Show HN: Synesthesia, make noise music with a colorpicker

39•tevans3•2w ago

This is a (silly, little) app which lets you make noise music using a color picker as an instrument. When you click on a specific point in the color picker, a bit of JavaScript maps the binary representation of the clicked-on color's hex-code to a "chord" in the 24 tone-equal-temperament scale. That chord is then played back using a throttled audio generation method which was implemented via Tone.js.

NOTE! Turn the volume way down before using the site. It is noise music. :)

Comments

mcjiggerlog•2w ago

RIP my phone's speakers. Maybe I should have read the post first..

tevans3•2w ago

I'm sorry, this was an oversight on my part!

I adjusted the default volume, so that "painfully loud" is now opt-in by default...

hecanjog•2w ago

Lovely! Edit: you might want to consider adding a limiter to the output, it makes a lovely crackling effect but it's easy to flatline the output until it fizzles out completely, it'd be more curious to hear the denser textures.

tevans3•2w ago

Thanks! And thanks for that suggestion.

I added a limiter to the output and an envelope to my synth object, but after a bunch of experimenting with different settings for each, the flatlining effect was still there. Throttling beyond the note+release's duration did fix it, but that also removed the layering effect of overlapping chords. I think some of those were interesting and wanted to keep them. The last thing I tried was setting the attack to 0.01 and I think that fixed the flatlining issue?

hecanjog•2w ago

Sounds great now -- I'm not getting the DC stuttering when I play around with different colors anymore.

It seemed like the source is minified, but I didn't look that closely -- I'd be curious to hear more about your sonification scheme.

Edit: nevermind I found a link to the source & explanation in another comment! https://github.com/tevans-3/synesthesia

christopherscot•2w ago

oh my god, so LOUD lol - i didn't read the post just clicked the link LMAO

tevans3•2w ago

I'm sorry!

I know this doesn't help you now, but I changed the default volume to be significantly lower...

yzydserd•2w ago

synthesia

bitwize•2w ago

That's cool. I've been playing through the Quake Brutalist Jam collections recently, and this sounds almost like ambient music from one of those maps.

zenmac•2w ago

What is the LICENSE?

tevans3•2w ago

Just added it here: https://github.com/tevans-3/synesthesia/blob/main/LICENSE

nick__m•2w ago

I love the anti-licence and thank you for the blessings!

tevans3•2w ago

I actually found that in SQLite's source code! I love it too.

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Show HN: Synesthesia, make noise music with a colorpicker

Comments

Tiny C Compiler

The silent death of Good Code

SectorC: A C Compiler in 512 bytes

Speed up responses with fast mode

Brookhaven Lab's RHIC concludes 25-year run with final collisions

The F Word

Software factories and the agentic moment

OpenCiv3: Open-source, cross-platform reimagining of Civilization III

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FDA intends to take action against non-FDA-approved GLP-1 drugs

First Proof

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Show HN: A luma dependent chroma compression algorithm (image compression)

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I write games in C (yes, C) (2016)

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Eigen: Building a Workspace

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The AI boom is causing shortages everywhere else

Selection rather than prediction

Microsoft account bugs locked me out of Notepad – Are thin clients ruining PCs?

Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback

Unseen Footage of Atari Battlezone Arcade Cabinet Production

A Fresh Look at IBM 3270 Information Display System

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Where did all the starships go?

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