Basement Tapes

Context

A small tool that lives in the desktop’s top bar. Side A records the sound of one application to an MP3. Side B plays songs on a loop with no audible seam, and builds mixed tapes. It looks like a cassette and a photocopied zine because that was more fun to build.

Constraints

• Record one application only, not everything the computer is playing.
• A loop must not click or pause when it comes back to the start.
• It has to fit in a panel that drops down from the bar.

Key decisions

• The recorder finds the audio stream that belongs to the chosen window, waits for the first sound and leaves out the silences.
• The player trims silence and pre-renders each loop so its end blends into its beginning.
• Two players run side by side so one song fades out while the next fades in.
• Tapes are plain playlist files in a folder, so nothing is locked inside the tool.

Where it stands

In daily use on the Linux desktop.