Djenerator: A metal breakdown generator

Djenerator is an algorithmic generator for metal riffs. It comes with presets that generate riffs in the style of Tesseract, Sworn In, Thall and others. Clicking the “settings” link opens a huge range of options to tweak the generator, and your favourite presets can be saved. Although I’m not a huge fan of metal, this app is a seriously-impressive combination of algorithmic generation and web audio, and I still spent lots of time playing with it. The code is on github too.

DX7 Emulator

A full-featured implementation of the Yamaha DX-7 synthesiser with support for MIDI input. This app also comes bundled with the original patches featured in the DX-7 including the classic “E.Piano 1”. The DX-7 was notoriously hard to program, replacing the familiar knobs and sliders of analogue synths with a series of nested, digital menus. I find in most cases that replicating knobs and sliders in web applications makes virtual instruments harder to use. Here, however, replacing the nested menus of the original with a series of controls for each “operator” makes it much easier to experiment with than the original.

108

108 is a minimal beat machine featuring 5 classic samples that can be arranged on a 16 step loop running 108 bpm. The “grid” in this case is a circle, with an indicator for the current time rotating around its perimeter. It’s a simple way to start experimenting with drum patterns, it’d be nice to see the ability to switch between different loops but overall I love the simplicity of the approach. The animated page title is a nice touch too!

Space Bumps

Space Bumps is an audio visual app for generating experimental arpeggios and ambient landscapes. The parameters of its synth engine are controlled by dragging “stars” around the constellation, and the resulting soundscape can be saved and shared on social networks.

Third International Conference on Technologies for Music Notation and Representation

The call for papers for this conference, to be held in A Coruña, Spain on 24th-26th May 2007, is now open. The organisers are looking for submissions in many areas some of which are particularly interesting to readers of this newsletter:

  1. Notation in electronic and electroacoustic music
  2. Live coding
  3. Innovative computer applications for music notation
  4. Sound visualization

StepSequencer

Adam Beck has just started playing with the Web Audio API and has built a fun step sequencer for creating short, looping melodies. It uses a single-oscillator synth, and as Adam asked for some feedback I’d suggest trying to extend the synth engine to include an additional oscillator, and some control over the envelope of each note. Take a look at Adam’s app and see if you have any further suggestions - the code is on github.

VisualizerMicro

VisualizerMicro is a micro JavaScript library to make it much easier to extract waveform and spectral data from audio. A great time saver if you’re working on a audio visualisation project.

Electronic Ladyland

Electronic Ladyland is a free compilation of 55 tracks from 35 pioneering women in electronic music mixed together into a seamless 45 minutes. The compilation took 18 months to put together and features over half-a-century of electronic music experimentation.

And if you’re a fan of Daphne Oram, who features on this compilation, you might also be interested in the recent project to rebuild her Mini Oramics machine.