JE
jefftbyrd/Earthsong
Listen to the planet.
Earthsong
Huge 2025 EARTH SONG update is here!
- EARTH SONG is now fully responsive and compatible with mobile devices and tablets. All features, including special audio effects work on mobile!
- Added universal navigation menu to easily move between different parts of the application.
- Added extensive “help” documentation (accessible via the GUIDE menu item) that explains how to interact with different parts of Earthsong.
- Big upgrades to journey snapshot SAVE and RECALL functionality.
- Location and sound fetching are now faster and more robust.
- Entire application is now in TypeScript!
- Fixed numerous bugs and inconsistencies.
- Many enhancements to the Earthsong Sound Portal.
- Adjusted animations and visual elements to run more smoothly and efficiently.
EARTH SONG is...
- a portal for exploring the sounds of other places
- a tool for sonic inspiration
- a surprising and unpredictable sonic adventure
What does it do?
- Listen to sounds from anywhere on Earth
- Discover surprising interactions and harmonies between sounds
- Build your own soundscapes in EARTH SONG's interactive 3-dimensional Sound Portal
- Mutate and transform sounds in real-time: reverse direction, change playback speed, "tune" sounds to each other
How does it work?
- Choose a place to explore by selecting a point on the map
- EARTH SONG searches freesound.org - a massive collaborative database of user-contributed audio recordings - for sounds from that location
- 5 sounds are selected at random and loaded into the EARTH SONG Sound Portal, a sonic playground where you can audition, manipulate and mix sounds to create your own custom sound environment
- Registered users can save and recall their favorite journeys
Technologies
- Next.js
- TypeScript/JavaScript
- Node.js with RESTful API
- PostgreSQL
- p5.js for animation and sound visualization.
- tone.js for sound playback and manipulation.
- mapbox for the interactive globe.
- Sounds are sourced from Freesound.org, a collaborative database of user-contributed audio content. All sounds are released under Creative Commons licenses that allow their reuse.
Thanks to
- Sara El Abed, Anton Kolomoiets and Lukas Prochazka for technical and emotional support.
- Michael Jeffrey Lee for the name EARTH SONG, which is also a song from the forthcoming Budokan Boys album, THE OOZE.
- Sunny Sun, who shared cloud sim, the p5 sketch that Earthsong’s cloud overlay animation was adapted from.
- Freesound.org and all who contribute to it.