Aster! Sphere

SPHERE is an Orbital Chamber Choir.

No loops. No samples. The choir conducts itself — and avoids itself.

How it works:
5 rings (0.95, 0.76, 0.58, 0.41, 0.26) orbit at 0.12, -0.18, 0.26, -0.34, 0.44. Each ring has 4-6 bells, each bell tuned to major pentatonic from your chosen root C/D/E/F/G/A (130Hz to 220Hz). 5 octaves deep: outer ring Pad (oct 2) to inner ring Kalimba (oct 5).[0][2][4][7][9]

The conductor watches active voices (2-10 limit). It weights rings by headroom, avoids pitch collisions within 40 cents, avoids repeating last pitch, and favors stepwise motion. Cooldown = 1.2/pace * (1+active*0.7) * random. When mix is full it waits. When quiet, it sings.

You throw stars. Stars have 3 energy, 8s life, gentle gravity to center, trails of 22. They bounce off bells (velocity *0.72) and trigger the bell if pitch doesn't collide — 35 cent check, transposed ±40 cents for variety. Ripples expand 1-(1-t)^2.4. Stars die in a burst of 8 particles.

6 Voice Characters:
Bell 2.756/5.404 - metallic
Glass 2.010/3.47 - bright
Pluck 2.0/3.0 - short 0.4s
Choir 2.0/3.001 - 0.35s attack
Pad 2.005/3.995 - 0.55s attack, 2.2s release
Kalimba 2.0/3.93 - plucky

Each voice = 3 sine partials with 6 cent detune, lowpass envelope cut*2.2 -> cut -> cut*0.35, amp envelope vel*0.22. All through bus: master -> compressor (-14dB/4:1/6ms/160ms) -> limiter (-1.2dB/20:1) -> out. Reverb path: master -> HP 240Hz -> convolver 1.8s decay 2.4 -> duck -> wet 0.38 -> compressor. Ducking: new note ducks reverb to 0.62 for 320ms so attacks cut through.

Controls:
Pace 0.2-2.5, Voices 2-10, Volume 0.55, Reverb 0.38, Glow 0.3-2.2
Click = send star, Space = star, H = hide UI, M = mute, C = clear
Mix meter 10 bars: QUIET / ACTIVE / FULL / DENSE. Sun pulses with voice hue, pips orbit sun for active voices.

Click to begin. Let it conduct.

DEVELOPER NOTES:

This build is entirely in HTML5 and based on a Unity prototype.

If you would like me to update and expand this file please consider donating.

Let me know in the comments what desired improvements or bugs you experience and we will update it for Version 2.

Aster! Sphere is free to play, if you would like to purchase the zip file you can use the source code to Aster! Sphere in your projects.