There are so many ways you can make music these days, it’s both liberating and terrifying. Everywhere you turn, someone’s making music—from the most simple and casual means to the more complex and planned, from apps to software to games to synthesizers to even the humble acoustic instrument. The means of creation are as manifold as the styles and genres they produce. Recently added to this ever-growing list is Otomata, a Flash music toy which is a generative sequencer that allows you to make ambient electronic sounds in a very simple way. By clicking on a square in a 9 × 9 grid, you can select the direction you want it to travel, when it hits the side it generates a sound. Tap another block and off that goes too, creating harmonies when the blocks strike together, tap more to create an ever-more complex network of blocks and sounds. It reminds us of a simpler version of the Tenori-On from Toshio Iwai. Batuhan Bozkurt, who created it, explains that it uses a cellular automaton logic to generate the music:Each alive cell has 4 states: Up, right, down, left. At each cycle, the cells move themselves in the direction of their internal states. If any cell encounters a wall, it triggers a pitched sound whose frequency is determined by the xy position of collision, and the cell reverses its direction. If a cell encounters another cell on its way, it turns itself clockwise.Even with just a few cells clicked you can produce a fairly complex note structure, then share your creations by linking to the URL. Check it out and say goodbye to a few productive hours.
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