Before we dive in, I've got to give a massive shoutout to Viznut (aka Ville-Matias Heikkilä).His groundbreaking work inspires this whole project in Bytebeat. If you're curious about the origins of this mind-bending audio technique, definitely check out his stuff!
Imagine creating music with math. Sounds crazy, right? Well, that's Bytebeat in a nutshell. It's like cooking up audio using really short recipes made of numbers and symbols. Each "ingredient" (or sample) of sound comes from solving a tiny math puzzle. Cool, huh?
Here's what we're playing with:
t: Think of this as the clock of our weird little audio universe. It keeps ticking up as time passes.& (AND), | (OR), ^ (XOR), ~ (NOT), << (left shift), and >> (right shift).+), subtraction (-), multiplication (*), division (/), and that quirky remainder thing (%, aka modulo).Ready to try your hand at this? Let's start simple:
t & t >> 8Go ahead, paste that into the formula box up there and hit play. Sounds like a grumpy robot, doesn't it? That's your first Bytebeat! Here's what's happening:
t >> 8 is shifting the bits of t to the right by 8 positions. This creates a slower-changing version of t.& then combines this slower version with the original t, creating a rhythmic pattern.Now that you've got the basics, let's crank it up a notch:
(t * 5 & t >> 7) | (t * 3 & t >> 10)This bad boy is like two beats having an argument. Here's the breakdown:
t * 5 and t * 3 create two different "melodies"t >> 7 and t >> 10 create two different rhythms& operations combine each melody with its rhythm| mixes these two patterns together1. Want to sound like a malfunctioning synthesizer? Try this FM-style madness:
t * t >> 8 & 63This creates a frequency modulation effect:
t * t gives us a rapidly increasing value>> 8 brings it back into a reasonable range& 63 keeps our values between 0 and 63, creating a repeating pattern2. How about some bleepy-bloopy arpeggios?
t * (t>>11 & t>>8 & 123 & t>>3)This creates a complex, arpeggio-like sound:
t>>11, t>>8, and t>>3 create different rhythmic patterns& 123 adds some tonal variationt at the end gives us our rising and falling tones3. Let's wrap that sound in a cozy envelope:
t * ((t>>12 | t>>8) & 63 & t>>4)This creates a sound with a more complex envelope:
t>>12 | t>>8 creates a pattern of different lengths& 63 keeps our values in a specific range& t>>4 adds a slower-changing element to our envelopet gives us our base tone4. Want a funky bassline? Try this:
(t<<1)^((t<<1)+(t>>7)&t>>12)|(t>>4)This formula creates a complex, funky bass sound:
t<<1 doubles the frequency of our base tone(t<<1)+(t>>7)&t>>12 creates a rhythmic pattern^ (XOR) operation combines these for a unique timbre| (t>>4) adds a slower-changing element for variety5. How about some chip-tune style music?
t * ((t>>9 | t>>13) & 15) & 129This formula gives us a sound reminiscent of old-school video game music:
t>>9 | t>>13 creates a pattern of different note lengths& 15 limits this to 16 different values, creating a scale-like effect& 129 adds a rhythmic on/off pattern to our soundt gives us our base frequencyThe best way to get this stuff? Just mess around! Tweak those formulas, smoosh different techniques together, see what kind of beautiful chaos you can create. Try changing some numbers, swapping operators, or combining parts of different formulas. Remember, there's no such thing as a mistake in Bytebeat – sometimes the coolest sounds come from happy accidents!
If you're hungry for more Bytebeat goodness, check out these awesome resources: