Dr. Zoppa has released a series of generative MIDI plugins that generate live, evolving counterpoint from a single held note.
The note you hold is the fundamental — let go and the music stops. They came out of a doctoral thesis on algorithmic composition, and they are built to be played, not configured.
AMI-POLYCHAOS turns a held note into 4 voices of counterpoint: holding a chord with the DAW transport running plays the plugin for as long as the note is held, and letting go stops the music. Rather than running four independent generators, POLYCHAOS reads one chaotic trajectory through four staggered heads, so the voices stay related as a single orbit observed at four different moments.
Spread sets how far the voices lag behind each other (zero produces homophony; opening it creates independent lines), Stagger rotates each voice’s rhythmic pattern, and Harmony switches between real chromatic transposition (Chord) and a single shared scale (Tonal), across 6 selectable chaotic maps with per-voice velocity cycles and Euclidean rhythm.
PLSYSTEMS and POLYMARKOV round out the series alongside POLYCHAOS, generating MIDI using their own distinct algorithmic approaches (implied by their names: Lindenmayer-system-style branching structures and Markov-chain-driven part generation, respectively).
AMI-CMMAS plugins are available for macOS in AU MIDI effect and VST3 formats (Windows VST3 coming soon), on sale for $29 USD each until October 30th, 2026 (regular $39 USD), and the bundle of all three is $69 USD during the introductory promotion (regular $99 USD). A free 30-day trial is available to try the plugins.
More information: Dr. Zoppa
