Generate music/sound from current note

Plugins ideas
1

I would like a plugin to generate music/sound from the current note. It could use as input things like word count, character count, number, level, and text of headings, number and text of links to and from, etc. For performance it’s probably best to use things that Obsidian indexes and makes available rather than things that require more processing to fetch. There should be some settings for complexity, pace, types of sounds, etc. Processing should happen locally, not thru an online service.

I picture this as an ongoing soundtrack while using the vault, but there could be an option to just generate a track of a requested length.

Some potential fun options not really connected to the main function:

  • A command to sing text of the current note, or the selected text.
  • When you scrub the scroll bar quickly up and down it makes a record scratching sound. (There could be other options, like a swoosh or trill.)

This plugin idea was inspired by the name of the Obsidian Soundscapes plugin.

An obvious (but perhaps too confusing) name for the plugin would be “Musical Notes”.

Related request, which if ever fulfilled might have code that could be borrowed: Add your own music to the background or when folder is open

3 Likes
2

I think this could be very interesting… The way I’d probably approach it would be to focus on a more ambient sound with a few different oscillators. Off the top of my head, I would probably suggest:

  • One consistent key for the entire vault. Perhaps set as an option.
  • We can easily convert from any numerical value (including hashes) to a note within a given scale using a modulus to index into a scale array. This could be just 7, or higher if we want specific octaves.
  • One main “drone” oscillator that sets the current root note. This shouldn’t change too frequently – perhaps it should be based on a hash of the full note name?
  • Another, higher “melody” oscillator which changes more frequently, but still slowly – perhaps current line number?
  • Perhaps a more rhythmic arpeggio could come in based on a chord (generated from the root note + the melody?), with its volume/velocity tied to your current pace of typing – in other words, the more quickly you’re generating content, the more present it is in the mix.
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3

somehow makes me thinks of orca:

https://100r.co/site/orca.html

1 Like
4

Good ideas!

I think I’d want >1 key for variety and a greater sense of “place” within the vault, so maybe the options would be to set the key based on the name of the

  • vault
  • root folder
  • folder path (max depth selectable)
  • full folder path
  • file name

And for some of those the key could be selected manually.

I might find this distracting, but I think it’s a good option.

1 Like
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I’ve just remembered @chrsle 's trick of keeping Obsidian open in background on mobile by playing media in the vault. This plugin should make sure that doesn’t happen by default — but it could be a nice option if you want to listen to your vault soundtrack a lot. And there could be a silent option if you just want to use it to keep the app open in the background.

The plugin should probably have an available sidebar panel and/or ribbon button so users can adjust the sound and other options easily.

And just to start the scope creep early, it might be nice to have an optional “context” modifier that changes everything based on season, time, weather, and/or light/dark mode (or even optionally uses those as the only basis for the sound).

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