Night Shift, a little music toy we made for fun

This one's just for fun. Night Shift is a little music box with three rings of lights. You turn a few notes on, press Start, and let it play for a while. There's no score or anything to finish.

The idea was to make something small enough to enjoy on a phone, with a bit of the care that went into the F-35 showcase. In this case, that care went into the sound and the feel of a little instrument you can poke at.

A tune that keeps finding its way around

The low ring has six notes, the middle has ten, and the high ring has fourteen. They move at the same pace, but they take different amounts of time to get home. A few notes can make a pattern that keeps changing as the rings meet in new places.

We kept the pitches in a pentatonic scale, so you can move things around without having to know much about music. Glass has a soft bell sound, Felt is a little more rounded, and Dusk has a gentle shimmer. Try a slower pace and leave some space between the lights.

Made in the browser

All the sound is synthesized as it plays. There are no song samples. A little reverb gives the notes somewhere to hang around, and the moving lights follow the audio clock so what you see stays with what you hear.

The face is drawn in code too. The dots are real buttons, so touch and keyboard controls use the same notes. Reduced motion keeps the orbits still, and leaving the tab pauses the sound.

If you make something you like, Copy this tune's link keeps the notes, sound and pace in the link itself. It opens quietly for the next person, ready for them to press Start. Nothing gets recorded or uploaded.

What's new

We gave the little music box a much bigger sky. The brass now catches the light, the moon has a surface, and the notes send ripples through a nebula that changes with the sound. There are small galaxies inside the gems too. Tap one, then choose Look inside a gem to get closer.

You can flick a gem to spin its ring, or open Observatory and let the camera wander while your tune plays. The sound has a little more room around it now, with notes moving across your headphones and a soft layer underneath. Save a postcard makes a picture of your sky with the tune's link along the bottom. It all happens in your browser.

Musical postcards, added October 2

You can leave someone a few words with their tune now. Choose Make a musical postcard, pick Goodnight, Hello, or Thinking of you, and write a short note. You can change the lights first if you want to make it your own.

Copy the link and send it whenever you’re ready. It opens quietly in the same sky. Your friend taps Play to hear it, and Make one back starts their reply. The note stays in the link, so we don’t store it. Anyone with that link can read it.

Open a little goodnight postcard, then make one for someone you’re thinking of.