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Computers Making Music Pt. II – 10 Melody Assistants

Benn Jordan | February 21, 2026



In this segment, we take a long look at what is available to consumers who want help writing music and what can’t realistically be expected from them. I don’t have a Patreon or advertising affiliates, although this channel does have a lot of expenses to keep going. In the meantime, if you want to show your support, my Bandcamp page has a “pay what you want” option: https://theflashbulb.bandcamp.com/

Timestamps:
– Where music comes from: 0:00
– F# major chord from drainage tube: 1:30
– The expected limits of computer melodies: 3:13
– Dadjoke VST – 10:07
– Cthulu – 10:23
– MidiBot – 13:10
– Harmony Improvisator – 15:05
– Chordz – 17:16
– Thesys – 19:54
– Scaler – 22:11
– Liquid Notes – 25:20
– Synfire – 29:20
– Rapidcomposer – 40:17
– Probably the best melody auto-composed in this video – 45:44
– Orb Composer – 48:27
– Disclaimer – 1:04:30
– Wrap it up – 1:06:03

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Written by Benn Jordan

Comments

This post currently has 44 comments.

  7. @danhat606

    February 21, 2026 at 8:11 am

    BRILLIANT VIDEO AGAIN! THOUGHT ABOUT USING SOME OF THIS SOFTWARE AS I HAVE SO LITTLE TIME THESE DAYS TO WRITE…RAPID SEEMS LIKE THE BEST OPTION…BUT THE PRICE TAG DOESN'T…I FEEL LIKE ID GOT MORE OUTTA BUYING SOME MUSIC LESSONS…..AT LEAST ID BE LEARNING…I DUNNO

  8. @UsernameXOXO

    February 21, 2026 at 8:11 am

    I've been watching your videos for a few hours now and I thought to myself "this guy is clever and creative" so I sought out your music…

    Well I didn't, I just saw your bandcamp url and realized I'm responsible for like 80% of the spotify plays you have since Red Extensions of Me.

    I'm fangirling, and about to watch another 5 videos.

    The first song I play for friends is "Precisely Wrong" from Opus, the next 5 songs are the ones after, culminating in "it never ends."

    I love your videos, I LOVE your music. You've been with me all my life! Thank you!

  10. @tz4601

    February 21, 2026 at 8:11 am

    Awesome video, I love your approach & general outlook. In the interest of sharing musical knowledge, this classical musician who kind of only sight reads and has been trying to learn how to compose my own non-classical stuff can tell you all about Bach's chorales ending on a surprising major chord! That's called a Picardy third — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picardy_third. You very well may already know this but others may find it interesting. It was a common — actually almost mandatory — approach during the Baroque era. It was considered too heavy, dark, and hence inappropriate to end a piece on a minor resolution, even one where the entire piece was minor in quality. The major tonic was seen both as a more final and definite conclusion than ending on the minor tonic, as well as a statement of the "rightness" of happiness and joy over the "wrongfulness" of perpetual grief. (Keep in mind that all of Bach's chorales and much of his non-chorale work were pieces of sacred music, meaning there are religious symbolisms at play as well. We may grieve temporarily but joy eventually wins over all, that sort of thing.)

    You can think of it as the "Hollywood Happy Ending" of Baroque-era classical music.

  18. @michaeldiaz5473

    February 21, 2026 at 8:11 am

    I know ur straight now. I'm gay and ur extremely attractive 2 me and no
    Doubt 2 many men not only physically
    But also ur kind and very smart and an asset 2 the the music community.
    Hope u don't mind me gushing.

  22. @mgmthegrand

    February 21, 2026 at 8:11 am

    Hi Benn. I'm new to the channel, just subscribed after seeing this video. It was very helpful.

    You are missing one plugin though: Captain Chords. I particularly like the function that allows you to manipulate the phrasing. I noticed Rapidcomposer has some phrasing presets but I'd like to be able to change the phrasing myself and not just have each chord play for a beat or only have four chords per bar.

  24. @pjohns92

    February 21, 2026 at 8:11 am

    I know this video's a little old now and you may be using different software but I'm trying to record short screen caps in my DAW and the screen cap software I've been using won't pick up 3rd party VST's (or drop down menus). What are you using or can you suggest any?

  26. @Adarkjet

    February 21, 2026 at 8:11 am

    Thanks for bringing RapidComposer to my attention. It would be really great if you could do more videos on it as the learning curve is quite steep. I do appreciate all the work that went into the making of this video.

  27. @mwmcbroom

    February 21, 2026 at 8:11 am

    I guess I'm somewhat surprised that you didn't mention Band in a Box. I've been using it for over 20 years. It's great for putting together chord progressions that end up sounding like something, and building backing tracks. But it also has the capability to compose melodies. I've only started using this feature as of a couple years ago. It's just kinda okay in that regard, but there are times when it will generate a melody that sounds terrific, and it makes you wonder where =that= came from. So I'll often use this feature to see if anything interesting crops up. Sometimes it does, often it doesn't. Still, worth taking a look at. Unfortunately, there is no demo available. But the authors (PG Music) do offer a 30-day money-back guarantee. Not affiliated with PGM in any way, just a satisfied user, yadee-yadee.

  33. @ALOISC1

    February 21, 2026 at 8:11 am

    Downloaded ORB and RapidComposer demos. Both of them are brilliant! Except for the price ): Understandable why ORB Pro S is $399 US with all the years of development that went into creating it.

  35. @timppaUT

    February 21, 2026 at 8:11 am

    Game of Thrones theme must have been composed with that Liquid Notes? It (somewhat) worked on first couple of bars, and then started looping. And the composer, after taking handfull of Prozac, thought: ”Fuck it! Thats it!”

    PS: And as you seem to use FL Studio, you might have at least mentioned its own tools in the subject that are as usefull as some of the plug-ins you used on this video? Like arpeggiator and chopper and similar. And maybe breafly even showed them to those that are unfamiliar with them. But just briefly, as there’s lot of other videos and tutorials focused just on them.

  37. @DanJohnson

    February 21, 2026 at 8:11 am

    Really interesting video! I have Cthulu and love it. I definitely recommend 'Cracklefield' for Kontakt; I promise you it is THE ultimate generative sequencer!

  40. @eztutor823

    February 21, 2026 at 8:11 am

    Nice video man. I did expect Rapic composer to be the best in this segment, since the other once are more geared towards generating and this is more assisting with composing a song

  41. @HiEnergyMusic

    February 21, 2026 at 8:11 am

    Awesome comparison of composing assistant software! Thumbs up
    Orb Composer also crashes on my computer rather often. I'm in contact with their lead developer and they're working to fix the bugs. I like using OC for composing, despite its sometimes unusual musical choices (diminished chords, anyone…?) I've used it in a lot of my videos.
    Synfire is my favourite music prototyping system. I use an old external GM synthesizer for auditioning with Synfire and replace the "real" virtual instruments after drag/drop of the MIDI into the DAW. Even in my Synfire videos I adhere to that workflow.
    Selecting chords in Synfire's harmonizer view can indeed be a "pain in the back", I keep changing between harmonizer and progression for those moments.

  43. @servinggodthroughmusic5996

    February 21, 2026 at 8:11 am

    I have watched a lot of videos which fall into the category of overviews/comparisons of music software – BUT none better than this. Truly – this video is the gold standard. It is critically important to watch someone begin using software for the first time so you get a real feel for the level of learning that software will demand of the user. It’s also vital to see how stable the program is, because no matter how good it is, software that crashes easily is not worth the time required to learn it. I highly recommend Rapid Composer – the features you will find under the hood are astounding. There is no end to the creative possibilities of Rapid Composer because it has full parametric control of rhythm, dynamics, harmony, and melody. Also have to mention that Benin’s lighthearted humor and sincerity make watching his stuff a joy.

  44. @RoboticusMusic

    February 21, 2026 at 8:11 am

    There is option overload regarding melody assistance. Built in features in DAWs, sequencers for ipad, vsts, reaktor, m4l, modular, AI composition, and then none of them even cover microtonal music.

Comments are closed.

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