hi!
over the last little while i've been writing a small web app for musics composition. inspired by vcv rack, nanoloop, tahti.studio, hardware sequencers and probably more. it's very much in an alpha state but i'm releasing it now so that you can try it out if you like!

you can find it here: https://blipgrid.app
find the source codes here: https://github.com/argarak/blipgrid

the app uses tone.js

for all the audio processing and i wrote all the ui components using lit

.

how do the sequencing algorithms work?

the algorithms are "bytebeat-esque", you have a step counter `t` that executes the function once for every step. rhythmic algorithms take in the length of the sequence and return true/false if the step is active. melodic algorithms take in the globally set scale and return an index that represents a valid note within the scale. all algorithms have "controls" that allow you to manipulate their behaviour which is set internally using the `mod` parameter list.

the software does kinda lack in terms of the number of algorithms at the moment, maybe that will change in the future. haven't had a ton of time to work on this so far.

why did i write this?

1. i don't really like most of the web apps out there, with the exception of tahti.studio. either that or they're very limited. i still think my app is still quite limited but it's early days.

2. the combination of rhythmic and melodic algorithms is at least somewhat unique... it resembles how you might sequence something on a modular system, but in a more streamlined layout. the end goal is to have a program where people can try out sequencing algorithms without resorting to complicated software like pure data.

3. music program user interfaces are quite interesting to me and i thought it would be a good challenge to build something to be very fast and immediate. i believe that user interface plays a major role in the kind of music that is written.

4. i wanted to do a final university project that i was actually interested in and that i would use. somehow they let me get away with this.

5. limitation breeds creativity?

to reiterate, this is alpha software, not ready for prime time. expect to see bugs, errors, and the loss of your data (there are several known issues).

lit my beloved 🥺

woah this is so fun

this seems cool, i like bytebeat

but uhhhh...
how do you actually... play sounds??
there's alot of sliders, knobs, and menus here but im not actually sure how to actually make sounds?
like where do i put t?

i tried looking in the demo stuff but uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
there's nothing
thing is just making sound out of thin air to me
:(

eventually i'll write a proper user guide... (maybe an in-app tutorial?) though that'll have to be in two months once i'm not so overwhelmed with work lol. in any case, i'll give you a high level overview.

so you have two sections on the left: rhythmic and pitch pattern. these sections have an algorithm, by default this is "euclidean" and "modulo motion", but you can change this via the dropdowns. at the bottom of each section you have "controls", or knobs you can use to change algorithm parameters.

currently, there's a bug where parameters are set to 0 by default which sometimes results in no output. i'd suggest you try to experiment with all the controls until you get something.

on the right you have the edit view. by default, you edit the sound of the current track. you have modules and controls there that allow you to change the sound, and you can select other patches/presets using the preset menu. the edit view also allows you to change the volume mixing and effect parameters.

when i said "bytebeat-esque" i mean that's kinda how the algorithms work under the hood. i guess that's actually a bit disingenuous because it's just not the same. you can't currently write your own algorithms. that's something i've considered but i needed to limit the scope of the project if i actually wanted to get anything done heh..

hope that helps!

pro tip: use the number keys and q, w, e, (i.e. the top 3 letter keys) to switch between the views quickly and efficiently! ctrl + numbers = solo channel and shift + numbers = mute channel

This is really cool. Always had a kind of passing interest in modular/generative music and this definitely scratches that itch.

Will probably record a little thing with it soon, and I'll fill out the survey too!

bump ump

thanks to anyone that completed the survey! it's closed now since i finished writing my work on this last week. i plan to add more features that i wasn't able to due to time limitations but currently i am quite tired and have stuff coming up so new features will roll out probably 1-2 months from now.