6 ms·

Show HN: Turtle.audio – a music sequencer inspired by turtle graphics

126 points by kylestetz 8y ago

acedio 8y ago
Reminds me of SimTunes! "Bugs" move around the screen according to simple rules, triggering notes as they pass over them. For example: https://youtu.be/DAluHrsCKxw https://youtu.be/DAluHrsCKxw
- kylestetz 8y ago
  SimTunes was (and will always be) a huge source of inspiration for me. Played it a bunch as a kid. :)
ArekDymalski 8y ago
Amazing project. Do you plan to create some kind of gallery for the "scenes"? I'm sure people will create unbelievable things with it and it would be greta to learn from such examples.
- kylestetz 8y ago
  Hey, yeah that's a great idea! I have been keeping my eye out for neat sketches in the wild.
TulliusCicero 8y ago
Looks cool, no undo/redo though? Makes it feel harder to use/less forgiving.
plytheman 8y ago
Super fun to play with! The first time I messed with this a week ago I had no clue what I was doing and didn't accomplish much. Giving it a second go I'm starting to get the hang of it and coming up with some weird and fun stuff. I think my two immediate ideas would be 1) a line type that might be a sustain or held open gate and 2) maybe a mixing list with all the lines on it so that you can selectively mute/unmute paths. I played a little bit with Slang a week ago too, looking forward to messing with the more options in there. Seems like you're into a lot of cool stuff, thanks for making this all! Also, what I've got looping right now: http://turtle.audio/play/3mu3sm http://turtle.audio/play/3mu3sm
rrherr 8y ago
Reminds me of another fascinating project I saw recently: "Deltaphone is a programming language for generating music that uses the ideas from turtle geometry to jump around the staff" https://twodee.org/blog/category/projects/deltaphone https://twodee.org/blog/category/projects/deltaphone
lerax 8y ago
Interesting idea. Visual music design can inspire new ideas for composition.
zmix 8y ago
I like such projects! Too bad I am unmusical and have no time either.
ArtWomb 8y ago
I love this too ;) Thanks for building.
joe_momma 8y ago
this is very cool, i want to stop all that i am doing and just fiddle with it.
nathan_f77 8y ago
Damn, this is really similar to an idea that I filed away and have wanted to build for a long time. But I think it's even better than what I was imagining. Nice work! I'm going to spend some time playing around with it. I think this has a ton of potential and could be used for serious music production. MIDI export would be awesome. Or even a VST plugin that emits MIDI into a DAW. It would be great to use something like this inside REAPER [1]. [1] https://www.reaper.fm https://www.reaper.fm
puranjay 8y ago
I love this tool but as an amateur musician, I have to wonder: who is your target audience? Anyone remotely serious about making music won't use it. I'll play around with it but if I want to make a track, I'll just head over to Ableton. There is value in making music easier, but you're only good enough for a little while before people move on to more professional tools
- c3534l 8y ago
  I think the point is to get people interested in more serious tools, not to prevent people from using them. Crayons are great for getting kids to draw. Doesn't mean a professional artist would use them (well, now that I think about it I'm sure there's at least a sculpture or two with crayons, but you get my point).
- peapicker 8y ago
  I think this would make a fun max4live sequencer tool. My first play: http://turtle.audio/play/9qz2ni http://turtle.audio/play/9qz2ni
- kjeetgill 8y ago
  If you're familiar with turtle graphics it fills the same niche. It's not for any use but a simple introduction and exploratory tool for novices. It gets you 0-30 as fast as possible, and let's you start playing.
- ohadron 8y ago
  There's a huge market for musical software and instruments that are ultimately just games. I would guess more than 99% of any music equipment and software bought is never used to create commercially used music, which is fine - it's fun and interesting, and it's challenging to learn. A clear example is everything made by [Teenage Engineering](https://teenage.engineering https://teenage.engineering) - check out the OP-Z. The interface is completely weird in the age of hi-res screens, but I'm sure it's going to be a hit. Another point is that in a creative process, sometimes the 'easiest' way to produce output causes all the output to be similar and uninteresting. When you change the rules, and make the creation process significantly different, you can sometimes see new results you wouldn't have expected.
martinlofgren 8y ago
This is absolutely beautiful! My wish for a tool like this is to not have it in a web environment, but as a Jack-pluggable standalone program. Then it could be used for real music composition. But anyway, this is a really nice little app!

126 points by kylestetz 8y ago

Reminds me of SimTunes! "Bugs" move around the screen according to simple rules, triggering notes as they pass over them. For example: https://youtu.be/DAluHrsCKxw https://youtu.be/DAluHrsCKxw

kylestetz 8y ago
SimTunes was (and will always be) a huge source of inspiration for me. Played it a bunch as a kid. :)

ArekDymalski 8y ago

Amazing project. Do you plan to create some kind of gallery for the "scenes"? I'm sure people will create unbelievable things with it and it would be greta to learn from such examples.

kylestetz 8y ago
Hey, yeah that's a great idea! I have been keeping my eye out for neat sketches in the wild.

TulliusCicero 8y ago

Looks cool, no undo/redo though? Makes it feel harder to use/less forgiving.

plytheman 8y ago

Super fun to play with! The first time I messed with this a week ago I had no clue what I was doing and didn't accomplish much. Giving it a second go I'm starting to get the hang of it and coming up with some weird and fun stuff. I think my two immediate ideas would be 1) a line type that might be a sustain or held open gate and 2) maybe a mixing list with all the lines on it so that you can selectively mute/unmute paths. I played a little bit with Slang a week ago too, looking forward to messing with the more options in there. Seems like you're into a lot of cool stuff, thanks for making this all! Also, what I've got looping right now: http://turtle.audio/play/3mu3sm http://turtle.audio/play/3mu3sm

rrherr 8y ago

Reminds me of another fascinating project I saw recently: "Deltaphone is a programming language for generating music that uses the ideas from turtle geometry to jump around the staff" https://twodee.org/blog/category/projects/deltaphone https://twodee.org/blog/category/projects/deltaphone

lerax 8y ago

Interesting idea. Visual music design can inspire new ideas for composition.

zmix 8y ago

I like such projects! Too bad I am unmusical and have no time either.

ArtWomb 8y ago

I love this too ;) Thanks for building.

joe_momma 8y ago

this is very cool, i want to stop all that i am doing and just fiddle with it.

nathan_f77 8y ago

Damn, this is really similar to an idea that I filed away and have wanted to build for a long time. But I think it's even better than what I was imagining. Nice work! I'm going to spend some time playing around with it. I think this has a ton of potential and could be used for serious music production. MIDI export would be awesome. Or even a VST plugin that emits MIDI into a DAW. It would be great to use something like this inside REAPER [1]. [1] https://www.reaper.fm https://www.reaper.fm

puranjay 8y ago

I love this tool but as an amateur musician, I have to wonder: who is your target audience? Anyone remotely serious about making music won't use it. I'll play around with it but if I want to make a track, I'll just head over to Ableton. There is value in making music easier, but you're only good enough for a little while before people move on to more professional tools

c3534l 8y ago
I think the point is to get people interested in more serious tools, not to prevent people from using them. Crayons are great for getting kids to draw. Doesn't mean a professional artist would use them (well, now that I think about it I'm sure there's at least a sculpture or two with crayons, but you get my point).
peapicker 8y ago
I think this would make a fun max4live sequencer tool. My first play: http://turtle.audio/play/9qz2ni http://turtle.audio/play/9qz2ni
kjeetgill 8y ago
If you're familiar with turtle graphics it fills the same niche. It's not for any use but a simple introduction and exploratory tool for novices. It gets you 0-30 as fast as possible, and let's you start playing.
ohadron 8y ago
There's a huge market for musical software and instruments that are ultimately just games. I would guess more than 99% of any music equipment and software bought is never used to create commercially used music, which is fine - it's fun and interesting, and it's challenging to learn. A clear example is everything made by [Teenage Engineering](https://teenage.engineering https://teenage.engineering) - check out the OP-Z. The interface is completely weird in the age of hi-res screens, but I'm sure it's going to be a hit. Another point is that in a creative process, sometimes the 'easiest' way to produce output causes all the output to be similar and uninteresting. When you change the rules, and make the creation process significantly different, you can sometimes see new results you wouldn't have expected.

martinlofgren 8y ago

This is absolutely beautiful! My wish for a tool like this is to not have it in a web environment, but as a Jack-pluggable standalone program. Then it could be used for real music composition. But anyway, this is a really nice little app!