Project Astra
Herui Chen
Project Astra aims to reimagine virtual sequencers using alternative user interfaces and visual representations of controls, to present musical controls in ways that are easy to understand. It is meant to be a fun instrument that introduces a sense of wonder, and can be practically integrated into existing workflows of musicians.
Abstract
Project Astra is a musical instrument created using MaxMSP and RNBO, designed to be deployed onto the web. Through this project I aim to make a music-making tool that is accessible, practical and fun to use, while exploring potentials for experimental user interface design.
Technical Details
The audio of this device is powered by WebAssembly (wasm), which was exported from a RNBO patch created using Max MSP. The wasm code runs on a locally-hosted server, and communicates with front-end web through the RNBO.js library. I also aim to utilize P5.js library to build its UIs.
WebAssembly was chosen over other methods for its high-performance web audio capabilities. Early experiments were also done using JavaScript libraries such as Tone.js and P5.js.
Research/Context
This project lands at the intersection of my areas of interests: music production, user experience design, and coding. I started this project with the intent to venture deeper into these areas.
My passion for music-making started in my early teenage years. Since I came to ITP, I became interested in building fun and useful musical instrument to fulfill the need of musicians.
I'm fixated on the idea of building an accessible musical device that runs on any computer without specialized hardware, as it was free software such as GarageBand with low barrier to entry that fostered my passion in music production. Therefore, I decided to design the device, so that I could deploy it to the web and share with people easily.
