A browser-native instrument that grows rather than loops. Granular memory, modal resonance, harmonic fields, sparse events, spectral processing, and feedback weather evolve on the audio thread while the interface exposes only the controls needed to shape the ecology.
Start in Autonomous mode and let the ecosystem develop. Switch to Perform when you want direct control. Use headphones at a conservative level.
Final listening level after makeup gain and safety limiting.
The garden moves through long-form states by itself. Your gestures still influence it without taking over.
Bright resonant droplets, pentatonic gravity, high spectral dust, and slowly widening space.
Biases the autonomous engine toward spacious continuity or stranger, less predictable behaviour.
The garden is holding energy in long grains and low-density resonance before the next growth cycle.
Blend changes the harmonic vocabulary and motion genetics. Mutation introduces bounded deterministic variation while the seed keeps the result reproducible.
density 0.50 // volatility 0.50
One gesture moves several parameters together. The individual DSP controls remain below for inspection and fine adjustment.
Balanced feedback with restrained modulation and a clear stereo field.
The granular signal passes directly into the feedback network.
Recording uses the browser media pipeline after the safety limiter and master-volume stage.
Seven synthesis layers continuously write new material into circular memory: harmonic partials, filtered noise, FM colour, subharmonics, air, sparse events, and a tuned modal resonator bank. Granular voices read that evolving history instead of repeating a fixed oscillator drone.
Micro, phrase, ecosystem, and epoch modulation operate at different timescales. Short motion changes individual grains; longer processes reshape density, harmonic fields, event probability, and synthesis-layer balance over minutes.
Autonomous mode moves through Dormant, Germination, Bloom, Migration, Storm, Decay, and Regeneration states. Each state changes the probability and intensity of sonic behaviours without replacing the underlying ecosystem.
| Browser | MetaSounds |
|---|---|
AudioWorkletProcessor | MetaSound operator graph executing in the audio renderer |
| Seeded lifecycle and event schedulers | Deterministic trigger-rate generators and state machines |
| Circular synthesis memory and interpolated grain reads | Wave assets or a custom granulator operator with explicit voice state |
| Modal resonator bank and harmonic fields | Resonator operators, filters, and data-driven tuning tables |
Smoothed AudioParam intent | Graph inputs with interpolation before audio-rate destinations |
| Bounded feedback and safety limiting | Explicit feedback clamps, dynamics control, and output protection |
The reusable idea is layered ownership. The interface chooses intent and exposes state; the audio renderer owns timing, voices, envelopes, resonators, feedback memory, deterministic evolution, and safety. A seed can reproduce the rules of an ecology without forcing every rendered sample to repeat exactly.
The same distinction matters in games. Gameplay code should request a mood or state transition; the audio system should decide how that state becomes sound inside a bounded real-time budget.