Aeon

A generative ambient soundscape instrument that runs entirely in the browser. Every sound is synthesized live with the Web Audio API — no samples, no recordings. Underneath runs a slowly evolving system that wanders on its own; you nudge its tendencies rather than play notes, so it never quite holds still.

Demo: https://florinandrei.github.io/aeon-generative-soundscape/

Run it locally

No build step and no dependencies — just static files. Serve the directory with caching disabled and open it in a browser. Always disable caching: the app is plain ES modules with no build step, so a normal server lets the browser hold on to stale modules — you can edit a file, reload, and still be running the old code.

# http.server has no cache flag, so send Cache-Control: no-store ourselves.
python3 -c "import http.server as s; H=s.SimpleHTTPRequestHandler; _e=H.end_headers; H.end_headers=lambda self:(self.send_header('Cache-Control','no-store'),_e(self)); s.test(HandlerClass=H,port=8137)"
# then open http://localhost:8137/index.html

Click tap to begin to start audio (browsers require a gesture). Headphones recommended.

What's going on

Five layers, all generated from oscillators and runtime-built noise:

• Drone — detuned oscillators, the ground the rest floats on
• Sub — deep sine bass that swells in like a tide
• Pad — diatonic chords that fade in and out over many seconds
• Motes — FM bell/droplets, panned and echoing through the space
• Air — filtered noise, the "wind"

Notes stay within a musical scale (so it's always consonant), and the key drifts on its own over time.

Controls

Press H — or tap the ☰ button — to show/hide the panel.

• Volume / Sub — master level and how loud the low end sits
• Density, Brightness, Space, Drift, Motion — macro "tendencies" that nudge the system; it eases toward them with inertia rather than snapping:
  • Density — how often the pads and motes fire (sparse drips → busy texture)
  • Brightness — tone and sparkle (filter openness and the motes' FM richness)
  • Space — reverb wetness, the sense of a larger room around the sound
  • Drift — how fast the system mutates itself (steady → restless, more frequent key/mood changes)
  • Motion — delay/echo amount and stereo movement across the field
• Freeze — hold the current moment (pauses the autonomous drift; you can still nudge)
• Evening — a warm low-pass over everything
• Key & Mood — pick the root and scale (or let it drift)
• Layers — mute/solo each voice
• Seed — the soundscape's evolution is reproducible from a seed carried in the URL hash; share the link to share the exact soundscape, or load a new seed
• Record — capture the live output to a downloadable audio file

Tech

Vanilla JavaScript ES modules, the Web Audio API, and a <canvas> for the reactive visuals. No frameworks, no bundler, no dependencies. See CLAUDE.md for the architecture.