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Music Grid

music-grid.surge.sh

211–220 of 243 posts

Re: Music Grid

#211

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Yes, we're all inspired by other things. Neither of us invented grid sequencers, or music theory. I know there was no hostile intent, and I'm glad that OP is having fun, but hopefully you understand why I feel a slight pinch when I see something that is so close to what I've built making the rounds on HN with zero acknowledgement from OP. If we just go by a description of features, we've both built a grid sequencer i…

There's so much messaging around "if you build it, they will come" and "my work should speak for itself" that it's easy to feel defeated when someone does the same thing - often, a variation you'll even find to be inferior - but gets more recognition for it because that person was better at promoting. Speaking for myself, I'm not great at self-promotion. It feels gross. Marketing feels gross - and, if I'm being real,…

Thanks for the honest comment. I think you're quite right about the "if you build it, they will come" messaging, and the importance of self-promotion.

It's also OK to build projects that don't necessarily go anywhere. I recently had a music app I was developing and I had hopes for turning that into a business, but I quickly realized that in order to make the app really competitive, to have enough value that people would pay for it, it would become a job on top of my job, and that would really kill the fun. At the end of the day, side-projects like this are mostly about having fun and learning a few things.

I am happy with my small userbase. The fact that a few people keep coming back, and the app lives on its own, without me promoting it, means that some people find genuine value/enjoyment out of it. I intend to keep the app running and free for as long as it doesn't become a maintenance burden.

Re: Music Grid

#213
post #186

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Why the Rifleman's Creed, of course: "There are many like it, but this one is mine." (To be clear, I am not the creator here.) There are many things like this, but for what it is worth, this is a pretty well executed one: simple to use, elegant UX, produces pleasing tones even when used inexpertly. Also the fact that this one expands to a large number of steps is somewhat unique I think. (BTW it seems odd to me that…

Hey, I'm the author and your comment did put a smile on my face. thanks for that :) > steps is 10 rather than the conventional 8 oops, sorry on that one as I have no idea about music theory and stuff. I just learned a lot by building it and now going through this thread learning more.

If you want to learn more about Music Theory, I highly recommend Adam Nealy's videos on YouTube. He takes a refreshingly relaxed, entertaining, and overall very enjoyable approach to music theory, in stark comparison to a lot of the extant music theory material available. Which is kind of ironic since one of the reasons people play music is to relax, entertain, and enjoy themselves: https://www.youtube.com/user/havic5

I also like Rick Beato, as he tends to do more song deconstruction, though sometimes he can come off as a bitter, old man (though most of the time it's endearing): https://www.youtube.com/user/pegzch

Finally, I also like Signals Music Studio. He takes a little more of a traditional approach, but still in the camp of positivity rather than criticism of "crappy modern music": https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRDDHLvQb8HjE2r7_ZuNtWA

I love WebAudio stuff. It's so much fun to bang out a jam with some code. I could never get the gumption to get SuperCollider or any of the other systems working, because I was much more interested in the interactivity and sharing that are fundamental to the web.

Here's a multi-touch capable keyboard: https://codepen.io/SeanMcBeth/pen/meaQvj

Here's a game I made (about the consequences of following orders) that used nothing but WebAudio synthesis for the sound: https://www.seanmcbeth.com/yabs.html

Actually, I've been hacking on audio stuff in the browser before there was even a WebAudio API. Here's a synth I made that generated raw WAV files on the fly and played them in a standard tag (note: it pretty much only works correctly in Chrome): https://www.seanmcbeth.com/html5/synth/

Always keep playing.

Re: Music Grid

#215

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> 0 acknowledgement from OP. if it makes you feel any better, I am the author of the website and I posted the same exact link 9 hours before OP and it got 3 upvotes [0] . then I woke up to a lot of GitHub stars on the repository and turns out this blew up. HN works in mysterious ways. > 0 acknowledgement from OP I have no idea, that seems like a newly created account to me. if you have any queries or issues/feedback,…

Thank you for responding irshadshalu, I sincerely appreciate you taking the time. I agree that HN works in unpredictable ways. I don't know if you were just more lucky than I was, or if people like your app better because the UI looks better. If that's the case, it's interesting to know. This HN account is new-ish, but the original MusicToy blog post from 2012 is still around [1]. As far as Git goes, I would apprecia…

But parent hasn't acknowledged that you were an inspiration. I find this insistence quite rude. Especially when it's taking well trodden ground in desktop software and putting it on the web.

Re: Music Grid

#216

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Strange, that google one works for me in Chrome and it was made after the restrictions The more embarrassing one for Google is this entire site https://www.google.com/search?q=link%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fmusicla...

It's unpredictable; the chrome policy that breaks webaudio is partly based on your browsing behavior. When they first applied the policy (mid 2018), it broke pretty much all webaudio and they un-applied it a few days later. When they later reapplied it (late 2018) they didn't change the policy itself, but apparently added a thing where chrome ignores the policy if it remembers you having allowed audio to play at that…

What's really weird is that sometimes the audio works of you navigated to the page, but if you refresh the page it breaks.

For as much as Google engineers talk about "don't break the Web", they break the fucking web all the time.

Re: Music Grid

#217

Can someone with knowledge of music theory explain how it works? Meaning, how come if I close my eyes and place some random tiles, it still come out sounding OK. But not so if I bang random keys on a piano.

If you play any notes within a scale they are guaranteed to sound good together. Note: I'm not an expert, correct me if I'm wrong.
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