On Saturday, January 18, 2014, Web Music Developers JP and Google co-hosted the Web Music Hackathon #2.

Web MIDI API mascot "MidiHappy" designed by g200kg

The goal was to build something in a single day using various browser APIs born out of recent advancements in web technology, such as:

Despite being the very first installment, the previous event produced a lot of wonderful projects. You can check out how that went in this blog post:

How Far Can the Web Merge with Musical Instruments? ~ Hosting the Web Music Hackathon

Once again, with the cooperation of AMEI (Association of Musical Electronics Industry), musical instruments were brought in by Yamaha, KORG, Roland, and Crimson Technology, while NTT Communications provided a WebRTC environment.

The demo shown during the opening by Mr. Watanabe from Roland perfectly illustrates the potential of this field. Be sure to check it out:

When the doors opened, we had over 30 participants—exceeding the turnout of the first event—along with numerous observers from each manufacturer and members of the press (Monthly I/O magazine). The venue, the Google Hanabi office, was filled with tremendous energy.

Demos #

The hackathon kicked off just before noon, development wrapped up at 4:30 PM, and we transitioned into demo time. Once again, more than 20 fantastic projects were presented. The demos were live-streamed, and you can watch the archive here along with other photos.

That said, the video runs for about 2 hours and 45 minutes in total. Since that's quite long and I can't showcase every single project, I've picked out a few that left a strong personal impression (even this is a heavily narrowed-down selection). (Images link directly to the start time of each demo in the video.)

An instrument that performs the source code of CoffeeCollider (created by @mohayonao) in real time. The project is here by CCKB Committee Team.

A Hatsune Miku vocal project using the eVY1 powered by Yamaha's new sound generator, the NSX1. Brilliant punchline. The project is here (eVY1 required) by Hitori ni Natchatta Team.

My-hi.net, a service where you authenticate with a Twitter account and leave a 2-second greeting. You can hear other people's voices by mousing over. by aklaswad

A project that turned an empty can into a MIDI instrument. by Kodama

A demo controlling a 3D model of "MidiHappy"—the Web MIDI API mascot character unveiled at this hackathon, designed by g200kg (gaito-san)—in WebGL using a MIDI controller. by g200kg

The flashiest demo of the event. A setup combining a mirror ball controlled via Leap Motion, a MIDI controller, and visualizers that react to music. by Magicians of Light Group X Team

The runner-up project. An app that uses Leap Motion to adjust the volume and instruments played through gestures. The output is visualized by lighting up pads on an Ableton Push. The movements look remarkably cool. by mtomasz

And the winning project: a Chrome Extension that turns Google Spreadsheets into a music sequencer. Clever touches include using spreadsheet cell referencing to represent chords. by hirono

Wrap-up #

Interestingly, about half of the attendees were returning for their second time, which goes to show how much fun the first one was. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to join the after-party, but I'm sure everyone had a great time there as well.

We've been talking about continuing to hold this hackathon regularly to gradually build an environment where more musical projects can be created.

For future events, if you join the mailing list or the Google+ Community, Ryoya Kawai—who played a central role in organizing both this and the previous event—will surely keep you updated with the latest information in this space.

We look forward to seeing you there!