From artist to software developer and back. A celloist’s perspective on Web Audio

Hilke Ros

During this talk I will elaborate on the interaction between my work as both a musician and a software coder and how my experiences in both areas come together in the production of my first web audio album.

Having a background as a classically trained musician and after touring internationally with an indie pop band, I deal with 3 main issues during the process of creating music in the new web audio format.

1. As a coding artist, I try to mould the Web Audio API into actionable music tools. Therefore, I started to translate the Tone.js Framework into a Ruby gem.

2. I try to find a balance between the coding part and my ‘normal’ music workflow, i.e. sketching ideas with the intuitive user interface of professional DAW software, in my case: Ableton Live. Therefore I need to find an easy way to transfer musical content between the Ableton and the Web Audio environments.

3. How can I create music with a 'story' and emotional compact in the context of generative and interactive composing techniques?