Letter Orchestra
Type anything. Every letter plays a note. Hit Play it back to hear the whole thing as a song.
Sound is off. Press Turn sound on.
Play
Guide
I made this because I saw Orca, a music thing where every letter is an instrument, and I was like ok but what if typing a text message was a whole song. So now it is. Here's how to drive it.
Turn the sound on
Press Turn sound on at the top. You'll hear a little three note chime. If you hear nothing, flip the ring switch on the side of your phone off silent and turn the volume up. Phones are shy about web sounds until you tap something, so that button is the tap.
What each key does
- Letters play notes from a scale that basically can't sound bad. I tried. I typed my whole name and it slapped.
- a is the lowest note and z is the highest.
- Vowels (a, e, i, o, u) play a soft, long version of the instrument, like a pad. Consonants play the short, plucky version.
- Numbers are drums: 1 kick, 2 snare, 3 closed hat, 4 open hat, 5 high tom, 6 low tom, 7 kick plus snare, 8 kick plus hat, 9 snare plus open hat, 0 kick plus open hat. Spam 1212 for instant beat.
- Space is a rest, so you get a little pause.
- ! is a crash, ? is a rising boop, and . is a tiny click.
- Every new line is its own track, and all the lines play at the same time. Put drums on line one, bass on line two, melody on line three. Congrats, you have a band.
Play it back
- Play it back plays every line together, one character per eighth note.
- Stop, or the Escape key, shuts it up.
- Loop is on by default. Each line loops on its own, so a short line repeats under a long one. Turn Loop off to play it once.
- Tempo goes from 60 to 200 BPM. You can edit the text while it plays and it picks up your changes live.
Instruments
Pick an instrument, then type. The letters remember the instrument they were typed with. Switch instruments mid-typing to stack sounds in one track. There are 17: Chiptune, Dreamy, Bass, Piano, 808 Bass, Pluck, Super Saw, Bell, Organ, Flute, Strings Pad, Steel Drum, Guitar Pluck, Choir Ooh, Wobble Bass, Keys and Reese bass. All made from scratch, no samples. Wobble Bass wobbles in time with your tempo, so it's dubstep ready. Drums and punctuation always sound the same.
Effects
The Effects section has seven effects, a bit like the mixer in FL Studio. Each one has a button to turn it on and a slider for how strong it is. They work on live typing, on playback and on Export WAV. Effects are for the whole song, not single letters. Pro tip: Bitcrusher plus Reverb plus Filter sweep is instant lo-fi.
Demos
Each demo button loads a starter song in a genre, with its own tempo, instruments and effects. It replaces your text, so export first if you made a banger. Then press Play it back. Read the lines to see how it's built, then wreck it and make it yours.
Export WAV
Export WAV saves one pass of your song as letter-orchestra.wav, with the instruments and effects you picked, so you can drop it straight into a DAW. Yes, your group chat can now be a sample pack.
VoiceOver tips
- Nothing talks over VoiceOver while you type. The sound is the feedback.
- Use whatever typing style you like (standard, touch or direct touch). The sound plays as each character goes in.
- If VoiceOver's voice makes the notes go quiet, turn Audio Ducking off in the VoiceOver Audio settings.
- Jump around by headings: Play, Guide, Effects, Demos and Try a phrase are all headings.
- The sliders go in steps of 5. Swipe up or down on them to change the value.
- No sound ever plays until you press or type something.
Effects
Demos
Pick a genre to load a starter song.