Headspace

Headspace is a dynamic soundtrack player for the web, based on the game Hardspace Shipbreaker by Blackbird Interactive.

It plays back multiple sound files while allowing the user to control levels according to a pre-defined parameter mapping. This turns a song into an instrument you can play.

Demo at: https://headspace.acko.net/.

Running Locally

Running a local copy:

node and yarn required
git clone this repo
cd headspace
yarn install
node scripts/process-music.js
yarn start

Format

The headspace album/track format is documented in FORMAT.md. If you put new album data inside /music, node scripts/process-music.js will pick it up and allow you to play it with the UI remotely.

It can carry arbitrary number of layers, parameters, and even custom mixing formulas (via a simple AST).

Auto-Control

The playback parameters can be controlled remotely by opening e.g.:

https://headspace.acko.net/#listen=http://localhost:44100.

This is used by the Visual Studio Code extension to provide a live coding soundtrack.

The player will connect to an HTTP EventStream (i.e. Server-Sent Events) at the given url (http://localhost:44100). It will expect JSON-formatted packets with parameter updates, e.g.:

{"activity": 0.24, "hazard": 0.31}

Adding a time value will control the speed of transitions, though this is still hard-limited by an internal limit of 150ms and plenty of smoothing.

Changelog

2021-04-29

Add shuffle and volume
Dip main score by 10% on full hazard
Put a slight curve on the hazard level to lower intensity at 50%

Colofon

Code by unconed. Music extracted from .WEM using VGMStream. Thanks to hcs.