Glitch Machine is a generative music synthesizer. Expressions are edited live to produce sound interactively.
The magic of Glitch Machine’s synthesis is in the BYTE, which wraps a final output value to a number between 0 – 255. The repeating patterns (or chaos) of this ‘wrapping’ produces waveforms and beats.
What’s New in Version 1.1
This version adds a bunch of requested features from fans of Glitch Machine…
– Interactive controls in the form of two XY pads/sliders, and eight code preset trigger pads. Along with these comes new input variables (x, y, u and v).
– FAST FORWARD and REWIND controls, so you can scrub through your glitchtune in forward and reverse at various speeds.
– PAUSE control for the expression, and combined with the FF and RW buttons, you can now single-step through your expression’s wave output in both forward and reverse.
– Fullscreen visualizations, and transparent overlay modes for all screens, so you never have to be apart from the funky waves.
– Multiple named session saving, so you can set it up just how you like for performance
– Extra MUTATE button so you can mutate code and numbers separately.
– New screen navigation methods for
Features:
– Interactive, live code editing
– Waveform and data visualizations
– Expression sharing via email and Twitter
– WAV export to iTunes
– Save and load expressions
– Supports all device orientations
– Configurable theme
Intua Pasteboard: copy an exported WAV of your tune to the pasteboard, and paste into apps that support audio paste.
Fixed incorrect update rate for the stack. If you’re using PICK for feedback effects, this may alter the sound of your tune. Check out the “guitarhead” example for how it should really sound.
Glitch codes are now stored in Documents, which means they are backed up via iTunes
Expanded the colour palette a little bit.
Extra confirmation dialogs so you don’t accidentally delete something.
If you set the text colour the same as the background colour, which is a silly thing to do, then when you exit and re-start the app it will reset those two colours so you can read again.
What is Bytebeat music? It’s a new genre of music involving algorithmic music and sounds. It’s basically a short computer program sometimes consisting of as few as three arithmetic operations in an infinite loop that generates sound when output as raw PCM audio. The basic idea is this:
1 main(t) {
2 for(t=0;;t++)
3 putchar( t * (((t>>12) | (t>>8) ) & ( 63 & (t>>4))));
4 }
This simple loop has one variable, t (time). We use t to calculate some output. Next, we take the output and pipe it into 8-bit 8-kHz PCM channel (for example /dev/audio!).
Glitch Machine is available for $2.99