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Author here, glad people are exploring this. Some fun details (should be in the "about" section but that's easy to miss): - It's open source, including the cod

Author here, glad people are exploring this. Some fun details (should be in the "about" section but that's easy to miss): - It's open source, including the code that produced the audio: https://github.com/pac-dev/AmbientGarden https://github.com/pac-dev/AmbientGarden - All the generated music is in just intonation. This was mostly for convenience at first (JI is easy to produce with code), but it led me down a massive harmonic rabbit hole in which I'm still located. I'm currently hacking away at the next iteration of this, where rhythm is fully embraced. I have to say the ambient genre was super convenient and allowed me to play fast and loose with synchronization, while really focusing on how harmony can be laid out in space. But rhythm was always in the books and I'm hoping it takes things to another level.

rhet0rica 1y ago
Any chance of getting a master volume control added? This is gorgeous but Firefox doesn't have a per-tab volume slider.
- pierrec 1y ago
  This is probably the most-requested feature so I'll give it a go. I initially didn't consider it because you're supposed to play it solo and use your device's overall volume control if desired, but I can see the appeal. However I really don't want to clutter the interface, so I might hide it behind a settings icon.
  - mzs 1y ago
    Thank you for making this, it's fantastic, please don't clutter the visual. A mono button would be nice but I can usually use accessibilty for that. Keyboard control?
- pierrec 1y ago
  I've added a volume control. It's hidden behind the settings icon at the bottom.
latexr 1y ago
I enjoyed exploring the (infinite?) landscape, but was then was a bit disappointed that that meant sacrificing the music, since there aren’t any more trees. And yes, I did find the water bell structure. Maybe there wouldn’t need to be trees everywhere, but at least some clusters here and there, with different combinations, should incentivise exploration.
rcarmo 1y ago
Very nice indeed. Congrats.
isoprophlex 1y ago
loving all the sounds, but especially that resonant drone is just fantastic. well done. if you're hacking another iteration, i'm a 'wall of sound' type person... i was a bit sad that the 'listening radius' was so small / not changable. some of the sounds went out of focus too quickly for me even at the lowest autopilot speed, and this meant there were only a few sounds playing simultaneously at every moment.
- pierrec 1y ago
  "Listening radius" is actually a good name for it, thanks. We need new terminology for spatial-harmonic composition! In this case, the locations and harmonic relationships were chosen with this specific radius in mind, so if you increase the radius, there might be some dissonance/clashing. But now that you've put the idea in my head, I also want to try it! I might go for a little settings screen with volume and radius then.
  - pphysch 1y ago
    Trees of different height could have larger radiuses too, maybe loosely negatively correlated with their pitch
  - diggan 1y ago
    > "Listening radius" is actually a good name for it, thanks. We need new terminology for spatial-harmonic composition Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I'd think you'd call that (the not at all overloaded term) "attenuation" or more complete: "distance attenuation". Maybe it helps for further browsing :) It seems like Wikipedia ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attenuation_(disambiguation) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attenuation_(disambiguation) ) has it under "Acoustic attenuation" but very physics-focused, not so much about the musicology, psychology or how it is used everywhere in audio.
    - pierrec 1y ago
      It's related, but you'll notice that most of the audio sources actually trigger an audible starting note when entering the radius. If anything, I'd rather make it clear that we're pretty far from anything physically accurate in that regard.
davidcollantes 1y ago
I love what you have created! Would like to see more "plants". Not necessarily trees, but smaller bushes, and weeds, complementing the trees. I find there is too much empty space. Will star, and watch. Thank you!
zengid 1y ago
very beautifully done! I think it would be cool to have an aeolian harp if you feel up for simulating "wind". Also since you're going into rhythm and are basing this on JI, a integer ratio polyrhythm system is lots of fun to make!
NoSalt 1y ago
This is absolutely fantastic! As someone who has always wanted to try generating my own environments, like this and Minecraft, where would you recommend I start? I am a software developer, but have no experience with anything like this; I mostly do mobile and web apps (full stack). I just don't know where to start, where to "dip my toe in", so to speak. Is what you did here similar to how Minecraft worlds are generated? Thanks!
HanClinto 1y ago
It's hard to state just how much I've been enjoying this as background coding music today. Super-enjoyable, and this is doing wonders for my focus today. Thank you so much for creating this! I've already sent the link out to several friends. I echo the request from others -- I like to have this as ambient noise while I'm doing other things, and having an in-app volume slider would be helpful for me as well. Regardless, this is a joy. Thank you so much for creating this and sharing it with us!
rwmj 1y ago
This needs WebGL and hangs on "Loading" otherwise, but that's only evident if you look at the Javascript console. It'd be better if it said that WebGL is needed & not available on the page.
- pierrec 1y ago
  I'm an HN regular so I kept in mind some people might have JS completely off. The page should correctly show the welcome screen and quick description even with zero JS (in fact those things should load instantly, everything else is deferred JS). "Loading" appears below that. I tried to make wise use of my time, and test/fix functionality on popular browsers and platforms including mobile, this really helped me figure out which aspects of compatibility testing to focus on, otherwise it's an infinite task. I'm not sure how common it is to have everything required to run this but specifically not WebGL, but if it is, I'll check and give the correct error message.
- pierrec 1y ago
  OK, it should now display an error message when WebGL is missing.
  - rwmj 1y ago
    Confirmed, it shows an error now.
downboots 1y ago
The inverse problem may also be fun. An ambient from a song (or more) and spatial browsing.

rhet0rica 1y ago

Any chance of getting a master volume control added? This is gorgeous but Firefox doesn't have a per-tab volume slider.

pierrec 1y ago
This is probably the most-requested feature so I'll give it a go. I initially didn't consider it because you're supposed to play it solo and use your device's overall volume control if desired, but I can see the appeal. However I really don't want to clutter the interface, so I might hide it behind a settings icon.
- mzs 1y ago
  Thank you for making this, it's fantastic, please don't clutter the visual. A mono button would be nice but I can usually use accessibilty for that. Keyboard control?
pierrec 1y ago
I've added a volume control. It's hidden behind the settings icon at the bottom.

latexr 1y ago

I enjoyed exploring the (infinite?) landscape, but was then was a bit disappointed that that meant sacrificing the music, since there aren’t any more trees. And yes, I did find the water bell structure. Maybe there wouldn’t need to be trees everywhere, but at least some clusters here and there, with different combinations, should incentivise exploration.

rcarmo 1y ago

Very nice indeed. Congrats.

isoprophlex 1y ago

loving all the sounds, but especially that resonant drone is just fantastic. well done. if you're hacking another iteration, i'm a 'wall of sound' type person... i was a bit sad that the 'listening radius' was so small / not changable. some of the sounds went out of focus too quickly for me even at the lowest autopilot speed, and this meant there were only a few sounds playing simultaneously at every moment.

pierrec 1y ago
"Listening radius" is actually a good name for it, thanks. We need new terminology for spatial-harmonic composition! In this case, the locations and harmonic relationships were chosen with this specific radius in mind, so if you increase the radius, there might be some dissonance/clashing. But now that you've put the idea in my head, I also want to try it! I might go for a little settings screen with volume and radius then.
- pphysch 1y ago
  Trees of different height could have larger radiuses too, maybe loosely negatively correlated with their pitch
- diggan 1y ago
  > "Listening radius" is actually a good name for it, thanks. We need new terminology for spatial-harmonic composition Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I'd think you'd call that (the not at all overloaded term) "attenuation" or more complete: "distance attenuation". Maybe it helps for further browsing :) It seems like Wikipedia ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attenuation_(disambiguation) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attenuation_(disambiguation) ) has it under "Acoustic attenuation" but very physics-focused, not so much about the musicology, psychology or how it is used everywhere in audio.
  - pierrec 1y ago
    It's related, but you'll notice that most of the audio sources actually trigger an audible starting note when entering the radius. If anything, I'd rather make it clear that we're pretty far from anything physically accurate in that regard.

davidcollantes 1y ago

I love what you have created! Would like to see more "plants". Not necessarily trees, but smaller bushes, and weeds, complementing the trees. I find there is too much empty space. Will star, and watch. Thank you!

zengid 1y ago

very beautifully done! I think it would be cool to have an aeolian harp if you feel up for simulating "wind". Also since you're going into rhythm and are basing this on JI, a integer ratio polyrhythm system is lots of fun to make!

NoSalt 1y ago

This is absolutely fantastic! As someone who has always wanted to try generating my own environments, like this and Minecraft, where would you recommend I start? I am a software developer, but have no experience with anything like this; I mostly do mobile and web apps (full stack). I just don't know where to start, where to "dip my toe in", so to speak. Is what you did here similar to how Minecraft worlds are generated? Thanks!

HanClinto 1y ago

It's hard to state just how much I've been enjoying this as background coding music today. Super-enjoyable, and this is doing wonders for my focus today. Thank you so much for creating this! I've already sent the link out to several friends. I echo the request from others -- I like to have this as ambient noise while I'm doing other things, and having an in-app volume slider would be helpful for me as well. Regardless, this is a joy. Thank you so much for creating this and sharing it with us!

rwmj 1y ago

This needs WebGL and hangs on "Loading" otherwise, but that's only evident if you look at the Javascript console. It'd be better if it said that WebGL is needed & not available on the page.

pierrec 1y ago
I'm an HN regular so I kept in mind some people might have JS completely off. The page should correctly show the welcome screen and quick description even with zero JS (in fact those things should load instantly, everything else is deferred JS). "Loading" appears below that. I tried to make wise use of my time, and test/fix functionality on popular browsers and platforms including mobile, this really helped me figure out which aspects of compatibility testing to focus on, otherwise it's an infinite task. I'm not sure how common it is to have everything required to run this but specifically not WebGL, but if it is, I'll check and give the correct error message.
pierrec 1y ago
OK, it should now display an error message when WebGL is missing.
- rwmj 1y ago
  Confirmed, it shows an error now.

downboots 1y ago

The inverse problem may also be fun. An ambient from a song (or more) and spatial browsing.