Gabriel Bolaños considers computer-assisted composition any tool that generates, develops, or enhances ideas—starting with overdubbing on a mini-disc recorder in high school. Now he relies on Open Music, a suite of algorithmic tools, to create harmonic progressions and spectral structures he once calculated by hand over hours. That tedious process, he realized, unconsciously biased him toward liking material simply because he'd invested time in it. Tools like Spear, which reveals a sound's partials and frequencies, changed how he conceptualizes timbre entirely—like seeing DNA. But as mentor Rodrigo Sigal told him, using Microsoft Word doesn't make you a technologist. The distinction isn't the tool but the thinking: using algorithms for tonal counterpoint misses the point, while using them to exceed acoustic intuition opens new ground. For Bolaños, Open Music has become the instrument he composes on, embedded so deeply in his process that he now imagines sound through its logic.

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