Web / PWA
- Start making music in seconds. No installation.
- Turn a few characters into evolving beats and melodies.
- Explore sound and visuals in the same workspace.
- Create on Windows, Linux and Mac in your browser.
Livecode music and visuals as one system
Orcalot is a self-contained audiovisual livecoding studio for procedural music, Bytebeat, synthesis, samples, MIDI and reactive shaders.
Built around the concise ORCA language and designed as one integrated creative environment.
Launch Orcalot
Always up to date. Installable as a PWA.
One purchase for Mac, iPhone and iPad.
No account · Native macOS · Web / PWA · iPhone & iPad
Choose how you create
Start a groove in your browser, build a performance on Mac, or catch your next idea on iPhone and iPad.
macOS
- Give your ideas room to grow on the big screen.
- Shape your sound with synths, samples and effects.
- Play with your MIDI gear and build a live performance.
- Export your music and visuals to share with the world.
iPhone & iPad
- Catch a musical idea wherever it finds you.
- Explore patterns with touch, or plug in a keyboard.
- Bring your compatible USB MIDI controller along.
- Make music with friends using Orcalot Jam.
One App Store purchase. Mac, iPhone and iPad. Keep creating with compatible project files across your devices, or open Orcalot in your browser on Windows and Linux.
One project. Play together
Orcalot Jam lets performers co-edit the ORCA grid, shaders and synth settings, synchronize playback and share project assets. No account required.
In the same room
Experimental Nearby discovery finds native Jam hosts on the local network without internet. Choose a room, ask to join and let the Host approve the connection. Invitations and replies are exchanged automatically.
From anywhere
Share an invitation link with a remote performer and exchange a reply over your preferred messaging app. Browser participants join through invitation links using WebRTC.
A mixed session
Nearby and remote guests join the same project and participant pool. Internet access does not turn off local discovery, so a session can include both.
New in the 5.1 TestFlight candidate: Nearby Jam is experimental. iPhone/iPad connection validation is still in progress; local-network permissions and firewall settings can affect connectivity. Remote WebRTC has no relay fallback on restrictive networks. Native Windows and Linux releases are planned; QR joining is not available yet.
Sound and visuals belong together
Audiovisual work often means moving between a livecoding environment, synthesizer, MIDI or event routing, shader editor, media tools and separately saved state. Orcalot brings those parts into one project and one interface, so you can open your work and start creating.
Procedural music
Program generative music with the concise ORCA language. Edit while it runs, work with an optimized runtime, reuse prefab patterns and transpose grid notes as ideas evolve.
Integrated sound
Combine AM, FM, Mono, Pluck, Membrane, Noise, Sampler, SoundFont and Bytebeat engines. Write safe integer expressions, inspect them in a zoomable and pannable waveform preview, and restart time per note or keep it running for long compositions.
Reactive visuals
Edit shaders driven by musical data. Bring images and looping video into the visual system and build time-aware effects for creative coding and live visual performance.
One project
Keep the grid, graphics, theme, channel settings, Bytebeat code, SoundFont and samples together in a portable .orcalot project. Record ideas, reopen older projects and import legacy .orca grids.
Built from a personal workflow
Orcalot began as a tool I built for myself. I wanted a concise way to create procedural music and found the ORCA language especially appealing. But working with sound required a separate synthesizer, additional setup and separate documentation.
The first version brought ORCA, Pilot and their documentation into one application. From there, Orcalot gradually became its own integrated environment. It moved from Electron to Tauri, gained a shader editor driven by musical data, and received a redesigned interface, an optimized and refactored ORCA runtime and a substantially rewritten audio engine. Of Pilot, mainly the original external idea remains.
Samples, SoundFonts, Bytebeat, richer channel controls, prefab libraries, images and video were added as they became useful in my own work.
Orcalot is still developed according to the same principle: I add what I personally need and shape the workflow around how I would want an audiovisual tool to work.
ORCA and Pilot
Orcalot uses the ORCA livecoding language originally created by Hundred Rabbits. Its early audio integration was inspired by Pilot. Orcalot’s current application, runtime, interface, audio workflow and visual system are independently developed.
Questions, ideas and work made with Orcalot are welcome in the Orcalot community on Discord.