Explorations in code and audio

Artists of the Movement

I first looked at art created in this space. Below are some of the artists that really appealed to me.

I found some more work done in Browser Audio Experiences

Starting with audio creation

I started with understanding Tone.js. It is a Web Audio framework for creating interactive music in the browser.

I used Ableton's Learning Synths to understand more about synthisizers.

I ended up with the below creation. Give it a go.

Link to the sketch

Simple Audio creation with JS

Creating “The Cave”

I wanted to create something that has,

A good interactive component: This will be the input for creation from the user. It can be “key interactions”, “mouse movement”, “scroll”, “text input”, “camera based”.
Visuals that are representative of the generated music

The piece “Cave” below is the first one,

There is ambient brown noise.
On mouse movement it plays a MonoSynth. Note is dictated by mouse position from center.
On mouse click it plays an FM Synth through phaser. Note is dictated by mouse position from center.
On a 1% random chance it plays a “glitch” note using a MetalSynth.

The modular config is as below.

Modular configuration for "The Cave"

The work represents a Cave. The viewer moves in and out experiencing echos.

The Cave - Fullscreen experience

Video of The Cave Browser audio sampler

Creating “Spacia”

For the second piece I wanted to create ambient sounds. The viewer controls the timing of the musical notes, but the notes and background frequencies and tones are chosen at random. Every piece created is fresh.

The synthaziser config is as below.

Modular configuration for "Scapia"

Two ambient synthesizer sounds swell up from the background and wait for the user to click. On clicking, one of the five configurations is applied to play a new note, and change the background notes. At random, there is a phaser controlled sound.

Scapia - Fullscreen experience

Video of The Cave Browser audio sampler

Exploring Loops and Purely Generative Music

I wanted to create a continuous generative music piece. No user interaction. Just a piece that will play on creating variations in sounds forever.

There are five configurations that the system keeps mixing.

Sounds#1 - Fullscreen experience

Sounds#1 Video

Audio Visuals

I moved on to use tracks by other/better music artist and concentrating on exploring visuals. I looked for tracks on freemusicarchive.org

I was mainly interested in Chiptune, Noise-Experimental, and Synthwave music since this provided rapid changes in frequency and amplitude. This was perfect to create interesting visuals.

Creating “Highway”

I mapped the FFT waveform to rectangles. Then mirrored those horizontally to create sort of a “highway” effect. In relatively simple code, but the result was exciting.

You can edit the sketch to add a link to any other song too to see different results.

Fullscreen - Highway

Highway audio reactive video

Creating "Headlights”

Experience strong beats and accompanying visuals that complete the show. The grid size, the fill of the circle, and the size of the circle, all are controlled by the amplitude and frequency of the music being played.

You can edit the sketch to add a link to any other song too to see different results.

Fullscreen - Headlights

Headlights audio reactive video

Karan Mhatre