Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by packetlost 636 days ago
I've been using SunVox on and off for like 15 years now. I'm not really musically inclined, but I always come back to toy around for a bit. The creator is the sort of mad genius type, he seems to have made his own programming language and cross-platform rendering toolkit to make it all work and has a number of projects based on it. Because of this, SunVox is available on basically any platform you can think, including both major mobile OSes app stores and Linux for a few dollars ($5, iirc) and is definitely worth it. If you're familiar with a sequencer workflow (other notable projects: LSDJ [^0]), it doesn't seem too "out there", though the built-in synthesizers tend to lean towards a more airey feel. Highly recommend loading up the example projects, lots of people (including the creator) have some samples in there to poke around with. It's really interesting seeing how different people use the tools provided to compose, sometimes taking wildly different approaches to get similar results.

TLDR: download it and load up the sample projects, it's really fun

[0]: https://www.littlesounddj.com/lsd/index.php
2 comments
windowliker 635 days ago
A more 'hi-fi' alternative to LSDJ is M8 Tracker: https://www.dirtywave.com
link
packetlost 635 days ago
I want one of those so bad, but not musically inclined enough to justify the cost.
link
porkloin 635 days ago
It's never too late to get started! Also, if you're keen to try M8 before investing, you can make a "headless" M8 from a $30 teensy board, but you have to use it via a web emulator. If that sounds intimidating in any way, it's really not - there's no enclosure, no soldering, and no real configuration other than just flashing the teensy with a GUI app.

https://github.com/DirtyWave/M8Docs/blob/main/docs/M8Headles...

I've been using M8 for ~4 years now, it's an amazing and fun way to make music, and I think it gels for a lot of people who aren't traditionally trained in music.

link
packetlost 635 days ago
I'm a big fan of trackers, so maybe I'll pick one up and a pair of cheapo wired headphones to play with.

FWIW I've considered going to headless route, I'm not afraid of a bit of soldering if I need to, but I feel like a lot of the "magic" of not just being at a computer is lost on it.

link
adw 635 days ago
Polyend Tracker is the other hardware tracker out there. Similar price though.
link
kchr 635 days ago
Speaking of music apps for game consoles, there is also the Korg DS-10 for Nintendo DS:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/KORG_DS-10

link