6 ms·

Show HN: Pianocat

48 points by chilicuil 12y ago

bsimpson 12y ago
Which keyboard layout makes it easy to type ñ, {, and } on the same row as j, k, and l? I guessed Brazilian (based on the EN/PT/ES on your profile), but that doesn't seem quite right according to Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_keyboard_layout#/media/File:KB_Portuguese_Brazil.svg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_keyboard_layout#/med...
- Mahn 12y ago
  That would be a Spanish QWERTY keyboard: http://sdcdn1.s3.amazonaws.com/images/vocabulary/spanishkeyboard.jpg http://sdcdn1.s3.amazonaws.com/images/vocabulary/spanishkeyb...
  - bsimpson 12y ago
    Thanks
- nandemo 12y ago
  ñ is not in the Portuguese alphabet. In Portuguese, the palatal nasal sound is usually represented by "nh", e.g. Spanish "baño" -> Portuguese "banho". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palatal_nasal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palatal_nasal
DustinCalim 12y ago
Stickiness is music is when the mind can predict what comes next without ever actually hearing what comes next before.
- coldtea 12y ago
  Not necessarily. That's familiarity. But a familiar piece might not be sticky at all, just boring.
  - panic 12y ago
    Exactly. Otherwise the same note played over and over at an even tempo would be "sticky" (which is nonsense).
    - 7Z7 12y ago
      "..without ever actually hearing what comes next before."
      - coldtea 12y ago
        Still not relevant. There are several studies on the impact of music and the role of familiarity, structure, anticipation and such. There's even one decicated to the use of such musical notions in the music of the Beatles ( http://www.amazon.com/Songwriting-Secrets-Beatles-Dominic-Pedler/dp/0711981671 http://www.amazon.com/Songwriting-Secrets-Beatles-Dominic-Pe... ). For one, sticky songs (hooks) can also be unpredictable/unexpected. E.g. you're not able to predict what will follow from the first part you hear, but it sticks to your mind after you do hear it in full. Second, there are hooks where you DO hear "what comes next before" (e.g. they are based on repeatition of notes in the core hook) and that doesn't stop them being sticky.
  - 7Z7 12y ago
    How can you be familiar with something you've never heard before?
    - coldtea 12y ago
      Very easily. If it follows a structure (melodic, harmonic, rhythmic, etc) that's the same with other things you've heard before.
illicium 12y ago
http://milkytracker.org/ http://milkytracker.org/
anaximander 12y ago
This is really cool. For anyone else who wants to run this on Mac OS X, try installing sox first (brew install sox). That's all I had to do and then I was up and running. A quick melody from a favorite song that I transcribed: "D4 A4 D5 F5 D5 A4 D4 A4 D5 E5 D5 A4 G3 G4 A#4 D#5 A#4 G4 G3 G4 A#4 D5 A#4 G4 A3 E4 A4 D5 A4 E4 A3 E4 A4 C#5 A4 E4" I love to see the command line put to good use like this!
fr0styMatt2 12y ago
This reminds me of a cartridge I used to have on my Commodore 64 (don't remember the name off-hand) that came with a piano overlay that you actually sat on top of the C64 keyboard. The overlay was designed to press certain keys down on the keyboard when you hit the piano keys. Great memories!
- vidarh 12y ago
  Quite possibly Music Maker: http://retro-treasures.blogspot.co.uk/2007/11/commodore-64-music-maker.html http://retro-treasures.blogspot.co.uk/2007/11/commodore-64-m... Though there may have been other ones too. There were certainly lots of "piano" programs that used the keyboard that mostly would work with the same overlays.
7Z7 12y ago
Why is the note D# mapped to R instead of E?
bbcbasic 12y ago
Inspired by this I have uploaded some sample piano notes (.ogg) for fellow hackers to use for their piano apps! See https://github.com/mcapodici/pianosounds https://github.com/mcapodici/pianosounds

48 points by chilicuil 12y ago

Which keyboard layout makes it easy to type ñ, {, and } on the same row as j, k, and l? I guessed Brazilian (based on the EN/PT/ES on your profile), but that doesn't seem quite right according to Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_keyboard_layout#/media/File:KB_Portuguese_Brazil.svg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_keyboard_layout#/med...

Mahn 12y ago
That would be a Spanish QWERTY keyboard: http://sdcdn1.s3.amazonaws.com/images/vocabulary/spanishkeyboard.jpg http://sdcdn1.s3.amazonaws.com/images/vocabulary/spanishkeyb...
- bsimpson 12y ago
  Thanks
nandemo 12y ago
ñ is not in the Portuguese alphabet. In Portuguese, the palatal nasal sound is usually represented by "nh", e.g. Spanish "baño" -> Portuguese "banho". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palatal_nasal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palatal_nasal

DustinCalim 12y ago

Stickiness is music is when the mind can predict what comes next without ever actually hearing what comes next before.

coldtea 12y ago
Not necessarily. That's familiarity. But a familiar piece might not be sticky at all, just boring.
- panic 12y ago
  Exactly. Otherwise the same note played over and over at an even tempo would be "sticky" (which is nonsense).
  - 7Z7 12y ago
    "..without ever actually hearing what comes next before."
    - coldtea 12y ago
      Still not relevant. There are several studies on the impact of music and the role of familiarity, structure, anticipation and such. There's even one decicated to the use of such musical notions in the music of the Beatles ( http://www.amazon.com/Songwriting-Secrets-Beatles-Dominic-Pedler/dp/0711981671 http://www.amazon.com/Songwriting-Secrets-Beatles-Dominic-Pe... ). For one, sticky songs (hooks) can also be unpredictable/unexpected. E.g. you're not able to predict what will follow from the first part you hear, but it sticks to your mind after you do hear it in full. Second, there are hooks where you DO hear "what comes next before" (e.g. they are based on repeatition of notes in the core hook) and that doesn't stop them being sticky.
- 7Z7 12y ago
  How can you be familiar with something you've never heard before?
  - coldtea 12y ago
    Very easily. If it follows a structure (melodic, harmonic, rhythmic, etc) that's the same with other things you've heard before.

illicium 12y ago

http://milkytracker.org/ http://milkytracker.org/

anaximander 12y ago

This is really cool. For anyone else who wants to run this on Mac OS X, try installing sox first (brew install sox). That's all I had to do and then I was up and running. A quick melody from a favorite song that I transcribed: "D4 A4 D5 F5 D5 A4 D4 A4 D5 E5 D5 A4 G3 G4 A#4 D#5 A#4 G4 G3 G4 A#4 D5 A#4 G4 A3 E4 A4 D5 A4 E4 A3 E4 A4 C#5 A4 E4" I love to see the command line put to good use like this!

fr0styMatt2 12y ago

This reminds me of a cartridge I used to have on my Commodore 64 (don't remember the name off-hand) that came with a piano overlay that you actually sat on top of the C64 keyboard. The overlay was designed to press certain keys down on the keyboard when you hit the piano keys. Great memories!

vidarh 12y ago
Quite possibly Music Maker: http://retro-treasures.blogspot.co.uk/2007/11/commodore-64-music-maker.html http://retro-treasures.blogspot.co.uk/2007/11/commodore-64-m... Though there may have been other ones too. There were certainly lots of "piano" programs that used the keyboard that mostly would work with the same overlays.

7Z7 12y ago

Why is the note D# mapped to R instead of E?

bbcbasic 12y ago

Inspired by this I have uploaded some sample piano notes (.ogg) for fellow hackers to use for their piano apps! See https://github.com/mcapodici/pianosounds https://github.com/mcapodici/pianosounds