dubsession

Play dubsession.

The project

dubsession is a generative dub-techno instrument for the web. It draws a new piece from a seed, then performs and synthesises that piece in the browser with the Web Audio API. The same seed recalls the same piece; roll draws another. It is designed for a desktop or an iPad and is played directly from the page — there is no audio file or backing stream.

The instrument

The instrument has nine channel strips: kick, rimshot, clap, hats, lead, sub, stab, pad and rumble. A channel can follow the arrangement or be taken by the player. The sixteen-column bar shows what is about to sound and distinguishes the machine's steps from steps pinned by hand.

How to play

Start at a modest listening level, open the live page, and press start to allow the browser to create audio.

• Turn on auto if you want the arrangement to move through its scheduled sections. Leave it off when you want the current state to stay put.
• Use THE STATION as the mixer and performance surface. Each strip has mute/solo, material, level, density, tone and an echo/room plane. Material and space changes wait for the next bar; level, tone and mute respond now.
• Use the global PITCH controls for all four tonal voices. transpose moves in the current scale by up to seven degrees either way; semi adds up to twelve chromatic semitones either way. Each changes new notes while notes already sounding ring out.
• Tap cells in THE BAR to pin hits on or off. Pins survive a new seed until you press release pins.
• Use FIRE for deliberate transitions. The larger gestures — drop, buildup, phase-out and reverb-out — run for the selected number of bars. The smaller buttons add one-bar punctuation. A queued gesture begins on the next bar.
• Enter a word or number beside seed and press take it to recall a piece, or press roll for a different one.
• Open a channel's cycle · initiative disclosure for its slower rhythmic, synthesis and modulation controls. Kick, rimshot, sub and stab also expose the voice recipes this style draws; a choice made during playback lands on the next bar, while any note already sounding rings out. Channels with one recipe say so instead of showing a dead switch. The drawers below the instrument hold global room, arrangement and scheduling detail.
• Press release all to hand held performance controls back to the arrangement.

There is no single correct route through it: roll a piece, let auto establish its movement, then take over only the channels or transitions you want.

Hosting

Everything here is served under the path /dub/, never /. Apache on the host owns :443 for witzman.de and forwards /dub to this container with the prefix intact. An asset URL, a route or a WebSocket path that begins / resolves against the main site and 404s, and it does so only in production - which is why the prefix is kept end to end rather than stripped at the proxy.

Development

docker build -t dubsession . && docker run --rm -p 8081:80 dubsession
# then http://localhost:8081/dub/

A push to main builds and deploys automatically.