There has been an update with many new features. Please read here to see what’s new.

Also, since this tutorial, there’s a new Twitter API, so the process for sending the tweet has changed. Please read here to see the process.

Tweet A Sound is a desktop application that uses Twitter as a platform for sharing sonic tweets. Pushing the idea of “social sound design”, Tweet A Sound allows you to design a sound and share it in a community of like-minded folks. It is an opportunity for fun interaction with sound.

Here is an introductory video showing you how to get started with Tweet A Sound. But remember you don’t need to know sound to do this, half the fun is tweaking the settings without knowing what they do! Just tweak and tweet!



Tweet A Sound: getting started tutorial from Andrew Spitz on Vimeo.

Tweet A Sound has been built in Max/MSP. You do not need Max/MSP to run it, but for now you do need to be on Mac OS. I hope to have a Windows version out soon.





The sound engine is based on FM Synthesis and has a waveshaper, a delay, feedback and a flanger. You can get a ton of interesting sounds out of these.

The basics for making your tweet

In “Monitoring”, choose your audio driver.

Switch on the audio (it should be on from opening).

Design your sound.

Log in and send your tweet. For peace of mind, you will see the sent results. If for some reason you can’t send your tweet directly from Tweet A Sound, you can hit “copy tweet” and copy it to Twitter yourself.

The basics for receiving a tweet

In Twitter, either search for #tas (easy to remember, it’s the acronym for Tweet A Sound) or just get them through the people you’re following.

Copy the tweet.

Paste it into the receive text box of Tweet A Sound.

Press the button and hear the sound.

For bug reports, questions, ideas, or suggestions, you can reach me at andrew [at] soundplusdesign [dot] com

Can’t wait to hear your tweets! Follow me on Twitter

If anybody is into designing icons, I would really appreciate a new take on the current one. It’s my first attempt at designing an icon and it’s very far from ideal.