Ambient Town

The question

If AI is going to replace us, maybe, can it also support my creativity instead of replacing it? That is what drives me. The whole point of this instrument is that I play more music.

I added everything I wanted. It has Ableton Push support, so I can perform on the pads. It takes more than one microphone and more than one audio interface at once: my Universal Audio Apollo for the preamps, and a second microphone beside it. Most audio workstations cannot do that. The effects are built in, and it loads VST and Audio Unit plug-ins, so you can bring your own.

What I do in the video

I jam. I set something up in Lydian, because uplifting suits the theme, and hold notes in a long reverb.

I ask for birds. The app is agent native. I ask it to create birdsong and play it in Lydian too. It finds an instrument, makes the sound and adds it to the piece. The synthesizer it plays is one I made as well. There is so much in here that I still have to learn how to control it.

I capture what I just played. It is recording even when I am not doing anything with it. I hit capture, on screen or on the Push, and drag what I played onto the timeline.

I push sounds back. There is a depth layer. The further down you put a sound, the more it sits in the background.

I sing. I capture a melody with my voice. You can beatbox too. Voice memos from my iPhone sync in as local samples.

I add effects. A spectral blur, then a chain, which is a set of effects. Each one has a preview. If I like it I keep it, and I can still edit it by hand.

I ask again. A drone, very light and soft, textural, in the background.

I drag in sounds from the library. They are not really samples. They are made algorithmically with the plug-ins in the app and kept as MIDI, so they change to the key the piece is in.

What is under it

• A sound engine built on JUCE that runs in the browser as WebAssembly. I have had no performance problems with it.
• A Mac app and a web version. It works on an iPad and on a phone.
• A phone or a tablet as a remote: perform on the iPad and it stays in sync with the computer.
• Ableton Link, and audio streamed to Ableton Live.
• Several people in one piece, and projects and music you can share.
• An agent inside the app, WebMCP, and an ordinary MCP server. An agent in a coding session can do everything in the software.

How a piece works

The field is a room. It has 24 rows from front to back. A stroke on the top row is close, bright and dry. Each row down makes it quieter, duller and further into a long dark room.

Loops that never line up. Each sound loops at a length of its own, the way tape loops of unequal length do. You only say how long before the piece comes round to the same place: ten minutes, an hour, eight hours or never.

Strokes age. Left alone, a stroke sinks a few rows on every pass until it fades at the back wall. What you are working on stays at the front.

My vibe check

I am amazed that I built all these effects, or that AI built them. It has things Ableton Live does not have.

I think we are entering an era where we can build anything, and the only thing holding us back is our own imagination. The model does not push me to do what it wants. It augments me, and I feel supported by it.

If you use a professional piece of software, as a filmmaker or a CAD designer or anyone else, go and make your own version. Make one that is yours, more creative and more fun.

The Radio

A finished piece can be published to the Square, the public side of the site, as audio or as the piece itself, which plays live in the visitor's browser. The Radio plays every published piece, one into the next, without end.

Try it

Go to ambient.town and sign in with your Every account. Access is free. Please share what you make.