14 ms·

Abletone Learning Synth

241 points by evo_9 4y ago

melissalobos 4y ago
Man, the way they choose the sounds for all the interactive parts is perfect, that was one of the most fun demos to use.
whiddershins 4y ago
The implementation is out of sight, just great. I want to know more about the implementation.
herpderperator 4y ago
Should be "Ableton" in the title
- meremortals 4y ago
  Abletone is kind of cool though
  - djaychela 4y ago
    I agree. Sounds like a 1960s surf rock band to me, who would have had one hit that everyone knew, but no one knew who the band were.
  - eyelidlessness 4y ago
    Seeing it I was like “wait is it actually called that”? And couldn’t tell on mobile but if they’re not using that branding they absolutely should look into it.
    - capableweb 4y ago
      If they end up doing a drum machine, they can just call it "AbleTakt". And then have Elektron knocking on their door.
      - wigster 4y ago
        KickAble
    - dwringer 4y ago
      Somehow I interpreted the combination of a new name ("Abletone") along with the phrase "Learning Synth" to mean they'd developed an AI-driven synth engine that used neural nets and genetic algorithms to explore new timbres. Ah well. Still a cool project, I think learning and experimenting with synthesis is a lot of fun.
- kristaps 4y ago
  Yeah, my first thought was they have a new ML-based product from seeing that name.
smoldesu 4y ago
Equally excellent is their "Learning Music" series along the same lines as this one: https://learningmusic.ableton.com/ https://learningmusic.ableton.com/
sydthrowaway 4y ago
What hardware synth should I buy as a newbie to the hobby? Budget: $100 used
- carlgreene 4y ago
  The Korg Volcas are all great fun. I'd probably go for a Volca Modular. Keys is fun, but can get boring pretty quick. https://www.korg-volca.com https://www.korg-volca.com
  - capableweb 4y ago
    Yeah, Volcas are how I got started with music hardware, and they are a great introduction. I still use my Volca Bass from time to time, even though I have hardware that costs 10x as much now. Most of them sound really good, especially considering the price.
- kennywinker 4y ago
  $100 isn't going to get you much, unfortunately. Someone else has already suggested volcas, and they're probably your best bet for that price point - the only other things you might check out are the Teenage Engineering Pocket Operators, or one of the cheaper behringer things like Crave. That said, another direction you could head is to pick up a midi keyboard, and start playing with soft-synths to get a feel for the kinds of things you want to do. If you make sure to get one with midi output (not just USB midi) it'll stay useful when you eventually buy other gear.
- hoherd 4y ago
  I know you said hardware, but you also said $100. Some soft synths are worth the money, like the Korg DS-10 which can run on Nintendo DS or iOS. Check out what Anthony Seeha does with them. EG: https://youtu.be/TXTyMxM5vuY https://youtu.be/TXTyMxM5vuY
- nkingsy 4y ago
  If you want a keyboard, you can pick up an old 90s rompler for around that price. Love the keybed and build quality on my alesis qs6, but I just use it as a midi controller. If you just want knobs and sliders, look at something like a used notation launch control xl. If you want a full midi controller with keys, knobs, sliders, pads, maybe mpk mini? Nothing modern will have nice keys in that price range, though. Plug in to your phone/iPad/laptop, download synth one or surge xl, spend some time mapping and away you go. $100 is not a reasonable price point for good hardware that actually makes its own sounds, but who needs it when you have a super computer in your pocket.
everyone 4y ago
Awesome! Why does the box also move when you move the kaoss pad pointer thing around? It's a very small detail but makes 0 sense to me. It seems like they're potentially creating confusion by having the box which is your reference frame also move.
jahlove 4y ago
Previous Thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20272346 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20272346
adamnemecek 4y ago
- capableweb 4y ago
  Introducing a new drinking game for HN readers: Every time a music topic comes up on the frontpage, have one beer for each hour it takes for adamnemecek to come around and plug the forever "coming soon" ngrid.io project. So far there are 54 mentions of ngrid.io, all by the same user (adamnemecek) [https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=ngrid.io&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...] and all for highly unrelated topics. When are dang/the HN moderators going to ban these shameless promotions?
  - amardeep 4y ago
    Isn't it really common though for people to advertise in related posts. For eg. I see one another self-promotion in this post too. I am just curious what makes this different. I don't have a music background and so can't tell anything about ngrid.io, but usually people promoting related products (either self promotion or not) has been very helpful in the past.
    - capableweb 4y ago
      For starters, this submission is about learning synthesizers, while ngrid (according to adamnemecek at least) is about music composition. Two different areas in music. Usually when people self-promote here on HN, it's closely related to the topic at hand, and people explain how it's related to or better than the submission. When adamnemecek promotes his ngrid project, he does no such thing and instead writes something like "I've been working on an IDE for music composition, launching in X months/weeks <insert link>" without describing it more, seems like they are just trying to get more clicks to their projects page. Probably works too, otherwise they wouldn't continue doing so. And finally, anyone who have been reading comments on music-related submissions here on HN for the last 4 years (yeah, really! Take a look at https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=ngrid.io&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu... and go to the last page!) have seen ngrid being mentioned by adamnemecek on basically every single music-related submission. There is a time and place for posting your own projects. Doing it on every submission that is slightly related to your projects theme is not that.
chaosprint 4y ago
This is truly a wonderful project. I am expecting more and more apps like this using web audio. It's also great to see a lot of interest on music making! BTW, here is a collaborative live coding language/environment I am developing: https://glicol.org https://glicol.org You can learn synth and sequencer with examples, similar to this project, yet in a code-based/non-GUI manner.
- bodge5000 4y ago
  Been wanting to do live coding for ages now, but the problem I always run into is that the languages/environments are either really verbose (you know the one I mean), or don't offer much in the way of sound design (they often sound great, but they're not my sounds), and I'd rather avoid samples. Glicol though looks like it could be really interesting, maybe even "the one"! Currently I use Renoise, but mostly just use single cycle waveforms to try to force some synthesis capabilities into the sampler (I'm alright with "generic" samples for percussion providing theres a decent variety). Its really nice, but it often feels like I'm using the wrong tool for what I want, so Im hoping live coding could be the answer.
  - chaosprint 4y ago
    Wondering whether you have tried TidalCycles? I am also experimenting with the concept to use `pattern' as audio signal: https://glicol-tidal.netlify.app https://glicol-tidal.netlify.app In this process, I do feel a difference between using samples and pure synthesis. I think one reason that samples are widely used in live coding is because we need to balance between the prototyping time and the music complexity. But I do agree with you that live coding should think more for the audio synthesis part rather than simply mapping a language to an existing audio engine. I think your interest on wavetable synthesis is really interesting to me. That's somewhere I should explore more in developing Glicol.
    - bodge5000 4y ago
      I have looked into Tidal a few times, but each time something has put me off. I can't remember what it was exactly (probably a good reason to try again). Maybe its because it uses Supercollider as a backend. Nothing wrong with supercollider, but its the verbose one I was referring to, but also because if I'm having to use something external with supercollider anyway I'd probably go with Foxdot instead. I can totally understand the practicalities of samples, afterall a sample can reproduce any sound of any synthesizer ever, but for me it just makes things less fun and more of a chore (eg file management). Add to that the comparitive lack of modulation capabilities and the difficulties you can have with long sustain notes, I'd just have something more limited but "all in one" if you know what I mean. Wavetable synthesis is really interesting, but I think you're overestimating my abilities lol. I don't actually do wavetable synthesis (to my knowledge its not possible to in renoise, or at least its not a native function). Its more like building a fake subtractive synth using a single cycle waveform as the oscillator. It works alright for what I need to do with it, but it does mean Im somewhat lacking on modulation.
tekni5 4y ago
Pretty cool demo, if you want to make your own electronic music you should check out LMMS, it's free & fairly easy to learn the basics: https://lmms.io https://lmms.io I've been messing with LMMS for the past couple of years, zero musical training, following YouTube tutorials at first and came up with a bunch of stuff that sounds half decent in my opinion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tsjzt5QLGOg&list=PL54E2psbCLS32VzJRi2RCE7wlPRGpN9um https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tsjzt5QLGOg&list=PL54E2psbCL...
- MikeTheGreat 4y ago
  Wow - that's really good stuff. I feel like it would be really good background music for coding / grading / etc. It's really cool that you did that on your own! Being able to do stuff like that is a pipe dream of mine and I'm super impressed :) Two thumbs and would highly recommend!
  - tekni5 4y ago
    Thanks, just try it out it's surprisingly easy I'm using default sounds 90% of the time. Just putting stuff on the piano roll and clicking some buttons for the drums.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
jbverschoor 4y ago
Not impressed. It doesn’t explain anything about how synths work. At least for quite a while so I closed it
- jbverschoor 4y ago
  Oh lol, the synth part started right after I quit
lvl102 4y ago
Such a great site. I need to find out what they used to build it.
- droidist2 4y ago
  I know it uses React, the React Developer Tools icon lit up when I went to the site.
adzm 4y ago
I love the LFO robot! https://learningsynths.ableton.com/en/lfos/modulating-pitch-with-oscillators https://learningsynths.ableton.com/en/lfos/modulating-pitch-... This is fun to play with even for those familiar with synths! What a great page. I wish the source was open; I wonder what they are using to generate the sound. An existing library or their own?
- chaosprint 4y ago
  I think the audio engine is here: https://learningsynths.ableton.com/js/musiclab.js https://learningsynths.ableton.com/js/musiclab.js AudioWorklet + WASM (compiled from C++ maybe) FYI, I have an NPM open-source WIP audio lib here: https://glicol.js.org/ https://glicol.js.org/ AudioWorklet + WASM(compiled from Rust) + SharedArrayBuffer
  - moralestapia 4y ago
    Hey, I like what you're doing. If you see this, send me an email (check profile). Best!
stevehiehn 4y ago
Maybe I'm old but the fact that this is running in the browser blows my mind. I'm really hoping effort keeps going towards the WebAudioApi!

241 points by evo_9 4y ago

Man, the way they choose the sounds for all the interactive parts is perfect, that was one of the most fun demos to use.

whiddershins 4y ago

The implementation is out of sight, just great. I want to know more about the implementation.

herpderperator 4y ago

Should be "Ableton" in the title

meremortals 4y ago
Abletone is kind of cool though
- djaychela 4y ago
  I agree. Sounds like a 1960s surf rock band to me, who would have had one hit that everyone knew, but no one knew who the band were.
- eyelidlessness 4y ago
  Seeing it I was like “wait is it actually called that”? And couldn’t tell on mobile but if they’re not using that branding they absolutely should look into it.
  - capableweb 4y ago
    If they end up doing a drum machine, they can just call it "AbleTakt". And then have Elektron knocking on their door.
    - wigster 4y ago
      KickAble
  - dwringer 4y ago
    Somehow I interpreted the combination of a new name ("Abletone") along with the phrase "Learning Synth" to mean they'd developed an AI-driven synth engine that used neural nets and genetic algorithms to explore new timbres. Ah well. Still a cool project, I think learning and experimenting with synthesis is a lot of fun.
kristaps 4y ago
Yeah, my first thought was they have a new ML-based product from seeing that name.

smoldesu 4y ago

Equally excellent is their "Learning Music" series along the same lines as this one: https://learningmusic.ableton.com/ https://learningmusic.ableton.com/

sydthrowaway 4y ago

What hardware synth should I buy as a newbie to the hobby? Budget: $100 used

carlgreene 4y ago
The Korg Volcas are all great fun. I'd probably go for a Volca Modular. Keys is fun, but can get boring pretty quick. https://www.korg-volca.com https://www.korg-volca.com
- capableweb 4y ago
  Yeah, Volcas are how I got started with music hardware, and they are a great introduction. I still use my Volca Bass from time to time, even though I have hardware that costs 10x as much now. Most of them sound really good, especially considering the price.
kennywinker 4y ago
$100 isn't going to get you much, unfortunately. Someone else has already suggested volcas, and they're probably your best bet for that price point - the only other things you might check out are the Teenage Engineering Pocket Operators, or one of the cheaper behringer things like Crave. That said, another direction you could head is to pick up a midi keyboard, and start playing with soft-synths to get a feel for the kinds of things you want to do. If you make sure to get one with midi output (not just USB midi) it'll stay useful when you eventually buy other gear.
hoherd 4y ago
I know you said hardware, but you also said $100. Some soft synths are worth the money, like the Korg DS-10 which can run on Nintendo DS or iOS. Check out what Anthony Seeha does with them. EG: https://youtu.be/TXTyMxM5vuY https://youtu.be/TXTyMxM5vuY
nkingsy 4y ago
If you want a keyboard, you can pick up an old 90s rompler for around that price. Love the keybed and build quality on my alesis qs6, but I just use it as a midi controller. If you just want knobs and sliders, look at something like a used notation launch control xl. If you want a full midi controller with keys, knobs, sliders, pads, maybe mpk mini? Nothing modern will have nice keys in that price range, though. Plug in to your phone/iPad/laptop, download synth one or surge xl, spend some time mapping and away you go. $100 is not a reasonable price point for good hardware that actually makes its own sounds, but who needs it when you have a super computer in your pocket.

everyone 4y ago

Awesome! Why does the box also move when you move the kaoss pad pointer thing around? It's a very small detail but makes 0 sense to me. It seems like they're potentially creating confusion by having the box which is your reference frame also move.

jahlove 4y ago

Previous Thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20272346 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20272346

adamnemecek 4y ago

capableweb 4y ago
Introducing a new drinking game for HN readers: Every time a music topic comes up on the frontpage, have one beer for each hour it takes for adamnemecek to come around and plug the forever "coming soon" ngrid.io project. So far there are 54 mentions of ngrid.io, all by the same user (adamnemecek) [https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=ngrid.io&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...] and all for highly unrelated topics. When are dang/the HN moderators going to ban these shameless promotions?
- amardeep 4y ago
  Isn't it really common though for people to advertise in related posts. For eg. I see one another self-promotion in this post too. I am just curious what makes this different. I don't have a music background and so can't tell anything about ngrid.io, but usually people promoting related products (either self promotion or not) has been very helpful in the past.
  - capableweb 4y ago
    For starters, this submission is about learning synthesizers, while ngrid (according to adamnemecek at least) is about music composition. Two different areas in music. Usually when people self-promote here on HN, it's closely related to the topic at hand, and people explain how it's related to or better than the submission. When adamnemecek promotes his ngrid project, he does no such thing and instead writes something like "I've been working on an IDE for music composition, launching in X months/weeks <insert link>" without describing it more, seems like they are just trying to get more clicks to their projects page. Probably works too, otherwise they wouldn't continue doing so. And finally, anyone who have been reading comments on music-related submissions here on HN for the last 4 years (yeah, really! Take a look at https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&query=ngrid.io&sort=byDate&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu... and go to the last page!) have seen ngrid being mentioned by adamnemecek on basically every single music-related submission. There is a time and place for posting your own projects. Doing it on every submission that is slightly related to your projects theme is not that.

chaosprint 4y ago

This is truly a wonderful project. I am expecting more and more apps like this using web audio. It's also great to see a lot of interest on music making! BTW, here is a collaborative live coding language/environment I am developing: https://glicol.org https://glicol.org You can learn synth and sequencer with examples, similar to this project, yet in a code-based/non-GUI manner.

bodge5000 4y ago
Been wanting to do live coding for ages now, but the problem I always run into is that the languages/environments are either really verbose (you know the one I mean), or don't offer much in the way of sound design (they often sound great, but they're not my sounds), and I'd rather avoid samples. Glicol though looks like it could be really interesting, maybe even "the one"! Currently I use Renoise, but mostly just use single cycle waveforms to try to force some synthesis capabilities into the sampler (I'm alright with "generic" samples for percussion providing theres a decent variety). Its really nice, but it often feels like I'm using the wrong tool for what I want, so Im hoping live coding could be the answer.
- chaosprint 4y ago
  Wondering whether you have tried TidalCycles? I am also experimenting with the concept to use `pattern' as audio signal: https://glicol-tidal.netlify.app https://glicol-tidal.netlify.app In this process, I do feel a difference between using samples and pure synthesis. I think one reason that samples are widely used in live coding is because we need to balance between the prototyping time and the music complexity. But I do agree with you that live coding should think more for the audio synthesis part rather than simply mapping a language to an existing audio engine. I think your interest on wavetable synthesis is really interesting to me. That's somewhere I should explore more in developing Glicol.
  - bodge5000 4y ago
    I have looked into Tidal a few times, but each time something has put me off. I can't remember what it was exactly (probably a good reason to try again). Maybe its because it uses Supercollider as a backend. Nothing wrong with supercollider, but its the verbose one I was referring to, but also because if I'm having to use something external with supercollider anyway I'd probably go with Foxdot instead. I can totally understand the practicalities of samples, afterall a sample can reproduce any sound of any synthesizer ever, but for me it just makes things less fun and more of a chore (eg file management). Add to that the comparitive lack of modulation capabilities and the difficulties you can have with long sustain notes, I'd just have something more limited but "all in one" if you know what I mean. Wavetable synthesis is really interesting, but I think you're overestimating my abilities lol. I don't actually do wavetable synthesis (to my knowledge its not possible to in renoise, or at least its not a native function). Its more like building a fake subtractive synth using a single cycle waveform as the oscillator. It works alright for what I need to do with it, but it does mean Im somewhat lacking on modulation.

tekni5 4y ago

Pretty cool demo, if you want to make your own electronic music you should check out LMMS, it's free & fairly easy to learn the basics: https://lmms.io https://lmms.io I've been messing with LMMS for the past couple of years, zero musical training, following YouTube tutorials at first and came up with a bunch of stuff that sounds half decent in my opinion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tsjzt5QLGOg&list=PL54E2psbCLS32VzJRi2RCE7wlPRGpN9um https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tsjzt5QLGOg&list=PL54E2psbCL...

MikeTheGreat 4y ago
Wow - that's really good stuff. I feel like it would be really good background music for coding / grading / etc. It's really cool that you did that on your own! Being able to do stuff like that is a pipe dream of mine and I'm super impressed :) Two thumbs and would highly recommend!
- tekni5 4y ago
  Thanks, just try it out it's surprisingly easy I'm using default sounds 90% of the time. Just putting stuff on the piano roll and clicking some buttons for the drums.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

jbverschoor 4y ago

Not impressed. It doesn’t explain anything about how synths work. At least for quite a while so I closed it

jbverschoor 4y ago
Oh lol, the synth part started right after I quit

lvl102 4y ago

Such a great site. I need to find out what they used to build it.

droidist2 4y ago
I know it uses React, the React Developer Tools icon lit up when I went to the site.

adzm 4y ago

I love the LFO robot! https://learningsynths.ableton.com/en/lfos/modulating-pitch-with-oscillators https://learningsynths.ableton.com/en/lfos/modulating-pitch-... This is fun to play with even for those familiar with synths! What a great page. I wish the source was open; I wonder what they are using to generate the sound. An existing library or their own?

chaosprint 4y ago
I think the audio engine is here: https://learningsynths.ableton.com/js/musiclab.js https://learningsynths.ableton.com/js/musiclab.js AudioWorklet + WASM (compiled from C++ maybe) FYI, I have an NPM open-source WIP audio lib here: https://glicol.js.org/ https://glicol.js.org/ AudioWorklet + WASM(compiled from Rust) + SharedArrayBuffer
- moralestapia 4y ago
  Hey, I like what you're doing. If you see this, send me an email (check profile). Best!

stevehiehn 4y ago

Maybe I'm old but the fact that this is running in the browser blows my mind. I'm really hoping effort keeps going towards the WebAudioApi!