After Thursday 0.3.1 — calm, in layers

Loopra is now After Thursday. The same ambient instrument, with a new name in homage to Brian Eno's Thursday Afternoon.

This release keeps the sound engine, the 32 layers, the melody machine and your existing setup files. Settings saved in the same browser and local address remain compatible. The browser demo has a new address, so save a setup file from the old address and load it at the new one if you wish to carry your mix across.

Download After-Thursday-v0.3.1.zip, unzip it and double-click Run After Thursday.command on a Mac. Python 3 and a browser with Web Audio are required; no packages or samples are needed. On macOS or Linux, you can also run ./run.sh. See the first-opening guide.

Earlier releases remain available under their original Loopra name: v0.3.0, v0.2.0 and v0.1.1.

SHA-256 of After-Thursday-v0.3.1.zip: 336a231fffbaf53b51e55a5476e530783c5aecc74790f7bc48edb069de3e09cd.

Loopra 0.3.0 — Friday Afternoon

Loopra 0.3.0 — Friday Afternoon. A melody machine, in homage to Brian Eno's Thursday Afternoon. Everything from 0.2.0 is still there.

New

• The melody: single notes, each on its own interval. From 2 to 12 voices. Each voice keeps one note of the chord of the place and plays it again after a time drawn at random between its own shortest and longest interval (roughly 14 to 62 seconds). Melodies are never written: they happen when the notes meet. Every voice stands at its own distance in the room, from near to far. New intervals draws them again.
• The notes follow the tonal space and the Harmonic complexity. The machine plays the chord of the place (key and mode) with the same ranks as the harmonic pad: root, third and fifth always; the seventh, ninth, eleventh and thirteenth as the Harmonic complexity rises. Moving the slider never moves a note in time; it only decides which colours sound.
• Nothing rubs. Before it plays, each note is checked against the long notes of the layers and against the machine's own notes: no semitone, major seventh, minor ninth or tritone. In 20-minute offline tests over six modes, six seeds and three settings of the Harmonic complexity, none of the notes it played rubbed.
• Sound. Sine with a decay by default (as in Eno's piece); Electric piano and Soft piano are there too, and both turn into the sine in the high register, where a struck note sounds like a dry toy. All of it is synthesized in the browser: no samples.
• The harmonic pad now starts at 50 % (it was 70 %), so that it does not mask the other layers or the new notes.
• The melody machine can be switched off, and it is saved with your setup. Setups saved with 0.2.0 still open, with the machine on.

Credit. Friday Afternoon is a homage to Brian Eno's Thursday Afternoon. How such a machine is built became clear thanks to Reverb Machine's deconstruction of the piece; nothing of theirs is used here, no sample and no code.

Earlier versions stay available: Loopra 0.2.0 as release v0.2.0, and the original as release v0.1.1, each with its own tag.

Requires Python 3 (to serve the files locally) and a browser with Web Audio. Nothing to install, no samples, no model downloads. On a Mac, double-click Run Loopra.command; elsewhere, ./run.sh.

macOS will ask you to confirm before it opens the launcher, the first time. This page explains why, and how to go on.

Check that your download is the file that was published. SHA-256 of Loopra-v0.3.0.zip:

d317450da0055ec8679519fd98649a9abd7b93f7eff2b56442929b6298cccc09

In Terminal: shasum -a 256 ~/Downloads/Loopra-v0.3.0.zip. The two must match.

Licence: MIT.

Loopra 0.2.0 — Stage: a place with depth

Loopra 0.2.0 — Stage: a place with depth. Everything from 0.1.1 is still there; every layer now sits at its own distance, from at your ears to on the horizon.

New

• Staging, Walking and Space. Each layer is tagged EAR, NEAR, ROOM, HALL or FAR. Close sounds are dry, bright and a little to one side on headphones; far ones are dark and washed in a very large reverberation. Walking lets the layers drift nearer and farther over minutes; Space goes from a small room to a vast hall.
• Variation: every pass of a loop is a new take, a little earlier or later, softer or louder, in another position. Zero repeats exactly, as in 0.1.1.
• Richer timbres: struck sounds lose their upper partials first, with a soft touch of felt or glass; High air and Paper air gain a real breath. Choose Classic for the original pure tones.
• The harmonic pad is the foundation: its card stands apart from the others and it has a level of its own, starting at 70 % so that it does not mask the other layers.
• Silk & light starts quiet: this sustained veil of high notes almost never stops and sits where the other layers have little energy, so it now starts at 12 % of its old level. It is still an ordinary on/off layer.
• A seed, shown in the footer and saved with your setup, makes every room and every take reproducible.
• Listening on: headphones put the closest sounds beside your ears; speakers rely on level, darkness and reverberation alone.

The original is still here. Loopra 0.1.1 stays available as release v0.1.1 and as the tag v0.1.1.

Requires Python 3 (to serve the files locally) and a browser with Web Audio. Nothing to install, no samples, no model downloads. On a Mac, double-click Run Loopra.command; elsewhere, ./run.sh.

macOS will ask you to confirm before it opens the launcher, the first time. This page explains why, and how to go on.

Check that your download is the file that was published. SHA-256 of Loopra-v0.2.0.zip:

261abc94972310d690596987d041b4487188c076ebacc7286c7677df29c6cb3b

In Terminal: shasum -a 256 ~/Downloads/Loopra-v0.2.0.zip. The two must match.

Licence: MIT.

Loopra 0.1.1 — calm, in layers

Loopra 0.1.1 — calm, in layers

Loopra is a small ambient instrument for unhurried listening, made entirely in the browser. Free and open source, with an English interface.

Download Loopra-v0.1.1.zip below, under Assets, and unzip it. Keep the whole folder together, then double-click Run Loopra.command on a Mac. Python 3 is required; there are no Python packages or models to install.

Its 32 synthesized layers repeat at different lengths in one shared key and mode. Pads and bowed bass hold a quiet foundation; bells, felt piano, glass, discreet arpeggios, ripples and rare little calls pass through it.

• Choose 0–32 layers, or switch them individually.
• Use each layer's headphone button to listen to it alone. Sparse sounds play a short audition immediately; switching Solo off restores your chosen mix.
• Explore 12 root notes, seven modes and softly enriched harmonies.
• Draw new loop lengths, and save or load a portable setup.
• Run locally on macOS or Linux, or serve dist/ on a static web host.

No package installation, account, samples or external audio services. The interface and documentation are in English. All audio is synthesized locally; this version has no audio import, recording or audio-file export.

Released under the MIT license. The source includes launchers, documentation and 17 automated audio tests.

This version

The new launcher opens a fresh page and checks both the folder and the app build before reusing a running server. If an older copy already occupies the local port, it chooses another. This fixes the case where unzipping the update still appeared to open the old interface.

Look for v0.1.1 in the footer and the headphone button on every layer. Audio import and the manual “Send a call” controls have been removed; Distant calls remain an automatic layer.

Validated with 17 audio tests and six launcher integration tests, including two extracted copies running at once and reusing a copy's existing port when a lower port becomes free.

First opening on a Mac

macOS may ask you to confirm before running a downloaded launcher. For a trusted download, the usual path after trying to open it is System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway. The full explanation is in READ-ME.txt inside the ZIP and in the first-opening guide.

Keep the Terminal window open while listening, then click Start listening in the browser. The download's SHA-256 fingerprint is supplied in the separate Loopra-v0.1.1-SHA256SUMS.txt asset.

Jean-Pascal — Quick-Eyed Sky on YouTube, QES on Hugging Face.

If it gives you a quiet afternoon, you can buy me a coffee. Entirely optional, and Loopra stays exactly as free either way.