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core pop sleephellsine
3 folders · 2 files
assets
bin
c
README.md
sleephellsine.illy.txt
README.md

sleephellsine #

A 15-minute sleep mix forked from pop/hellsine. Where hellsine is the 2:42 hardcore single — D minor, 182 BPM, sampled SFX, vocals, drums — sleephellsine is the calm winter twin: pure sine voices walking the circle of fifths under a slow brownian rumble.

The formula #

The harmonic root walks the circle of fifths (C → G → D → A → E → B → F# → C# → G# → D# → A# → F → C), one chord every 5 seconds. One full rotation takes 60 seconds; the piece is 15 rotations.

Two upper sine voices each play a chord tone of the current chord (the M3 and the P5). They oscillate sinusoidally around the chord's midpoint in contrary motion — one cycle per chord, ±1.5 semitones — so the voices cross twice per chord at the M3/P5 midpoint.

At every crossing, a long deep root bell fires in the C2 octave (800 ms slow attack, 9 s exponential decay). The bell is the chord's root, two octaves below the uppers; the long tails layer up into a soft harmonic cushion underneath the moving uppers.

The chord centre is voice-led between adjacent chords with a 520 ms one-pole glide, so the upper octave drifts smoothly between chords instead of jumping. The mathematical formula always produces a chord interval between the two voices.

Engine #

  • Single C engine: c/sleephellsine.c (libc + libm + libpthread).
  • Pure sine throughout — no samples, no drums, no vocals.
  • AC "crosssies" detune (±2¢ pair per voice) keeps the chorus alive.
  • "Wavery" ±6¢ random-walk wobble per voice for organic life on the held chord tones.
  • Soft brownian noise bed underneath — independent stereo walks, slow 90 s sneak-in, dry (no reverb send).
  • Schroeder reverb (4 comb + 2 allpass per channel, FB = 0.78, ~6 s tail) on the upper voices + root bells.

Audio target #

  • Length: 15:00 final master (engine renders 15:10, bake fades out for 14 s and truncates).
  • Master: -28 LUFS sleep target, TP -6 dBTP, soft limiter at 0.35, 60 s fade-in from silence, 14 s fade-out, soft -1.5 dB shelf at 4 kHz to tame any bell-cluster brightness.

Files #

  • c/sleephellsine.c — the engine.
  • c/build.sh — builds c/sleephellsine.
  • bin/bake.mjs — builds (if stale) → renders → loudnorm/limiter → wav
    • 320 mp3. Single command for a fresh master.
  • bin/gen-score.mjs — generates the graphic score (PNG + PDF) and out/sleephellsine-events.json (crossing times, chord roots, chord names — for downstream tools).
  • bin/gen-illy.mjs — cover generator (pixsies series identity).
  • sleephellsine.illy.txt — cover prompt.

Run #

# render + master in one go (builds the C engine if needed)
node pop/sleephellsine/bin/bake.mjs

# regenerate the graphic score + events JSON
node pop/sleephellsine/bin/gen-score.mjs

# generate cover (cached unless --force)
node pop/sleephellsine/bin/gen-illy.mjs

# embed cover into the rendered mp3 after the fact
node pop/sleephellsine/bin/gen-illy.mjs --embed-only

Master output: ~/Documents/Shelf/sleephellsine/sleephellsine-MASTER.wav and sleephellsine.mp3.