I think in general the tools focus on the generation of sine waves, which is good for simplicity and also because it can create some really interesting musical phenomena. However, I don’t think the tools should limit themselves to sine generation. I think, for many of these tools, there are ways they can be manipulated such that their parameters more intuitively match different attributes of music or have a number of parameters that are interrelated with others which obfuscate the experience (it’s confusing to see what effect is produced on the output by manipulating multiple parameters of a tool in some cases). The tools’ interfaces could be streamlined for their existing functionality or they could use some additional output attributes to expand their musical palette.
Not sure if this is in the vision of the final product but it might be good to have an “instructions” or “guide” page/panel/showhide for each tool explaining what it does and how to use it.
UI
Needs loading bars of some kind/messaging for “changes not yet reflected”
Instrument picker and submit/sonify button should probably be in the same place on the page for all tools
Instruments
When notes are played together, are they supposed to be so beat-y or are they supposed to create a kind of harmony?
Pads
Is the motivation for these to be something like a keyboard for the generated sounds? If so, maybe we should add an envelope to each key press and allow for the notes to be held. Would also be cool to download this as a vst or midi instrument of some kind.
Step sequencer
At one point crashed the page, not sure why; maintains timestep between playing and pausing, not sure if intended but I would like it to start over
Download
I think the purpose of this tab should be rethought. Right now it seems to be a method for downloading the sounds used in the Pads instrument. However, it seems to me that it should be something more comprehensive — e.g. have buttons to download a midi instrument for the pads or the generated music etc. This, or it could be removed in favor of “Download” buttons on each other instrument in the instrument picker where appropriate.
Overall
General
I think in general the tools focus on the generation of sine waves, which is good for simplicity and also because it can create some really interesting musical phenomena. However, I don’t think the tools should limit themselves to sine generation. I think, for many of these tools, there are ways they can be manipulated such that their parameters more intuitively match different attributes of music or have a number of parameters that are interrelated with others which obfuscate the experience (it’s confusing to see what effect is produced on the output by manipulating multiple parameters of a tool in some cases). The tools’ interfaces could be streamlined for their existing functionality or they could use some additional output attributes to expand their musical palette.
Not sure if this is in the vision of the final product but it might be good to have an “instructions” or “guide” page/panel/showhide for each tool explaining what it does and how to use it.
UI
Needs loading bars of some kind/messaging for “changes not yet reflected” Instrument picker and submit/sonify button should probably be in the same place on the page for all tools
Instruments
When notes are played together, are they supposed to be so beat-y or are they supposed to create a kind of harmony?
Pads
Is the motivation for these to be something like a keyboard for the generated sounds? If so, maybe we should add an envelope to each key press and allow for the notes to be held. Would also be cool to download this as a vst or midi instrument of some kind.
Step sequencer
At one point crashed the page, not sure why; maintains timestep between playing and pausing, not sure if intended but I would like it to start over
Download
I think the purpose of this tab should be rethought. Right now it seems to be a method for downloading the sounds used in the Pads instrument. However, it seems to me that it should be something more comprehensive — e.g. have buttons to download a midi instrument for the pads or the generated music etc. This, or it could be removed in favor of “Download” buttons on each other instrument in the instrument picker where appropriate.