Plink: Create epic music together with friends and strangers(plink.in)
plink.in
Plink: Create epic music together with friends and strangers
https://plink.in/
63 comments
>At one point I locked in with another user for about a minute or two, we were taking cues from each other and getting into little call-response counterpoint kinda patterns
Same, this is amazing, loved the site and spent more time on there than I expected. Really well done OP. This is one of the best things I have seen here on HN. Thank you OP.
Same, this is amazing, loved the site and spent more time on there than I expected. Really well done OP. This is one of the best things I have seen here on HN. Thank you OP.
Were you pooping to the sounds of the beat?
https://plink.in/ everyone! This is the best site I have used in the past 2 years. Wow. I was laughing at all the melodies my teammate kept making, then i tried to syncopate and throw in a competing solo.
at one point we ('parental cougar' and 'developed gerbil') had the call & response blues solo thing going. This is HILARIOUS!
Well Done!!!!!!!!
augmentatations: - Hotkeys to switch instruments, - AWSD or arrow keys to navigate up/down, R/F or other keys to go up/down by 2 or 3 jumps
at one point we ('parental cougar' and 'developed gerbil') had the call & response blues solo thing going. This is HILARIOUS!
Well Done!!!!!!!!
augmentatations: - Hotkeys to switch instruments, - AWSD or arrow keys to navigate up/down, R/F or other keys to go up/down by 2 or 3 jumps
I'm confused, it doesn't look like it's possible to actually do anything on this site. There's a bunch of already-completed projects you want me to look at described with text that runs outside of its bounding box, and when I manage to actually figure out how to click on one of the projects, it's one of those awful full-screen ad-pages where you write one sentence with a huge banner image and I have to scroll a page down to read the next sentence?
Is the title clickbait? You don't seem at all interested in having me create any sort of music. You seem interested in selling me on something that Beck did.
Is the title clickbait? You don't seem at all interested in having me create any sort of music. You seem interested in selling me on something that Beck did.
What?, no this is real. The URL is wrong. I put in "plink.in" and HN added "test." or something... Go to https://plink.in/ and click "play now". You "Jam" with other random people. It "makes" you sound good. I don't know music, but I have a feeling that anyone who does would just bash this for being superficial.
Hacker News uses the canonical link attribute of the site, if present. The canonical link to your site, according to the HTML header, is test.plink.in. You should fix that because not only Hacker News will get confused by that.
That said, it's a nice toy!
That said, it's a nice toy!
Yep, just wanted to share it with friends and the link preview thing on Facebook also grabs the rel="canonical" URL.
It shows potential but still remains a toy for now, reminding me of the looping app on iPad where you can add or remove loops to compose music. You will never fail, but that's the problem: improvisation often comes with risk and that makes us exciting. Can learn different things from other interesting web-based interfaces:
https://glicol.org
https://gibber.cc
https://roland50.studio
https://glicol.org
https://gibber.cc
https://roland50.studio
This multiplayer live coding/composition in lisp is worth checking out:
https://youtu.be/v4rcAIVvPQ8?t=3591
(video linked to in gibber.cc's homepage, which features gibber.cc in other segments)
(video linked to in gibber.cc's homepage, which features gibber.cc in other segments)
This is so fun! Spent 10 minutes just jamming out. I think the scale and time quantizations are what make it truly fun to use, because it's almost hard to make anything sound bad! Love it.
Can anyone versed in music explain in simple terms why it always sounds good, while real instruments sound terrible if you don't know how to play them, even in isolation (let alone if there are several clueless musicians playing)?
I understand that what you call "time quantization" means that the time is discrete and notes are played in the next "beat" rather than when you press them.
But what did they do with scale exactly? If you just play random notes in a piano it sounds awful, here it sounds good.
I understand that what you call "time quantization" means that the time is discrete and notes are played in the next "beat" rather than when you press them.
But what did they do with scale exactly? If you just play random notes in a piano it sounds awful, here it sounds good.
I think the main reason is that it uses the pentatonic scale - there are only 5 notes in it (repeating every octave), and these notes generally sound good together. On a piano, this would be all of the black keys.
It's a common starting scale for beginners learning to improvise, particularly on the guitar.
It's a common starting scale for beginners learning to improvise, particularly on the guitar.
Minor nitpick, it is only the F# major pentatonic scale that only uses the black keys of the piano
Every scale has a pentatonic version, it just means that you skip some notes basically.
Apart from that, I think that the sampled sounds in Plink fit together more easily as well because of the synchronised Staccato, where there are gaps between the notes and the timing is done automatically.
Great thing !
Every scale has a pentatonic version, it just means that you skip some notes basically.
Apart from that, I think that the sampled sounds in Plink fit together more easily as well because of the synchronised Staccato, where there are gaps between the notes and the timing is done automatically.
Great thing !
Am I the only one who thinks it's lame that nothing sounds bad? Makes me feel like I'm playing with a children's toy. I don't feel like I've done something interesting by playing in tune with others since it's all in tune... it restricts possibilities drastically
I agree with you, but, pitch-stuff aside, the time issue is an inescapable constraint. You can't have perfectly live simultaneous collaborative playing over the internet; things will inevitably be out-of-time for many. Due to the speed of light, you actually can never reasonably achieve this for two people maximally separated across Earth, even with hypothetical perfect technology and latency at its theoretical minimum. If the participants are both very close in physical space, like on a LAN or something close to it, latency could potentially be minimized enough to make it acceptable, but that's pretty much it.
If your goal is to make something as accessible as possible to as many global internet users as possible, you either need a) some degree of time quantization (which makes it more rigid and less musical and creative) or b) some kind of buffering and/or turn-taking system (basically, overdubbing, which makes it less "live-collaborative" / "jam-like" and potentially less enjoyable to participate in compared to something more live).
At least, this is my understanding of the problem. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.
If your goal is to make something as accessible as possible to as many global internet users as possible, you either need a) some degree of time quantization (which makes it more rigid and less musical and creative) or b) some kind of buffering and/or turn-taking system (basically, overdubbing, which makes it less "live-collaborative" / "jam-like" and potentially less enjoyable to participate in compared to something more live).
At least, this is my understanding of the problem. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.
In a large orchestra, you can have people sitting 10m away from each other which given the slow speed of sound is 30ms between them.
A 60ms round-trip means that if they were to each try to play in time with the other by sound it would get horrendously out of sync quickly.
Which is why the conductor is so important. I'd guess concert players must have to train themselves to "tune out" what they're hearing and focus on the conductor because the whole thing is set up for the benefit of the audience.
A 60ms round-trip means that if they were to each try to play in time with the other by sound it would get horrendously out of sync quickly.
Which is why the conductor is so important. I'd guess concert players must have to train themselves to "tune out" what they're hearing and focus on the conductor because the whole thing is set up for the benefit of the audience.
Very interesting idea and very good experience. Love the visual design. Would be happy to see it in detail but I guess it is not open-source?
A phenomenon I observe is that when many of us are at the same place, right after one person start to click and drag, the rest start to do the same thing. But after a while, I found that available synths are quite limited so I close the page. I guess the creator can get some statistics and test with different sound making possibilities. Can have some genres preferences such as Melody or Noise feast...
An idea is to use Glicol.js(https://glicol.js.org/) as the audio engine instead of the raw Web Audio API and save the result somewhere so it can be reused for research or future composition. The usage of Glicol like this can be found on https://synth.is/
Some socials would be even better. On Glicol website(https://glicol.org) there is also an App for collaborative music live coding where at least we can change the name and chat as comments.
All in all, I see great potential in this App. I feel that the best place for it is actually not here in HN or other place you share links, but allocated in different museums like Tate. I once thought about setting up some collaborative live coding devices that way. But this is apparently a better fit for the museum context for its intuitiveness!
A phenomenon I observe is that when many of us are at the same place, right after one person start to click and drag, the rest start to do the same thing. But after a while, I found that available synths are quite limited so I close the page. I guess the creator can get some statistics and test with different sound making possibilities. Can have some genres preferences such as Melody or Noise feast...
An idea is to use Glicol.js(https://glicol.js.org/) as the audio engine instead of the raw Web Audio API and save the result somewhere so it can be reused for research or future composition. The usage of Glicol like this can be found on https://synth.is/
Some socials would be even better. On Glicol website(https://glicol.org) there is also an App for collaborative music live coding where at least we can change the name and chat as comments.
All in all, I see great potential in this App. I feel that the best place for it is actually not here in HN or other place you share links, but allocated in different museums like Tate. I once thought about setting up some collaborative live coding devices that way. But this is apparently a better fit for the museum context for its intuitiveness!
The URL is wrong. Should be https://plink.in
https://test.plink.in was listed as the canonical URL, and our software uses those when it finds them. I've reverted that now. Thanks!
20 seconds is way too soon to get kicked out.
I have this running on my phone and a PC and I'm playing 'against' myself.
Only the phone keeps playing with no input..oh, no - kicked out.
Stunning idea, great execution: needs just a few touches - there are a lot of musicians that would enjoy this more and a lot of people that would enjoy the hypnotic effect - take a look at https://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/gregorianChoirGenerator.ph... - esssntially boring at the end of the day , but the kickout [edit: from this site] is too soon.
Stunning idea, great execution: needs just a few touches - there are a lot of musicians that would enjoy this more and a lot of people that would enjoy the hypnotic effect - take a look at https://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/gregorianChoirGenerator.ph... - esssntially boring at the end of the day , but the kickout [edit: from this site] is too soon.
This is absolutely gold! Whoever made this wins the internet
Some potential see here I. A few ideas. Add drum sounds. Make it a circle: distance from center will be the pitch, and an arrow moving clockwise will be the time. Allow to draw lines: when such a line crosses a pitch circumference, it will make a sound. Line color will be instrument type. The time arrow will keep revolving around the center, playing the pattern over and over. You'll basically draw music this way.
> Add drum sounds.
Tried it for a bit, and definitely came across some percussion sounds. Hihats for sure, and something like a tom was there too I think.
Tried it for a bit, and definitely came across some percussion sounds. Hihats for sure, and something like a tom was there too I think.
The way everyone comes and goes, temporary beings on a stage making temporary music together is mesmerizing. Beautiful and wildly addictive.
I remember the first web browser pentatonic scale music toy I found (can't remember the name, but the one with the 8x8ish grid where you click squares to play them on the beat), and just how amazingly fun it was!
I feel like we still haven't seen the full potential of networked instruments, so far the focus still seems to be on virtual jamming.
I feel like we still haven't seen the full potential of networked instruments, so far the focus still seems to be on virtual jamming.
Yeah, this has been covered in the past. Yeah, I should go back and read the comments from then. It's still a fun site.
It should be https://plink.in/ But I can't edit the URL...
Just resubmit then, there’s no penalty
HN in the past:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3089901
But it was this site:
http://labs.dinahmoe.com/plink/
This is golden, just hopped in on bass and it`s THAT FEELING of a randomly arranged jamming band
Some of the instruments (colors) seem to have a limited set of notes available. The first I selected was one if those, felt like I was unable to create any sound, before noticing instruments could be switched.
It needs a hard mode with 12 half tones per octave available.
It needs a hard mode with 12 half tones per octave available.
Super cool!
It would also be interesting if you could upload samples. And, play the role of the team's mixer by adjusting the relative balances of each lane in real-time, and find a space for each element using EQ/panning/delay/reverb.
It would also be interesting if you could upload samples. And, play the role of the team's mixer by adjusting the relative balances of each lane in real-time, and find a space for each element using EQ/panning/delay/reverb.
Could use a bit of onboarding, I spent a minute tapping the squares on the left and not understanding why it Wasn’t doing anything. But fun when I figured out I’m supposed to be touching the area to the right to make sounds.
Are there keyboard controls? Someone I was just playing with seemed to always lock on each "note" or "half note" exactly, wasn't sure how they were doing that.
It keeps saying there's a problem with the server, so a bit disappointing. But a lot of people tells that it's a fun game so I will try on my desktop! Thanks for this submission :)
It reminds me of the random/algorithmically generated riffs from Ballblazers. Looks like they use a pentatonic scale so the result always sounds good, no matter how wildly you scribble.
This was great. It recreated the ephemeral joy of jamming together with a group of people. Wish there was some kind of chat feature but I guess that would be tough to moderate
This is amazing
I do wish you could unlock different modes and step outside of just the pentatonic scale (expert mode?) but hey, awesome thing, I'm having great fun :-)
I do wish you could unlock different modes and step outside of just the pentatonic scale (expert mode?) but hey, awesome thing, I'm having great fun :-)
I agree. Starting newcomers with just the pentatonic is smart, cause it is hard to screw up musically!
This is awesome. Also, I’ve never seen a site get my iPhone this hot! Anyone else experiencing this? I’m guessing it has a massive processor load.
How did this get upvoted without the correct url?
This is fun though.
This is fun though.
Is it like https://endlesss.fm/ ?
I touch to start, the graphic fades to black... and that's it. I will have to take peoples words for it.
I don't find the music epic at all, it produces some cheap synth music far from epic Hans Zimmer music.
Wildly addictive!
Bravo. What a nice piece of software!
Bravo. What a nice piece of software!
A save/export functionality would be awesome.
I was excited to try this, but the page is stuck on "loading."
This is so fun!! Really needs keyboard support though
This is super cool, I jammed with some strangers!
This is mesmerizing. Bravo!
Cool as butts, dang.
is it possible to save the composition?
Ok that was fun
Tremendous fun!
Super cool!
Site uses invalid certificate. Certificate is registered to casestudies.dinahmoe.com.
Every once in a while when I'm playing with other musicians, I hit this little moment of magic where both people start to smile - there's something happening, you're working together. That feeling is one of the most joyful human experiences I know of. I started to feel that same smile creep across my face when I synced up with whatever anonymous stranger was playing at the same time as me. We were dancing back and forth, trading high and low voices.
This a really fun little toy. What an awesome thing, to enable that brief moment of joy and connection with another, anonymously online while I sat here on the toilet. :)
Thanks for sharing.