Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Groove Pizza

apps.musedlab.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

1–10 of 36 posts

Re: Groove Pizza

#2

Post by yellowapple »

Very nice. The UI (on mobile at least) could use some more labels for explanation (or maybe a quick tutorial), but having experience with other beat editors it was simple enough for me to figure out pretty quick: https://apps.musedlab.org/groovepizza/?source=pub&museid=x-b...

I really like the cyclical beat representation. Makes it a lot easier to visualize how everything fits together. Would be neat if more DAWs, drum machines, etc. adopted this layout instead of the normal linear approach.

EDIT: and I only now realized that you can click on the drumset icon in the center of wheel to change the instrument set: https://apps.musedlab.org/groovepizza/?source=pub&museid=q3I...

Re: Groove Pizza

#4

Post by _def »

Seeing a circular and linear visualization of a loop pattern side by side made me realize how it makes so much more sense to have it circular. Interesting.

Re: Groove Pizza

#5

Post by LegitShady »

I hate the interface and have no idea what say the extra pizza buttons under the sequencer do, plus most of its other functions since we've decided against labels, mouseover labels, and instructions.

This is a (simplified) euclidean sequencer where they hid all the labels and turned everything into pizza. It would be better with clear labels or instructions.

but this one allows for audio and midi export so A+ on that. its actually somewhat useful.

Re: Groove Pizza

#6

Post by mstade »

LegitShady wrote: post #5

I hate the interface and have no idea what say the extra pizza buttons under the sequencer do, plus most of its other functions since we've decided against labels, mouseover labels, and instructions. This is a (simplified) euclidean sequencer where they hid all the labels and turned everything into pizza. It would be better with clear labels or instructions. but this one allows for audio and midi export so A+ on that…

I had the same impression at first, but then just played around with it and found it was easy enough to make something that didn’t sound insanely bad, just by pressing random things. It made me want to explore more so I played around with it for a while and eventually kind of figured out what the different things do.

I’ve played with sequencers before and often got turned off by the insane amount of options, but this little demo seems like it has a nice balance to it – not too many options so it becomes overwhelming, and playful enough to afford experimentation. After a minute or two the lack of labels and instructions weren’t an issue for me any longer. Mileage may vary though, I guess.

Re: Groove Pizza

#7

Post by LegitShady »

mstade wrote: post #6
LegitShady wrote: post #5

I hate the interface and have no idea what say the extra pizza buttons under the sequencer do, plus most of its other functions since we've decided against labels, mouseover labels, and instructions. This is a (simplified) euclidean sequencer where they hid all the labels and turned everything into pizza. It would be better with clear labels or instructions. but this one allows for audio and midi export so A+ on that…

I had the same impression at first, but then just played around with it and found it was easy enough to make something that didn’t sound insanely bad, just by pressing random things. It made me want to explore more so I played around with it for a while and eventually kind of figured out what the different things do. I’ve played with sequencers before and often got turned off by the insane amount of options, but this…

I'm a big believer that interfaces without labels are antagonistic to users, and require you to know how it works in advance. This can be somewhat mitigated by popping up an instruction box when the user loads the site, but this doesn't do that either, nor does it have a clearly marked 'what the heck' button.

I have three sequencers (more if pocket operators count although they only sequence themselves) within arms length of me at the moment, plus a few different software sequencers I use in my DAW, so I guess I'm just a little more picky.

Re: Groove Pizza

#8

Post by spacefiish »

I think the buttons underneath the sequencer are supposed to be measures, but they don't seem to be working properly for me. Clicking on them once highlights them - but only sometimes. And then clicking on them again does not unhighlight them - but only sometimes. Other than that this seems fun, I want to try to get around this weird issue cause I'd love to play with this. Maybe I'll try Chrome (currently using Firefox)

Re: Groove Pizza

#9

Post by bentcorner »

Looks like I can't "turn off" a pizza (for lack of a better term) once I've started using it.

It'd be cool to be able to edit a pizza before it was being played, or save different sets and queue them up.

I've played a bit of Fuser (by Harmonix) and it has a similar vibe. Not exactly the same but I think this could go in a similar direction.

Post reply on HN