Beat Circles

(from a blog post I wrote in 2011, halfhourhacks 2011-09-22-beat-circles.html)

Make beats. Tweak them by shifting each channel. Save and send to friends.

Hear an example!

I had this idea one day -- we talk about drum loops, so why not depict the loop as an actual loop? And then, you can also alter each instrument's rhythm by independently rotating it, for example, making the snare drum hit slightly later than you expect gives an interesting effect.

Features:

• Textfield button -- you can click this to type in a specific value
• Adjust the time signature, you can create a 7/4 beat or even something exotic like 61/64
• The "draw multiple" button is a shortcut, when enabled, when you create a drum-hit in the upper-right quadrant, the corresponding drum-hit is also turned on in the other three quadrants.
• Use "randomize" to generate new rhythms
• The sound is generated in real time, you can edit the rhythm, and even tempo, during playback.
• Past a certain point, increasing the volume intentionally distorts the sample for a classic "overdrive" effect

I made this for fun. Real software is more complicated.

Try it! (works in recent Chrome or Firefox on a desktop or laptop)

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