MetaMix is a cross between a musical composition, a digital audio player, an interactive experience, a software tool, and a work of conceptual art. Feed MetaMix your favorite audio track and listen as familiar music is transformed into a new listening experience. MetaMix superimposes new musical structures onto existing music by turning special mathematical integer sequences into new musical forms. These musical forms are used to "remix" the audio track you choose.
I wrote MetaMix to address two of my own difficulties with listening to recorded music:
I have always been attracted to the excitement of a live performance, where a performer's unique interpretation can make me hear even a familiar piece in a new way. When I listen to recorded music at home, I always miss those unexpected surprises that can only happen at a live performance.
I created MetaMix as a means to bring some of that excitement of live performance to recorded music. By algorithmically remixing familiar recordings on the fly, MetaMix makes me hear new connections and relationships and constantly surprises me with what it does.
MetaMix creates music that functions well as foreground or background by using special mathematical sequences to guide its mixing algorithms. Most of these sequences are extremely repetitive and change gradually over long periods of time. With these kinds of musical structures, I find I am able to easily shift between different modes of listening as I wish. I can leave MetaMix's music on while I am doing other things, or I can take time to focus only on the music I am hearing.
You should approach using MetaMix just as you would normally approach listening to a CD or to the radio. Import a track you like into MetaMix, tweak the various settings described in this document, and then just let it run. MetaMix is not a musical game whose controls require constant manipulation. Rather, it is more like a music box: wind it up and then just sit back and enjoy.