code sonata

You created them, you gave them life, you know exactly what they look like. But, have you ever wonder what your codes sound like?

Now it's time to bring them up and sing for you!

How?

By a spells I learned from Fizban...

No, seriously, how?

Each line of code represent a period of time, the whole file can be treat as a music sheet if we transform line content into notes and read the file from top to bottom.

The pipeline is:

[file] --> (composer)
  --> [raw values] --> (instrument)
    --> [notes] --> (sound engine)
      --> [sound]

• file: the original file
• raw values: a composer will transfer a file into an array of raw values. Every composer has its own algorithm and recipe, as long as the outputs are integer.
• notes: instrument will transfers the raw values into an array of frequency and length by the given parameters like root, octave range, bpm and scale.
• sound: sound engine will play notes via Web Audio API.

Composers

Currently we have two composers in town:

• simpleComposer: he will transfer codes to notes by this algorithm:

  • one note per line, rest if the current line is blank.
  • value is the length of "dried text", means "non-blank" characters.
  • timing and length depend on amount of "spicer" ({}()[]) appears in the line. if n, note length is n % gridDivision units, start offset is gridDivision - (n % gridDivision) units.
  • indent length decides which octave range the note is in

• bassComposer: he will transfer codes to notes by this algorithm:

  • value is the length of indent length / 2, if the current line has the same value with previous line, merge them to get a longer note.

Current Config

So with current config, we have a track composed by bass-composer with triangle waveshape oscillator plays on the left side and a track composed by simple-composer with square waveshap oscillator plays on the right side. Finally, a simple reverb is added on mixbus.

Future plan

• more scales
• more built-in composers
• user-defined custom composer
• able to add/edit/remove tracks, composers and effects
• navigatable minimap