Skip to content
0:00 / 0:00

#bytebeat#generativemusic#demoscene

Bytebeat: Experimental music from very short C programs

Ville-Matias Heikkilä (viznut)

3.1K subscribers • 3 videos on Hallway

YouTube
  • Recommended by 4 people: 4 on Hacker News.
  • A classic. People kept recommending it from 2014 to 2023.
  • Presented by Ville-Matias Heikkilä

Intermediate. Assumes working knowledge.

221K views15 years ago4 recommendations

Graphics and audioProgramming languagesCreative codingAudio and DSPC

Ville-Matias Heikkilä demonstrates how extremely short, one-line C programs can generate complex, experimental algorithmic music.

Be sure to check out the 2nd and 3rd iterations as well: youtube.com/watch?v=qlrs2Vorw2Y youtube.com/watch?v=tCRPUv8V22o More info: countercomplex.blogspot.com/2011/10/algorithmic-symphonies-f… patreon.com/viznut

Why it's here

4 people recommend this

What people say. Engineers recommend this as the pioneering video that introduced the concept of bytebeat generative music.

bemmuon Hacker News • Recommends

On “A texture-mapped raycaster in 128 bytes”

You can also have procedural music. Viznut (a legendary Finnish democoder) did some experiments to see how short you could code something that still sounds at least interesting: link to this video I also wrote piece of JavaScript that can play these programs in case you want to try create your own: link

creamyhorroron Hacker News • Recommends

On “Algorithmic symphonies from one line of code (2011)”

The video that started it all: link to this video The follow-up post: "Some deep analysis of one-line music programs." link

msarnoffon Hacker News • Recommends

On “Software developers describing their work in 1973 [video]”

The video was posted by an awesome demoscene dude named viznut. Check out the rest of his channel. Experimental music from very short C programs: link to this video Robotic Liberation (VIC-20 demo): link

rzzzton Hacker News • Recommends

On “Play (1) Linux manual page”

I've seen these floating around on YouTube, so you might have some luck searching there (be aware of your volume settings when playing these!) - link - link to this video And a longer write-up on the background from the second video: - link - link - link

malnourishon Hacker News • Mentions

On “A texture-mapped raycaster in 128 bytes”

bemmu Hopefully you see this, unfortunately your comment is dead. Because I think your comment has value I will quote it here, please let me know if you'd like it removed. "You can also have procedural music. Viznut (a legendary Finnish democoder) did some experiments to see how short you could code something that still sounds at least interesting: link to this video I also wrote piece of JavaScript that can play these programs in case you want to try create your own: link "

sitkackon Hacker News • Mentions

On “A Mind Is Born (2017)”

Reminds me somewhat of "Bytebeat: Experimental music from very short C programs" link to this video in its compactness. Previously from link see also Ibniz, link