
808 Cube - getdavidhiggins
http://www.808cube.com/
======
JonnieCache
This is a great example of the different UX demands of pure creative tools. If
this were for getting "work" done then it would be an awful interface: it gets
in the way of you programming the result you want. However in the world of
music, inspiration and serendipity are just as important, if not more so. An
awkward-yet-still-fun interface can imprint itself onto the distinctive sound
of a device just as much as any of the audio-generating circuits.

The 303, counterpart to the 808, is a famous example of this. Try and program
in a preconceived, sensible melody and you'll be tearing out hair out. Bash in
a semi random series of button pushes and the thing will produce instant acid
techno.

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nwh
If anybody is wondering, the name refers to the Roland TR808 drum machine.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_TR-808](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roland_TR-808)

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jengamaster
Very fun! Now I really want to get a Rubik's TouchCube and port this to it.

EDIT: You could extrapolate this idea to different geometric shapes too, to
achieve unconventional time-signiatures. Of course this would also
limit/increase the number of of beat samples, too.

Pyramid would be 6/8 or 6/4 with only 4 samples, whereas dodecahedron would be
5/4 or 10/8 with 12 samples. That could be fun. Using the center as a beat as
well could give 9/8, 7/8 and 11/8 for pyramid, cube and dodecahedron
respectively.

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fhars
At first I wonderd why nothing happened... then I realized that the frequency
of the bass drum sample is just way below the lower cutoff frequency of crappy
builtin laptop speakers ... :-)

~~~
Gracana
Can't hear it on my desktop speakers either. A dirtier-sounding bass drum
would solve this problem, but I don't know if the 808 has one.

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padenot
It doesn't.

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anu_gupta
Disconnect (Chrome privacy plugin) breaks this site completely - need to
whitelist it to see what's going on.

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Johnathanb
No one cares.

~~~
pestaa
Pretty harsh for a first comment.

Please read
[http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

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BSeward
Hilarious! It's an absurd combination but a surprisingly fun way to munge
around with beats.

The 808 instruments sound intrinsically familiar and make the mishmash you get
from random play still sound cohesive and coherent. It's an unexpectedly good
choice for music toys like this. Gotta love that cowbell

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BasDirks
Holy earf*ck. Beware of high volume sounds.

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grimmdude
This looks similar to the Rubik's Cube Doodle Google had up yesterday (click
cube for interaction):

[https://www.google.com/logos/2014/rubiks/rubiks.html](https://www.google.com/logos/2014/rubiks/rubiks.html)

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Pyrodogg
They're both from the Chrome Cube Lab

[https://www.chrome.com/cubelab](https://www.chrome.com/cubelab)

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grimmdude
Ah interesting!

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jakejake
Really cool! It would be awesome to be able to save as a permalink and be able
to share.

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jimmcslim
Would be even awesomer if it supported MIDI export!

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Aoyagi
First I was disappointed by a Chrome ad (
[http://puu.sh/8THKg.png](http://puu.sh/8THKg.png) ) and then that it has
nothing to do with Nokia 808 PV.

It's a neat toy though, maybe even useful for education.

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joshdance
Did you just assume it would be related to the Nokia 808?

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huskyr
Wow, a simple idea brilliantly executed. Now i'm just hoping for someone to
hack this thing together for real. Would be the most awesome MIDI controller i
could imagine :)

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gagege
I think I need it on my phone to perform live with!

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robinhouston
In case anyone else has trouble understanding how to use the TAP button – I
had to look at the code to figure it out – you tap twice to set the tempo.

~~~
brusch64
That's exactly how it works - you tap it in the beat you would like and this
sets the bpm.

This is used pretty much in electronic instruments or effects (nearly every
drum machines or delay has a tap button).

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abdinoor
I've used a lot of browser-based drum sequencers, this is addicting.

One of the reasons this is so interesting is that the patterns are
interchangeable and recognizable. Switch your bass drum and snare and you have
a breakbeat track. Replace your cowbell with hi-hats and the beat starts
chugging. The relationship between instruments and patterns is something that
normal drum machines could never show you.

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tripzilch
I very much love the TR-808 drum synth sound, but I can't use this ... it's
too slow!

What's it doing? I'm not even sure if these beats are supposed to sound out of
sync because I clicked something wrong, or because the whole thing is running
at 3fps.

I just wish I could play with this thing!

This is an early 80s drum machine people, it should run on a 3 year old
laptop, right?

(using Firefox 29, Chromium doesn't even display the cube)

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RayReadyRay
Hey everyone. I'm Ray McClure (@RayReadyRay), the developer of the 808 Cube.
Happy you are enjoying it! There are a couple Easter eggs in the 808 Cube that
I'll release over the next few days. Secret Feature #1- Drag and Drop One-Shot
Samples
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LVr7ONiCt8](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LVr7ONiCt8)

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EdgarVerona
That was awesome! Very enjoyable to play with.

EDIT: I also feel like many people here are looking at this with an unintended
lens: it doesn't look like it was meant to be a convenient interface for
mixing a specific beat. It's meant to be more Rubik's Cube than mixer, and if
you look at it that way it's an entertaining experiment!

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okamiueru
Pretty cool execution. However, in terms of usability, a 2D version with each
side laid out would be much better, as the 3D cube just adds limitation and
hides parts that could otherwise be visible. This would also more easily allow
adding new samples, which is hard on a cube. Subdividing the loop would also
be neat.

~~~
EdgarVerona
(Note, this is just my take on it - I don't know its real intent, but this is
what seemed feasible and fun to me when I tried it out)

To me, the entertaining part was that you couldn't see or use the non-visible
sections unless you rotated them into view: that is, unless you altered your
original mix.

It makes the Rubik's Cube analogy come together (because without something to
force you to vary it, it'd just be freely inputting what you wanted: and at
that point, it'd just be a bad mixer interface).

I don't think it was meant to be convenient to use, but instead entertaining
and emergent via treating it more like a Rubik's Cube than a mixer.

~~~
skeoh
I honestly had no idea the sections could be rotated like a Rubiks Cube until
I read your comment. The cube can be rotated in its entirety by dragging the
empty space around it -- as such, you can see and use non-visible sections
without altering the drum pattern.

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gegenschall
I do not see any cubes and there's no sound using Chromium 34.0.1847.137 under
Linux. Firefox works however.

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pubby
Try disabling privacy plugins (ghostery or disconnect).

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GhotiFish
my version of chromium is stock, I still don't see or hear anything, and no
errors in console either. Maybe it requires chrome?

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etfb
Looks like you right click on a cubelet to make it active, but in Firefox
under Linux that pops up a right-click menu. Double-click would have been a
better choice for that functionality.

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symmetricsaurus
Left clicking works for me to activate as well.

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cinitriqs
A rather nice musical tool, lol, loving it. But the shuffle makes it...
well... still, nicely done!

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Retr0spectrum
Works quite well on iOS, but the page gets dragged around when you try to
rotate the cube.

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stinos
On firefox touching the tempo slider results in tempo being NaN. Apart from
that: awsome!!

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gworf
It says it was built for Chrome. It's really interessting

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6cxs2hd6
Fortunately overall it worked pretty well for me in Firefox. Very fun!

Not to get too far OT, but, I like "Built for Chrome" about as much as I liked
"Built for Internet Explorer". This is a very cool app. If it needs to be
built-for-x, then we all have more work to do.

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pling
Works for me on Android however usability is horrible. A decent 2d one would
be cool.

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SNvD7vEJ
Awsome idea :)

(got NaN on tempo ...)

