in this harmonic language, and I can’t help but think that his own composing greatly benefits from this fluency in this language.
I have recommended that my wife play with this app, too. She regularly makes arrangements of pieces for her middle and high school bands, and I can imagine it helping her in a time crunch.
I appreciate that the manual offers a bibliography of sources that inspired the music theory behind this app — I am familiar with all but the German Language ones. I would love to see a more detailed article about the music theory models chosen and the algorithms used in this app — perhaps in a peer reviewed journal like Computer Music Journal or Journal of Music Theory.
For sure grab YouCompose if this type of thing interests you. You may find it a nice source of additional inspiration, an quick way to generate scores for chamber players, and, if nothing else, at least for the novelty of holding a decent automated composer in your hands.
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So useful!
I love exporting midi to cubasis and then chopping and arranging the results, wiring it up to different synths. For straight up classical it works but for can be a benefit for any genre which benefits from a classical basis. Such an awesome scratch pad for midi source material.
Great Tool For Learning and Composing
YouCompose gets better and better. One of the very best apps I've ever purchased.
MIDI out, midi file transfer, IAA and a huge variety of instruments about a surprisingly-effective harmonization engine give the app lots of practical applications in iOS music-making. Dedicated developer. Recommended.
MIDI out, midi file transfer, IAA and a huge variety of instruments about a surprisingly-effective harmonization engine give the app lots of practical applications in iOS music-making. Dedicated developer. Recommended.
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Good for composers
The app is good although it does not have any option to get a played piece on an external instrument and convert it to notes.
There is no better app!
This app deserves awards note even created yet because it is so well done. Thank you!
Needs updating
When I first used this it was amazing - then after the latest iOS upgrade this will only show part of the app. Developer is behind on updates.
Surprisingly good!
When I first saw this app, I knew it sounded cool, I just didn't know HOW cool it would be. This is a crazy powerful app and is capable of so much.
A few things I would like fixed though -- first, I have an iPad mini, and, for some reason, I cannot see the bottom of the app. This means no Bass for me. Furthermore, the app needs a redesign, but that's not to high on my list. Other than that, great app!
A few things I would like fixed though -- first, I have an iPad mini, and, for some reason, I cannot see the bottom of the app. This means no Bass for me. Furthermore, the app needs a redesign, but that's not to high on my list. Other than that, great app!
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FINALLY!!
An app that capture composition at a professional level. Only thing missing is triplets, 32nds 64th notes, and it would be perfect if I could write and also edit the actual musical notation rather than only view it as a PDF. Other than this, I love it!!
Great idea, but needs work
I love the general idea of this app. I do have a problem with it, which makes it unusable for me at the moment: there is no way you can input the notes with the keyboard in a decent way. The only thing that seems to work are simple quarter notes and eight notes, but the moment you want to add anything more complex, the result is unusable. Please fix this, and I will gladly update my review. Thanks!
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Songwriter's this is great.
If you are like me and write lyrics and melody at one time, you are going to love this app. So easy to use and it does harmony too.
Exports to Logic lyrics and melody in a . Mid file.
Fantastic app. Thanks guys.Thanks for the looping! Now the app is perfect for melody and lyric writing, not to mention the fantastic harmonizing.
Exports to Logic lyrics and melody in a . Mid file.
Fantastic app. Thanks guys.Thanks for the looping! Now the app is perfect for melody and lyric writing, not to mention the fantastic harmonizing.
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