[velcrovan]

From the top of the original link:

> “Velato offers an unusual challenge to programmer-musicians: to compose a musical piece that, in addition to expressing their aims musically, fills the constraints necessary to compile to a working Velato program.”

It seems like Velato’s purpose is to provide an unusual and interesting creative constraint for people who can both code and write music.

[Rochus]

> Velato’s purpose is to provide an unusual and interesting creative constraint for people who can both code and write music

I do both on a professional level and have no idea what this sentence means; that's why I'm asking.

[MyNameIs_Hacker]

Have you ever sat in front of your favorite DAW version XX and thought, oh wow so many things, what am I going to do?

How about Sonic Pi? Or any modern audio toolset. So much possibility, where to start?

Creative constraint is about opening up pathways by restricting options.

[hn_acker]

It means come up with a code goal and a music goal, and fulfill both with a Velato program. For example, can you write MIDI file which finds the nth Fibonnaci number and sounds good to your friend when played with a piano instrument (a real one or a sound sample)?

[jcpst]

Constraints are not too crazy of a concept. It’s not much different than say, writing a traditional Schoenberg style 12-tone composition.

You would create your tone rows and then write your composition. If you follow the rules, then it is also 12-tone serialism.

[Minor49er]

Presumably you code and compose in separate contexts, unlike what the sentence describes