From your README’s philosophy section: “You describe what you want to feel — ÆTHRA handles how it sounds.” But the rest of the documentation doesn’t yet feel aligned to that vision. The closest you get to that is when you describe your example chord progression as melancholic, but you as the composer already happened to know that this particular progression provides the feeling you have in mind.
I love the idea of a high level way to programmatically or idiomatically describe how music should feel, especially how the composition should evolve over time (perhaps even in surprising ways that are beyond current tools). I hope as you progress that you’re able to find innovative ways to build toward that vision.
The current feature set feels like it would be considerably more convenient in a GUI environment. Again, I hope that as you continue to build, it becomes more obvious why this is a language and not a visual synthesis/composition tool.
A little audio output demo would go a very long way in potentially getting me interested in playing around with this.
Good luck!
ÆTHRA vs Strudel (in short):
ÆTHRA is output-oriented: you write a script → run it → get a WAV file.
Strudel is performance-oriented: it’s browser-based live coding focused on real-time pattern manipulation.
Key differences:
Export
ÆTHRA has built-in WAV export (one click).
Strudel doesn’t natively export audio files; users usually record output manually.
Execution model
ÆTHRA renders audio offline (deterministic, no glitches).
Strudel runs in real time via the Web Audio API.
Use cases
ÆTHRA: game music, background scores, generative assets, scripting music like code.
Strudel: live coding, experimentation, performance.
Environment
ÆTHRA runs locally (currently Windows).
Strudel runs entirely in the browser.
Both tools are free, and they’re not trying to solve the same problem. ÆTHRA is meant to feel closer to a music compiler, while Strudel feels closer to a live instrument.
ÆTHRA is early (v0.8), but it already supports tempo, ADSR, chords, scales, loops, echo/reverb, live preview, and WAV export. I will update AETHRA soon and make it very powerful to reach v1.0
> ÆTHRA is output-oriented: you write a script → run it → get a WAV file.
The current language is relatively verbose and readable (more suitable for live coding than for a "music compiler"), but somewhat simplistic and ad hoc on the notation side (e.g. no separate tracks, parts etc.) and not very general on the sound synthesis and processing side (e.g. fixed waveforms and keywords for effects).
[0] https://strudel.cc/#Ci8vICJQeXJhbWlkIFNvbmcgKFJhdyBBYnN0cmFj...
It’s also funny because usually it’s hard to reproduce what a musician does. I can listen to someone play guitar, but there’s so much nuance to how it’s played that you need to be pretty good to reproduce it.
But so much of her music is code, and she shows you the code, so she’s really teaching you how to reproduce what she’s doing perfectly. It’s awesome for learning.
Nice project! Thanks for sharing. I would say that a robust qualification process may constitutes the primary added value of your project. Much like a sales representative who can methodically understand a prospect’s needs, it may be worth helping users clarify their internal feelings first.
Exploring how other scientific or artistic disciplines address this challenge could also be valuable.
Choose Aethra if you prefer a fresh, specialized language designed to make composing music easier, prioritizing readable, less technical code and coding pain
If I needed to create audio as part of an application I have been using SoX.
DJ Dave
Making dance music with code
https://youtube.com/shorts/5OYiOGxHxTQ
Perhaps you could reach out to some of them if you feel yours adds something they might find useful.
@Tempo(60)
@Scale("Minor")
@Reverb(0.7, 0.5)
@Chord("A3 C4 E4", 4, 0.6)
@FadeOut(5)
Official Website -- https://aethralang.pages.dev/
Good examples should be complete music pieces and they should be commented: where is important information? How are the numbers computed? How are commands organized? What is the practical workflow for making changes?
AETHRA How to use it? First go to the GitHub link I gave you in the post. Download AETHRA or clone it. After downloading go to the folder named 'AETHRA' then go to bin then RELEASE and then to Net 10 Windows Folder. You will get an exe named AETHRA v0.8. After that start your Music Journey. To get all it's commands go to the GitHub project and read the README. You will get a built in AETHRA script, if it is working you are ready to go!
Thanks for your comment
-Tanmay Czax
E.g. Csound
Harder. Easier
More mature. Less mature
Made with C. Made with C#