This is one of a series of periodic explorations of the Indie Web via the Internet Phone Book project. I am on a personal exploration but also hope to lift the profile of sites I have found.)
The little blurb for the entry into the Internet Phone Book says simply: “Do you know you can make your own music on the internet now?” So, of course, I punched in the “telephone” number on the keypad for Daniel’s site and arrived at his Mario Paint Music Composer.
There’s a real old-fashioned pixelated Internet feel to this site created by Daniel X. Moore and I had fun figuring out what sounds all of the icons made and then trying my hand at creating a little piece of quirky music. I am not a regular Mario player so I suspect much of Daniel’s humor and design decisions here were beyond me. Still, the fact that he created this site, put it out there for anyone to use, and that it still works, is pretty fascinating. (He also sells a version of the music maker and a short bio says he helped create Glitch, so I guess Daniel has made an impact on corners of the creative Web).
Elsewhere, Daniel writes: “DanielX.net Paint Composer is a love letter to the creative game genre with the nostalgia factor turned up to 11. The gameplay is reminiscent of the composer mode in the classic 1992 SNES hit Mario Paint, but with more instruments, audio effects, and greatly increased range. The character animations are simple and delightful, guaranteed to put a smile on your face as they sing you the song of their people.”
You can listen my, eh, composition:https://danielx.net/composer/#api-2ySHOi7jKiUYI91kdBwO8JBUcRhPYo8SfNLNZIeuDkI and I think you can then remix it (I could be wrong on that).
And if you go to his YouTube site, you can see how Daniel really uses his pixel sound tools for more complex compositions, such as this version of the classic song by the band, Kansas. Who knows how long it took him to make this version of the song.
Daniel also has the next entry in the Internet Phone Book, which leads to a digital collection of small applications, most of which I did not understand, or did not seem to work anymore. That was fine. That happens regularly on my Internet Phone Book Journey. I did like how he calls his site a Whimsy Space, which is perfect for my explorations of the Indie Web.
Peace (and pixels),
Kevin