How Your Song Is Made

This project is totally free of charge and always will be. No sign-up, no payment, no donations, no catch.

The story

In 2015 the composer Stuart Mitchell turned my DNA into a piece of music. He composed personal music from people's DNA, and I was one of his clients. I still have my score, and it means a great deal to me.

Stuart has since passed away, and his method was no longer available to anyone. So I set out to rebuild it as a free gift, working from my own score and from the notes Stuart published about how he worked. This page is a tribute to him. It is not his process, and it is not his music.

In loving tribute to Stuart Mitchell (composer of personal DNA music). This is an independent tribute and is not affiliated with Stuart Mitchell, his family or his company. It doesn't reproduce his orchestrations and makes no claim to be his process. His compositions and creative work remain entirely his own.

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From DNA to melody

1. Read your raw file in order. The page starts at chromosome 1 and reads the readings in the order your testing company lists them.
2. Use both letters. Each reading has two letters (one from each parent). Both are used, one after the other. Blank or unreadable readings (like "--") are skipped.
3. Three letters make one amino acid. Every three DNA letters are looked up in the standard genetic code, the same table biology textbooks use, giving one amino acid (a letter such as K, A or W).
4. Each amino acid gets a note. Each one has its own note in the E-flat major scale. One amino acid is one beat, played slowly (54 beats a minute by default; the original was 59, and you can change it).
5. Repeats are held. When the same amino acid comes twice in a row, the note is simply held longer.
6. Stops end a phrase. A "stop" in the genetic code lets the note ring out, ending the phrase.

How do we know this is close to what Stuart did? When I ran my own raw DNA file through these steps, the first eight amino acids came out as KAKWKPRA, exactly the letters printed on my 2015 score. That match is what confirmed the approach.

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Adding your voice

1. Finding your note. You hum or chant a long, steady "Aum". The page listens for the pitch of your hum, for example "Your hum: 89 Hz (about F2)".
2. Choosing the steadiest part. It picks the calmest, steadiest stretch of your recording automatically and leaves out breaths and wobbles.
3. Looping it smoothly. That stretch is looped with long, gentle crossfades, so it can sound for as long as needed without clicks.
4. Your voice plays the melody. Your hum is raised or lowered in pitch to play each note, over a soft drone of your own note. You can centre it on your own note or on Stuart's E-flat.

With only your voice, you get a slow, calm hum piece. With only DNA, a soft synth tone plays the melody.

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Making it your own

Everyone hears differently, so the optional "Make it yours" section lets you shape the sound: move the pitch higher or lower (up to an octave either way), choose a warmer or brighter tone, slow down or speed up the DNA melody without changing its pitch, turn the moving melody and the steady background hum up, down or off, add a little or a lot of gentle room echo, play the melody with your hum, a soft flute-like tone or both, and lengthen or shorten the fades. Quick choices include "Gentle", which keeps your voice in front with very little music. Your settings are used for playback and for your WAV download (and the speed and pitch for your MIDI file). Some safe limits always stay on: deep rumble below 60 Hz is removed, brightness is capped so it never gets harsh, and the volume is kept even so it never clips. Nothing is saved; "Clear everything" puts the settings back.

Listening tip: headphones or earbuds are recommended for the fullest, most immersive sound, but speakers work fine too. Start at a comfortable, low volume.

Calm by default

Listeners told us early versions felt a little busy and dark, so the default is now calmer: a softer steady drone (60%), a warmer tone, a slightly slower speed (54 beats a minute), a lighter echo and gentler fades. You can still change all of these.

Mood

At the top of Make it yours a single Mood slider runs from Very calm to Uplifting. It starts at the calm default and moves several settings together: the drone, tone, speed, room, melody, backing and fades. Toward Very calm the music gets sparser, slower and softer with a lower drone; toward Uplifting it gets a bit brighter, a little faster and fuller, but never harsh. The detailed sliders move with it so you can fine-tune afterwards, and the How did that feel? buttons still work on top. “Clear everything” puts it back to the start.

How did that feel?

After you play or download a song, a small How did that feel? panel appears with plain buttons such as Too busy, Too dark / a bit scary, Too edgy / harsh, Too fast, Too slow and Voice too loud / too soft. Each tap gently moves the settings above (for example fewer moving notes, less low drone, softer highs or a slower speed), re-makes the music on your device and tells you in one line what changed. Taps add up, you can undo the last one or go back to your original, and nothing is saved or sent anywhere: it is forgotten when you leave or press “Clear everything”.

Nature soundscape

Under Make it yours you can add a soft bed of Ocean waves, Gentle rain or both (off by default), with its own level. It is synthesized on your device from gently filtered noise: slow 8 to 14 second swells for the waves, soft, dark rounded noise that slowly breathes (15 to 25 second swells) with a few quiet, spaced-out droplets for the rain. No recordings are used and nothing is downloaded. The highs are rounded off so it never hisses, and it goes through the same 60 Hz low cut and limiter. With the Gentle preset or a hum-only piece it makes a wordless “hum and ocean” soundscape. The feedback buttons never make it louder or brighter.

Music styles

The Music style menu has two groups. Calm (40 to 80 beats a minute, no drums unless you switch them on): Ambient (the original sound, and the default); Classical, a small chamber orchestra with strings that swell in slowly with a little vibrato, flute and clarinet answering phrases, harp arpeggios and an Alberti-style accompaniment over traditional cadences, in the spirit of gentle modern orchestral writing; Opera, a romantic aria feel with strings that swell, horns, harp, soft timpani rolls and rich, singing cadences (with your hum, the hum becomes the singer, with a gentle operatic vibrato that starts a moment into each note, a slight glide between notes, a soft “ah” choir and a larger concert-hall echo); Piano, a soft felt-piano tone with gentle arpeggiated chords; Strings, slow string-pad chords; Hymn / Choir, four-part block chords on organ with a choir pad; Gospel, a slow swung 12/8 feel (60 to 80 beats a minute) with a drawbar organ with a gentle tremolo, a gospel piano with walk-ups and passing chords, choir “oohs” answering the melody and a warm bass, using classic gospel progressions with 7ths, 9ths and suspensions (soft hand-claps are optional and off by default); Celtic / Folk, a drone with harp-like plucks and, without a hum, a tin-whistle-like lead; Lo-fi, warm, slightly detuned electric-piano chords with a very soft optional brushed beat; Soft Jazz, 7th and 9th chords with optional soft brushes; and World Flute, a drone with a breathy bamboo-flute-like lead. When you only hum, every style plays a gentle accompaniment built around your own note. Energetic: Rock, Heavy Metal, Pop, Country, Blues, Electronic / Dance and Hip-hop, each with its own chords, bass line and (switchable) drums, at speeds up to 160 beats a minute. Calm styles stay between 40 and 80. In every style your DNA melody or your hum stays the lead on top.

Every instrument is synthesized on your device from simple waveforms and noise. Nothing is downloaded, so the styles sound like a synthesizer rather than a live band. The same safety steps apply to every style: nothing below 60 Hz, a limiter, and a moderate, levelled loudness in the WAV. The MIDI download includes the style’s instrument parts (and drums on channel 10) so you can open them in any music program.

Everything from my voice

This switch is off by default and only works once you have added your hum or Aum. When Everything from my voice is on, nothing synthesized is added. Your hum is reshaped into every part: chords, strings, choir and organ are copies of your hum moved to each note of the chord; piano, harp and guitar plucks are short slices of your hum with a quick start and fade; rock and metal guitars are your hum with distortion; the bass is your hum moved lower; the kick drum is a short burst of your hum dropped quickly in pitch (never below 60 Hz); the snare and hi-hats are tiny, brightened snippets of your hum. The melody and steady background are your hum as always. It sounds more organic and a little less like each real instrument. It works for playback and the WAV download; the MIDI file is the same either way.

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What comes from your voice, and what is added

From your voice (when you add a hum): the steady background drone (and its optional fifth), the DNA melody sung by your hum, or, with no DNA file, phrases of your hum. With Ambient and a hum, nothing is added: you hear only your own voice.

Added sounds are synthesized on your device from simple waveforms and noise. They are not recordings of anyone. The table lists what each style adds. If you have not added a hum, all sounds are synthesized on your device, including the melody and the drone (shown in the last column). If Everything from my voice is on, nothing synthesized is added: every part in the table is made from your own hum instead.

Echo/room, the tone filter and the volume limiter are effects applied to the sound, not added instruments. The live What’s in your song box on the page shows the same information for your current choices.

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Brainwave series (optional, experimental)

Informational and experiential only. Not medical advice or treatment. Don't use while driving or operating machinery. If you have epilepsy or a seizure disorder, a heart condition, are pregnant, or have a pacemaker, talk to your doctor first. Use a low, comfortable volume. Stop if you feel uncomfortable. This is an independent tool and is not affiliated with any biotuning practitioner or company.

If you've had your voice frequencies analyzed (sometimes called being biotuned), or you know your own fundamental frequency, step 4 makes a series of gentle tracks built on your note, one for each band you choose. It is a separate, opt-in panel. Nothing in the main song uses beats.

How the numbers are worked out

• Beat: your fundamental is halved again and again, an octave lower each time, until it lands inside the band. If two octaves fit (Delta spans three octaves), the one nearest the middle of the band is used. If none fits, the band centre is used and the page says so. You can type your own beat within the band.
• Carrier: your fundamental moved by octaves into 100–400 Hz, so it is comfortable to hear and stays above the 60 Hz low cut.
• Gentle start (on by default): the beat starts near your Alpha octave and glides smoothly into the chosen band over the first 2.5 minutes (the first fifth of a shorter track).

How the sound is made

• Binaural (headphones): the left ear hears the carrier, and the right ear hears the carrier plus the beat (for example 160.128 Hz and 161.379 Hz).
• Monaural / gentle AM (speakers): both ears hear the same carrier, and its volume rises and falls on a smooth sine curve at the beat rate. The default depth is 50%. There are no on/off clicks.
• Both: binaural carriers with the gentle AM on top.
• Carrier sound: a pure sine tone (synthesized). If you tick "Use my voice as the carrier", it is your hum loop resampled to the carrier pitch, softened with a low-pass filter. For binaural, the right ear gets a copy of your hum shifted up by the beat.
• Background: none; a soft sine drone of your note (synthesized); a soft pad of three sine tones (synthesized); or your hum at its own pitch (from your voice).
• Effects only: 30-second fades, the 60 Hz low cut, and a limiter that keeps peaks at about −4.4 dBFS.
• Files are 16-bit stereo WAV at 32 kHz, made one track at a time on your device (about 115 MB for 15 minutes). "Download whole series" packs the tracks and a README.txt into a .zip, with no compression, so it is the sum of the track sizes. The README lists every frequency, the maths, your settings and this notice.

Theory behind it

Frequency-following response: the auditory system produces EEG-measurable activity that follows a steady rhythm in a sound. Brainwave entrainment is the idea that a rhythm in a band might nudge brain activity towards that band. Binaural beats exist only in the brain, which combines two slightly different pitches, one in each ear. Monaural beats are a real rise and fall in the sound itself. Using octaves of a personal note is an idea from sound practice and has not been tested by science. The bands are associations seen in EEG research: Delta with deep sleep, Theta with drowsiness and deep relaxation, Alpha with calm eyes-closed rest, low Beta with relaxed steady attention, and Gamma with attention and perception. They are not effects the sound is guaranteed to have.

Evidence is mixed and still being studied. A meta-analysis of 22 studies found a medium average effect of binaural beats on some measures of memory, attention, anxiety and pain perception (Garcia-Argibay, Santed & Reales, Psychological Research 83, 357–372, 2019, doi:10.1007/s00426-018-1066-8). A systematic review of 14 EEG studies found the results inconsistent: 5 supported entrainment, 8 did not and 1 was mixed (Ingendoh, Posny & Heine, PLOS ONE 18(5): e0286023, 2023, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0286023). Nothing here heals, treats or cures anything.

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Adding a verse or inspiration (optional)

You can also add a brief verse, prayer or inspiration in your own voice: a line of scripture, a prayer, an affirmation, a poem or any words that inspire you, spoken or sung. It is for everyone, whatever you believe, of any faith or none. Record it with your microphone on the page or choose a short audio clip of yourself. Up to about 60 seconds is used; anything longer is trimmed with a soft fade, and silence at the start and end is removed.

You choose where it plays: at the start, in the middle, at the end, or repeating gently (it returns now and then, a little softer each time after the first). A volume slider sets how loud it is. While your words play, the music dips softly (about 6 dB) and comes back afterwards. Your verse gets a touch of warmth (a gentle high-frequency roll-off) and a small, soft room so it sits in the song, then goes through the same 60 Hz low cut and volume limiter as everything else. Downloads are levelled to a peak of about −4.4 dBFS as always.

If you like, type the words too. They are shown on screen while your song plays and listed in the “What’s in your song” box. They are only shown as text; nothing is ever read aloud by a computer voice. Your verse is included in the WAV download. The MIDI download contains notes only, so it leaves the verse out. With no verse added, your song is exactly the same as before.

Rights: please use your own words, scripture or public-domain text, or words you have the right to use.

How loud your words are. Clear (the default): the music dips about 6 dB and your voice sits roughly 6–7 dB above it. Soft beneath: the music does not dip and your voice is mixed about 12 dB below it. Barely there (subliminal-style): the music does not dip and your voice is mixed about 24 dB below it. In the two softer choices your voice is made a little warmer with a little more room so it blends in. No ultrasonic or other hidden tricks are used; it is simply your own voice, mixed quietly. Downloads are levelled to the same peak (about −4.4 dBFS) as a song without a verse: the music keeps its usual loudness, and only your voice is turned down briefly if a word would push past that peak.

Some people like their words tucked quietly beneath the music so they’re felt more than heard. Research on whether hidden or subliminal messages affect people is mixed and limited, so treat this as a personal, experiential choice, not a health or mind-change claim. You always know what’s in your song: it’s your own words, and the “What’s in your song” box lists them, including which loudness you chose.

Privacy: your verse recording and words stay on your device. They are never uploaded or saved, and “Clear everything” removes them.

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Inspire from your own music (optional)

In Make it yours you can choose a song file of your own to inspire the music. Only the first 3 minutes are used. Your device listens for the tempo (from where notes start), the key and mode (major or minor, by comparing the notes heard with standard key profiles), the chords bar by bar (and whether they repeat as a loop), the brightness of the sound, how even or varied the dynamics are, and whether it has a swing feel. The findings are shown in plain words, with the closest matching style. Pressing Use these sets the key, tempo, chord loop, tone and style; you can still change any of them.

Your music is analyzed only on this device and is never uploaded or saved. Please use only music you created or have the rights to. The result is inspired by your music’s key, tempo, feel and chords; it doesn’t copy your arrangement.

A Blend slider (off by default) can add a quiet, filtered excerpt of your recording underneath. When it is above zero, the page notes that your recording is included in the song. With Everything from my voice on, the blend is turned off. "Clear everything" wipes your music file and the findings too.

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NASA sounds (optional)

In Make it yours you can start your song with the real launch countdown of STS-135, the last Space Shuttle flight (July 8, 2011), from T−10 seconds through liftoff; the launch roar fades out about 3 seconds after liftoff and your song begins underneath. You can also add NASA space sounds softly in the background: Planets & space (radio and plasma sounds recorded by the Cassini, Voyager and Stardust spacecraft), The Sun (a warm, bright glow: a soft hum made from measurements of the Sun’s vibrations), or both, with a level slider. Brainwave series tracks can use the same background. Everything is off by default. With Everything from my voice on, these options are turned off, because they are not your voice.

The recordings are short, trimmed copies stored inside the site (about 1.6 MB), so nothing is downloaded while you use it. They get the same 60 Hz low cut and limiter as the rest of the song.

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Journal, sharing and scores

My listening journal (journal.html) lets you note when you listened, what, for how long, how calm you felt on a simple 1 to 5 scale, and how you felt in your own words. It stays on your device: in memory only, unless you tick “Keep my journal on this device”. You can download it as a text file or a spreadsheet (.csv), and delete it all at any time. “Clear everything” on the song page erases it too.

Share your experience (share.html) is a separate, optional page where you can send a short story or review, a star rating and a suggestion. A name is optional, it never asks for an email, and it does not accept files. It needs your consent first. It has no server: it opens your own email app with your words filled in (or copies them), and you send it yourself. Nothing is stored by the website. The song maker page itself never sends anything anywhere.

A score of your song. Once your song has a DNA melody, “Score (PDF / print)” draws sheet music on your device: the lead melody plus the chords, bass and percussion parts that your chosen style uses (the same parts as the MIDI download). Print it or save it as a PDF, or download MusicXML to open in MuseScore, Finale, Sibelius or Dorico. Rhythms are rounded to the nearest sixteenth note. The score of your song is yours to use as you wish. The music symbols come from the free Bravura font (SIL Open Font License); see LICENSES.txt.

Free sample score. “Song of Pi” is a 32-bar piece for flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, harp and strings whose melody comes from the first 96 digits of pi (one note per digit on the D major scale), not from anyone’s DNA or voice or any other music. It is dedicated to the public domain under CC0 1.0, so anyone may use it for any purpose, no permission needed (creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0). It is offered as PDF, MusicXML and MIDI.

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Use of this site

This site is free, for personal use only. You may not sell, charge for, or license music made here, or offer it as a paid service to others. You’re welcome to share your own creations freely. Before anything can be made (loading a DNA file, recording or choosing your hum or verse, Inspire, and every play, download and brainwave button), the page asks you to tick a box saying you have read and agree to the Terms of Use, including this notice. The tick is kept only while the page is open, so it is asked again on each visit, unless you also tick Remember on this device.

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Your privacy

• Everything happens on your own device, inside your browser.
• Nothing is uploaded or sent. The page is blocked from using the internet. The only page that can send anything is the separate, optional Share your experience page, and only when you press Send.
• The site saves nothing on your device unless you choose Remember on this device when you agree to the Terms. That stores only a small note that you agreed (no name, no music, nothing sent). “Clear everything” erases it, as does clearing this site’s data in your browser settings.
• Your listening journal is kept on your device only if you tick Keep my journal on this device; otherwise it is gone when you close the journal page.
• The web host (Cloudflare Pages) keeps standard anonymous server statistics, such as page view counts, without cookies or tracking scripts on these pages.
• Only a short stretch from the start of your file is used (64 amino acids by default).
• "Clear everything" wipes your file, your recording, your verse and its words, any music you chose from the page, the remembered agreement if you saved one, and your listening journal if you chose to keep it on this device.
• The DNA + voice sample on the main page is my own song, shared by my own choice. Nobody else's DNA or voice is ever shared.

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What is known and what is guessed

Known from my score: the key (E-flat major), the tempo, one beat per amino acid, held repeats, and the notes for most common amino acids (for example K, A, P, E, S, L, T, V, D, N, H and G).

Less certain: the notes for R, W, F and I appear only a few times on the score.

Our own choices: the notes for Q, C, M and Y never appear on my score, so we chose them. The voice step and the sounds are also our own design, not Stuart's.

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Make it yourself

1. Download your raw DNA file from your testing company (optional).
2. Open the Voice of Creation page and choose the file.
3. Record a 10–30 second steady "Aum", or choose an audio file (optional).
4. Pick your options and press Play.
5. Download your song as a WAV (and MIDI, if you used DNA).
6. Press "Clear everything" when you are done.

This is for creativity and joy. It is not a medical or health tool, and it makes no health claims.

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With gratitude to Dr. Jeffrey Thompson

Years ago, I was Bio-Tuned by Dr. Jeffrey Thompson at his Center for Neuroacoustic Research, through his Bio-Tuning® program. That session gave me my personal fundamental frequency, and Dr. Thompson and the late BJ made music just for me. Hearing my own frequency for the first time stayed with me, and it inspired Voice of Creation.

To be clear: Voice of Creation does not use, copy, or recreate Dr. Thompson’s Bio-Tuning method, measurements, or recordings, and using this site is not a Bio-Tuning session. Your sound is built only from your own hum or DNA file, on your device. This site is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or reviewed by Dr. Thompson or the Center for Neuroacoustic Research.

You can learn about his work at his official site: centerforneuroacousticresearch.com.

Bio-Tuning® is a trademark of its owner and is used here only to name and credit Dr. Thompson’s work.

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Credits

Co-creators. Co-created with two dear friends, S.R. and A.E., whose honest listening shaped how this sounds. With thanks to T.G., whose love of the ocean inspired the waves and rain.

NASA audio. Launch countdown (STS-135, July 8, 2011) and space sounds: courtesy of NASA. NASA audio is generally not subject to copyright in the United States. Use of NASA material does not imply endorsement by NASA. This project is not affiliated with NASA, and no NASA logo or insignia is used.

• “STS-135: Countdown to Launch” – NASA Historical Sounds, https://www.nasa.gov/historical-sounds/ (file: https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/590318main_ringtone_135_launch.mp3)
• “Cassini: Saturn Radio Emissions #1” – https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/584791main_spookysaturn.mp3
• “Cassini: Saturn Radio Emissions #2” – https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/584795main_saturn_radio_waves.mp3
• “Cassini: Enceladus Sound” – https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/584796main_enceladus.mp3
• “Voyager: Lightning on Jupiter” – https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/603921main_voyager_jupiter_lightning.mp3
• “Stardust: Passing Comet Tempel 1” – https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/598980main_stardust_tempel1.mp3
  (all from NASA Historical Sounds, https://www.nasa.gov/historical-sounds/)
• “Sun Sonification” – NASA, Sounds of the Sun, https://www.nasa.gov/solar-system/sounds-of-the-sun/ (file: https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/sun_sonification.wav); data from the ESA/NASA SOHO mission (Michelson Doppler Imager), sonified by A. Kosovichev, Stanford Experimental Physics Lab.

Full details: NASA-CREDITS.txt, included with the site. Guidelines: https://www.nasa.gov/nasa-brand-center/images-and-media/

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