DI-BLOCKS

Struck and plucked instruments, laid one over another. The tabs along the top switch between BLOCKS, which builds the music on its own, and AUDIO, which recasts a recording of your own in the same instruments. It uses CC0 samples from the VCSL library.

https://di-blocks.netlify.app

Controls

To begin: The play button loads the samples and begins. Raising DENSITY thickens it.
The play button: The samples load on the first press; the thin band along the top shows the progress. It begins to sound before they have all arrived.
The sixteen buttons: These switch each instrument on and off. MRL, MRB and MRH are marimba; HRL, HRH and HRP are harp; VIB is vibraphone; KAL kalimba; BAL balafon; XYL xylophone; GLK glockenspiel; CHM chimes; and WOD, SHK, TRI and LOG are percussion.
DENSITY / REVERB / RANGE: The number of notes, the amount of reverb, and how wide a register is used. DENSITY starts low, so raising it thickens the texture.
DRIFT: The length of a section. Raising it shortens each one, so the music moves on sooner.
KEY / SCALE: The key and the scale. On the left, AUTO chooses a key for each section, FREE settles on none, and any of the twelve can be set instead. On the right, the scale: AUTO, or one of ten held fixed — aeolian, dorian, pentatonic, hirajoshi and the rest. The reading at the lower right shows both.
SPACE: Thins the texture out and leaves more space. A band marks the middle register.
The letters and the ↻: The seed. Type a new one, or press ↻, and the music is rebuilt from it. The same seed brings back the same music.
OCT: Steps the whole thing through nought, one and two octaves up, then one and two down. It works in either tab.
The AUDIO tab — FILE: Loads a WAV, MP3 or AIFF file. The frequencies are analysed as it arrives, with the progress shown along the top and at the upper left. Only the first three minutes are read.
The AUDIO tab — NOTES / GATE / DECAY: NOTES is how many notes are taken at once, from one to twelve; GATE is the level below which a note is ignored, so raising it leaves only the loudest; DECAY is how long each note rings.
The AUDIO tab — KEY / MIX: Set KEY to anything but FREE and the notes are drawn towards that key and mode. MIX balances the original recording against the instruments; at nought only the instruments are heard.
The AUDIO tab — LOCUT: Keeps the low end of the recording out of what is picked up. From off to two thousand hertz. The audio you hear is untouched; raising it simply stops the low notes from sounding, and lets the ones above them through instead. It takes effect at once, even while playing.

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