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Google closes I/O 2022 with delightful ‘Playground’ sound toy for making chill beats

Google announced I/O 2022 with an SVD puzzle revealing the conference dates, and it’s now ending it with Playground, a “sound toy” that lets you “create your own Euclidean rhythms and melodies.”

Playground is nearly identical to the I/O 2022 puzzle version, and this toy is “brought to you by Google Developers.” The UI is responsive and quite mobile-friendly for on-the-go beat making. It involves you “choosing the total number of steps and hits for each sequencer,” while the accompanying circular graphics look great projected. 

  • Euclidean rhythms evenly distribute hits and silences across the entire length.
  • For every hit, you can also select one of four available pitches.
  • When multiple Euclidean rhythms are layered, they create polyrhythms that can be manipulated by adjusting the offset, or starting position, of each sequencer.

In addition to the Playground sound toy, there’s also I/O 2022’s Euclidean Clock (as seen in the cover image above).

This clock uses Euclidean rhythms to represent today’s date and time. Listen to the harmony of all four loops together, or try muting one or more to focus in on a rhythm.

From the outside, it’s the date, hours, minutes, and seconds represented by dots. Be sure to unmute from the control strip to literally hear the time.

More from I/O 2022:

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Avatar for Abner Li Abner Li

Editor-in-chief. Interested in the minutiae of Google and Alphabet. Tips/talk: abner@9to5g.com