Mr. Whiskers’ Generative Synthwave Odyssey

A soundscape of synthwave music built using JS. Generates a looped sequence of notes played by a polyphonic synthesizer, with a random selection of scales and beats per minute. Features Mr.Whiskers on synth on a white canvas and one other color chosen from a palette of seven colors. The colors in the palette are variations of black or blue.

The code defines several pitch sets, including major and minor scales, pentatonic scales, and whole-half diminished scales, and randomly selects one of these sets to use as the basis for the loop (total of 19 scales). The loop is generated using a 16-step grid, with each step representing an eighth note. At each step, the code randomly enables or disables cells in the grid, and if a cell is enabled, the code plays a note on the synthesizer corresponding to the pitch of that cell. The code also randomly changes the beats per minute (bpm) within a range of 120-180 bpm. This creates a sense of variation in the tempo, and combined with the randomization of the scale, can lead to an infinite number of variations. Regardless of its starting point, your distinctive version will maintain a consistent pitch set and bpm throughout.

To interact with the artwork:

• Start the music by either pressing the 'm' key or clicking anywhere on the canvas.
• No sight of Mr. Whiskers? No need to worry! Just hit the "c" key to bring him forth!
• To make Mr. Whiskers disappear, simply press the "x" key 
• Hit the "d" key to either open or close the portal
• To pause and restart the music, press the "z" key.
• To save a snapshot of the current image, press "p" and it will be saved as a PNG file.
• For an SVG file of the original image, press "s".
• There is a possibility of encountering problems with the rendering on certain mobile devices.

retr0metr0, San Francisco, May 2023.
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.