TOPLAPapp app icon

TOPLAPapp

Sonic puzzle with virtual machine synthesis.

Joshua Parmenter

★ 4.85 ratingsMusicFree

iPhone Screenshots

App screenshotApp screenshot

Description

The app presents a sonic puzzle using a virtual machine for sound synthesis. Users arrange command letters and adjust sliders to generate output sounds, often with a noisy character.

TOPLAPapp is a sonic puzzle based around a virtual machine for sound synthesis. This machine accepts a few valid instructions represented by the letters T, O, P, L, A, and p, and you control it by placing each command letter within a grid, along with setting some associated parameter sliders. The machine rushes through the instruction set to create output sounds, which are usually of a somewhat noisy character, hopefully interestingly so. The historical antecedents include instruction synthesis as pioneered at the Institute of Sonology in the 1970s, and the live coding movement, of modifying a running program as it acts. This app is intended for those interested in more experimental sonic art: don't download unless you are open to stranger computer music sounds ((http://www.toplap.org).