Categories
Sound

Echotect — Turn your hood into a delay

I created the open source application Echotect, which allows you to turn your hood into a delay. It can also be used as an acoustic lab on some level. Add reflection points, structures, and use included global building data for automatic echo field mapping.

https://janne-s.github.io/Echotect/

The project can be exported as impulse response files to the reverb you use and the like; as stems of the echo field, and as the entire wet track. A Max4Live device is included, where you can import the echo field manifest in JSON format. You can also import the same JSON into your own applications.

It is possible to import an image into Echotect: a set design image, maybe a historical map or just a cool image that you want to match echo points to. There’s a scale tool to calibrate the image to real world measurements.

The Max4Live device is by default four-channel to implement surround sound if necessary, but go wild with it.

I personally like listening to sound from somewhere further away and finding interesting perspectives for music mixing and the like. The app basically allows IR file creation from any location, which I’d imagine could have uses in movie sound design.

The app is not designed to be a hard core acoustic simulator, but it goes a long way there. Reflections have reflections and they are affected by real world occlusions and other freely adjustable parameters. Deeper echo fields are best created in the render mode.

Categories
Web

Algohol — Algorithms Compete

Algohol is an experimental, physics-based 3D game in which the player is an algorithm—or a team of algorithms. Instead of controlling the game directly, players design a game AI. The AI observes and interacts with the environment through an API.

The project shows what happens when programming, game design, physics simulation, and agentic development come together in a competitive arena. You can build algorithms using any language or technology that communicates with the API.

The current Sci-Fi and Space environments feature energy-based systems, physical constraints, multidimensional movement, and a range of tactical challenges. Terra plans to add traditional kinetic action across varied terrains in the future environment.

Real-time control requires fast and responsive algorithms, which makes current LLMs impractical as direct pilots. They can still play a useful role as high-level strategists and as tools for designing, testing, and iterating on control systems. The API supports this iterative workflow, while arena matches make it possible to compare algorithms across multiple performance metrics.

Each player receives a private arena they can freely modify and share with invited participants. Public arenas allow people to watch matches and assess how different approaches perform.

I developed Algohol as both a game concept and an experiment in agentic coding. Much of the implementation was created in collaboration with coding agents, particularly Claude and Codex in Visual Studio Code. The project gave me a concrete setting in which to explore AI-assisted software development, API design, real-time simulation, and the challenge of turning an unusual idea into a working system.

Algohol may also offer an approachable introduction to agentic coding: it provides a clear objective, visible results, and a playful environment for experimentation.

Explore the project:
https://algohol.net

Watch the public arenas:
https://arena.algohol.net

The documentation includes a starter prompt for creating a first algorithm:
https://docs.algohol.net/?doc=howtoplay-getting-started

 

Categories
Visual

Concept: Anti-Establishment Ambient

Concept art for a project, which explores the power of sound.

Elements created with ChatGPT, and finished in Photoshop.

Categories
Music

Bad Boys Blue – I Wanna Hear Your Heartbeat Sunday Candy Girl Remix

This is a remix of Bad Boys Blue classic 80s hit I Wanna Hear Your Heartbeat. It’s the favourite track of paramedics and intensive care units.

I have used vocals from the hit’s 1st recording session version because of their clarity compared to the final released version.

Together with the vocals I have spliced in a couple of other elements from the original track. My idea was to make a more chilled and laid back version of the original high energy tune.

I learned to appreciate the original track even more during the process. It’s richly orchestrated brilliant pop song.

The track has been mastered with LANDR online service. It improved the sound, but lacks the character and potential a mastering engineer could create. It’s OK for less serious productions in my opinion.

Categories
Web

VaxVsBug — An Interactive Vaccine Risk Comparison App

I’ve released VaxVsBug, an interactive web app for exploring vaccine side effects, infectious disease outcomes, and the effect of community vaccination rates on disease risk.

The app uses simple probability grids and a shared scenario model to make vaccine and infection risk easier to understand visually. It is designed as an educational vaccine comparison tool, not a medical or diagnostic app.

VaxVsBug compares:

  • vaccination effects
  • infection effects
  • community vaccination and disease spread
  • disease-specific risk patterns across multiple vaccine-preventable diseases

A key part of the project has been grounding the model carefully. The app’s data, wording, and source links have gone through manual review, and the documentation includes separate notes on data integrity and the app’s environmental_hostility method.

VaxVsBug is open source and part of my broader multidisciplinary practice of creating digital, artistic, and experimental works such as GeoBuzz.

Live site:
https://vaxvsbug.com

Repo (docs + assumptions)
https://github.com/janne-s/VaxVsBug

If you find this project meaningful, you can support its continued development and future independent work with a small donation.