osetinsky

this is really cool. i especially like the gesture mapping... using the distance between your hands for volume, their average height for pitch, and the angle between them for vibrato feels unusually intuitive. the fact that those dimensions can move independently makes this feel like it could support a lot more than a theremin sound

also - i made you some sounds with Underscore:

chill / evolving harmonic thing: https://underscore.audio/s/cmp_f2b79a32-57e/chord_lantern

chaotic / glitchier thing: https://underscore.audio/s/cmp_6abde2c8-2d9/morseMind

they're LLM-generated, web-embeddable synths, and the real-time controllable parameters can be defined in the prompt — so your hand tracking could map directly onto whatever controls make sense for the instrument

you can also generate more structured compositions like this: https://underscore.audio/s/cmp_9175f7d2-fe0/drifter_glimmer

happy to help you wire one up / iterate on some sounds if you're interested

disclaimer: i'm building Underscore :)

would love to hear it! Please share

I held off on sample support for the time being. It’s purely procedural code.

partially inspired by: https://www.thewayofcode.com/

I made you a theme song: https://underscore.audio/s/cmp_f6c34ae4-bb4/geek_fighter_the...

It’s adaptive, so can evolve with gameplay. Happy to work with you to make it awesome

Disclaimer: I’m building Underscore :)

I’m exploring an analogous idea for music. The quality of the musical output has improved noticeably with the latest frontier models

Karpathy’s point about the models not being able to easily audit their work is something I’m struggling with —- how can the audio output be made perceivable? Curious what people think about this question.

Here’s a synth to play with+remix

https://underscore.audio/s/cmp_8b226859-420/iron_rareflash

Thanks for the heads up. Working on a fix!

Underscore: https://underscore.audio/

On-demand, procedural audio programs (w/LLMs). I’m working to make these embeddable in software such as games and health/wellness apps.

Would love to hear how developers might use it.

MakeSpell: autonomous crossword puzzle and more

https://makespell.com

MakeSpell: autonomous crossword and more

https://makespell.com

1. Underscore - https://underscore.audio

i've spent the last couple years experimenting with LLMs that write procedural, ambient music: instead of generating an audio file, we're using systems that write actual source code (supercollider synths) so the music runs live and can be embedded in and controlled in real time by software like games. a surprising amount of the work is taste -- prompt engineering and curating an aesthetic so the generated code reliably compiles and sounds good, with a compiler and automatic repair in the agent loop when it doesn't build. today, it produces single-synth musical systems, but I'm researching how to orchestrate multiple synths into fuller, evolving compositions with deep musical form and structure. LLMs make algorithmic music far more accessible to artists, and I'm eager to hear the new kinds of music that come out of it. hit me up if you're an audiophile interested in collaborating.

listen (or remix!) a couple examples:

https://underscore.audio/s/cmp_3d4ee881-1ec/elegy_lattice

https://underscore.audio/s/cmp_a2baeae6-3f2/supreme_ember

-----

2. Makespell - https://makespell.com/

a little suite of word games I've been building as the testbed for Underscore. every puzzle is generative: crosswords with LLM-written clues, a word ladder, a guess-as-it-draws game, and a deduction game scored on how few clues you need. the crossword grids come out of a Rust constraint-satisfaction solver — backtracking fill over a bitmask-indexed word list, enforcing 180-degree rotational symmetry and slot intersections. each generated puzzle gets its own generated, continuously-evolving soundtrack with no audio files involved. right now, the music is generated per puzzle, but it needs some work. it's currently too drone-y, and needs to be more magical/whimsical. where I want to take it is having it respond to the gameplay itself — which is really the whole point of Underscore

I’m working on Underscore: a web SDK and browser sandbox for making procedural music systems with LLMs.

The basic idea is "music with source code." Instead of prompting for finished audio files, you use an LLM to help write and revise a SuperCollider-based system that runs in the browser via WebAssembly [1]. The result is executable music: inspectable, editable, versionable, and controllable at runtime.

I’m especially interested in adaptive sound for software: games, creative tools, meditation apps, AI agents, interactive art. Places where a static audio file feels too dead, but hiring a composer/sound designer for every variation is unrealistic.

It’s early, but the thesis is that LLMs make algorithmic music much more approachable because code becomes a conversational medium. I wrote a longer piece about the idea here: https://x.com/osetinsky/status/2053674503801028944?s=20

You can check it out here: https://underscore.audio

[1] shout outs to:

- Sam Aaron for building SuperSonic, allowing for SuperCollider in the browser as an AudioWorklet: https://sonic-pi.net/supersonic/demo.html. Earlier, pre-LLM versions of Underscore relied on low-latency WebRTC implementations for streaming SC synths running on servers to browsers in real-time

- James McCartney, creator of SuperCollider: https://supercollider.github.io/

this is excellent – great work!

thanks nodematic, appreciate the input

we definitely plan on supporting Android once we achieve product/market fit on one platform - thanks for your input!

do you mean the schedule C? if so, yes we generate that for you

Awestruck Audio – realtime synthesized, interactive music for video games.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEC6-pBFj2Q&feature=youtu.be

Very half baked, even took that demo site featured in the video down. Intended to run hundreds of "channels" of music, each of which could support thousands of independent sessions (think cloud gaming but for audio/music).

Uses Pion WebRTC, Gstreamer, JACK, SuperCollider and a simple Golang API for converting http requests to OSC toggles to manipulate audio running on a cloud server in realtime over the internet.

Questions – is this crazy? Would game makers ever be interested in adopting a third party SDK for their music needs? What if that music had to be streamed over the wire (not baked into their console/mobile client builds)? Is the prospect of game player input influencing the sounds/music they're listening to compelling, or not really?

Upward Accounts https://apps.apple.com/us/app/upward-accounts/id1494340479

We help U.S. freelancers save on taxes by:

* auto-deducting business expenses

* making it easy to invest in self-employment retirement accounts

* letting them know what they owe in taxes and when

Having worked on side gigs in the past, freelance taxes have been a huge pain for me and others I know.

First bank account is free for 30 days, $5/month or $50/yr after that for multiple bank accounts (we integrate with Plaid).

Would love to hear what people think and how we can continue improving.

Dots | Senior Backend Engineer | New York, NYC | ONSITE

https://www.dots.co/dots/ https://boards.greenhouse.io/dots/jobs/39382#.WamPoHeGOOE

The people behind Dots are an eclectic mix of illustrators, musicians, animators, designers and engineers that believe everyone can enjoy a great game.

We're a happy team with great people in a beautiful office located in downtown Manhattan, with lunch provided four days of the week (breakfast on the other day):

https://thenextweb.com/dd/2015/06/25/two-dots-hearts-nyc/#.t...

You have:

* A passion for great mobile games!

* Proficiency in our stack, which is currently Rails, Python, Node, PHP, and MySQL, but we are decidedly non-dogmatic about what the technology is.

* Full stack experience

* Extra bonus points for full stack mobile experience, or the desire to get your hands dirty with client side mobile development.

* The ability to be a self starter and leader.

* The ability to design data architectures and build relational databases (understand and communicate complex data models)

* Experience in HTML, CSS, Javascript, Ajax, and standard web interface technologies is a plus.

* The qualifications to work in the United States.

Taleb talks about this (though he doesn't use the term Sortition) in Antifragile: "instead of having the rulers randomize the jobs of citizens, we should have citizens randomize the jobs of rulers, naming them by raffles and removing them at random as well. That is similar to simulated annealing—and it happens to be no less effective. It turned out that the ancients—again, those ancients!—were aware of it: the members of the Athenian assemblies were chosen by lot, a method meant to protect the system from degeneracy. Luckily, this effect has been investigated with modern political systems. In a computer simulation, Alessandro Pluchino and his colleagues showed how adding a certain number of randomly selected politicians to the process can improve the functioning of the parliamentary system."

I ask myself this question as it pertains to the future of music. Digital Audio Workstations such as Ableton Live and Logic Pro dominate the scene when it comes to making music with a computer (at least in pop music), and companies such as Splice are trying to create collaborative networks around them.

Text based interfaces and audio programming languages such as SuperCollider open up a whole new world of musical creativity, and would lend themselves to collaboration (IMO) better than GUI based ones. The obvious hurdle for people is learning how to create things/music/art with text.

https://supercollider.github.io/ http://sccode.org/ music written with supercollider: https://open.spotify.com/track/4VecDB1uhp44posWgt85yN

what are some advantages/disadvantages of visual programming languages compared to text based ones?

rough year for her

I'd really like to see ASCII representations of my matches.

I'm in the same position with similar circumstances. You did what you had to do - instead of going back to school and learning the theory, you decided to focus on the problem and build practical solutions in the form of prototypes/mvps. There's no shame in that.

My approach will be to stay humble and eager to learn. I want to hire people smarter than me so that I can grow by working with them.

Bad UX. One shouldn't have to worry about this!

How long do you spend every day on your side coding? Do you try to set a minimum/maximum amount of time?

Jon Appleton was my professor at Dartmouth's Electro-acoustic Music Program. He's a great composer, professor and person who cares about his students.

Thank you! Please let me know if you need help with anything paul {at} treatings [dot] co

I'm not saying that MIDI or DAWs aren't useful tools for making music, just that they aren't ideal for making music collaboratively. And if we're getting into the ages of these technologies, MIDI is in its 30s.

More and more young people are starting to code, so I don't think that code-based composition growing outside of the niche you say it lives in is too far-fetched, or far away.

Does anyone use music collaboration sites like Splice or Blend?

You could check out our growing community of people treating strangers to coffee (for networking, collaboration, etc.):

https://treatings.co