A Lot from a Little: Otomata and Generative Music

When you hear complex music, you might imagine a serious-minded composer, choosing each note with a learned and discerning ear. Instead, imagine clicking a few cells on a grid, then clicking “Play.”

It’s called generative music, and it will surprise you.

The tool in the video is Otomata, an implementation of cellular automata, a computational technique that combines simple elements and rules to create complex results. Or, I should say, potentially complex results: depending on your starting state, you can end up with simple cycles or highly complex variations on a theme.

Otomata executes a set of rules on the lit cells:

• Each lit cell has a direction: up, down, left, right.

• On each beat, all the lit cells move one step in their respective directions.

• If a cell hits the grid’s edge, the cell bounces back the opposite way. On the bounce, a tone will sound. The pitch (low to high) depends on the position, like a piano key’s pitch depends on its position along the keyboard.

• If a cell hits another cell, each cell changes direction 90 degrees clockwise.

To avoid overly dissonant results, Otomata uses a limited set of pitches. This enforces a similar feel to Otomata pieces. But within the general similarity is a world of potential variations.

While Otomata won’t replace the serious-minded composer, it’s a fun way to see how generative music can make a lot out of a little. Thanks go to Batuhan Bozkurt for creating it and making it freely available.

Update, June 1, 2026: This post originally had a few examples I made using Otamata, which are now dead links. So I updated the post with the official Otamata video above.