Beyond the cybernetic jam fantasy: the continuator

The Continuator is a usable musical instrument combining techniques from interactive and automatic learning systems. It learns and interactively plays with a user in the user's style. Music-generation systems have traditionally belonged to one of two categories: interactive systems in which players trigger musical phrases, events, or effects, such as the Karma musical workstation, and systems such as Risset's interactive piano, which allow for user input such as keystrokes or chords, but can't learn and use preprogrammed musical styles. Most of these systems propose musical effects libraries (a term used in the Karma workstation meaning a generation of music material based on user input). Although some of these effects are musically impressive, these systems can't be considered cybernetic musicians or even musical companions, because they use preprogrammed reactions and have no memory or facility for evolving.