Dittytoy ‘Program’ Music with JavaScript

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A programming code, of any kind, is just a series of instructions that, when executed, offers a certain predictable result. It can (usually) be an application, but it can also be a website, a printable document, an image… or music . And precisely for fans of the latter, a month ago now, the launch of Dittytoy was announced .

Its developer, Reinder Nijhoff, explained it like this:

“Over the past few months, I’ve spent some of my spare time developing Dittytoy: an online platform that lets you create music using a minimalist JavaScript API. All music on Dittytoy is completely code-generated. So don’t expect to see easy-to-use audio nodes that connect via virtual cables or a graphical user interface that lets you easily define patterns.”

In other words, something very similar to what Nijhoff himself managed to do with the generation of graphics, with his previous Turtletoy platform , also equipped with its own minimalist JavaScript API.

What does Dittytoy offer?

Dittytoy’s API syntax is loosely based on that of another similar project, Sonic Pi , and you can read about it in the official documentation . Who knows? Perhaps your future is in musical composition.

In short, this is what we know as generative music, capable of incorporating numerous tracks (and loops, filters, etc.) that are played (played) as indicated by the code , with the tracks as numerical codes and the chords as functions. If the only thing you know about ‘writing music’ is limited to the staves of a lifetime, you won’t understand anything, yes.

An example of the potential of this tool is offered by the following ‘ditty ‘ (work published on Dittytoy), which uses only 19 KB of code to emulate one of the classics of electronic music , Jean- Michel Jarre ( here the original version: )