Pendulums vs Pixelsynth

Twin Double Pendulums is more chaotic than my other engine using 2 Lorenz. This is more suited for Oriental music like Koto. The pendulums are released from the same angle, one of them offset by a ten-thousandth of a degree. Both drive a lead voice. While the runs agree the two voices land on the same note, so you hear a single line over a rolled arpeggio. As the gap opens the twin becomes a real second voice, chords swell in behind it, and once the runs have parted for good the whole band is in. Nothing is pre-recorded and nothing loops. Every release is new. THE SONG FORM IS THE PHYSICS There is no bar counter and no scripted arrangement — the piece is however long the pendulums stay together. Their separation is the structure: IN SYNC — lead and twin on the same note, one line over an arpeggio that re-voices itself every bar. DRIFTING — the twin splits into real intervals; chords enter and swell. DIVERGED — bass enters, the grooves open up, the mood engine wakes. Watch it happen: the gap is plotted live on a log scale with the running Lyapunov exponent beside it, so you can see the divergence coming before you hear it. DRAG THE RIG Pull the pendulum round to set the release angle and both twins let go again, from anywhere in the piece. Release it inside about 79 degrees and the motion stays regular, the twins never part, and the solo holds indefinitely — chaos is a regime, not a law, and the scope draws you that boundary while you drag. Outside it, the twin offset sets how long the solo lasts before chaos takes over, though only logarithmically: each extra decimal place buys about the same few seconds again. CHAOS PROPOSES, A POLICY DISPOSES The far bob's position proposes a region of pitches rather than one note. A Markov policy then decides what actually plays, learning from its own output and rewarding intervals that sound consonant. Slide BLEND to choose who wins. WHAT YOU GET • 26 scales — major and minor modes, pentatonics, blues, whole tone, harmonic and melodic minor, altered, both octatonics, and folk scales from Japan, China, Egypt, Spain, Arabia and Hungary • 8 accompaniment styles — chaos grooves, jazz comping with walking bass, stride piano, Alberti bass, classical, arpeggios, oriental rolls, ambient • Four sampled instruments — grand piano, koto, zither and shakuhachi — plus synthesised voices: soft piano, glass, strings, FM bell, AM organ, pluck, fat saw and more • 6 moods on a valence/arousal plane, from serene to tense, driving chord quality, register, tempo and note length • Expression built into the physics: ring, note bend, grace notes, and octave doubling called by the second bob • Live displays — the rig itself, the divergence chart, the note-probability distribution the engine samples from, and the mood point • Record a take and export it as a standard MIDI file to the Files app — lead, twin, chords and bass on separate tracks TWO AUDIO UNITS Pendulums ships as an instrument AUv3 and as a MIDI processor AUv3, so it can either play its own sounds or sequence any other instrument in your host. Lead, twin, chords and bass each send on their own MIDI channel, so one instance can drive four different instruments. Both Audio Units follow your host's transport and tempo — hit play in AUM, GarageBand, Logic, Cubasis or Zenbeats and it locks to the grid, on the bar line, even if you start mid-bar. One install registers both. CREDITS Sampled piano: Salamander Grand Piano by Alexander Holm (CC BY 3.0). Koto and shakuhachi: FluidR3 GM soundfont by Frank Wen (MIT). Zither: đàn tranh from the Versilian Community Sample Library (CC0).

Make a sound in seconds—and shape it while it plays. Pixelsynth turns taps, drags, melodies, and chords into a colorful instrument you can understand by watching it. Everything you play lives on one screen. Touch a note and start exploring. FROM THE DEVELOPER OF PIXELBOOP Pixelsynth is a new visual instrument from the maker of Pixelboop. Both apps share a love of playful grids, immediate feedback, and musical ideas that begin with one touch. PLAY FIRST. LEARN BY WATCHING. Sixteen pads invite you to find a melody, hold a chord, or strum across the screen. Notes light up as you play, and every sound control moves in front of you. You can see what each gesture is doing while you hear the result. SHAPE THE SOUND LIVE • Switch waveforms to change the character of your sound. • Sweep the filter from bright and open to soft and focused. • Shape attack, decay, sustain, and release for crisp plucks, swelling notes, and long tails. • Add motion with LFO, repeating echoes with delay, and depth with reverb. Each control is a colorful tank. Touch higher or lower inside it to set the value directly. Values in the upper half stay where you leave them; notes in the lower half drain away after you lift. It feels immediate because the picture and the sound follow the same gesture. MADE TO BE SEEN Created by a Deaf musician, Pixelsynth treats visual feedback as part of the instrument. The entire musical surface is drawn on a 40 by 24 pixel grid—just 960 pixels—so every control stays visible and every change has a visual response. PLAY IT YOUR WAY Open Pixelsynth as a standalone instrument on iPhone or iPad, or load the included AUv3 instrument in a compatible iOS music host. Your host can send MIDI notes and save the instrument state with your project. A compatible host is available separately. FREE TO EXPLORE No account. No in-app purchases. No third-party ads. The instrument works offline. The standalone app may occasionally show developer news or an introduction to Pixelboop, which you can close immediately. Pixelsynth does not track you or collect the music you play. Open it. Touch a note. See where it takes you.