The image is the score. Nothing in the music has a random source of its own: Go rolls image and music in one throw, and every musical quantity is either derived from the image or set by hand.
Voices = layers. Every curve of the image is a voice. Its size determines register (small = high, like small bells) and note value (small = eighths, medium = quarters, large = halves). The contour is sampled at 2·m points per revolution, radius becomes pitch; the sampling precesses by the golden fraction of one step per revolution — over time the whole curve sounds, never exactly repeated.
Key from the image. The work's index number (mesh: Σm, the sum of the symmetry numbers; carpet: Σk of the harmonics; bridge: windings × 10), its remainder at ÷12, and that remainder counts steps of fifths from C: 0=C 1=G 2=D 3=A 4=E 5=B 6=F♯ 7=D♭ 8=A♭ 9=E♭ 10=B♭ 11=F. Similar images thus land in related keys (a fifth is the closest kinship), different images in distant ones — the symphony modulates because the images differ.
Scale grid. Register and melody are computed as one semitone sum and snapped together onto the allowed degrees of the chosen scale. The overtone series instead locks onto integer frequency ratios to the fundamental (1:2:3:4…) — the same mathematics as the carpet spectra; «free» stays stepless.
Carpet, drone, bells. An F3 image is literally a sound spectrum: its harmonics run as overtones. The drone is the «1» of the formula — the base circle, beatless by nature (hence its own fader, default 0, and the Breath control ties it to the ray revolutions of 2/3/5 bars). The rotating rays strike the contour: one bell per lobe at the pitch of the local radius.
Rhythm. Eighths = share of voices running at double speed (overrides the size derivation). Syncopation = share of voices whose pattern starts half a note step beside the beat (offbeat, a pure phase shift). Swing = every second note of a pair arrives late (long–short ratio).
Movement gap. Each movement lives 8 bars; the gap sets how early the next one enters: 6 = classical succession, 2 = three to four works sound and appear on top of one another — the library as superposition.
Random lottery. Every control can enter the draw individually: pressing Random-♪ shows the double slider (the range), Go draws within it. For the scale grid the range is a selection: the scales marked with ♪ form the lottery pot. Dashed borders show what is being drawn.
Effects. Echo in strict bar time (dotted eighths of the revolution), reverb from a computed impulse response (noise with exponential decay — no audio file), three-band EQ. All of it pure oscillators and mathematics; no audio data, no AI.
The timbres — an orchestra made of formulas. Not a single instrument is recorded; each is a computed recipe. Soft: a round base wave, the unobtrusive default. Strings: two slightly detuned sawtooth waves with a slow onset — the hovering of a string section. Flute: a pure sine tone with a hint of breath noise. Brass: a bright, fast attack with bite. Harp: a real string model (Karplus–Strong) — a noise impulse runs through a damped loop, ringing out like a plucked string. Timpani: a falling low tone with a strike noise; always stays in the foundation. Bell: two oscillations in an inharmonic ratio — hence the metallic sheen. The automatic orchestration casts by figure size: large curves become timpani and strings, small ones flutes and harps — every voice can be overridden in the voice list.
Mix. Drone: the deep foundation (the «1» of the formula); default 0 — raise it when the sound needs ground. Bells: the strikes of the rotating rays on the carpet contours. Breath: how strongly the carpet swells and subsides with its shape (0 = completely calm). Arpeggios: the mesh voices — the melodic core. Sequences: the rising spiral runs of the bridges. Master: the overall volume.
Equalizer & effects. Echo: repetitions in the bar grid (dotted eighths of the revolution) — more of it means more space between the notes. Reverb: the after-ring of a computed room. Lows/Mids/Highs: raises or lowers the three sound ranges (±12 dB) — your grip against too much bass or dull highs on your speakers.
Work & time. Tempo: faster or slower without changing anything else (×0.25–×2, takes effect immediately). Bar: how long one revolution of a curve takes — the base pulse length of the work. Movement gap: how early the next movement enters — large = one after another as in a concert, small = several works sound on top of one another. Decay: how long each single note rings — short = pearling, long = blurring.
Harmony & rhythm. Scale grid: the allowed tone vocabulary (opens the grid panel; the ♪ marks fill the Go lottery pot). Rhythm: Eighths (share of double-speed voices), Syncopation (share of voices shifted beside the beat — the offbeat), Swing (every second note arrives late — the bounce). Octave: the register of the whole, lower or higher (−2…+2). Random-♪: pressed, the double slider shows the draw range of the chosen control; Go rolls within it.
Voices panel. The small colour fields are your curves (click selects, double-click mutes). Timbre: the instrument of the chosen voice. Mute/Solo: on → mute → SOLO (only this voice). Octave (voice): this one curve higher or lower, relative to its natural register. Volume: its level. Reduction: how many voices play at all. Spread: how far the curve centres move apart — and with that, how wide the music stands in the stereo image.
Gate & transport. Note: switches the whole music world on and off — off means: g4m is exactly the app without music. Play/Stop: Play starts the board work sounding, Stop silences it at once. Go: rolls image AND music in one throw — the only source of chance; if music was on, the next Go brings it back. Recording follows in a later release.
