Music 256A - Homework 3: Sequencer

PolyBeat

Alex Han

Instructions

This is an audiovisual polyrhythmic sequencer! It is designed to have a tight coupling of visual and sonic elements, and is highly interactive. Players can make intricate visuals and hypnotic musical patterns with a fine degree of control:

Edit Controls

Select a polygon: Left/Right arrow
Increase/Decrease number of vertices for selected polygon: Up/Down arrow
Select a vertex within the selected polygon: A/D
Increase/Decrease Gain for selected vertex
Switch between "synth mode" and "sample mode": 1/2
Increase/Decrease playback rate of selected vertex: Q/E
Increase/Decrease MIDI pitch of selected vertex: F/G

Global Controls

Show/Hide GUI: I
Change Global Volume: UI slider
Toggle Camera view: C (or click button)
Toggle lines: L (or click button)
Toggle "helix mode": M (or click button)
Toggle selector "halo": O (or click button)

Broken/failed features

Speed multipliers for individual polygons (i.e. easily subdivide, say, quarter-note pentuplets into eighth- or sixteenth-not pentuplets)
Inc/Dec global BPM: leftBracket/rightBracket
change file for sample playback: dropdown menu or input field
Spawn multiple polygon systems: (?)
Dynamic camera position--adjust FOV/angle to fit scene
Global Play/Pause

Additional info

All polygons are synced to the same grid, regardless of OTF changes in number of vertices or playback type (synth osc vs sndbuf). Gain changes are represented by size of vertices. Playback rate and pitch are represented by color. Currently sounding vertices produce a flash. The selector halo is more of a living thing than a static image. It darts to its destination as the player selects vertices for edits. If the player has not spawned a new polygon in a given ring position, the halo will expand to show where the new polygon will be placed, which can then be instantiated via keypress.There are a maximum of 8 polygons per system (this demo only has one system), and each polygon can have up to 8 sides.

Reflections

I am glad that I chose this idea from the initial sketches we made for Milestone 1. As expected, it was much trickier than I had anticipated, but I think the scope and concept for this design was well suited for this assignment. I had lots of other features planned that I did not get to implement. Some of them I really wish I had been able to fix, like BPM adjustment and Audio file selection. Others were more ambitious (like scaling the project up to include many independent polygon systems), but I am quite happy with the amount that I accomplished. I felt that, compared to our first project, I had a better grasp on the workflow and design process as a whole, and so I was able to plan more carefully and end up with a finished product that incorporates all of the core mechanics I imagined, plays smoothly and efficiently, and fulfills the aesthetic vision I had. I really like how this project materialized as an actual tool/instrument/game, something that I have had a lot of fun playing myself and could see continuing to refine and use in the future. Overall, I'm proud of my work and the approach I took to it!

Acknowledgements

Special thanks to all my classmates who helped me late at night over Discord, to Ge and Julia for guiding, advising, and feeding me, and the heroes of Stack Overflow and Unity Forums who actually provide answers.