Flex Music Labs
Solo-piano song composer
ComposerFlex
ComposerFlex composes complete solo-piano songs, with a tune, an accompaniment, chords and a form, and plays each one as it writes it. Choose a preset and press Start: every song is new, and any song you like can be kept and played again.
Plays out of the box. ComposerFlex comes with PianoFlex Player, so you hear every song as it's written. For 33 presets and every slider, play it through PianoFlex.
Presets and ingredients
64 presets, built from over 200 ingredients.
Each preset is a list of ingredients: single-purpose musical parts such as a stride left hand, a syncopated tune or a planned chord progression. The 64 built-in presets span 11 families (Classical, Jazz, Rock, Pop, Cinematic, Blues, Latin, Funk & Soul, Ballad, World and Gospel), from Ragtime and Boogie Woogie to Bossa Nova, Baroque Invention, Romantic Nocturne, Lo-fi Chill and Tango.
Mix your own
Add ingredients to a preset's list by dragging them in or with a double click, take any out, and adjust the rest. Save the result with Save preset…, and it makes new songs from your list.
Variety in every preset
Each song draws its own key and scale, and in most presets its own chords and melodic habits. Some ingredients appear in only a share of the songs, some come in only at a song's high points, and Song variation shifts the balance of the ingredients for each new song.
Endless play
When one song ends, a new one begins, for as long as you like, with the seed on Auto, as every built-in preset starts.
Shape each song
The controls you'll use most.
Length, tempo and key
Minutes sets how long a song runs. BPM, Scale and Key can each be fixed, or left on Auto so every song chooses its own.
Dynamics
One slider from Dry to Dynamic. The middle plays the preset as written; lower is plainer and more even; higher brings fuller choruses, a left hand that comes forward and bigger swings in loudness.
Song variation
From As written to Varied: how far each new song shifts the balance of the preset's ingredients.
Phrases
The Phrases tab lets you hear the variants of each phrase and keep the one you like.
Your own instrument
Set Output to MIDI port and pick the port, and ComposerFlex sends its notes over MIDI to whatever plays them: a digital piano or synth connected to your PC, or your DAW through a virtual MIDI port.
Seeds
Keep a song. Share it.
Every song comes from a seed. Liked the one you just heard? Press Use last seed, then Save preset…: with its seed set, the preset plays that same song every time. Recent seeds brings back songs you heard a moment ago, with the same settings, and the Song Library keeps the songs you save.
To share a song, send the preset file. Your friend copies it into Documents\ComposerFlex\presets, and it appears under Your presets in the Preset list, ready to play the same song.
Random
Press Random for a new mix.
Random draws a new list of ingredients: a left hand from one tradition, a tune from another, and sometimes a rhythmic feel from a third, all in the same key, over the same chords, on the same beat. It makes combinations no preset has, such as a boogie left hand under a tune of broken chords, or a habanera bass under a tune that walks step by step. Every draw starts from what a song needs, so it always plays as a complete piece.
Every ingredient Random chose is laid out in the list in front of you, to adjust, remove or build on. Like it? Save it as a preset. Not quite? Back undoes up to 20 draws.
How far Random goes
From Smart to Wild.
A slider beside Random sets how adventurous each draw is.
- SmartA clean, complete piece and little else.
- 25Some parts play in only some songs, so songs vary in how they're laid out.
- 50Extra parts for particular phrases, such as a calmer tune for the bridge, the intro or the outro, and sometimes a second left hand in the choruses.
- 60Finishing touches drawn from the whole catalog of ingredients, not just the ones the presets use.
- 70Often a second form or chord plan, with each song drawing one of the two.
- WildExtra tunes, left hands or chords that play over one another. Expect strange results as well as great ones, and keep the ones you love.
How it composes
Rules of harmony, melody and form.
ComposerFlex plans the chords first, then writes tunes from short motifs that come back and develop. Each preset brings its own left hand, such as stride, boogie, walking bass, Alberti (broken chords) or habanera.
Details
| Runs on | Windows 11, 64-bit |
|---|---|
| Format | Standalone program |
| Plays through | PianoFlex Player, included; the PianoFlex program, if it's running; or any MIDI port on your PC |
| Saves | Every song as a standard MIDI file, for any DAW or instrument, and the songs you choose in the Song Library |
| Help | The user guide, also installed with it: Help, then User guide opens it in your browser. The PianoFlex Player guide covers the piano it comes with. |
| Internet | Never connects: no update checks, crash reports or tracking |