ArTbitrating JaVOX emerged from two other environments, VOX POPULI and Art Lab. JaVOX is a real-time environment and explores evolutionary computation in the context of interactive composition. It applies genetic algorithms and provides a graphical interface that allows to change the evolution of sounds by using the mouse.

Before you start to play with JaVOX you need to click on the Play Button. The Play/Stop button plays or stop sound generation. If you want to view a "curve being played" try the following sequence: select in the Style field the Line or Arc mode. Press the button Create and finally the button Pad On. You will see hear the music that is being created according with the curves that are traversed, while the parameter controls move. These controls are associated with the horizontal and vertical components of the red and blue curves, so they move while the curves are traversed. You can directly modify the parameter controls by clicking the Pad Off button and moving them with the mouse.

The user can interfere in the fitness function through four controls. The first slide control (mel) is associated to a value used to evaluate the melodic fitness. Moving this control the user changes the tonal centre of the music. The second slide control (bio) interferes in the duration of the genetic cycle. Changing this slide, the user modifies the rate of reproduction, making it faster or slower. The third slide control (rhy) changes the music pulse allowing rhythmic variations. The fourth slide control (oct) modifies the voice range, allowing different octave registers.

Graphic controls allows the pad to be able or unable (Pad on/Pad off button). The clear buttons (Clear Blue and Clear Red) clean the curves. The Create button creates curves according to the selected style (Lines and Arcs). The blue and red numbers determine how many lines or arcs will be created for each respective color. When the User style is selected, the user can draw curves with the mouse.

The interactive pad control supplies a graphical area in which 2D curves can be drawn. The user can draw or create curves by clicking and dragging the mouse inside pad's region, in the User mode. The left button of the mouse draws a blue curve and the right button draws a red curve. The user can also create curves by selecting Arcs or Lines in the Style field and clicking the Create button. These curves, a blue one and a red one, are linked to the controls of the interface. The red curve links to the melodic and octave range controls; and the blue curve links to the biological and rhythmic controls. When the interactive pad is active, the four other controls are disabled. Each curve describes a relation between the linked variables. They are traversed in the order in which they were created; their horizontal and vertical components are used for fitness evaluation and to modify the duration of the genetic cycles, interfering directly in the rhythm of the composition. The pad control allows the composer to conduct the music through drawings. Using different drawings the composer can experience the generated music and conduct it, trying different trajectories or sound orbits. The trajectories then affect the reproduction cycle and musical fitness evaluation.