Automatic generation of harmonious music using cellular automata based hardware design

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a parallel and reconfigurable hardware to generate harmonic music. The generated music is composed by melodic intervals determined from the combination of cellular automata in accordance to the standard protocol, which is called the Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) protocol. The hardware architecture is implemented in Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA), providing an alternative efficient yet autonomous tool for the study and research related to the field of random music. The architecture utilizes four types of cellular automata, depending on four neighborhood models in cellular automata. Thus, 16 possible combinations of cellular automata models are allowed. The applicability potential of the architecture is maximized as the configuration data, which influences the generated music final product, is done almost entirely by the user, with no virtual limit of the number of possible melodic combinations to be generated by the hardware. Thus, the portable engineered equipment can come handy in many real-world applications, such as neurology. In order to emphasize the usage versatility of the proposed design, the music composed thereby is provided in MIDI, and includes all notes and musical instruments known internationally. In order to validate the effectiveness as well as efficiency of the proposed design, we present several results regarding hardware design requirements in terms of area, operation frequency and power consumption as well as those regarding the generated melody's characteristics. The results are very promising.