2026.09.12 updated 2026.09.12
Algorithmic ambience on the cheap
Algorithmic ambience on the cheap. Click the album art to start generating; click again to (gracefully) stop. It layers short samples at random — at most three at once — over an FFT of whatever is playing.
Algorithmic ambience on the cheap. An interactive p5.js sound piece: click the album art and it generates an endless ambient track by layering short samples at random — at most three at once, with a random pause between each — while an FFT of what's playing is drawn over the cover.
Bootlegged by Bobby Meyer, 2023.
It's static. Open index.html in a browser, or serve the folder:
python3 -m http.server
p5 and p5.sound load from a CDN; the samples and the cover are in the repo.
index.html — the page: loads p5, the styles and the sketch.sound.js — the sketch. preload loads the eight samples and the cover,
draw renders the FFT, and the play loop keeps up to three samples going.sound.css — the album-art layout.map.png — the cover: a halftone topographic map.samples/ — eight mp3 samples, p1–p8.