I’ve added in some really exciting new features to my TrackPerformer project, as well as three new performances: We Three Kings, Carol of the Bells, and Joy to the World.

Filters

It’s now possible to add filters, or effects, into the processing chain. These filters can be applied before any performers (pre-filters) or after all performers (post-filters). At the moment, the included filters are:

• FPS: Calculates the average framerate across the performance, optionally displaying it in a DOM element.
• Grid: Draws a grid to the canvas. The grid may be a simple intersection grid (points), or lines. Both the X and Y axes may be independently configured.
• Pick: Probably the most interesting (and processor-intensive) part of TrackPerformer. The Pick filter will randomly swap a pixel with one of its neighbours. It’s used at full intensity on both We three Kings and Joy to the World, and, when toned down a little for Carol of the Bells, provides a softening, organic effect.

I’ve got some ideas for more filters down the track… The only difficulty is keeping performance acceptable: manipulation of the canvas pixel by pixel is quite slow in current browsers.

Performers

There are a couple of new performers, and some minor updates to some of the existing ones. The Oscillator performer, in particular, is rapidly becoming the most flexible and useful of the performers.

• There’s a new ShimmerGrid performer, which is great for adding texture and movement to the entire canvas. You can see it in action particularly well on Joy to the World.
• The Swarm performer can now draw its particles as knots (like the SignalTracker), as well as as dots.
• The Oscillator now has the ability to draw sustained notes, and to increase the longevity of notes. Take a look at Carol of the Bells to see these new options in use.
• Notes can now be filtered based not only on their pitch, but also their velocity (volume).

There are a couple of other changes here and there, but these are the main ones.

We Three Kings

The three new example tracks are all taken from We Three Kings, my new Christmas remix album. Why not go and have a listen?

TrackPerformer provides a visual stage for your music, using HTML5 canvas and audio. On that stage, performers “play” the instruments in the music visually. In other words, it’s a visualisation system for music, but based on the notation (the abstract) rather than the audio (the manifestation).

Essentially, you take a piece of music, convert it into a format that TrackPerformer understands (JSON), describe how you want it to be performed, and then watch! You can, of course, write your own performers.

Note: You won’t be able to view the performance linked above in Internet Explorer, due to its over-aggressive script-blocking: the scripts served from GitHub have the wrong mime-type, so IE won’t let them run.

Take a look at the project on GitHub to see how it all fits together. TrackPerformer itself resides in the “Source” directory; in “Examples”, you’ll find the performance of Colony; in “Utilities”, there’s a JavaScript macro for Komodo IDE/Edit that will help you to translate copied-and-pasted OpenMPT pattern data into TrackPerformer’s JSON format.

You can find more information on the TrackPerformer wiki, including an outline of the format, and some basic instructions for getting started. I’ll be adding more information to the wiki over the next few days, and I’ll post updates here too.

Let me know what you think!

I’ve been meaning to write a piece in this idiom for years. It’s an industrial/orchestral hybrid. I don’t know why, but I always find this style of music fun, notwithstanding its occasional heaviness.

More of the usual Native Instruments suspects at play in this piece: Kontakt, Massive, FM8, and Battery. All of them driven by OpenMPT and Xlutop Chainer.

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Conflagration by Barry van Oudtshoorn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

A piece in the same vein as Fluorescent. My wife describes this piece as “dystopian”. I, of course, had to reply with this rather witty riposte: “Dystopia? I ’ardly even know ’er!”.

This piece is somewhat heavier than some of my other recent endeavours, but hopefully not too much so. In terms of VSTis, it makes use of the usual culprits: Reaktor, Massive, FM8, and Kontakt.

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Juggernaut by Barry van Oudtshoorn is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.