How Commit FM makes music
Commit FM is a generative synthesizer shaped by public GitHub activity. It creates an ambient composition in your browser using an arpeggio, a pad and a bass voice.
Public GitHub activity
The source is GitHub’s public-events feed, covering activity across repositories. The mix of pushes, pull requests, merges, releases and conversations influences rhythm, note choices and harmony.
The meters count events in the latest received sample, not totals for all of GitHub. The feed is capped and delayed. GitHub reports delays of 30 seconds to six hours; the header shows the age of the newest event we received.
Open the GitHub card to inspect the sample, its repository links, the last successful check, and the current key and notes. Events are paced into the music, and composition changes take effect at musical boundaries.
Composition
The instrument uses its own scales, phrases and patterns to turn repository data into music. Phrasing and filter modulation continue between updates. If data becomes unavailable, the composition continues using the last valid inputs.
Reloading starts another performance. Stop and Play continue the current one. Select DATA to return the arpeggiator to automatic composition.
Controls
Press Play, then adjust the voices, filters, envelopes and effects. Open Routing to connect data and modulation sources to the controls. Filter knobs set the base cutoff; automatic movement and cable modulation are applied around that setting.
Orbit, Phase and Score show aspects of the performance. Code animates excerpts from the project’s source. Its typing and edits are part of the animation.