5 ms·
303Gen – 303 acid loops generator
- peterldowns 1y agoDoesn't work in firefox, console tells me Uncaught TypeError: a.frequency.cancelAndHoldAtTime is not a function Pretty fun in Chrome!
- oasisaimlessly 1y agoApparently fixed mow: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44812638 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44812638
- mxuribe 1y agoAlso within ungoogled chromium, upon hitting the "stop" button, it seems to keep playing either an additional lower-volume track, or some long delayed echo....but hitting the "stop" button several times eventually stops playback. Even still, the concept is pretty neat!
- driggs 1y agoNot only does this sound excellent, with three great TB-303 synth engines with a colored delay, but it's very musical. The three patterns are locked to a common scale/mode, they autogenerate with compatible and often interleaving polyrhythms, and the "instruments" - bass, lead, drone - spawn with complimentary defaults. As a longtime synth nerd, it still amazes me to see beautiful tools like this running in a web browser. Excellent job!
- alisonatwork 1y agoI agree that it's neat to have software synths that can run in the browser nowadays, but this isn't really a good TB-303 emulation. The accent doesn't have a slow enough attack to create the "wow" effect, which is a fundamental aspect of getting any random acid line to sound properly 303ish. Not to take away from what it is, but for a synth that has been cloned and emulated as often as the TB-303, your description is overselling it a bit.
- quatonion 1y agoCome now. Being kind is also a thing, and I think it sounds more than acceptable.
- driggs 1y agoTell me, oh wise HN caricature, do you think the point was hardware-level emulation of a 40-year-old analogue circuit? (Hint, it's also got a variable pulse-width oscillator and an LFO, which the TB-303 lacked.)
- satyrun 1y agoThis is absolutely awesome. The multiple lines really make it unique. I really never heard the enigmatic scale that much but it sounds wonderful. The only thing I would want to hear are melodic and harmonic minor modes.
- errozero 1y agoHey, I made this a few years ago. I'm suprised to see it posted here today. It was never finished and I was meaning to add a polyfill for the missing cancelAndHoldAtTime function for Firefox. Edit: I've just hacked in a quick polyfill
- elevaet 1y ago@errorzero - if you have the time would you be able to give more information on the Scales? This section is very interesting.
- errozero 1y agoHey, the scales are just an array of numbers like this ['Darkness', [0, 1, 3]], ['Darkness2', [0, 1]], ['Single', [3]], ['Locrian', [0, 1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 10]], ['Aeolian', [0, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 10]], ['Mixolydian', [0, 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10]], ... A scale is randomly selected at the start and then notes are randomly selected from that scale in the pattern generation, plus the root note number is added to each one. So if you had the 'Darkness' scale selected and had the root dropdown set to 0, the notes in this scale would be C, C#, D# which is 0, 1, 3 if you count the keys on a keyboard. If you changed the root to 2, then it would become D, D#, F (2, 3, 5). Hope that makes sense.
- elevaet 1y agoThat does make sense, thanks! Very simple and effective.
- elevaet 1y agoThis is fantastic errozero nicely done! It's very musical, the drone is a nice touch and really glues it all together in a subtle way.
- blackhaz 1y agoThis is amazing. Thanks for making it.
- deleted 1y ago
- schwartzworld 1y agoThis is great and will be an excellent source of samples
- nzoschke 1y agoFun. I love the UI style. See also the Endless Acid Banger: https://www.vitling.xyz/toys/acid-banger/ https://www.vitling.xyz/toys/acid-banger/ And happy Acid August! Every year we celebrate the 303 with a club night in SF. https://ra.co/events/2208013 https://ra.co/events/2208013
- ZFH 1y agocries nostalgia tears in Propellerhead Rebirth Thanks.
- racl101 1y agoI remember using that one time to make music for a presentation for a power point slide. We burnt the music onto a CD and brought in a boombox. I it was for my accounting class. It was kinda cool.
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- shibeprime 1y agoHuman Music!
- efields 1y agoWhat would be the level of effort to get some midi transport controls and BPM sync in here, now that browsers support MIDI to some degree?
- serpent 1y agoLovely! Is the source code public?
- errozero 1y agoNo, but the timekeeping part of it is. I put that code into a small library to use in my music apps: https://github.com/errozero/beatstepper https://github.com/errozero/beatstepper
- tempodox 1y agoDisappointed, I thought acid loops were fruit loops dipped in acid (303 µg a piece?). The sound is nice, though.
- rebolek 1y agoWhere is "Export as MIDI"?
- mtts 1y agoEverybody needs a 303.
- leptons 1y agoI'm a little sad that the 303 sound had such a short-lived and niche life. In the 90's it seemed to me like it was the first instrument that could challenge the hegemony of the electric guitar. It was so versatile - the sound is bouncy, melodic, and had some real "growl", all at the same time.
- jghn 1y ago> that could challenge the hegemony of the electric guitar. IIRC when it came out in the early 80s it was intended to be a substitute for bass guitars. So perhaps that is part of your sentiment.
- leptons 1y agoIn the 1980's nobody knew how to use synths beyond the default patches. That's why I think that 80's music sounds so generic and kind of hollow. The 90's was different, the people making synth music pushed the synths past what their default setup was capable of. Synths used in the mid/late 90's for psychedelic/acid trance sound nothing like 80's synths, but they are the same synths. The "303" was intended as a bass instrument, but with 90's acid trance it's typically used as a lead, as well as a bass.
- jghn 1y ago> In the 1980's nobody knew how to use synths beyond the default patches Dwayne Goettel would be a big counter example! :) Although his best work was early 90s I suppose.
- alisonatwork 1y agoUnfortunately it really is a niche thing that only appears to speak to certain people. As someone who feels like the sound of the 303 touches me deep in my soul, it's constantly disappointing to be reminded that other people don't hear it the same way I do. You can even see it in comments on this post where expressing a love or appreciation for the actual sound of the silver box is dismissed as elitist or something because lol whatever, any old synth sounds just as good. Most people either can't hear or don't care about what makes it special, which perhaps explains why it never became respected as a mainstream instrument like the 808 did. Fortunately the clones these days are very cheap and very good and music has become so easy to obtain that you can visit Bandcamp every week and still find new tracks featuring the 303 and its descendants. Every now and then you might hear a 303 in a mainstream tune and it's a treat, but if you just love the sound and don't mind listening to music that few others get, I don't think there's ever been a better time.
- kookamamie 1y agoWhen clicking Regenerate, it would be great if the sequence kept playing if Play was active at that time.
- bityard 1y agoOh this is lovely! I love the 303, played with ReBirth a LOT and built several x0xb0xes back in the day. About half of the patterns it generated were something I could listen to for a while. Makes me want to get back into electronic music again.
- pdntspa 1y agoIt would be cool if this showed the patterns in a visual manner that I could copy into my 303 VST of choice
- quatonion 1y agoIt's brilliant. Love it. I want to know more about the generation, it looks very well thought out. Worth an article in itself.
- errozero 1y agoThank you! It's been a few years so I can't remember exactly without reading through the code but it's something like this: It uses notes from the selected scale and octave (from the dropdowns). If the pattern is of an even length, say 16, it will split it into 4 chunks of 4, then randomly decide if it should generate new data for the chunk or copy the previous chunk. It uses the repeat slider for the probability on this. It randomly applies the 303 modifiers (up, down, accent, slide) using probability set with the sliders on the pattern tab. There's also an 'empty' slider which sets the probablity of an empty note appearing in a chunk.
- fallinditch 1y agoAwesome, love it! You could consider adding some randomness from random.org so that natural electromagnetic phenomena (or a supreme being) influence the output - for the pro service perhaps ;-)
- xxr 1y agoRight off the bat I get something that sounds like something Frank Klepacki would have used in the Red Alert 2 soundtrack (likely pulled from Methods of Mayhem). Nice.
- nurettin 1y agoReminds me of the music of Dynamix (Commodore 64 game)
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- hacker_yacker 1y ago[dead]
- racl101 1y agooh yeah. I feel like I'm in the '90s again.
- fallinditch 1y agoCheck out this great album, a study in acid: Filo Loves the Acid by Donato Dozzy.
- bitbasher 1y agoDoes anyone have any suggestions for how to get into electronic music production? I am working on a small game and want to make some jungle dnb tracks for it. I grabbed Renoise and follow some tutorials and stuff. Is there a better way to go about it?
- bagful 1y agoLearn by imitation ; if you want to make DnB tracks, try and inevitably fail to recreate existing DnB that you admire. With time your failures-to-imitate will congeal into a novel and personal style.
- milchek 1y agoYou could grab some sample or instrument packs that will help you approximate the sound you are after more quickly. Baby Audio has a pretty nice VST instrument and 90s preset pack that might have the sound you are looking for - have a listen here https://static1.squarespace.com/static/561e2985e4b08862a3496b82/t/6874d3643a90470f3c873ce6/1752486760899/Pizza+Hotline+BA-1+Demo+Track+FINAL.mp3/original/Pizza+Hotline+BA-1+Demo+Track+FINAL.mp3 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/561e2985e4b08862a3496... On a side note - if you are looking for people to help out I’d love to have a crack, also looking to learn.
- gregsadetsky 1y agoThis book [0] is full of great creative strategies to make electronic music, ways of getting started/unstuck, is generally not that tied to Ableton the software (even though they are the publisher), and is free to partially peruse online. I’d recommend getting a physical copy once/if you find it useful. It’s been a really great help in getting over white page/DAW syndrome. Truly great and full of smart/useful gems. [0] https://makingmusic.ableton.com/ https://makingmusic.ableton.com/
- andreyazimov 1y agoamazing, can you please add simple 909 kit?
- octatrack 1y agoLove it. MIDI sync and start/stop functionality would be great to connect it to other gear/software!
- jackdawipper 1y agoman I love this. want for local use.
- Eisenstein 1y agoI can finally be Richie Hawtin. * https://youtu.be/5L0VP7nAZls?t=2713 https://youtu.be/5L0VP7nAZls?t=2713
- specproc 1y agoIt's so easy to get acid, you can get it anywhere.
- dev0p 1y agoBest find on HN in the past year, no joke. Is this open source? I'd love to tweak it a bit, I wonder if it modulation can be automated somehow, so it can be kept in the background as it fiddles with patterns on its own and explores the musical landscape. Or add a save/load feature, for both songs and patterns...
- dep_b 1y agoHad tons of fun with https://roland50.studio/ https://roland50.studio/ the other day. And I have a lot of the actual devices, but still to just jam a bit without going through all of the set up now nice.
- timdeve 1y agoThis is really lovely. Would be great as an inspiration tool if it would make a little visualisation of the notes/accent/slides on a piano roll. I can read the JSON meanwhile but just an idea.
- errozero 1y agoI've just added a wav export feature. Currently it only exports with the knob positions as they are when the pattern first generates. You can choose how long the exported audio is. It's a bit of a hack that re-opens the app in an iframe in the background using an offline audio context. I'll come back to it at some point and make the export pick up the knob positions but I don't have time right now.
- djmips 1y agoThanks