The "Markov Maker" tool lets you create music with markov-chain techniques. The top phrase window displays some existing piece of music that you read in, and the bottom phrase window display a "similar" piece of music that is created by the "Markov Maker."

First, use the "Read->File" item of the Orig menu to read in a piece of music. (Try one of the Bach pieces in the music directory.)

Then use the nested menus under "Orig->Set Sim" to initialize the Markov model of the music. You can experiment with the values, but for good initial results, try "Win 1b/2" and "Inc 1b/4." The Win value is the "window" that is swept across the phrase, and the Inc value is the increment by which the window is moved across the phrase. (See the source code in lib/setsim.k for more details.)

Now, use the "Sim->Make Sim->" menu to select the size of the "similar" phrase that you want to generate. Pressing the mouse button inside either phrase window will start (and stop) its playing. You can use Sim->Snarf to grab the generated phrase and then (for example) read it it into a Group tool for further editing.

The "Markov Maker" tool is perhaps the easiest thing to impress people with. As an example, use music/prelude.mid as the music, and "Win 1b/2" and "Inc 1b/4" as the values, and generate a fairly long piece. It's surprising how interesting the results are.