maytrax #

a prodigy-shaped techno track with juno-reactor / matrix-soundtrack energy. the rhythmic spine is breakbeat-driven big-beat techno — not 4-on-the-floor — with a layered distorted 909 kick underneath. over the top: hoover stabs (already in pop/hippyhayzard/synths/ hoover.mjs), acid 303 squelch, orchestral hit accents (brass / flugelhorn / church bell, already sampled in pop/hellsine/samples/), and jeffrey vocal shouts on the drops.

the lane question: can the early-90s rave/big-beat/film-action sound (matrix reloaded "burly brawl", prodigy "firestarter", juno reactor "god is god") be reconstructed bottom-up from AC primitives

• a small palette of already-licensed sample sources, without sampling the films themselves?

why "maytrax" #

phonetic riff on matrix. the film score (don davis + juno reactor) isn't sampleable for release — every track ships to distrokid, so any borrowed audio would have to clear with warner. instead this lane rebuilds the textures: detuned-saw hoover stabs, sanskrit-vowel formant chops, taiko-shaped distorted 909, brass-hit punctuation, breakbeat under it all.

ingredients #

cc0 reference samples (taiko, sanskrit chants, big orchestral hits) land in samples/ as they're auditioned.

usage #

# render the bed to out/maytrax.mp3
node pop/maytrax/bin/maytrax.mjs

# with overrides
node pop/maytrax/bin/maytrax.mjs --bpm 140 --out ~/m.mp3

microtrax #

microtrax keeps pianotrax's A-major ragtime motion but removes the piano entirely. Short additive-sine bells play the syncopated figures over continuous four-on-the-floor sine booms and tiny 16th-note clockwork. Its 72 bars at 144 BPM land exactly at 2:00.

node pop/maytrax/bin/render-microtrax.mjs
# → out/microtrax.mp3

femrag plays the same two-minute micro-rag through a marimba-like hybrid of bowl body modes and the FEM-derived shell modes from pop/bell:

node pop/maytrax/bin/render-femrag.mjs
# → out/femrag.mp3

femrag++ grows femrag into a 2:33 drum-and-bass engine: act one keeps the sine-only micro-rag, then a snare-roll buildup (8ths → 32nds under a noise riser) drops into straight two-step dnb — noise snares/hats, a tanh-driven sub walking the rag's roots, wobble-bass breakdown, and a second, harder drop with fills every fourth bar:

node pop/maytrax/bin/render-femrag-plusplus.mjs
# → out/femrag-plusplus.mp3

To watch the released track as a scrolling instrument score:

# Restore timing receipts if they are missing locally.
node pop/bin/remote-workspace.mjs fetch maytrax/femrag-plusplus.events.json
node pop/bin/remote-workspace.mjs fetch maytrax/femrag-plusplus.struct.json
node pop/maytrax/bin/score-video-femrag-plusplus.mjs --open
# → out/femrag-plusplus-score.mp4 (1280×720, 24 fps)

Uses out/femrag-plusplus-release.mp3; --audio selects another matching render. --frame 34 exports a still for inspection. Bell and bass height follows MIDI pitch; reverse bells are wedges, and throat bass is violet. Percussion widths represent display envelopes where the receipt has no duration.

conventions #

• bpm: 138–142 (prodigy classic; firestarter=140, breathe=137)
• form: intro (4 bars) → drop (8 bars) → break (4 bars) → drop (8 bars) → outro (4 bars)
• key: F minor (matrix-noir flavor; works with hoover detune)
• mp3 out lives in out/maytrax.mp3, scratch wavs in out/.maytrax-*.wav

status #

scaffold + minimal bed. vocal score lives in maytrax.np (placeholder). maytrax itself not yet released. Femrag++ SUBMITTED to DistroKid 2026-08-26 (axis-lift back half, reverse-bell outro) — bin/cut-femrag-plusplus.sh cuts out/femrag-plusplus-master.wav + -release.mp3; full record in pop/RELEASES.md.

its Spotify Canvas comes off the cover photo:

node pop/bin/photo-canvas.mjs \
  --photo pop/maytrax/covers/femrag-plusplus-cover.jpg --bpm 144 --bars 4 \
  --out pop/maytrax/out/femrag-plusplus-canvas.mp4