What am I looking at?

The Basics What am I looking at? A Musical Line Drawing turtle.audio is an audio environment where simple text commands generate lines that can play music. Double-click to create a new line. Give it a rule: use m to move forward, r to turn right 90 degrees, and l to turn left 90 degrees. The white box represents the starting point of our line. You can drag it anywhere on the grid. Clicking on the Paint tab switches to Paint mode. Select a note and paint it to the grid! Basic Rules m → Move

→ Move r → Turn right

→ Turn right l → Turn left

→ Turn left w → Wait for one beat Putting a number after a rule will repeat the rule that many times. m7, for example, will move forward seven times. Here are a few rules to get you started: m7 → A line that covers 8 grid boxes

→ A line that covers 8 grid boxes m4r m4r m4r m4r → A square in 4/4 time

→ A square in 4/4 time mrmrmmrmmrmmmrmmmrmmm → A spiral in 4/4 time

Writing Rules How to draw interesting scenes The Classics A simple linear step sequencer can be created by placing a few lines next to one another with rules like m15 (for vertical lines) or r m15 (for horizontal lines). Squares can also serve as good step sequencers, since they can selectively share notes. Writing mmmmrmmmmrmmmmrmmmmr is a bit cumbersome, so you can use parentheses to repeat instructions a certain number of times. mmmmrmmmmrmmmmrmmmmr is equal to (mmmmr)4 and, even simpler, (m4r)4. This rule creates a 16-step square. Use a variable for more possibilities A variable that you can add to and subtract from enables more interesting shapes, like spirals. You can add a variable after any instruction — mi, ri, li, or wi — to execute the instruction i times in a row. Using variables i → a variable which starts at 0

→ a variable which starts at 0 i+ → add 1 to the variable

→ add 1 to the variable i- → subtract 1 from the variable The rule (mi+rmir)4 will produce a spiral. It loops the instruction mi+rmir four times... Loop #1 1. move forward i + 1 steps (1) 2. turn right 3. move forward i (1) steps Loop #2 1. move forward i + 1 steps (2) 2. turn right 3. move forward i (2) steps etc. Change the value of i If you want to set the value of i before you start using it, you can use square brackets like so: [i=2]. You can put these statements anywhere in a rule to quickly change values.

Keyboard Shortcuts There's a shortcut for everything Sound Mode tab → Switch to Paint mode

→ Switch to Paint mode shift + click → Add a new line

→ Add a new line command + drag → Pan around the scene Paint Mode tab → Switch to Draw mode

→ Switch to Draw mode shift + click on a paint color in the color palette → Preview the sound

on a paint color in the color palette → Preview the sound command + drag → Pan around the scene In paint mode you can use your keyboard to select notes. The a key represents C, w is C#, etc., all the way up to the ' (apostrophe) key. If you have a line selected you can hold shift while selecting a key to preview it. Playback Controls space → play/pause

→ play/pause left arrow → move 1/16th note backward when paused

→ move 1/16th note backward when paused right arrow → move 1/16th note forward when paused