Show HN: Synesthesia, make noise music with a colorpicker

https://visualnoise.ca
This is a (silly, little) app which lets you make noise music using a color picker as an instrument. When you click on a specific point in the color picker, a bit of JavaScript maps the binary representation of the clicked-on color's hex-code to a "chord" in the 24 tone-equal-temperament scale. That chord is then played back using a throttled audio generation method which was implemented via Tone.js.

NOTE! Turn the volume way down before using the site. It is noise music. :)

Comments

hecanjogJan 22, 2026, 7:42 PM
Lovely! Edit: you might want to consider adding a limiter to the output, it makes a lovely crackling effect but it's easy to flatline the output until it fizzles out completely, it'd be more curious to hear the denser textures.
tevans3Jan 22, 2026, 9:42 PM
Thanks! And thanks for that suggestion.

I added a limiter to the output and an envelope to my synth object, but after a bunch of experimenting with different settings for each, the flatlining effect was still there. Throttling beyond the note+release's duration did fix it, but that also removed the layering effect of overlapping chords. I think some of those were interesting and wanted to keep them. The last thing I tried was setting the attack to 0.01 and I think that fixed the flatlining issue?

hecanjogJan 22, 2026, 11:15 PM
Sounds great now -- I'm not getting the DC stuttering when I play around with different colors anymore.

It seemed like the source is minified, but I didn't look that closely -- I'd be curious to hear more about your sonification scheme.

Edit: nevermind I found a link to the source & explanation in another comment! https://github.com/tevans-3/synesthesia

bitwizeJan 22, 2026, 9:37 PM
That's cool. I've been playing through the Quake Brutalist Jam collections recently, and this sounds almost like ambient music from one of those maps.
zenmacJan 22, 2026, 10:19 PM
What is the LICENSE?
tevans3Jan 22, 2026, 10:26 PM
Just added it here: https://github.com/tevans-3/synesthesia/blob/main/LICENSE
nick__mJan 22, 2026, 10:54 PM
I love the anti-licence and thank you for the blessings!
tevans3Jan 23, 2026, 12:44 AM
I actually found that in SQLite's source code! I love it too.
yzydserdJan 22, 2026, 9:30 PM
synthesia
christopherscotJan 22, 2026, 8:25 PM
oh my god, so LOUD lol - i didn't read the post just clicked the link LMAO
tevans3Jan 22, 2026, 9:45 PM
I'm sorry!

I know this doesn't help you now, but I changed the default volume to be significantly lower...

mcjiggerlogJan 22, 2026, 7:14 PM
RIP my phone's speakers. Maybe I should have read the post first..
tevans3Jan 22, 2026, 9:42 PM
I'm sorry, this was an oversight on my part!

I adjusted the default volume, so that "painfully loud" is now opt-in by default...