Origins: Igor Engraver
Ooloi's roots trace back to Igor Engraver, a pioneering music notation software developed from 1996 to 2001. Led by Peter Bengtson and a team of 12, Igor Engraver represented a significant investment of $7.5 million USD (adjusted for inflation in 2024) and pushed the boundaries of music notation technology.
Key aspects of Igor Engraver:
Despite its innovations, Igor Engraver faced challenges:
These factors ultimately led to the discontinuation of the project.
Key aspects of Igor Engraver:
- Built entirely in Common Lisp
- Named after composer Igor Stravinsky, with a playful nod to Igor from "Young Frankenstein"
- Offered advanced features for music notation and engraving
- Known for its intuitive and fast input method, mirroring how musicians work with pen and paper
- Extremely naturalistic MIDI playback with humanisation features based on scientific research
Despite its innovations, Igor Engraver faced challenges:
- Management-imposed feature creep
- Venture capital policies
- Economic impact of the 9/11 attacks, which halted mergers and acquisitions worldwide
These factors ultimately led to the discontinuation of the project.
The Birth of Ooloi
Ooloi takes the concepts from Igor Engraver and develops them further. While it shares no code with its predecessor, it inherits many of the underlying concepts and goals.
Key differences and improvements:
Key differences and improvements:
- Built using modern technologies: Clojure for backend, Skia for rendering, and gRPC for data querying
- Massively multi-threaded, compared to Igor Engraver's single-threaded architecture
- Open-source core with optional paid plugins, ensuring a sustainable development model
- Emphasis on modularity and scalability
Igor Engraver → FrankenScore → Ooloi: An evolution of vision
Igor Engraver was named after Stravinsky and Young Frankenstein's Igor ("everyone should have an assistant named Igor"). FrankenScore emerged as the resurrection project – assembling powerful systems from the components of what came before. As the architecture matured and the pieces began working together with emergent, organic behavior, Ooloi became the more truthful name.
Inspired by Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis trilogy, the Ooloi are genetic architects who facilitate synthesis and enable collaboration between different entities. The shift reflects the project's evolution from gothic resurrection to organic synthesis – from bolting parts together to growing living systems. Ooloi embodies twenty-five years of architectural thinking synthesised into something that vibrates with its own inexplicable life.
Inspired by Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis trilogy, the Ooloi are genetic architects who facilitate synthesis and enable collaboration between different entities. The shift reflects the project's evolution from gothic resurrection to organic synthesis – from bolting parts together to growing living systems. Ooloi embodies twenty-five years of architectural thinking synthesised into something that vibrates with its own inexplicable life.
Next: Project Goals