Howdy folks, I just wanted to drop by to say hello and to keep you in the loop on Generative.fm stuff.
The first thing I wanted to tell you is that I've been working on a new piece that will be released before the end of the month.
The other thing is that as part of the next version of Generative.fm, I'm splitting the "record" functionality out into its own separate app. Because of that, I'll be releasing the recording app before the new player. The designs for this are almost don...
2020-02-19 03:33:30 +0000 UTC
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Hey everyone, as I mentioned before, I'm getting started on redesigning Generative.fm. I want to give everyone here an opportunity to share anything you think I should include in the next version. Is there anything you wish you could do with Generative.fm that you can't now? I've already got a few things in mind but I'm curious to see what you think.
If you don't have any suggestions, I'd still love to hear how you use the site. That way I can make sure the new design still works for yo...
2020-02-09 17:27:25 +0000 UTC
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Hello again!
I have two things to share today:
1. I just released a new piece on Generative.fm called "420hz Gamma Waves for Big Brain."
2. I'm in the early early early stages of a complete redesign and rewrite of the site.
Let's talk about that second one.
For a while now I've been feeling a bit dissatisfied with the site, both from a design perspective and an engineering perspective. I built the site a long time ago and it used to look very different (back when...
2020-01-23 04:46:34 +0000 UTC
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Hello again. Just wanted to share the current status of Generative.fm accounts.
If you read my previous post, you might remember I was planning on having this done before the end of 2019. Unfortunately, adding accounts to Generative.fm proved to be much more complicated than I thought. After spending many, many hours working on it (including almost the entirety of the last two days), I'm calling it quits for now.
To keep it brief and non-technical, the reality is that when I built...
2020-01-05 23:04:19 +0000 UTC
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Hey folks, Generative.fm accounts are coming along! But I'm considering two different options for logging in to Generative.fm and I wanted to see which you prefer.
Option 1: Traditional Username/Password
This would work the same way most sites do. You'd register for an account with a username and a password, and then use those to log in. Optionally, you could also add your email address so you can recover your account in case you forget your password. No e...
2019-12-17 21:30:46 +0000 UTC
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Hey folks, this might get long so I'll start with a summary in case you don't want to read everything:
- I'm trying to get user accounts finished by the end of the year.
- To help me get user accounts finished, I'm only making one more new piece this year. It will be added December 1st.
- I'll be releasing pieces less frequently going forward. Instead, I'll be spending more time on each one to make them the best I can.
******
I'm sorry to say I'm stil...
2019-11-26 04:14:02 +0000 UTC
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In case you didn't see it, user accounts with data sync won the last work poll, so that's what I'll be focusing on next for Generative.fm. I'll keep you updated about the status of that work. I'm not sure what the timeline will be like, nor do I have an ETA, but I'll let you know once I have that figured out.
Thanks again for all your support!
2019-10-29 00:44:05 +0000 UTC
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This is your chance to vote for what I work on next on the site.
User Accounts with Data Sync
This would let you log in to the site, so your data would be saved and synced across all your devices.
Performance Improvement Research
I'll dedicate time to really focus on if/how I can reduce the clicks and pops that can happen on less powerful devices. I have some promising leads but just haven't committed time to it yet.
AirP...
2019-10-17 02:51:47 +0000 UTC
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Hey folks, it's time again for a suggestion thread.
If you could add/remove/change something about Generative.fm, what would it be?
We can discuss your ideas here a bit and if I think they're feasible, we'll throw them into the next priority poll.
If you're looking for inspiration, here's the Github issues: https://github.com/generative-music/generative.fm/issues...
2019-10-10 01:37:13 +0000 UTC
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Hey folks, I just wanted to let you know that the new sortings based on global data are now on Generative.fm v1.15.0.
Rather than making one "popularity" sorting which would calculate a piece's popularity as some function of play time and favorites, I decided it would be better to offer each of those as an available sorting. So you can now sort pieces by "global play time" or "global favorites."
I've also added a sorting called "trending." This wi...
2019-10-06 22:53:34 +0000 UTC
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You might remember from my previous post that I've been collecting some listening data over the last week. I spent the morning looking through it and have some fun stats to share.
Total Playtime
Just under 12,140 hours
Most Played
1. Drones - 1,325 hours
2. Trees - 1,097 hours
3. Spring Again - 585 hours
4. aisatsana (generative remix) - 556 hours
5. Awash - 480 hours
6. Day/Dream - 471 hours
7. Pulse-code Modulation - 440 ...
2019-09-23 20:23:05 +0000 UTC
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Hey folks. I've got play time and favorites data collection ready to go with the next release, which is step one for enabling me to calculate a piece's popularity. The next step will be to integrate this data into the site so you can see which pieces are most popular.
I'll share any interesting tidbits once I have them -- like the most favorited and played pieces. Otherwise I'll try to have it integrated into the site in one of the next releases.
Thanks!
2019-09-13 18:00:15 +0000 UTC
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Howdy folks. Since the last work priority poll was a tie between adding user accounts and collecting global data for better sorting, I just sorta picked the one I thought would be more fun -- global data collection and piece sorting by popularity. I've been in "research mode" for this the last few weeks but I'm now pretty confident about the approach I'll take, and I'm shifting focus to implementation over the next few weeks. I'll try to share updates along the way.
I also wanted to men...
2019-09-03 21:39:50 +0000 UTC
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Hello again. I wanted to check in to see what you'd like me to work on next.
User Accounts with data sync
This would add a way for you to register for an account which would track the pieces you favorite and your listen time. Then, if you clear the site's local data (in your browser), your account data would still exist and get restored next time you logged in. If you use more than one device, your favorites and listening data will be the same on every device you'...
2019-08-13 13:09:12 +0000 UTC
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If you'd like to try setting up a streaming server, check out https://github.com/generative-music/stream.generative.fm
It's pretty rough right now -- you've been warned -- but it should be functional.
The links use the same format as on generative.fm (e.g. /music/alex-bainter-homage).
Right now only mp3 is supported but I will add Ogg soon (sorry Mike!). I wanted to get thi...
2019-08-09 20:51:03 +0000 UTC
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Now that I have a better idea of what's ready to be worked on, it's time to vote on how I should be spending my time.
Option 1 is to add user accounts so you can actually register and log in to the site. Your data (like play time and favorites) would be saved and synced to all devices you were logged in with. This would be a pretty large effort, but a good first step to adding more data-driven experience options like sorting pieces by popularity. Registering would be strictly optional.<...
2019-07-26 02:28:23 +0000 UTC
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Sorry for deleting the last priority poll - shortly after posting it, I realized that Google Cast support and streaming were actually separate topics, and in researching the Google Cast implementation I got so excited about it that I just finished it. So, the old poll was misleading/confusing.
Rather than posting another poll, I'd love to hear any suggestions or feedback you have, and then we can see if we need a poll to vote on what happens next.
What are some things you ...
2019-07-19 17:51:36 +0000 UTC
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I mentioned this in a previous post, but I'll be adding Patron names to the site on the About tab and making it a Patron reward. Since those of you who are already here didn't explicitly sign up for this, I wanted to give you a chance to opt-out in case you don't want your name (as it appears here on Patreon) on Generative.fm.
If you would prefer NOT to have your name on the site, please contact me (either through Patreon, a Twitter DM, or an email to alex@alexbainter.com) befor...
2019-07-10 23:12:28 +0000 UTC
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I'm sharing this a little earlier in the process than I normally do, so things might change a bit. Either way, the end result will be very similar. Hope you like it!
2019-07-04 00:23:18 +0000 UTC
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I just wanted to express my gratitude to you after an important milestone. Last month's hosting costs were about $15 and were more than covered by the funding here on Patreon.
I enjoy giving everyone free access to my projects, but hosting isn't free and it's not sustainable for me to pay for it forever. Most free sites use advertising, but I'm sensitive to that and don't want to spoil the projects. So I ran an experiment: I set up a method for users to chip in, and publicized the earni...
2019-07-02 19:56:54 +0000 UTC
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Here's a new piece I'll be publishing on Sunday, and a nice long excerpt for you to enjoy.
2019-06-28 20:37:21 +0000 UTC
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I've been working on a project called Corruption Loops. It's a site which generates a unique 10-second recording of music and then slowly corrupts the data while it plays over and over. You can try it at https://corruptionloops.alexbainter.com/ . Let me know if it doesn't work for you!
I've also written an explanation of how it works on Medium, you can read that 2019-06-28 04:28:53 +0000 UTC
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Hey everyone, I just published the new interface for Generative.fm. Let me know if you have any issues with it. I had intended to include a new piece this week too but the one I was working on ended up having too many performance issues and I had to scrap it.
Thanks so much for your support!
2019-06-23 18:43:16 +0000 UTC
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Here's another screenshot of the new UI as it stands currently. Sorting and filtering is in, which you can see at the top. Clicking the grey labels will open dropdowns to change the selected filter/sorting. Current sorting options are "release date" (what the site uses now) and "play time." I was thinking of adding another sorting for what was most/least recently played, but I wasn't sure if that'd be useful enough to justify the effort. Would you use it?
I also decided to take my name ...
2019-06-19 16:31:38 +0000 UTC
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My next piece changes based on the time of day, with the most extreme differences occurring at noon and midnight and a gradual shift between those times. This is how it sounds at midnight. Hope you enjoy!
2019-06-14 16:05:07 +0000 UTC
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My next piece changes based on the time of day, with the most extreme differences occurring at noon and midnight and a gradual shift between those times. This is how it sounds at noon. Hope you enjoy!
2019-06-14 16:04:16 +0000 UTC
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I took a first swing at figuring out some tags for each piece, and I wanted to send them your way to see what you think:
"A Viable System" - pensive, piano, strings, acoustic
"aisatsana (generative remix)" - calm, piano, acoustic
"Apoapsis" - calm, electronic, dream
"Awash" - electronic, guitar, dream
"Buttafingers" - drone, electronic
"Didgeridoobeats" - electronic, beats
"Drones" - drone, electronic
"Drones II" - drone, electronic
"Eno M...
2019-06-04 18:13:08 +0000 UTC
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Hey folks, I wanted to see if you had any feedback on this early work for the new UI. What do you think?
A few things to note:
- I'm not actually going to change the colors of the art for any old pieces, but once the new UI is released all pieces that come after that will have a darker art theme similar to what's pictured on the left. So I just inverted those two to get an idea of what that art will look like on the site.
- The hearts are how you can toggle a piece as a "fav...
2019-06-04 04:11:58 +0000 UTC
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Here's a short preview of the next piece I'll be adding to the site. Hope you enjoy!
2019-05-31 21:31:18 +0000 UTC
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Hey everyone, just wanted to share a quick update with you.
tl;dr: Expect a significant redesign of Generative.fm in the near future.
If you aren't aware, in addition to my work on Generative.fm I have a full-time job which occupies a majority of my productive time. This has been frustrating for me recently, as my plans for my own projects are growing faster than I can implement them and I feel like I can't keep up. As such, I've decided to take a break from full-...
2019-05-26 17:49:51 +0000 UTC
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