
Show HN: Turtle.audio – a music sequencer inspired by turtle graphics - kylestetz
http://turtle.audio
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rrherr
Reminds me of another fascinating project I saw recently:

"Deltaphone is a programming language for generating music that uses the ideas
from turtle geometry to jump around the staff"

[https://twodee.org/blog/category/projects/deltaphone](https://twodee.org/blog/category/projects/deltaphone)

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nathan_f77
Damn, this is really similar to an idea that I filed away and have wanted to
build for a long time. But I think it's even better than what I was imagining.
Nice work! I'm going to spend some time playing around with it.

I think this has a ton of potential and could be used for serious music
production. MIDI export would be awesome. Or even a VST plugin that emits MIDI
into a DAW. It would be great to use something like this inside REAPER [1].

[1] [https://www.reaper.fm](https://www.reaper.fm)

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plytheman
Super fun to play with! The first time I messed with this a week ago I had no
clue what I was doing and didn't accomplish much. Giving it a second go I'm
starting to get the hang of it and coming up with some weird and fun stuff.

I think my two immediate ideas would be 1) a line type that might be a sustain
or held open gate and 2) maybe a mixing list with all the lines on it so that
you can selectively mute/unmute paths.

I played a little bit with Slang a week ago too, looking forward to messing
with the more options in there. Seems like you're into a lot of cool stuff,
thanks for making this all!

Also, what I've got looping right now:
[http://turtle.audio/play/3mu3sm](http://turtle.audio/play/3mu3sm)

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lerax
Interesting idea. Visual music design can inspire new ideas for composition.

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acedio
Reminds me of SimTunes! "Bugs" move around the screen according to simple
rules, triggering notes as they pass over them. For example:
[https://youtu.be/DAluHrsCKxw](https://youtu.be/DAluHrsCKxw)

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kylestetz
SimTunes was (and will always be) a huge source of inspiration for me. Played
it a bunch as a kid. :)

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martinlofgren
This is absolutely beautiful! My wish for a tool like this is to not have it
in a web environment, but as a Jack-pluggable standalone program. Then it
could be used for real music composition.

But anyway, this is a really nice little app!

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joe_momma
this is very cool, i want to stop all that i am doing and just fiddle with it.

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ArekDymalski
Amazing project. Do you plan to create some kind of gallery for the "scenes"?
I'm sure people will create unbelievable things with it and it would be greta
to learn from such examples.

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kylestetz
Hey, yeah that's a great idea! I have been keeping my eye out for neat
sketches in the wild.

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puranjay
I love this tool but as an amateur musician, I have to wonder: who is your
target audience? Anyone remotely serious about making music won't use it. I'll
play around with it but if I want to make a track, I'll just head over to
Ableton.

There is value in making music easier, but you're only good enough for a
little while before people move on to more professional tools

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ohadron
There's a huge market for musical software and instruments that are ultimately
just games. I would guess more than 99% of any music equipment and software
bought is never used to create commercially used music, which is fine - it's
fun and interesting, and it's challenging to learn.

A clear example is everything made by [Teenage
Engineering]([https://teenage.engineering](https://teenage.engineering)) -
check out the OP-Z. The interface is completely weird in the age of hi-res
screens, but I'm sure it's going to be a hit.

Another point is that in a creative process, sometimes the 'easiest' way to
produce output causes all the output to be similar and uninteresting. When you
change the rules, and make the creation process significantly different, you
can sometimes see new results you wouldn't have expected.

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puranjay
I've used the OP-1 and loved it, but I don't see it fitting into my workflow
(Serum is a far more capable synth).

But I guess I'm approaching this from a very different perspective. I hope to
go pro some day, so I also use tools that are not meant to "just have fun"
(which the OP-1 is a whole load of).

The majority of musicians are just doing it for fun. For them, I can see
something like this being another tool to play around in.

I take my comment back. I now understand what kind of people might use this
(anyone not insane enough to want to be a professional musician)

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TulliusCicero
Looks cool, no undo/redo though? Makes it feel harder to use/less forgiving.

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ArtWomb
I love this too ;) Thanks for building.

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zmix
I like such projects! Too bad I am unmusical and have no time either.

