Slackwire
Join the wires. Close a loop. Hear it run.
A panel of cut cables, bolted to a plate. Tap a piece and it swings round under its own weight. Bring two cut ends together and they join. Close a whole run and a spark sets off around it, playing one note for every cell it crosses.
A loop's shape decides its melody, where it sits decides how high it sounds, and the number of cells it covers is the length of its phrase. Two loops of different lengths drift against each other and come back together. The same board always plays the same music.
While you work, the loose ends crackle on their own, in the key of whatever room you are in. Close a loop and the notes that were already sounding fall into rhythm.
What's in it
- Eight rooms. Each has its own scale, reverb, cable colors and set of four instruments. You move to a new one every few panels.
- Panels that grow. The first is a single ring of four pieces. Later ones tangle, and once the plain board is familiar, cables start to cross over each other.
- A plate you can play once the board is whole. Thirty-five bolts light up, and every one can be struck to play a note over the piece you just made. They land on the chord underneath, so nothing you play is wrong.
- Haptics, so it can be played with the sound off.
- No score, no timer, no way to lose. Put it down in the middle of a panel and nothing is spoiled.
- No account, no analytics, no internet. It works on a plane.
Price
Slackwire is free, with no ads and nothing locked. There is no store in it, and the place a store would be says so.
If you want to pay for it anyway, give to the Mockingbird Foundation, a nonprofit that has put more than three million dollars into music education for kids.
Help
Something broken, or an idea? Get in touch. Also worth reading: what Slackwire does with your data, which is nothing.