I’m always interested in the projects that combine the visual and audio effects together and give the audience a complete experience with different senses. And then I found BlokDust.
BlokDust is a web-based music making app. Users can build synthesizers, put effects on the voice, remix and manipulate samples and arrange self-playing music environment by connecting the blocks together.
BlokDust is created by Luke Twyman, Luke Philips, and Edward Silverton. Developed in Brighton UK and released in 2016.
The web itself is well designed. I really like the interface. It’s pretty clean and has a clear guide to help the users to get started. It does improve the experience of making music and give the users a better visualization of it.
Instead of just using play and stop, Blokdusk creates some new ways to play the music with the block interacted with each other.
Examples:
Playing with the keyboard:
https://blokdust.com/?c=N1V7mjxqW&t=Cello%20Sampler
self-playing:
https://blokdust.com/?c=VkF2_je5W&t=Rotational%20Sequencer
More about BlokDust:
https://guide.blokdust.com/
BlokDust uses the Web Audio API and make use of Tone.js as an audio framework. Here is the Github link:
https://github.com/BlokDust/BlokDust
This is similar to a lot of dataflow environments, we can take a look at those in class today as well. Have you tried making music with this?
It would be cool if you experimented with the app in class during your presentation. Do you know how the creators made the software?
I really like the interface too; it’s really clean and minimalistic. It’s cool that the project’s also very relatable to what we’re learning in class, since you mention that they use APIs. I wonder what the code’s like for this project?
I have used some music making softwares in the past and it’s nice to see how nicely set up this program is. Even more so, being able to visually connect sound is a different take on producing music when most softwares usually look very similar.
The interface looks really user-friendly and visually appealing. It’s really cool how the app uses an innovative way to make music by manipulating blocks.
It seems like more people are creating interfaces that allow everyone to be able to make electronic music without extensive professional knowledge. I love playing around with music making programs, and hardware like this. Also, BlokDust’s use of API and different js library relates to what we are learning recently. If you like works that involve audio and visual you might want to check out this work by Tim Ripper: https://vimeo.com/109132095
Although I am late to the party, I really appreciate the work you have done. As someone who likes to make and produce music, I will definitely check this out.
I stumbled upon this website last year and found it really interesting. It is really beautifully designed, and as Shyam mentioned, most music creation software looks pretty similar. This is refreshingly unique and interesting. It’s also inspiring to know that it was created by just three people, and not a whole corporation or business.