February 1, 2026
Drama in the key of C#
Show HN: ÆTHRA – Writing Music as Code
Music you can type: HN vibes hard, skeptics want proof
TLDR: ÆTHRA is a new open-source language to write music with text, aiming for emotion-first composition. Hacker News is split: fans love the concept, while skeptics demand a demo, compare it to Csound/Strudel, and question whether its simple WAV output can rival pro DAW sounds.
ÆTHRA landed on Hacker News promising to let you write music like a story, and the crowd immediately broke into two camps. One half started humming along to the idea—code that says “tempo 60, guitar, melancholy” and out pops ambient vibes—while the other half shouted show me the demo. acron0 went straight to the chorus: “Please can you link to a video of it being used?” The comparisons started flying: worik name-checked veteran tools like Csound, and Apreche brought up live-coding darling Strudel, asking if ÆTHRA is reinventing the wheel or tuning a fresh instrument.
The hottest debate? Sound quality vs simplicity. jesuslop loved the “DSL for music” idea but asked how plain WAVs could compete with lush, cinematic libraries in pro digital audio workstations (DAWs). Meanwhile, musician-programmer sumul praised the vision—“describe what you want to feel”—but said the docs don’t yet match that emotional promise.
Memes and jokes dropped like drum fills: “pics or it didn’t happen,” “C#? Is it sharp or flat?” and a wave of Band-in-a-Box nostalgia from folks who love quick backing tracks. It’s early-stage (v0.8) and open-source, and the vibe is clear: people are intrigued, but this crowd wants receipts.
Key Points
- •ÆTHRA is an open-source DSL for composing music and emotional soundscapes.
- •The language represents musical intent (tempo, chords, progressions, dynamics, instruments) directly in code.
- •It is designed for ambient, cinematic, emotional, and minimal music and uses a C# (.NET) interpreter.
- •Current output is WAV audio; features include notes, chords, tempo, duration, and velocity.
- •ÆTHRA is not a DAW replacement and is not MIDI-focused; the project is in early-stage v0.8 and seeks feedback.