FractalMuse 1.8.2

FractalMuse is a small, simple, easy-to-use, Java-based application specially designed to offer you a powerful program using the Jfugue library to produce music based on L-systems.

FractalMuse creates music based on L-System fractals, wherein an "atom" string containing tokens has the tokens replaced by their respective strings every order. In this case the tokens that are replaced are f, x, and y. Additional tokens are +, -, and space, more on those in a bit.

To explain the fractal system, here is a quick example. If I entered the following:
· Atom string: fx
· F-String: x
· X-String: fy+f
· Y-String: f

The first order would be fx or simply the atom
The second order, the f token would be replaced by the f string and the x token by the x string giving us xfy+f
So the 3rd order would be fy+fxf+x

Now pluses and minuses in the string raise or lower the note in the selected scale, in a C major scale f+f+f would play C,D,E. Two f's in succession, and any subsequent ones not separated by a space, increase the duration of a note. Only f' s are parsed into music, so our 3rd order has the simple equivalent of f+ff+whereas the 2nd order has f+f and the atom, or first order is one note, f.

Sharing of music can be done in 3 ways. Pressing the save button at the bottom of the program will open a file browser to save your song as a .wav as well as a .mid copy.

The third option is to press the "S" button on the side of the strings. This will copy the current state of the program to your clipboard. Your share-ee need only to copy the string and press the "L" button to have all the settings loaded ready to play.

Here is a small example, just copy the string and press L in the program:
fx+f-fy+++yy--, xy--yx,f-f+f-f++f--f+f-,x,3,6,11,0,0,7,3,5,6,5,5,5,181

The rest of the program should be pretty straightforward to those of you with a music background. Two instruments can be played in harmony, or unison. There is a wide assortment of scales to choose from. The octave constraints should also be easy to grasp with a bit of experimentation.